Kits which are uploaded and have the identical DNA are flagged as being duplicate. We don’t allow the exact same DNA to exist in a good status for more than one kit - this is because duplicate kits fill up match lists for users and cause confusion. If a person tests at different vendors there will be different SNPs in the kits so kits from the same person from different vendors are not identical duplicates and are allowed. Ideally these kits which are from the same person will be combined to a super kit for that person. Identical twins are unlikely to be flagged as identical duplicates because even though the DNA may be the same for all SNPs in the samples due to machine read errors there are likely to be some SNPs called differently.
An identical duplicate has a status of “2” in the status column of the “Your DNA Resources” section.
The “primary kit” which was uploaded first will normally have a good status a green check mark.
This can occur if one uploaded a kit and were not sure the upload was successful so a second attempt was made and then realized that the previous upload was successful and now have two kits - the first one being the primary kit in “good” status and the second one being detected as an identical duplicate with “2” status.
Action: to delete the duplicate kit see the section on how to delete kits below.
This can also occur when one is managing multiple kits and when uploading the same DNA kit by accident for two different people.
Action: Carefully look at the DNA kit file names and dates you have on your computer you have downloaded from the vendor - check the dates and file names to help you make sure the kit you uploaded was the correct person you provided to GEDmatch.
If one kit is for a male and the other is for a female then you can use the “Kit Diagnostic Utility” tool to determine the HeteroX value near the bottom of the results - if this number is close to 0 then that kit is from a male. If it is above 0.2 (typically 0.7) then the kit is from a female. From that you can find out which of the two kits are associated with the wrong person.
If you are unsure about “whos who” you can re-download the DNA from the vendor(s) for your people and carefully note the file names for each person. You can then delete your kits at GEDmatch and finally re-upload the kits giving them the correct person info for each kit.
A kit with the identical DNA will be marked duplicate if the same kit was uploaded to a different account. The primary kit - the one which was uploaded first - is allowed to be used - the identical duplicates are not.
This can occur if one had an account that they no longer can access at GEDmatch so a new account is created and then the DNA is uploaded to the new account. This most frequently occurs if the old account no longer has a working email address so reset password will not work.
Action: See Knowledge base article on Changing Email when reading email not possible and reset password not done before cut over to auth0 on June 24, 2024.
Another situation is where the user creates a new account and uploads the dna to the new account and still has access to the original account - or if the user wanted to share the kit with another user.
A user may have had someone help them in the past and the helper uploaded the kit to the helpers account then later the user decides they want to upload their DNA to their own account.
In all of these situations it is desirable to get the primary kit to the account it belongs in and have the duplicate removed.
Action: if you have an account with a duplicate kit and want to find out which account has the “primary” you can use the “Kit Diagnostic Utility” tool to have it display the primary kit and email along with any other duplicates and their account email addresses.
If you want to transfer your primary kit to a different account and can login to the GEDmatch account which has the primary kit then
1) Login to the primary account
2) Click the pencil icon to the right of the primary kit
3) Click the kit transfer tab
4) Enter the email address of GEDmatch account s for the new administrator
5) Click the “Transfer” button
If you do not have access to the GEDmatch account with the primary kit then you will have to contact them to do it. If they are not responsive to do this then contact support so your kit can be moved to your account.
In call cases you should have the duplicate kit deleted after the primary kit is with the account which is desired. See below on deleting kits.
To delete any kit:
1) On the “Your DNA Resources” section where your kits are - to delete a kit click the pencil icon in the “Manage” column for the kit you want to delete.
2) On the next page click the “Kit Removal” tab.
3) Click the “Delete” button.
Note: if you inadvertently deleted the “primary kit” and there was only one identical duplicate which existed for this primary - you can use the “Kit Diagnostic Utility” on the duplicate kit and the tool will detect that the primary has been deleted and has no other identical duplicates and will promote this kit to be the primary kit and mark for reprocessing matches for it.