Tag Archive | Ancestry Pro Tools

The new clustering tool at Ancestry

Ancestry has been rolling out its clustering feature this past week to those of us with a Pro Tools subscription. If you have it, there is a new button at the top of your list of matches with an icon that says “By Cluster.”

The purpose of clustering is to create an easy-to-use visual way of organizing DNA matches that are related to you and to each other. The graphic sorts the matches who share 65 cM to 1,300 cM with you into groups who also share at least 20 cM with each other. Each match is listed in the rows on the left as well as by initials at the top for each column. In a perfect world, you would get four colored boxes, like in the image below, where each box represents the line of one of your grandparents.

The image above has actually had the top box truncated and two additional boxes removed for illustration purposes. The left side would have the full name of the match while the top has just the initials.

Some matches will also have additional matching that does not fit the groupings. Those are shown in gray.The darker boxes on the diagonal are where the same person meets themself. Note that all the boxes, even the ones that are not colored, are clickable to show who the two people that intersect there are, with all the details of that match. Plus the names can be clicked to go to those match pages. Clicking a square brings up a box like in this image.


Below the diagram there is  a list of the clusters. Click on any one to see the members of that group. Notice that each member has all the information you would see about that person in your match list. Another nice feature is that you can add everyone in a cluster to a colored dot group by clicking on the “+ Add All” button.


While this sounds like a wonderful new tool, for many of us it needs the ability to specify the range to include in order to get the best boxes. Below is what a Jewish friend of mine gets; lots of clear small boxes, but everyone is related to everyone else outside of the clusters, except for her middle box. This is what endogamy looks like!

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New Sort Option for the Ancestry Pro Tools DNA Match List!

Many of us got the Ancestry Pro Tools to see how our matches were related to each other; then we got frustrated when there were many pages of matches that could not be sorted by the closest matches to that match.  Look at the image below. The sort feature we wanted is here!

On the far right above your match list it now says Group Search Sort. If you click the sort button, it pops up a little box which gives you the option to sort by your closest matches, your match’s closest matches, or by the date.

The advantage of sorting by your match’s matches is that you can now quickly see if you have already solved the relationship to one of their close family members. The first few words of whatever you put in the notes for that match are listed. Plus if Ancestry has found a relationship there is a little three person icon. More on the basics of the pro tools are in my June blog post (click here). Meanwhile, if this has not rolled out to your pro tools account yet, there is a workaround mentioned by Leah Larkin in her facebook group – The DNA Roundtable – just add
?sort=MATCHING_RELATIONSHIP
to the end of the URL on the page with your match

Remember, this new feature only works if you have the Ancestry Pro Tools which I have heard are on sale for the Holidays at a bargain price

Finally, a Reason to Get Ancestry Pro Tools!

Ancestry has released a new feature that many of us have been eagerly waiting for: how much DNA your matches share with each other and the estimated relationship between them. This can help when a new match has no tree, for example, if their sibling or parent has one. Read on for a description of my first experiments with this tool.

Most Mondays I go look at my new DNA matches on Ancestry. Typically I first click Unviewed and then click Common Ancestors.

The buttons I click (added arrows are mine)

If no matches come up, then I unclick the Common Ancestors button in order to see all the new matches. Next I sort them by date to see the most recent first. Sometimes I first pick one parent or change the range of cM to view (via the button called Shared DNA). Then I scan the resulting list. I typically click on the new matches with trees and the most DNA. I find that if you contact people when they have just received their results, they are more likely to respond.

I had a wonderful surprise when I clicked on a new DNA relative’s name to go to their match page with me: a message informing me that if I upgraded to the Pro Tools I could see how my matches were related to each other including the cM. Of course I upgraded, only an extra $10 per month. By the way, as they are just rolling out this feature it is a bit slow today from all of us trying it out.

My match with Gary turned up two distant relatives from different lines, perhaps I can figure out where he fits in

Now my page for that new match looks like the above. Note that you can click on the projected relationship to get the full explanation including unweighted DNA and longest segment just like on a match page.

However on the shared matches page my colored dots have changed to squares with the first letter of the group. Not sure how I feel about that change. A benefit is that it shows you how many people are in that group when you go to the edit groups. At least the colors are almost the same. On the trees and ethnicity pages it is the same colored dot as before, for now.

A few glitches occurred. I was not able save the new notes I made from the shared matches page. I can only save them from the tree and ethnicity pages. Also it was easier to set the colored dot group on those pages, as the save from the shared matches page seemed delayed.

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