Ancestry.com Tells Genetic Affairs to “Cease and Desist”

Just over 2 years ago, I developed the Leeds Method, which easily organizes your DNA matches into visual clusters usually based on shared ancestral lines. Using that method as a basis, several programmers created automated tools that could cluster our matches faster than my manual method.

AutoCluster by Genetic Affairs

Of these tools, the one I’ve used and talked about the most about was AutoCluster by Genetic Affairs. Also, more than 95% of the time I ran AutoCluster it was on Ancestry.com – whether I was working on my own brick walls or helping others identify biological parents. But, sadly, that era has come to an end. A few days ago, Genetic Affairs received a “cease and desist” letter from Ancestry.

Thank you, EJ!

I first want to say a big “thank you” to Evert-Jan “EJ” Blom for all of the work he has done with Genetic Affairs. His tools have helped – and will continue to help – thousands of people. Although I am hopeful that Ancestry.com might come to some agreement with Genetic Affairs in the future, for now the AutoCluster tool is still available to run on 23andMe and FTDNA. It also works as a built-in tool on MyHeritage, and as a paid, Tier 1 tool on GEDmatch. So, the only place you cannot run an AutoCluster at this time is on Ancestry.

Alternatives?

Since we can’t use Genetic Affairs’s AutoCluster on Ancestry.com, what can we use?

UPDATED: You can continue to use the original, manual Leeds Method! (start here) Ancestry.com has sent out more “Cease and Desist” letters, so using my manual method is possibly your only option right now. And, it’s a great option!