A common complaint from AncestryDNA users is that matches don’t have trees or have very small trees. But, we can often work with both of these situations and still successfully identify our DNA match and how they’re connected to us. Today’s example is from a small tree. Small Tree This is an example of one of my matches’ actual small tree, though all names have been changed. When you click on the three grandparent names, it also gives a place of death. So, what can I do with this small tree? I can search for other trees that have these...
When using an automated clustering tool such as Genetic Affairs’ AutoCluster or DNAGedcom’s Collins Leeds Method, the output is in the form of a matrix. Here are some screenshots to help you better understand these clusters in this matrix format. The Names In the matrix, the names are listed in the same order from left to right (along the top) as they are from top to bottom (along the left side). Each cell represents the intersection of two people. The Color Clusters Like the Leeds Method, color clusters are created showing the people who have a close connection to each...
As I continue to share family stories for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, this week’s theme is “Favorite Photo.” Sadly, while looking for this photo I realized I have misplaced hundreds of scanned family photos! I am trying not to panic, but it’s a great reminder to share your photos while you can! Thankfully, I can rescan these photos from a relative, but it will take many hours of work. Grandmother Evelyn (Dickson) Kaechle This is the only photo we have of my grandmother as a little girl. When Evelyn was less than 8 months old, her mother...
Family history is about more than dates and places; it’s about the stories we remember or discover. And sharing these stories is a wonderful way to remember our ancestors. Amy Johnson Crow has started another year of challenges for each of us to tell the stories of “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” Each week also has an optional theme, with the theme for this first week of 2020 being “fresh start.” A Fresh Start for the Peters Family Map of immigration route created by JRS Sr In 1859, my 3x great grandparents, Joachim and Henriette (Bünger) Peters, and their six...
Jonny Perl of DNA Painter just announced a new tool: Cluster Auto Painter or CAP. Basically, this tool lets you use clusters to “paint” the segments of your DNA matches! Unfortunately, this tool does not work with Ancestry.com since it does not include a chromosome browser. You can find Jonny’s instructions in a blog post here. Example: 23andMe AutoCluster To try this new tool, I used Genetic Affairs and ran a Default AutoCluster with my 23andMe matches. With a range of 250 to 50 cM, the AutoCluster created 6 clusters. (NOTE: I have removed the names from the top and...
I am taking my 9th course with The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. (Yes, I recommend them!) This course is “Forensic Genealogy” authored by my friend, Cari Taplin, CG. ArchiveGrid Module two of the course covers finding sources such as “interviews, letters, published genealogies, and family histories.” And one of the sites discussed for locating some of these records was ArchiveGrid. Cari explains that “ArchiveGrid focuses on archival materials such as historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and other original sources.” Although I’ve visited ArchiveGrid before, last night was the first time I really did some searching – and had...
When creating a Leeds Method color cluster chart with a spreadsheet or a related, automated tool, I suggest starting with your 2nd and 3rd cousins. For many of us, we can safely use matches 400 and 90 cM. But, why 2nd and 3rd cousins? If we sort our matches based on our 1st cousins, they would sort into two groups: maternal and paternal. But, if we sort our matches based on our 2nd cousins, they could sort into four groups. To fill in some of the gaps, we also include 3rd cousins. In doing these sorts, we often create 4...
Most of you are probably familiar with AncestryDNA’s relatively new tool, Custom Groups, which allows you to add a colored dot next to your DNA matches. These colored dots can be used for whatever you decide including indicating clusters, your eight great grandparent lines, or a specific group you are working on. A new tool at Genetic Affairs allows us to use the custom groups to create clusters. We can also use the “extend” option to grow these clusters even larger. The extend option gathers the shared matches of the DNA matches in whatever group you’ve selected. A few days...
Thaddeus and Katharina (Kern) Koechle were my 3x great grandparents who immigrated to America in 1851. They had 6 children who lived to adulthood and had children: Anna, Theresia, Reinhard (my direct ancestor), Gertrude, Louise, and Lena. ThruLines Ignoring a few close family matches, my uncle’s ThruLines suggests DNA matches for 16 descendants of this couple. Adding the shared matches for these 16 matches makes a total of 46 possible DNA match descendants from this couple. AutoCluster clustered 44 of these matches into 10 clusters. Identifying Matches with Traditional Genealogy Using traditional genealogy, I traced half of these matches back...
Recently, I diagrammed some clusters created by the Leeds Method and/or an automated method like AutoCluster. Surprisingly, the people in a cluster are not always related to all of the other people in a cluster. And, the people in a cluster are not always descended from a single common ancestor or ancestral couple. Sometimes, the people in a cluster are descended from two generational levels as shown in the diagram below: What Is a SuperCluster? A SuperCluster is a group of clusters that are closely related to each other. You can see a SuperCluster by looking for grey squares between...
