Lou,
Admittedly, there are some inconsistencies in the comparison thresholds used on GEDmatch. In general, they are lower than criteria used elsewhere. That has been a bit of a moving target, though. When I started this adventure, it was based on FTDNA Affymetrix results with fewer SNPs being tested. The criteria we used then was 5cM and 500 SNPs, I believe. The accepted values for those thresholds has gradually increased, first to 7cm/700SNPs, and now more people are claiming that they should be 10cM/1000SNPs. I suppose that I prefer to use lower thresholds, and then the user can decide what they want to keep, and what they want to ignore. Unfortunately, too many people think that if it's on the list, it must be a 'match'. On the other hand, if the accepted threshold is 7cm, do you throw away one that is 6.9cM?

John