Staying organized with your DNA matches can be difficult, but finding a system that works for you will pay dividends. I’ve tried several different strategies to sort and label my matches, and Diahan Southard’s approach works really well for me.
I won’t go too in depth about the methodology because she explains it much better than I can in this 5 minute video. Here’s the gist, though: you’re going to use two simple but powerful AncestryDNA tools — Shared Matches and “the dot tool” — to divide your DNA match list into groups of people based on Best Known Matches, aka the people who you already know your relationship to. Each pair of your 4 great grandparents gets a color. Then you assign the couples of the next generation a darker and lighter shade of the same color used for that branch
I made a pedigree chart based off of the dot colors at AncestryDNA, so I can reference it when working on my mystery matches (you can refer this instagram post where I initially shared it). It’s easy to forget which branch and surname goes with which color, especially when switching between multiple test takers.
You can download a copy of the color-coded chart below. As always, I’m happy to help if you need anything, and it’s easiest to get in touch with me through Instagram.
Enjoy your sleuthing!
