Best Way to Colour Code Ancestry DNA Groups

[Pheno]

I manage 4 tests on Ancestry and although I have made good use of colour coding, having read topics on here and a couple of blogs, I notice I have used a slightly different method for each test as things have evolved and just want to bring some consistency to my method.

I read in one blog to start with groups for each of the great grandparents which is what I did but I don't actually find that very useful when searching - often i know much more and would be able to separate out the lines but because the group is both grandparents it doesn't work very well.

On one test I have used a group for the furthest back known ancestor on a particular line but am beginning to run out of colours.

How do any of you use the group colours?  Has anybody got a tried and tested method for colour coding that they feel really enables them to make good use of their shared matches?

Pheno

[Romilly]

I’ve got the usual, ‘Fathers side, ‘Mother’s side’ ones... (Orange and Purple).

Additionally I’ve colour coded by names, e.g. Rees, Wilson, Pattenden, etc... and so some matches have 3 or 4 different colour dots.

The Welsh ones are green, then I’ve got the unknown ones, with blue dots...

And so on, - and yes, I’ll run out of colours soon!

Can we request more?

[Pheno]

Additionally I’ve colour coded by names, e.g. Rees, Wilson, Pattenden, etc... and so some matches have 3 or 4 different colour dots.

What names are these Romilly?  great grandparents for example, or the furthest back you have discovered etc

Pheno

[Gadget]

Colour coding in Ancestry DNA is exactly the same as any other simple coding method  - apply a code to each different category, In the case of shared matches, they can fall into a number of different categories so give them as many codes as needed. 

[Romilly]

Additionally I’ve colour coded by names, e.g. Rees, Wilson, Pattenden, etc... and so some matches have 3 or 4 different colour dots.

What names are these Romilly?  great grandparents for example, or the furthest back you have discovered etc

Pheno

As far back as I’ve been able to get Pheno, - and so 5 and 6 x Great Grandparents in Sussex and Oxford for example. Sadly all on my mother’s side, because I’m still stuck in Manchester in 1860 with my paternal grandfather:-(

Romilly.

[Pheno]

Yes Gadget that is what I have done, but I can't see the point of identifying them as say great great grandfather and mother but also knowing that they are on the 'Sayers' line a few generations previously and marking them as both groups, unless I am missing something.

I was really wondering what specific methods others used and had found useful or conversely not particularly helpful.  After all, we probably all dived in with a particular method when the facility first became available, but maybe some are now seeing that actually, given time they would have used the colours in a different manner.

Most matches of mine are at least 4th cousins or more distant and so they are not likely to match with names in the lower generations, which I might have chosen to colour code so is it better to use the colours to identify names from as far back as you have researched?

Pheno

[Pheno]

Thanks Romilly - I am beginning to think that the farthest distant traceable line is the best colour coding method (although presuming the narrative would have to change if you are lucky enough to progress back further in time), rather than one well known DNA bloggers suggestion to just link everyone to great grandparents, both ancestors and descendants.

Pheno

[Gadget]

It really depends on what you want from them. My coding is likely to be different from either yours or Romilly's. They can be  surname, locality, goups that are distinct but no link found, etc., etc.

[Pheno]

I did my initial coding based on surname and lineage, but also with a group for those to exclude because they only had a handful of people on their trees etc.

It hasn't occurred to me to group according to locality, do you find that useful Gadget?

Pheno