October’s Tech Moment is an introduction to Jonny Perl’s WATO (What Are The Odds) program, which uses the amount of DNA shared between two people to help narrow down the possibilities of how the two might be related.

First, if you are new to genetic genealogy and don’t know who Jonny Perl is, he is the winner of RootsTech DNA Innovation contest in 2018.

Jonny is also the creator of DNA Painter, a freemium (free features with more advanced tools by subscription) program, which helps genetic genealogists to work with their DNA test results. DNA Painter featured in the Empty Branches’ May Tech Moment.

WATO is a tool developed by Jonny Perl that helps deciding where in a tree an unidentified DNA match might fit. Here are Jonny’s tips for getting started with WATO:

Here’s the quick version of how WATO can help: You know when you look at websites that show your DNA matches? There might be quite a few matches who you recognize, but there are also “cousins” as it were who share a good amount of DNA with you, but you have no idea how they might be related. Suggestions might be made, such as “second cousin, second cousin once removed, great grandchild,” etc. That’s a lot of researching needed to narrow down exactly how you are related.

WATO allows a comparison of amounts of DNA and then gives the percent probability of all possible relationships.

Let’s say “second cousin, second cousin once removed, great grandchild” are actual suggestions found on a website for your unidentified match. Using WATO, the possibilities show 10% probability for second cousins, 3% probability as great grandchild, but 87% probability as second cousins once removed.

That certainly narrows down the type of relationship to be follow when trying to figure out how that unknown DNA match fits in your family tree.

To learn more about using WATO, check out the following resources:

DNA Painter What Are the Odds Made Easy – Family History Fanatics on YouTube

DNA Painter Tool What Are the Odds (WATO) – Genealogy Tutorial

What Are the Odds? An online tool that can help solve DNA puzzles – Legacy Family Tree Webinar (by subscription)

Also, be sure to follow Jonny Perl’s DNA Painter Blog, as he often updates the WATO program.