Where I’ve Been Hi everyone! These past few months have been a whirlwind—between learning to create and edit YouTube content, launching a newsletter, and developing in-person presentations, I’ve had my hands full! Add some website technical challenges (which we’re still working through), and you can see why I’ve been quiet here on the blog. (For example, I’m still not receiving notices of your comments!) Exciting DNA Research Progress The best news? I’m actively pursuing DNA research again, and I’ve recently broken through several brick walls! I’ve already shared one success story in this video, where I share how DNA helped...
Have you struggled with an AncestryDNA ThruLines hints that you were sure was incorrect? You’re not alone! In my last post, I started analyzing the ThruLines for the potential parents of my dad’s 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah “Sally” Vaughan (1787–1859). Case Study: John and Amelia (Jones) Vaughan ThruLines, an AncestryDNA tool that provides hints or suggestions for potential ancestors based on DNA matches and family trees, indicated that Sarah’s parents might be John and Amelia (Jones) Vaughan. However, my research suggested otherwise. ThruLines proposed 19 DNA matches that might connect my dad to other children of John and Amelia. Over the...
While I’m a big fan of the hints from AncestryDNA ThruLines, we know they aren’t always correct. In my classes, I always emphasize the need to “prove or disprove” these hints. Just yesterday, I decided to put this into practice with a ThruLines hint that resurfaced this weekend while I was teaching about AncestryDNA’s tools. ThruLines pointed to a certain couple as the potential parents of one of my direct ancestors. Hundreds of online family trees agreed. But were they right? As it turns out, traditional research led to a strong conclusion: hundreds of trees, along with AncestryDNA ThruLines, had...
Have you clustered your DNA matches but are wondering what to do next? Whether you’ve used the Leeds Method, an automated tool, or identified a group of Shared Matches, the work (and fun) has just begun! I’ve put together my top 5 strategies for working with your DNA clusters to determine how the matches are related to each other and then how the tester is related to the matches. These steps can help you identify close biological family as well as more distant relatives. Step 1: Identify Repeating Surnames Although trees are not required to do the Leeds Method, they...
In February 2019, about 6 months after I introduced the Leeds Method, AncestryDNA introduced their Custom Groups or “Colored Dot” system. These colorful dots worked wonderfully with the Leeds Method! Over the years, I’ve used them in various ways. Earlier this month I presented at CeCe Moore’s i4GG (Institute for Genetic Genealogy). And one of my new methods uses these dots in a slightly different way. But I was frustrated that, despite trying to create a “beautiful” and useful dot labeling system, the dots were getting scrambled! What was happening? Messy Dots Here’s an example of my mom’s DNA results...
Hi, everyone! I wanted to let you know that I’ll be doing my first Legacy Family Tree webinar on Wednesday, May 4th, at 11:00 a.m. PDT. It’s titled “Quickly Organize Your DNA Matches with the Leeds Method.” You can register to attend live for free at this link! And the recording is available free for a week. Then it is available to subscribers. If you aren’t a member, I highly recommend it! They have hundreds of presentations by some of the best speakers on all kinds of topics. Hope to “see you” Wednesday!
I often get questions about which matches should be used when doing the Leeds Method. For the most part, it depends on what you already know about your family and matches. Unknown Biological Parent or Grandparent If you are trying to identify an unknown biological parent or grandparent, you probably don’t know your 2nd and 3rd cousins. In that case, I recommend using matches who share between 90 and 400 cM of DNA with you. This is because we are hoping to find 2nd and 3rd cousins and avoid any first cousins who share two grandparents with you. And, for...
I recently discussed how and why you might need to consolidate your clusters when doing the Leeds Method. I also shared an example and went through the process step by step. But even after consolidating your clusters, some of you will still have more than 4 clusters. In fact, some of you will still have quite a few clusters. But, why? Well, for many of you it’s because you don’t have any—or don’t have enough—2nd cousins. Why Second Cousins? The Leeds Method attempts to use 2nd and 3rd cousins to sort your DNA matches into groups of people who are...
I posted earlier this week about how and why you might need to consolidate (or combine) your color clusters on your Leeds Method chart. Today, I’d like to share an example from a reader named Bruce. Original 9 Clusters When Bruce sent me his chart, he had sorted 50 people into 9 clusters: With a lot of clusters and a lot of overlap, Bruce’s chart would be more helpful if we consolidated some of his clusters. Although not always possible, we are hoping to be able to create 4 clusters based on his 4 grandparent lines. Rearranging the Clusters To consolidate clusters,...
The Question Today I want to discuss one of the most frequent questions I get: Why did I get more than 4 color clusters on my Leeds Method chart? (I’ll address the issue of getting less than 4 clusters in a future post.) The Simple Answer There are basically two answers to this question. You don’t have enough second cousins. (We will also discuss this in a future post.) You need to do another step which is consolidating (or combining) some of your clusters. Key Concepts As we discuss this, let’s keep a few key concepts in mind: The goal...
