Announcing Charting Companion for Mac

 We are pleased to announce that Charting Companion now runs on the Apple Mac.

If you are a Mac user, get Charting Companion for Mac, and tell the story of your family with unique and captivating charts and books.

If you are a Family Tree Maker user, Charting Companion also runs as a convenient plugin.

Buy Charting Companion for Mac. Also available for Windows. Each $39.95.

Charting Companion for Apple "Macs"; FTM 2019

We are hard at work converting Charting Companion 7 to Apple's macOS operating system. When the conversion is completed, Charting Companion will run on MacBooks and iMacs. We still have a fair bit of work to do. We will notify all our customers when the new version is ready. Here are "work-in-progress" screen shots of the Family Group View, Ancestor chart and Descendant chart running on a Mac:

Charting Companion 7.2.10 has been released to provide compatibility with the new Family Tree Maker 2019.

If you have an earlier version of Charting Companion, our upgrade policy is: If you purchased after June 2018 (ver. 7), you get a free upgrade. In the Charting Companion menu, click on "Help -> Check for upgrades". If you purchased after Oct 2017, you get a discount (contact us). Before Oct 2017: purchase a new Registration Key. Get Charting Companion today and make family history.

DNA Matrix: Snatching A Century-Old Secret From the Grave

When my cousins and I tested our DNA, we were not prepared for the surprise revealed by Charting Companion's DNA Matrix chart. Note the red centiMorgans (DNA Units) at the intersection below the boxes.

The red indicates that the amount of DNA shared is too low for "first cousins". Also, the yellow-highlighted DNA shared by the family on the left (blue), is consistently in a very low probability range. (Click for a detailed explanation of the DNA Matrix). There is something wrong with this chart: the genealogical relationships (family tree) are inconsistent with the laboratory results. This tree, by the way, is based on official government birth certificates. What is the explanation of this discrepancy? After further investigation centering around some puzzling remarks made a long time ago by relatives now gone, we came to the conclusion that the (blue) family on the left could be from a different father. In 1909, my feisty 19-year old Scottish grandmother Connie had just gotten off the boat, alone and unsupervised on a new continent. What could go wrong? Well, she met a mystery man and had her first daughter Ruby. Later, she met & married my grandfather Alfred, who impersonated Ruby's birth father. The real tree looks like this:

We share one grand-parent with the family on the left, which makes them half-cousins. All the red is gone, as the DNA is consistent with the new tree. Charting Companion's DNA Matrix chart revealed a secret that would otherwise have been lost forever. We all had a chuckle, ever so grateful to our grandmother, for had she done anything differently, we would not exist! Try the DNA Matrix on your own tree to prove your research. Charting Companion works with all genealogy programs: Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Ancestral Quest, Family Historian, GEDCOM, etc. You can also download your Ancestry, FamilySearch or MyHeritage GEDCOM file. Get Charting Companion today and make family history. Charting Companion is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

DNA CSV Match Files: How to Define Your Own Format

When you get your DNA test done, you can upload your raw DNA file to a matching service such as GEDMatch, or use DNAGedcom to retrieve your match results from Ancestry, 23andMe, or Family Tree DNA. When the matching process is complete, you can download a CSV (Comma Separated Value) spreadsheet with all your matches.

Charting Companion enables you to combine the match results with a Descendant Tree, giving you a DNA Matrix that describes the relationships in a clear and simple diagram. Charting Companion automatically recognizes twenty-three of the most common and popular CSV match file formats. If your CSV match file is not identified by Charting Companion, or if you have built your own custom match file, you can get Charting Companion to recognize it by labeling it as a "User-defined" file, and telling CC where the columns are located. CC needs only three columns: Kit No. 1, Kit No. 2, and the total match length in cM (centiMorgans). In the example above, the second row (highlighted in blue) contains the original column headers that were in the file. The first row (yellow) are the standard CC column headers assigned by the user: Kit 1, Kit 2, Chromosome number, start, end and length. All other columns are ignored. To assign column headers to your own CSV match file, simply click on the "View" button in the DNA Matrix tab of the options dialog. See Help File or User Guide for complete details. Charting Companion works with all genealogy programs: Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Ancestral Quest, Family Historian, GEDCOM, etc. You can also download your Ancestry, FamilySearch or MyHeritage GEDCOM file. Get Charting Companion today and make family history. Charting Companion is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

DNA Matches Spreadsheet - How to Easily Manage Your Contacts

When you get your DNA test done, you will discover hundreds or thousands of new matches: distant cousins who share your DNA. But, you have yet to determine how they are related to you. Now you are faced with the task of connecting with these matches. How can you tell to which branch of the family they belong? Who do you contact first? How do you prioritize?

Charting Companion makes this easy for you with the DNA Matches spreadsheet. The DNA Matches spreadsheet is automatically created when you do a DNA Matrix. In the DNA Matches spreadsheet, all your DNA matches are listed in order of centiMorgans (cM, how much DNA you share), and organized by which branch of your family they are likely from. In the DNA Matches spreadsheet, the people in the left column are in your genealogy database. In the example below, they are the descendants of the same grandparents, divided into four families. The people in the top row are the DNA matches (highlighted in yellow). At the intersection are the degree of match (cM). The two people highlighted in pink are the closest match (400 to 600 cM). The people highlighted in blue only match the elusive Flurgis family, because they don't tie into any other branch. Clearly these are the matches to contact first if you have a brick wall in that part of your family tree.

The DNA Matches spreadsheet finds the needle in the haystack, and makes the important information jump out. The DNA Matches spreadsheet is included in ver. 7 of Charting Companion. Click for more details. Charting Companion works with all genealogy programs: Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Ancestral Quest, Family Historian, GEDCOM, etc. Get Charting Companion today and make family history.