24 May 2016

Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder Thresholds Lowered!



For a few years, many in the genetic genealogy community have asked that the threshold for Family Tree DNA's Family Finder autosomal matches be lowered.  AND…that will happen quite soon.

Currently the matching thresholds were a minimum longest block of at least 7.69 cMs (centiMorgans) and 5.5 cMs for the other shared segments with a minimum of 20 total shared cMs.

The following changes will be implemented:

●       No minimum shared centiMorgans, but if the cM total is less than 20, at least one segment must be 9 cM or longer.
●       If the longest block of shared DNA is greater than 9 cM, the match will show regardless of total shared cM or the number of matching segments.

The entire database has been rerun using the above new criteria.

Most people will see only minor changes in their matches, mostly in the speculative range. They may lose some matches but gain others.  You have a few days to download your matches list and segments list before the change if you wish to see the differences or retain those you will lose. 

Thank you for listening Family Tree DNA.

We look forward to future improvements, as well.

Enjoy,
Emily

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