Labeling DNAGedcom’s New Collins’ Leeds 3D Clusters

Rob Warthen of DNAGedcom announced the Collins’ Leeds Method 3D yesterday. Once you run a chart, what’s next?

Above is a 3D chart I ran sorted by cM, not inclusions. Below is a chart I’m using to label the clusters. It starts with the 4 grandparents of the test taker: Stewart (A), Merrill (B), Peters (C), and Coppenbarger (D). These are in standard order from paternal grandfather on the top to maternal grandmother on the bottom.

Next, I added ahnentafel numbers. The “home person” is 1, their father is 2, their mother is 3. As you continue, each person’s dad is double the number of that person (so, #2’s dad is #4) and their mother is double plus one (so, #2’s mom is #5).

I added a column to the left of my 3D chart where I wrote a letter/number combination for each person whose relationship I knew. This label shows are LIKELY common ancestors. In the first cluster, these are almost all D2/D3 or a question mark if unknown. This means this cluster of cousins LIKELY all descend from J.R. Coppenbarger and Elizabeth Bennett. (Neat!)

In the second cluster, the top two people are labeled C2/C3 while the rest are labeled C6/C7. This group is LIKELY all descended from Carl Peters and Guntherine Werther, C2 and C3. But, more specifically, most of the group is descended from Johann Werther and Amalie Reinhardt, C6 and C7!

The next group are also C2 and C3, but they are LIKELY a different line than cluster #2.

The fourth cluster has B8/B9 and B16/B17 along with three unknowns. B8 and B9 would be the parent of James Merrill. B16 and B17 would be his paternal grandparents. So, this is LIKELY showing a very specific Merrill ancestry line.

(Isn’t this exciting!?!)

This labeling system also gives a good visual of what the grey squares represent. You can see that it is often the overlap between, for example, two different “C” groups. So, they are likely from the same grandparent line! In this particular example, grandparent C and D are from the same small town, so there is sometimes overlap just because of other marriages between the same families in this community.

One other comment… this labeling system also helps with HALF relationships as you can put ONLY the label, for example C6, of the common ancestor.

I’d love some feedback! Please give it a try and let me know what you think!