One thing I have been helping with is a trick I use on AncestryDNA. It is not needed so much in the USA as they have many more matches than we have in the UK. As lots of people don't know how to use it, I want to share it with the wider world.
AncestryDNA provides a Shared Match list for each of your DNA matches. These are given if you share more than 20cM with the shared match and your DNA match also shares more than 20cM with your match. This means that even a useful match (at say 18cM) would not appear in your shared match list. When you have thousands of matches greater than 20cM (this is the cut off for 4th cousins or closer), you will always have several, if not many, shared matches to help identify which family line the match is on. In the UK where we have a lot fewer matches, we often have no shared matches at all with a match, or the level of shared DNA is much lower such that it is below the 20cM limit.
If you either manage or can view more than one DNA kit on Ancestry, there is a trick to spot shared matches with those kits below 20cM. If you find a DNA match that does include another kit in your family on the Shared Match list, click on the user name of the match (or the manager of the match).
In this case, the managed kit matches at 19.9cM across 2 segments so only just outside the cutoff of 20cM. This helps to indicate that the match is on this line of the family.
Several of my USA friends have been pleased to have this trick explained - hope it helps you too!
