While visiting a flea market this week in Kentucky, I noticed a booth with pile after pile of receipts from the 1950s. Hidden among them, I spotted this genealogical document among the receipts: Ancestry.com Public Trees At home, I searched the public member trees on Ancestry.com for a George Washington Helm who was born in 1867 and died in 1950. I found three trees. This typed vellum sheet of paper did include information that was not found in any of those trees including: George’s middle name, Malissa’s middle name, the middle names of several of the children, and the two...
Many of you have asked to see a video of me teaching the Leeds Method. And, now you can… and it’s free! RootsTech just released the rest of the videos they are sharing from RootsTech 2019. And, my PowerHour session with Diahan Southard and Christi Jacobsen is now online. RootsTech PowerHour Session These PowerHour sessions were a new format where three speakers spoke on one topic; in this case, DNA. In this presentation, we covered the following three topics: Christi Jacobsen spoke on “Do: Take the Right Test” where she shared about the three major test types: mtDNA, YDNA, and...
I have made some improvements to the Leeds Method that make it faster and easier to use. If you are new to this method, you can read the original steps on my Color Clustering post. These steps are still correct, I have just added a few more! Improvement #1: List all DNA matches through 3rd cousins. Instead of just listing the 2nd and 3rd cousins (below 400 cM), we can list all of the DNA matches through 3rd cousins. In other words, list the immediate family, close family, 1st cousins, and higher 2nd cousins. This makes it easier to work with...
During RootsTech, MyHeritage announced two new tools. One, AutoClustering, is an automated clustering method based on the Leeds method and was created by my new friend, Evert-Jan Blom. The second is the Theory of Family Relativity tool. Although I have DNA results on MyHeritage, I haven’t used them much in the past. But, I’m excited about both of these tools and they have drawn me into looking at my MyHeritage DNA matches. Through this research, I’ve been able to add some new matches, and their direct ancestors, to my tree. Viewing Matches on Theory of Family Relativity You can find...
AncestryDNA’s new ThruLines give suggestions of new potential ancestors that just might break through our brick walls! But, these are just hints; we still need to do the genealogy work to prove or disprove these are our ancestors. Weak Potential Ancestor Hint This suggestion showing Rynear Waldron as my possible 4th great-grandfather is fairly weak: All the descendants are through one of his children, Nancy Waldron, who is my direct ancestor. It would be a better hint if the descendants were through several children. Rynear Waldron is from a tree that doesn’t have any documentation for Rynear Waldron being Nancy...
One of the hottest topics on genealogy Facebook groups right now is Ancestry.com’s new ThruLines. Some people have them; some people don’t. And some people had them, and now they don’t. Today, Roberta Estes wrote a wonderful post titled “Ancestry’s Disappearing ThruLines – Now You See Them, Now You Don’t.” If you are one of who is suffering from disappearing ThruLines – or if you’ve never had ThruLines – her article will either help you find a solution or help you to be patient while Ancestry fixes some of these bugs. If you’re not sure where to look for ThruLines,...
The Leeds Method uses a spreadsheet to sort your DNA matches into groups based on how the matches are related to you. The spreadsheet is called a Color Cluster Chart as seen below: However, not everyone is comfortable using spreadsheets. And, some people would just prefer to use paper and pencil – or a worksheet and colored pencils. Fiona Brooker at the Memories in Time website recently created a worksheet for the Leeds Method. Leeds Method Worksheet Below is an example of a worksheet that has been filled out with the same information as the original example shared above. This chart...
A reader just asked me if, as an adoptee, she shouldn’t also be using those closer matches. And, yes, she should! And, you should, too! But, I’ve never written about how to include them in the Leeds Method. Adding Closer Matches to the Color Cluster Chart Round 1: Create a “regular” Color Cluster chart. You can add the 1st cousins and higher 2nd cousins at the top of your chart, but do NOT include them as part of your original sort. In other words, they do NOT get a color during this first round. (Note that I wrote them in...
If you’ve been wanting to see me explain the Leeds Method in a video – step by step – now is your chance! My presentation from the International Genetic Genealogy conference in December is now available for only $10 at www.i4GG.org! You can also buy the entire set of conference videos for $99. Let me know if you get a copy!
Greetings from Salt Lake City – which isn’t quite going as expected. I got yestereday around noon and quickly realized I’d lost my reading glasses. So, it was off to the shopping center instead of the library as planned. EMERGENCY ROOM Me in the ER at the University of Utah Hospital Also, I’d been hurting in my upper back and down along my arm all day. This morning, I woke up even worse… and ended up going to the ER. I figured it was a pinched nerve and, after four hours, they sent me home with that diagnosis, an ice...
