Back in the early days of DNA at Ancestry, there were DNA Circles. According to the Circles White Paper, (no longer available on their website), “a DNA Circle™ … is created by combining pedigree and IBD information from across theAncestryDNA member database.”
Screenshot of DNA Circles in 2019, before they disappeared.
Next came ThruLines® which also combined pedigree information with match data.
Anonymized ThruLines® Dashboard
The caution with both approaches is the combination of DNA information, derived from a technical process, with pedigree information, derived from fallible human processes.
The addition of Enhanced Shared Matching in 2024 gave Ancestry users with the ProTools subscription the ability to do much more powerful analysis of their matches. (Notably, this feature had been available at every other testing site prior to 2024.) The shared cM amount between shared matches increases the number of matches that can be placed into speculative trees which can be validated at BanyanDNA. Since Ancestry has the largest database of DNA testers, this opened many doors for genetic genealogy.
Autoclustering has been available at MyHeritage for many years. A clustering tool is available at GEDmatch and other third party services have offered clustering for years. Now Ancestry has given ProTools subscribers Matches by Cluster. Clustering relies on genetics alone, grouping matches who share DNA with each other. The genealogist then uses that information to determine which ancestor the cluster may be associated with. This is the best use of DNA – using it to point to where to look for documents to explain the relationships between the matches.
Cluster diagram from Ancestry. A list of the clusters and the matches appears below this diagram.
Tips for working with clusters:
Understand who is included in the clusters and why. Read the FAQs on the Ancestry Matches by Cluster page.
Take a good luck at the cluster and know what you are seeing. Your matches appear in a list in the same order along the side and across the top. You are the light tan background. Coloured squares indicate where your matches match each other. The dark multi-colored diagonal line indicates where your matches match themself, giving you a useful point of reference. Darker grey squares that are outside of a cluster indicate where your match matches someone not in the main cluster. An algorithm decides who goes in what cluster. This darker grey “confetti” can indicate useful information about how the clusters might be associated with each other, for example, a generation further back, a more recent generation, or multiple relationships. Note: clustering is not as useful for people who have endogamy in their family. There are ways to adjust clusters, and Ancestry says this ability is coming soon.
Identify Most Recent Common Ancestors for each cluster. Look at the trees and search for surnames, and/or locations, and/or times in common. I often take a screenshot of the clusters and then annotate them as I determine the MRCA.
Build a tree based on what you’ve learned and validate it on BanyanDNA or by analyzing shared DNA amounts and relationships individually.
Write down what you’ve discovered and then use it to do documentary research. Revise your summary after your documentary research.
Set up a routine to repeat the cluster analysis as the database grows.
Have fun with the Ancestry Matches by Cluster tool!
Where do you go after you’ve identified a genetic network of matches and figured out how they match you? You document what you’ve learned. One way to document what you’ve learned is by capturing the segment data, the actual places where you and your match share DNA. The news that MyHeritage is going to stop allowing raw DNA uploads is a disappointment since that has been my preferred place for downloading segment data. Leah Larkin explains the possible reasons for this change of process at MyHeritage here, and they certainly make sense. The ease of transferring a DNA data file from Ancestry to MyHeritage was a motivation for many to use MyHeritage. In the future, customers will need to purchase a MyHeritage DNA test to be represented in the database. Two other companies, FamilyTreeDNA and Living DNA still accept uploads and have a chromosome browser, as does the third party website GEDmatch. 23andMe had a chromosome browser before the data breach in 2023. With new owners buying the bankrupt company, the future of 23andMe’s database and functionality is anyone’s guess.
As a reminder of the value of segment data, I have an example from my own research that might entice you to make sure your DNA is on a site with a chromosome browser and that you are familiar with the amazing things you can do at DNA Painter.
To dive deep into segment data, the person to know is Jim Bartlett. He writes extensively about segments on his blog, Segmentology, and entries like this one are good places to start. Roberta Estes has organized her information about segment triangulation (when three people all share the same segment) here. Kitty Cooper is another blogger with extensive experience with segment data.
Here’s a DNA Painting of my maternal chromosome 14. The entire chromosome has been painted with the DNA from my two maternal great-grandparent couples, one in pink and one in yellow. You can see where the DNA from my mother crossed over from her paternal side (yellow) to the maternal side (pink). For more about recombination, see this video.
Screenshot from a privatized chromsome painting of Chromosome 14 at DNA Painter
In order to create the DNA painting, I downloaded the segment data from different websites (you will see them labeled: 23andMe and MyHeritage for this particular chromosome) and then uploaded the segment data to DNA Painter. I assigned each segment an ancestor and a corresponding colour. The pink represents my maternal-maternal great-grandparents, Malcolm Argul Pike and Martha Edna (Greer) Pike. I labelled the matches with the relationship (1C1R for first cousin once removed, etc.) These are my cousins KSGM, ADJ, BH, and PP. The yellow segment is a 1C1R who descends from my maternal-paternal great-grandparents, Winfield Scott Johnson and Lillie May Key.
The diagram below of the maternal side of my family tree has been colour-coded to match the DNA painting above.
Family diagram showing my maternal great-grandparents and DNA matches from each of them.
I have now documented my great-grandparents for my maternal chromosome 14. I’m creating a catalogued library of my DNA data. Any matches with segment data can easily be identified by great-grandparent. And as a reminder – matches to great-grandparents are special. You always receive DNA from your great-grandparents!
I hope this example will inspire you to make sure your own DNA is at a website or websites where you can access a chromosome browser and that you have other cousins who do the same. In the long run, this type of analysis will help us all identify our ancestors.
The tax records from Fayette County Georgia for the years 1833-1851 are in rough shape. The years 1839 and 1840 seem to be bound in the December 13, 1836 edition of the Southern Reporter, published in Milledgville. And tucked into the back of the 1840 tax records, this poem appears in a hand different than William Sparkman, the tax assessor. [Spelling preserved from the original.]
Our Taxes increase so Evry Year We Surely cannot pay For we are getting in debt tis clear And have to move away Unless we get our Martin Van To rule our nation right He will do justice to every man And Keep his ends in sight
That good Old William Henry H. Who fought at Tippacanoe Will Beat our Van in Spite of fate & inspite of all we can doe But God will not suffer man to fall Who lives by his hard labour But at the Judgement day h__ call For our Whig friends & Neighbours A[nd] Say depart ye – – I know you not T. Slick
Section of poem found in tax book for the year 1840 in Fayette County, Georgia.
This little treasure scribbled onto a page in the back of a tax book provides a glimpse into the feelings of the citizens of Georgia in 1840. Take a look for yourself, the tax records are available online at FamilySearch.
When I was a new family historian, I made a mistake on my Ancestry tree. My 2x-great grandmother was a woman named Mattie, who married my 2x great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Pike. I knew she later married William T. Adams. My mother knew and had heard about her great-grandfather, Malcolm Argul Pike and knew he had a step-father and half-siblings. Records for Mattie indicated her maiden name was Childress or Childers. The informants on these records would have been her grandson (on Malcolm’s death certificate) or her son Claude Adams (on his Social Security Application). When searching for the marriage of Mattie to A.J. Pike, I found the following record in Tipton County, Tennessee, the birthplace of Malcom Pike.
Marriage License for A.J. Pike and Mattie Fisher, 1878
I was thrilled to have this record because maiden names are typically used in marriage records, and she was almost certainly the informant on her own marriage certificate, so I believed her maiden name was actually Fisher. I added the record to my Ancestry tree and gave her the birth surname of Fisher. I could not find a Mattie Fisher prior to her marriage who fit Mattie’s calculated death date or possible birth states. That should have been a clue.
Less than a year later, when I learned more about thoroughly exhaustive research and how to resolve conflicting evidence, I realized I had never looked for a marriage of Mattie prior to her marriage to A.J. Pike. And that’s when I found this, also in Tipton County:
Marriage license of James Fisher to Mattie Childres in 1877.
I reviewed the timelines of the likely first marriage of Mattie to James Fisher with the marriage to A.J. Pike (they were 9 months apart) and searched for a death record for James. To date, none has been found. To rule out a marriage prior to Mattie before James Fisher, I looked for a married Mattie Childres in the years she would have been old enough to marry and found none. I looked for Mattie Childres in different Childress families in the south and created a long list that I am still working through. I turned up additional conflicting evidence. Another son of Mattie, Ben Adams, said her maiden name was Pike when he applied for a Social Security Card. I looked of birth records for her children (none, they weren’t required in Tennessee at that time and no delayed records have been located). I haven’t been able to find her daughter Luella (Adams) Moss after 1910 or her son Wallace Adams after 1900. I did start to find DNA matches that linked her to the Childres surname and some possible families for her prior to her first marriage, and some matches that fit as descendants of Mattie with no evidence of her in their trees. (It’s possible they descend from Luella. As of this time, none of the Adams men were known to have had families, but that can’t be ruled out.) Mattie became (and still is) my most recent brick wall.
It was appalling to learn how quickly the misinformation I had posted on my Ancestry tree spread. After I discovered my error, I wrote to 14 people on Ancestry who had copied my erroneous information. Only one responded and she was grateful. See below.
Message in Ancestry Messaging System thanking me for letting them know about the correction
At the current time, there are 17 trees on Ancestry that have Mattie with the maiden name of Fisher in their trees. It’s humbling to know that the information is there because of my lack of good research standards.
What do I do to avoid spreading misinformation now?
Follow genealogy standards while doing my research. Reasonably exhaustive research and resolution of conflicting information would have prevented this.
Avoid sharing information publicly before I am more certain. The difficulty with that approach is that certainty is highly variable when researching mysterious people like Mattie!
Share my information on WikiTree. WikiTree acknowledges that profiles are works-in-progress and allows for a more nuanced presentation of information. When I create WikiTree profiles I can use language to describe how sure I am of the research. I can say her maiden name is “likely” Childres or “almost certainly” Childres when I am more sure. I can write a proof argument and attach a PDF to her WikiTree profile if I want to. (See this WikiTree page for my ongoing efforts to disambiguate three men named James Stoker in Kentucky.) I’m still bothered by the stricken out Smith on one of Mattie’s records. Was that just a clerical copying error? Or did Mattie mention the name Smith when she was applying for a marriage license with A.J. Pike? I do have a cluster of Smiths in the Childres genetic network…
Keep Ancestry trees private. Unfortunately this does not prevent Ancestry from using the information in a ThruLines hint. And ThruLines sadly tells me that Mattie’s father is someone named J.E. Fisher born in 1820. The error continues to compound!
Name my Ancestry tree as a “Working Tree” to let people know it is a work-in-progress. All genealogy is a work-in-progress, but it’s hard to make that clear when trees can be so freely copied without analysis.
And I remember when I am looking at other people’s trees that I need to verify the information myself. And be kind when there are mistakes. After all, I’ve made them, too.
Have you ever had a family treasure almost drop into your lap? Recently it happened to me. And it happened to me because I make sure my name and my family tree are publicly accessible. This is the story of how an 1811 Barnett family Bible came into my possession. It’s also a guide to how you can make yourself findable or find people without paying for a membership at any website. But first, some historical notes about research and sharing genealogy from my experience.
From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, I worked on my family history, saving what I learned in file folders and then Reunion (a software program for Mac users where I diligently associated facts with sources). My family history information was held privately and exchanges of information happened through exchanging letters and photocopies with cousins I met through other cousins. When the internet arrived, I joined listservs and bulletin boards to share information about family history. Distant cousins exchanged disks and electronic files. Then membership sites arrived like Ancestry. Currently, family historians can save their family trees and documents in paid membership sites or share that information where the public can access it without the barrier of cost. Find a Grave, FamilySearch, and WikiTree are three examples. All three offer free membership and two (Find a Grave and WikiTree) can be seen by anyone without a membership. The benefits of sharing in publicly accessible places became clear when I received the following message:
Screenshot of an email
What? A family Bible mentioning my ancestors, who were born in the 1700s? Who was James Barnett? Was this really about my family?
Thankfully the seller on ebay had taken photos of the Bible pages with genealogical information and it was enough to reveal that this Bible contained information about my ancestors, John Barnett and Lucy (Matlock) Barnett. It almost certainly belonged to the descendants of their son, James Barnett. Some of the information about my direct ancestors was recorded after the fact but there were children listed that I had not known about, and James Barnett’s descendants were new to me and likely recorded closer to the times of the events. With the help of a friend (an experienced ebay buyer and seller), I purchased the Bible below the posted price. It is now waiting for me at my friend’s home. She has taken better pictures of it, such as the marriage page below.
Barnett Family Bible, portion of the Marriages page
My 5x-great grandfather, John Barnett on Find a Grave
Whenever I complete a WikiTree profile of an ancestor, like John Barnett, I add a sunflower and a link to the WikiTree profile to the Flowers page at Find a Grave. I mention my relationship to the person on the memorial to help cousins find me and to give them the opportunity to find more information about our shared ancestor through the WikiTree link. Without this simple sunflower post, I would not have been contacted about the Barnett Bible.
That brings us to the first opportunity to make you and your family visible: Find a Grave. anyone can look at Find a Grave, and you need a membership to contribute. Membership is free and you can be visible by adding flowers and links like I do. You can also be helpful by connecting family members to each other, suggesting edits, and contributing photos. Note: Find a Grave was purchased by Ancestry in 2013.
In addition to Find a Grave, I’ve also made myself visible on FamilySearch and WikiTree.
On FamilySearch, you can make yourself visible by adding sources (number 1 in image below), posting notes or discussions in the collaborate tab, or sharing memories (3).
John Barnett on FamilySearch
FamilySearch users can be messaged by clicking on their user name, and it may be worthwhile to click on people who have been editing members of your family. They could be volunteers or they could be cousins.
Under collaborate, you can choose to write a note to other researchers or have a discussion about a topic as shown below.
Family Search Collaborate tab
The person who posted the Note above seemed pretty frustrated, so I chose to message them about the Barnett family Bible as an additional source.
The message system at FamilySearch
I also decided to add a PDF of the transcribed Barnett Family Bible to the Memories tab. I will add photographs once I have a chance to take them myself.
John Barnett with the Bible Transcription added as a PDF to the Memories Tab
Now that I’ve done several things to help people find me, I can now search for cousins who descend from John Barnett. Navigate to the “View Tree” tab for any ancestor.
Navigation to the Tree Tab at FamilySearch
In the tree tab you can choose how to view the tree. The descendants view incorporates down arrows to open additional detail, eventually bringing you to living descendants who have memberships at FamilySearch. Instead of having you scroll down an incredibly long page, I’ve put three images side-by-side here to show the path to me. (Usually I would be looking for other descendants, but you get the idea!)
Descendant view on FamilySearch from John Barnett to me
The third option, and my favourite way to be findable or to find people is through WikiTree. In order for these options to work, you need to sign up for WikiTree and connect yourself to the tree. There are three main ways people may find you (or you can find people) on WikiTree: Using the descendants tab, managing ancestor profiles, and DNA Connections. I’ve numbered them in the image below. (In all of the images below, purple hypertext indicates I’ve clicked on a link in the past.) This is the WikiTree profile for John Barnett .
WikiTree profile of John Barnett
The descendants tab adds a descendant view to the profile, and you can find more recent generations using the blue arrow next to a named descendant, almost identical to the descendant view on FamilySearch. I’ve scrolled down a bit to find my branch of the family. Lucy F. (Walker) Key is my 2x great-grandmother and the great-granddaughter of John Barnett. The blue arrow icon next to my grandfather, Lindell Scott Johnson, indicates there are descendants below him. (This arrow will be a dark pink for a female ancestor.) You can also see a green DNA checkmark, indicating there is a DNA tester in this line who has confirmed this relationship. Handy information for your research!
More descendants of John Barnett in the descendant diagram, down to my grandfather, Lindell Scott Johnson
Clicking on the blue arrow icon opens the descendants tab on Lindell’s profile. You will see the green DNA checkmark next to my mother and me.
The descendancy diagram ending with me
The second way people may find you is if you manage a profile. You can click on the connections icon next to the name of the profile manager to see their connection. I’m using the profile of Lindell’s mother, Lillie May (Key) Johnson, for this example.
Profile manager Connections icon
The image that comes up shows the connections with green boxes indicating a biological connection. If I weren’t a direct descendant, the boxes would switch to yellow indicating a connection through marriage.
Connection of the profile manager to the person being profiled on WikiTree
The third way to make sure you are found on WikiTree is to notify WikiTree that you have done DNA testing so that you will show up in the DNA Connections box on a profile. WikiTree is not a DNA website and the only DNA information available is shared by WikiTree genealogists voluntarily.
Many descendants of John Barnett have taken DNA tests and shared information on WikiTree. The DNA Connections box is arranged with those who inherited the most DNA from John Barnett at the top. The first person on the list is my mother.
DNA Connections for John Barnett.
If you are finding cousins, you can click on any name and you will be taken to their profile where you can message them with one click. They will receive an email with your message. If you want to be on this list, you need to let WikiTree know that you have done DNA testing. To do that, go to your profile page and click on the Add Menu at the top.
Use the Add menu to Add DNA test information to your WikiTree profile
That opens your DNA Tests page where you can either edit or remove existing tests or add new tests. Click on “Add New Test.”
DNA Tests Menu at WikiTree
After you click on the button you will fill out the boxes to add your test. There are templates for Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage and GEDmatch. Include as much information as you want in the boxes.
Add information for each DNA test you’ve completed
After you’ve clicked the “Add Test” button, your test will be added to your ancestors profiles. It may take a day for it to populate throughout the tree. After your DNA has been added, anyone looking at your ancestor on WikiTree will see your name associated with that ancestor up to 6x great-grandparents for autosomal DNA. YDNA and mtDNA will be populated to all of your direct paternal or maternal ancestors that are associated with that test.
I hope this review of three ways to be findable and find cousins on publicly available websites has been useful to you. And I also hope you were doing the genealogy happy dance with me when the Bible came my way! I wish for you the same good fortune through being “out there in public” with your research.
