Relative Notes (F1)

The Notes page (sometimes referred to as the About page) is a place to store a variety of information about a match.

It is accessed via the Relative Menu, or by using the F1 function key.

Some of this information can be pre-filled via imports, some of it can be obtained based on right click options, but all areas can be manually filled according to your own needs.

1. Relative

2. Family Group & Side

3. DNA Summary

4. Heritage

5a, 5b. MRCA Note

6. Email Address & Links

7a, 7b. Research Notes

13. Search & Advanced Search

14. Navigation Buttons

Adding MRCA Note automatically

Adding the MRCA Path

Right click (Control-Click on Mac) menus are available for most fields that should be self explanatory.

1. Relative

This area stores basic information related to a relative. This includes:

Relative’s Name: filled on import, can be changed by the user.
Contact name: for use when the contact person is not the Relative, can be filled on import if present, can be changed by user.
Contact phone number: user input only.
Relative’s Gender: filled on import if data is present, can be user adjusted
Paternal haplogroup: filled on import if data is present, can be user adjusted to any alphanumeric value
Maternal haplogroup: filled on import if data is present, can be user adjusted to any alphanumeric value
User Defined Field: can be filled with "Hint" from certain imports, can be user adjusted

2. Family Group & Side

Drop Down List of Group Names: Populated with group name when defined on the DNA Comparison tab, but can be manually filled if desired.

Side: Paternal, Maternal, Both, Identical by State, ? Unknown. Assigned automatically based on Profile's Ancestor List when Group is populated, but can be manually assigned when group is blank.

Right Click (Control-Click on Mac) on the drop down arrow to autofill the MRCA to MRCA Note field.
Note: Be aware that if this group name appears more than once in the profile's ahnentafel, the first one will be used and may not be accurate.

3. DNA Summary

This section summarises the predicted relationship, the number of segments and the total cMs shared, as well as the largest segment.

The Predicted relationship can be user adjusted here, or on the Relative List Tab.

4. Heritage

An open text area to document what is known about the relative’s estimated ethnicity and heritage. This can be populated from any import that contains this data or filled in by the user.

5a, 5b. MRCA Note

An open text area (5a) to document what is known about the relatives MRCA(s).

The area (5b) at the top of the screen shows approx the first 54 characters of data contained in the MRCA Note.

This information is Profile Specific, allowing the user to make notes specific to each profile's relationship to the match. Right click (Control-Click on Mac) on this area to apply a note to all profiles who have this match.

This information is also used in the Parental Confirmation view.

6. Email Address & Links

Associated Email Address: populated on import when data is present, can be edited by user.
Right clicking (Control-Click on Mac) on the email address will give three options; Search, Copy, and Paste. Copied data is placed on the clipboard for use.
Clicking on the “Send Email” button will change the status of the relative to “Sent Email” and append the last status and date to the end of the Research Notes, and will copy any form letter text to your computer clipboard.
It may also open up your computer’s default email program, if you have that set up.

Links Available to All Profiles: populated by import when data is present. Can be user edited with the right click (Control-Click on Mac) menu. Use the drop down menu to the right to select the desired link if not already shown and click “Go” to follow the link.

Links Specific to the Current Profile: populated by import when data is present. Can be user edited with the the right click (Control-Click on Mac) menu. Use the drop down menu to select the desired link if not already shown and click “Go” to follow the link.

Right clicking (Control-Click on Mac) on either the Source link field or the Profile link field will produce a right click menu. The "Save" and "Delete" options here are the only way to ensure that a link is added and saved, or an old link is removed and / or updated.

If a link needs to be updated, use the "Delete Family Tree Link", paste the new link in place, and then use the "Save Family Tree Link". The same applies to the DNA Profile Link if it needs to be added or updated.

A simple paste over the top of an old link and saving the relative will not update these links. This is to ensure that the links are not inadvertently adjusted.

7a, 7b. Research Notes

An open text area (7a) to document what has been done in researching this relative toward the common MRCA. Clicking the small “+” in the top left corner of this area will add a separator line and a date at the end of the current notes.

This area is also where the status information is recorded each time it changes if you have this set in Preferences. A Right Click will allow you to insert the MRCA Path as defined by the group name and relative's Ahnentafel. If the group name has been set and no path appears, check that the match has an ahnentafel loaded in F2. If no group name has been set, the path that appears will be the one to the closest blank group name in the relative's Ahnentafel.

More than one Research Note is able to be created for each relative (7b). Use the “Add New Page” in the bottom right corner to automatically save the existing note and create a new note.

Use the numbers at the bottom of the section to move through the notes. There is no known limit to the number of notes able to be assigned to each relative, however only 15 notes can have their number cleanly displayed. Use the right click (Control-Click on Mac) menu to remove any blank pages, or the "Delete Page" to delete a page that has information no longer needed.

8. Status and Date

The status of a match is a drop down list of options that can be used to set where your research level is up to for this match. The date next to it, is the date on which this status was set. If the match has a “New” status, then this is typically going to be the date you imported this match into your database.

While there is no formal use for these status terms, and you may choose to use them or ignore them as you wish, some features of GDAT rely on certain status levels to work correctly, and as such it is recommended that you at least use the status of "MRCA" when you have identified the MRCAs for a match.

Other status levels can be very helpful in managing your work when working with DNA cousins as well.

For the in-built status options, and suggested uses, see Status Options

To set your own custom status, see Status Settings. Any custom statuses will be included in alphabetical order.

In the Control Settings there is an option to "Add last status to Relative Note". Setting this to True will allow GDAT to write the previous status with its associated date to Research Notes. Setting this to False will mean no tracking history of status change. You may choose to add a note explaining why you made the status change. The current status and date will always be displayed at the top of the screen and on the Relative List tab.Reminder: The use of “Status” is completely up to you, but the MRCA status is required for some other features to work..

Note: Status is NOT Profile specific. If you manage multiple profiles within the one database who are genetically unrelated, you may find distant cousins matching both of those profiles. Use the MRCA note to create profile specific notes for each. You may even find that a match connects on two paths and different chromosomes can be identified as belonging to different inheritance paths. Use the MRCA Note and Research Notes to keep track of things.

Some Status will result in the match being hidden from some views by default, these can be checked and changed in Status Settings.

9. Add Relative

The Add button, a silhouette of a person with green plus symbol, is an Advanced feature and has been included to allow a user to manually enter new relatives and/or new ICW information.

Please see Add New Relative for more information.

10. Delete Relative

The delete button, a white X in a red circle, does exactly what you’d think, but you will be warned if you accidentally hit the button.

A relative who is also a profile cannot be deleted in this way without first deleting their profile.

11. Search Results

When a search is undertaken by use of the magnifying glass at the top right, or by using Ctrl F, results can appear here.

When a search is conducted, the results list will contain the profile associated with that relative.

Clicking on any name will take you to that relative, and if this is on a different profile, it will also change the profile for maximum accuracy in viewing.

Right click (Control-Click on Mac) on the listing for a self explanatory menu.

12. Source Keys

Underneath the Relative List on the right hand side, is a section showing all the source keys for the current focus person. This section is populated when a relative is imported for the first time. Merging relatives will result in more than one source being present, and the resulting relative is typically shown in black on the main lists.

The source key codes are colour coded in the same way other text has been colour coded, and each source key has a two-character code. Your colours may differ from the defaults if you have changed them. See Preferences for more information about sources, and their colours.

A right click (Control-Click on Mac) menu is present, giving the options shown adjacent.

“Toggle as Primary Key” allows a user to choose which of two keys present for the same source is used as the Primary Key. This links in with a setting regarding Primary Keys in Preferences. You might wish to use this if you have merged two people and wish to use the other relative’s key as the primary. Primary match keys will be bolded.

The 5 regular always present options should be self-explanatory.

Dependant on the source key, a right click menu may also display one of the following options.
Note: You will need to be logged in to the relevant site first.

"Compare to Current Profile" and "Compare X to current Profile" - Gedmatch only - opens to relevant 1-to-1 comparison page
"Open Website" - present for 23, FT, An, and MH match keys - a setting in F10 Preferences may need to be made before the first use
"Open Segments" - present for MH keys - a setting in F10 Preferences will need to be made before the first use

13. Search & Advanced Search

The yellow magnifying glass symbol in the top right corner of every screen of GDAT is the Search tool. More information can be found on the Search and Advanced Search Tools page.

14. Navigation Buttons

There are four buttons to assist with navigation in the top right corner of every view.

The gold-brown buttons move forwards or backwards a page. These are useful when viewing pages that are typically accessed via a right click menu; comparison pages for example.

The green buttons move forwards or backwards a relative.

Adding MRCA Note automatically

When the Status of a relative is set to MRCA, the Family Group has been set, and the relative has an Ahnentafel loaded, then a right click (Control-Click on Mac) on the down arrow of the Family Group drop down listing (highlighted by the red box in the adjacent image) will allow the user to select the "Add MRCA to MRCA Note" option.

This MRCA Note has a standard format as shown to the left.

If the associated Preferences (F10) has been set to True, then this MRCA Note will be copied automatically to all applicable profiles.

If it is set to False, you can still copy the MRCA Note to all profiles by right clicking on the MRCA field and selecting the option present.

Adding the MRCA Path

Right clicking (Ctrl+Click on Mac) within the Research Notes area, will bring up two options.
Add MRCA Path & Remove Blank Pages.

The MRCA path is pulled from the match's Ahnentafel, and will give the MRCA couple, and the match's ancestors and dates (if entered), but will typically not include the match themselves.

Remove Blank Pages does exactly what it says.

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