User Handbook

Welcome

Kinprove is a DNA-powered genealogy platform for proving biological connections. You bring DNA data from tested relatives — and a family tree if you have one. Kinprove brings the analysis tools.

Upload your family tree and DNA from multiple relatives, and Kinprove checks whether the expected relationships match the actual DNA evidence. It flags when something doesn't add up — for example, when the shared DNA between two people doesn't match their documented relationship.

It's especially useful for distant relationships, endogamous lines, and identifying unknown ancestors. These are covered in detail in the sections on DNA Evidence Review and POI Projects.

Kinprove works exclusively with the data you upload. Every kit and segment file stays within your private project. There is no public matching database and no cross-project data sharing. For full details, see the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages (linked from the footer of every page).

To get started, you'll need DNA data (raw kits or segment files) from at least two people, and either a GEDCOM export (a standard genealogy file format that most tree software can produce) or a tree you build directly in Kinprove.

This handbook covers each step, from uploading your first tree to generating ancestor hypotheses.

Getting Started

Once you have your data ready, getting started takes a few minutes.

Creating Your Account

Sign up with email and password, or use Google or Facebook login — whichever you prefer.

Creating Your First Project

After logging in, you land on the Projects page — this is your home base. If it's your first project, you'll see an inline creation form right away. Otherwise, click the + icon next to the "Projects" heading. Fill in:

• Name (required) — something descriptive like "Petrov Family Research"
• Description (optional) — notes about what you're investigating
• DNA Assignment Profile — this controls how Kinprove scores DNA evidence. Choose Standard for most families, or Endogamous if your family has a history of intermarriage (see Endogamy)

Endogamy Mode

If your family comes from a community with a history of intermarriage (e.g., Ashkenazi Jewish, French-Canadian, island populations), choose Endogamous when creating your project. This adjusts how Kinprove scores DNA evidence to account for inflated sharing. Endogamous mode widens the expected DNA ranges for each relationship to account for the extra sharing that intermarriage produces, and raises the minimum segment threshold on the X chromosome. See Endogamy in Key Concepts for more detail.

Not sure? Start with Standard. You can switch to Endogamous later in Project Settings — the analysis will re-run automatically. The system will also suggest enabling it if it detects strong endogamy signals during analysis.

Building Your Family Tree

Your family tree is the foundation for all DNA analysis. Kinprove needs to know how people are related to evaluate whether their DNA evidence matches.

Start by importing a GEDCOM file if you have one. A GEDCOM already contains all the relationships between relatives, which is critical for evidence scoring. Most genealogy software and online platforms (Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch) can export GEDCOM files.

Importing a GEDCOM File

From your project dashboard, click Upload GEDCOM. Choose a .ged file and upload it. On success, you'll see how many individuals and families were imported. If something goes wrong, you'll see an error message with details.

Open the tree view to verify the import looks correct — check that key relationships are connected properly.

Editing Your Tree

You can edit the tree directly — add missing relatives, fix names or dates, correct relationships. Hover over a person in the tree and an action toolbar appears:

• Pencil icon — edit the person's details (name, dates, gender, parents)
• + icon — add a relative: father, mother, child, or spouse. Father and mother options only appear if not already assigned.
• Trash icon — delete the person

Person details include first name, last name, married name, gender, birth date, and death date.

Building a Tree Manually

If you don't have a GEDCOM file — for example, in unknown parentage cases, adoptee research, or if you're just starting out — you can build your tree from scratch. Open the tree view and click Add First Person, then build out relationships one by one using the add relative toolbar.

Start with yourself, add parents and grandparents, then branch out to tested relatives. You don't need a complete tree — even a few key relationships give Kinprove enough structure to work with.

To connect a floating individual to the tree later, open their profile with the pencil icon and assign their parents, or add them as a child from an existing person's toolbar.

If your GEDCOM is missing some relatives, you can add them manually after import. Imported and manually added people work together seamlessly.

Uploading DNA Data

Kinprove analyzes two types of DNA data: raw kits and segment files. Raw kits give Kinprove the most flexibility — it can run its own comparisons rather than relying on what the testing company exports. But segment files work well too, and many features (DNA Evidence Review, POI hypothesis generation, chromosome browser) work fully with segment data. Both are managed in the DNA Data page, which has two tabs: Match Data and Raw DNA.

Raw DNA Files

A raw DNA kit is the original file you download from your testing company. Kinprove supports AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA. Accepted file formats are CSV, TXT, GZ, and ZIP.

To upload, open the Raw DNA tab and click Upload Raw DNA File:

1. Check the consent box (confirming you have permission to upload this DNA data) to unlock the upload area
2. Choose files or drag and drop — multiple files at once are fine
3. Upload starts automatically after file selection

After upload, you'll assign each kit to a person in your tree. Kinprove auto-suggests matches based on the filename.

If the person isn't in your tree yet — for example, a match you're researching and don't know where to place — you can create a new person directly. They'll appear as a floating individual, unconnected to the tree, until you connect them.

Once you have three or more people with DNA data in the project — from any combination of kits and segment files — pairwise analysis runs automatically. Triangulation (three-way comparison) requires at least three raw kits. Segment files provide pairwise data only. You'll see the results later in DNA Evidence Review.

Segment Files

Segment files are chromosome browser exports from MyHeritage or FTDNA — a list of shared DNA segments between people. Use these when you don't have access to someone's raw DNA file. For example, a relative who took a test but won't share their raw data, or a match on FTDNA or MyHeritage whose chromosome browser you can export.

The upload flow is similar: consent checkbox, choose files, automatic upload. After upload, there's a name-mapping step where you confirm which person names in the file correspond to individuals in your project.

Platform Tips

When both MyHeritage and FTDNA cover the same chromosome for the same pair of people, Kinprove keeps the MyHeritage segments and uses FTDNA to fill in any chromosomes MyHeritage doesn't cover — this happens automatically, no matter which file you upload first.

• If you have both raw kits and segment files for the same people, upload the raw kits first — Kinprove's own comparisons take priority
• FTDNA uniquely provides X chromosome data, which MyHeritage does not export

DNA Evidence Review

Once you have DNA data (kits or segment files) and a family tree, you can check whether the DNA evidence matches the documented relationships. Kinprove looks at every pair of people with DNA data, finds their relationship in the tree, and compares the actual shared DNA against what that relationship would predict.

Running a DNA Check

Navigate to DNA Evidence Review in the sidebar. The first time, you'll see an explanation of what the check does. Click Run Check to start.

Reading the Results

The summary panel shows three numbers: pairs checked (have a tree relationship), scored (have enough DNA data to evaluate), and anomalies. Below that, a fit distribution bar gives you a quick visual breakdown:

• Match (green) — the DNA supports this relationship. No action needed.
• Likely (blue) — within the expected range but not a strong fit. Usually fine, especially for distant relationships where sharing varies widely.
• Weak (orange) — the DNA amount is unusual for this relationship. Worth checking whether the tree connection is correct or if additional DNA evidence might clarify the picture. Consider uploading additional DNA from that branch, or create a POI project to investigate alternative connections.
• Mismatch (red) — the DNA doesn't match what this relationship would predict. Check whether the tree relationship is correct or whether there's a missing connection path. This is often the starting point for a POI project — if the documented relationship doesn't fit the DNA, there may be an undocumented connection to find.

Use the filters to narrow results by individual, by status, or toggle Anomalies Only to focus on pairs that need attention.

Pair Analysis

Click any row to open the detail drawer. It shows:

• Verdict — a one-sentence summary like "The DNA supports this relationship"
• DNA comparison — a visual bar showing where the observed cM (centiMorgans, a unit of shared DNA — see Key Concepts) falls within the expected range for the relationship
• How They're Connected — a lineage trail showing the path through the tree, with the common ancestor highlighted
• Things to Know — contextual notes that explain unusual patterns, such as endogamy adjustments, X-DNA path issues, or multiple relationship paths

From the pair detail drawer, you can also click through to the DNA kit detail page, which includes a chromosome browser — a visual map of shared segments across each chromosome. Hover over a segment to see its cM length and chromosomal position.

POI Projects

A POI project is an investigation workspace for identifying an unknown ancestor or proving a biological connection.

What is a Person of Interest?

A person of interest (POI) is someone whose biological connection you're trying to figure out. Typically, the POI is a living person or DNA match — not the unknown ancestor themselves. For example, if you're trying to identify your great-grandmother's father, the POI would be you or a tested relative, and Kinprove works backward from the DNA to propose where the unknown ancestor fits.

Similarly, if you've discovered through DNA testing that your documented father isn't your biological father, you would be the POI. Kinprove uses DNA shared between you and your known relatives (participants) to propose where you actually connect to the tree.

Think of it this way: the POI is the person whose DNA you have but whose tree position you don't know. The participants are people whose DNA you have AND whose tree positions you do know.

POIs don't need to be connected to your family tree. They can be floating individuals you added specifically because you're researching the connection.

You can select multiple POIs in one project, which makes sense when you know how they're connected to each other but not to the rest of the tree.

Creating a POI Project

Navigate to POI Projects in the sidebar and create a new project. A three-step wizard guides you through setup:

Step 1 — Select Persons of Interest. Choose one or more people you're investigating. These are individuals with DNA data (kit or segments) whose placement you want to resolve.

Step 2 — Select Participants. Choose relatives who provide DNA evidence for the analysis. Participants are people with DNA kits or segments whose relationships to each other are known and documented in your tree. Their shared DNA with the POI is used as evidence. Participants don't need to be related to the POI — that's what you're trying to figure out. They just need to be placed in the tree so Kinprove can calculate expected DNA sharing for each hypothesis.

Step 3 — Review and Create. Optionally name the project and add a description, then confirm. You'll get better results with more participants, but even two or three participants from different branches of the tree can produce useful hypotheses.

Generating Hypotheses

After creation, hypotheses generate automatically — there's no separate button to press. Kinprove analyzes the DNA evidence from your participants, finds possible ancestor placements for the POI, and ranks them by probability.

The project detail page shows an overview: your POIs, participants, and the top hypotheses with their probability scores. A coverage analysis section shows which participant-POI pairs have DNA data and which are missing. Gaps in coverage mean some hypotheses may be under-supported — the recommendations tell you which uploads would have the most impact.

Exploring Hypotheses

The POI project offers three tree views, accessible from a switcher at the top: Hypothesis Tree, Evidence Paths, and POI Ancestry.

Hypothesis Tree

A horizontal layout showing the most recent common ancestor couples and descendants, with hypothesis branches overlaid. This is the primary view for evaluating and managing hypotheses.

You can manually add additional hypotheses to test. In the header, two actions are available:

• Rescore — re-evaluates existing hypotheses with current DNA evidence. Use after uploading new DNA data.
• Recalculate — regenerates all hypotheses from scratch, syncing with the latest family tree data. Manually added hypotheses are deleted. Use after changing the family tree structure.

Use the filter controls to toggle individual hypotheses on and off, or show/hide non-ancestral spouses for a cleaner view.

Evidence Paths View

Shows relationship paths between participants and the POI, with hypothesis branches overlaid on the tree structure. Use this view when you want to trace exactly which participants support a hypothesis and through which ancestors the DNA evidence flows.

POI Ancestry View

A read-only view of the POI's known ancestors from the main family tree. Useful as a reference while evaluating hypotheses — it shows what's already documented without any hypothesis overlays.

Understanding Scores and Confidence

Each hypothesis displays several badges:

• Confidence — the relative probability of this hypothesis compared to all others, shown as a percentage. If your top hypothesis is 35% and the next is 8%, that's a strong result — it means the top one is over four times more likely
• DNA Fit — how well the observed shared cM matches what the relationship would predict
• Half-relationship — appears when the POI descends from only one spouse of the ancestor couple
• Multipath — appears when DNA is shared through multiple family lines (common in endogamous families; scoring accounts for all paths, not just one)
• Consanguinity — appears when the proposed ancestor couple were themselves related (which increases expected DNA sharing)

Click into a hypothesis to see the participant fits table: a per-participant breakdown showing the expected vs actual cM for each person providing evidence.

If endogamy is detected, a warning appears showing the severity and noting that scoring has been adjusted to account for inflated DNA sharing.

Composite Hypotheses

When your project has multiple POIs, Kinprove can present their hypotheses together as a composite — showing how all the POIs connect to the tree simultaneously. This is useful when you know the POIs are related to each other but need to resolve where the whole group fits.

If a composite hypothesis looks convincing, you can materialize it — creating the proposed individuals in your tree to continue building out the connection.

Connecting Claude & ChatGPT

Kinprove can be connected to an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, so you can ask questions about your research in plain language — and, with your approval, let the assistant make changes for you. It works with any assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard these tools use to talk to outside services.

What you can do

Once connected, you can ask the assistant about every part of your work — DNA kits, shared segments, triangulations, X-DNA, hypothesis scores, evidence gaps, and anomalies — and have it explain what it finds. You can also ask it to edit your tree on your behalf: add people, attach parents, or record families. You stay in control: the assistant only sees what you have uploaded to Kinprove, and every change it proposes is yours to accept or undo.

Create an API key

An API key is the credential your assistant uses to reach your Kinprove data on your behalf — so you never share your Kinprove password with it.

1. Open Settings → API Keys.
2. Select Create API Key, give the key a name you will recognise (for example "Claude Desktop"), and choose the AI assistant access (MCP) permission.
3. Copy the key and keep it somewhere safe. For your security it is shown only once — if you lose it, simply create a new one.

Add Kinprove to your assistant

In your assistant's connector or MCP settings, add a new connection that points to Kinprove's address — https://api.kinprove.io/mcp/v1 — and paste your API key where it asks for an access token or bearer token. The exact place to enter these differs from one assistant to the next, so look in your assistant's help pages for "custom MCP server" or "connectors". Once it is saved, the assistant can reach your projects.

What the assistant can see

A connected assistant sees the same view of your account that you do in the web app, and nothing more. It can read your own projects, individuals, DNA kits, segments, and hypotheses, and — when you approve — create, update, or delete that data. It cannot reach other people's data, your raw uploaded DNA files, your password, your email address, or any payment details. For the full picture, see Your Data and Privacy.

Disconnecting

To disconnect an assistant, open Settings → API Keys and delete its key. Access stops immediately. If you use more than one assistant, give each its own key so you can revoke just one without affecting the others.

Key Concepts

CentiMorgans (cM)

A centiMorgan is the unit used to measure how much DNA two people share. The more cM you share with someone, the closer the relationship. Siblings typically share 2400–2800 cM, first cousins 400–1400 cM, and second cousins 50–600 cM. Kinprove uses these expected ranges to evaluate whether a documented relationship fits the actual DNA evidence. These ranges are based on the Shared cM Project (Bettinger, 2020).

IBD (Identical by Descent)

IBD means two people share a stretch of DNA because they inherited it from the same ancestor. This is the kind of sharing that matters for genealogy — it indicates a real biological connection. Very short matches are usually coincidental and not genealogically meaningful, which is why Kinprove applies minimum thresholds to filter them out.

Triangulation

When three people all share DNA on the same region of the same chromosome, that's triangulation. It strongly suggests all three inherited that segment from a common ancestor. Kinprove runs triangulation automatically once you have three or more DNA kits in a project. The results strengthen hypothesis scoring by confirming which matches are part of the same ancestral line.

Endogamy

Endogamy occurs when a community intermarries over many generations — for example, Ashkenazi Jewish, French-Canadian, or island populations. It inflates the amount of shared DNA between people, making relationships appear closer than they actually are. Kinprove detects endogamy and adjusts its scoring to account for the inflation. You can also enable endogamy mode manually in Project Settings if you know it applies to your family.

Autosomal DNA

Autosomal DNA refers to the 22 numbered chromosomes (not the X or Y sex chromosomes). Most DNA matching in genealogy uses autosomal DNA because it's inherited from all ancestral lines, not just the maternal or paternal line.

Segments

A segment is a continuous block of DNA on a chromosome where two people match. Segments are measured in base pairs (physical length) and centiMorgans (genetic length). Longer segments are more likely to come from a recent common ancestor, while shorter ones may be ancient or coincidental. Kinprove uses a minimum threshold of 7 cM for autosomal segments and 6 cM for the X chromosome.

X Chromosome Inheritance

The X chromosome follows a different inheritance pattern than the other 22 chromosomes. Males get their single X from their mother only — there is no father-to-son X transmission. This means X-DNA can rule out certain relationship paths. Kinprove reports X chromosome sharing separately from autosomal totals and flags cases where X-DNA is shared but the tree shows no valid inheritance path.

Ghost Hypotheses

A ghost hypothesis proposes that the POI connects to the tree through a person who isn't documented yet — an unknown child, sibling, or earlier ancestor of someone already in the tree. These appear with a "Theoretical" label in the hypothesis views. They're a normal part of the analysis, especially when researching distant connections where not every generation is recorded. If a ghost hypothesis ranks highly, your next step is traditional genealogy research — look for historical records (birth, marriage, census) for the ancestor couple it identifies, to find the undocumented person it proposes.

Your Data and Privacy

Kinprove is a private analysis tool — there is no public matching database and no cross-project data sharing. Each project is isolated: your DNA data, tree, and analysis results are visible only to your account.

The full Privacy Policy and Terms of Service are linked from the footer of every page.

Kinprove is currently a single-user platform. There are no shared accounts, project sharing, or collaboration features. If multiple family members want to work with the same data, each person needs their own account and uploads.

What's Next

You now have the tools to build a tree, upload DNA, validate relationships, and generate hypotheses for unknown ancestors. As you work through your research, the DNA Evidence Review and POI Projects sections will become your most-used workflows.

If you have questions or feedback, reach out at [email protected].