Testing everywhere was the right choice

 

DNAPainter chromosome map.

I'm now about two months into the process of chromosome mapping of segments, using DNA data from MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, Gedmatch and 23andme. I currently have about 28% of coverage, with 153 segments mapped to DNAPainter. This would not have been possible without the matches who only tested at 23andme.

About a year ago one of my research questions was to identify living descendants of my 5th-great-grandparents Jose Jesus Amado and Gertrudis Palomino. Two of those descendants tested at 23andme. While only one is still alive today, there's are hints of others in the same line, and if they're open to a YDNA kit from FamilyTreeDNA, this might provide some answers on the family's link to Portugal.

Chromosome 10.

Here's an example from my chromosome 10. The two rosé colored segments sandwiched above the yellow segment are both Amados. The yellow segment is Campuzano from a known descendant of Vicente Antonio Campuzano and Maria Concepcion Amado. The overlap is about 16 cM. The yellow is also overlapping with an orange segment from cousin Garry, showing this is a small inherited Campuzano piece.

Chromosome 18.

Another example on chromosome 18 shows an orange segment from a Campuzano tester on 23andme, with a long overlapping piece above two yellow segments who are known Campuzanos descended from my great-grandparents Plutarco Campuzano and Manuela Portillo. All of these testers only appear at 23andme. The tiny brown piece below the yellow is from a Portillo tester who is part of the Guerrero-Leyva group.

There is a cost to all the testing across platforms. I paid for 23andme+ Premium, which is (currently) $69 for a year. So far I've gotten the value and then some with the ability to see matches only available on that platform and see segment data. Many of the other features I haven't yet used, or don't work as well as tools on the other DNA platforms. 23andme's DNA clustering and chromosome comparison is solid and already enabling some discoveries.