Managing DNA matches on Ancestry

[Biggles50]

At the time of writing this I have 106 DNA “Cousins” included in my Family Tree.  Most have been added by making use of Common Ancestor and Thruline hints after carefully researching each person suggested.  Also included is those where the hard slog Tree Build method has been used

There comes a point when one needs a strategy to deal with “New DNA Matches” and the following is what I do, please feel free to add your own process.

Every Monday I go into the DNA “Matches” section and in the “Sort” drop down menu I click on “Date” and the list then goes from the newest to oldest match.

I simply look through each of the new DNA Matches until “Last Week” shows.  If any seem worthy of further investigation I add a comment using the Note feature and assign it to a Group, one I have is labelled “Research Further”, I also have Groups labelled “English”, “Irish, “Italian” and one for each Grandparent line

Of the new matches in the prior week those with 20cM and more are looked at first, the Shared Matches checked and if there is a Shared Match who is in my tree, the new DNA match is placed in the “Research Further” Group and the applicable Family Group

I’ll look at DNA matches 20cM+ with more interest if they have a Linked Tree and one with sufficient people in said tree to hopefully give an idea of where I am likely to find the matches Ancestors.

If any DNA Match irrespective of cM value has a Surname of interest then they to are placed in the “Research Further” Group.

I’ll also Filter the DNA Matches using the Common Ancestor tag and again Sort by Date to see if there is anyone new who has not been given the “Star” from the Grouping Options, in my tree this signifies that the DNA Match is in my Family Tree and that all the DNA Tags assigned, as is the Relationship and that the Note that you see in the Match List includes the names of our MRCA.

Then in the days that follow I will look at the new batch that are assigned to the “Research Further” Group and either look into them in more detail, leave them, remove them from the Group or reassign them to the “Parked” Group which is waiting for them to develop their tree.  Those I think may be worthy of development will have a tree built around them if possible.  I’ve managed to build quite comprehensive trees from a DNA Match who has a limited content tree.

The next Monday we repeat.

[Pheno]

More or less what I do although perhaps on a fortnightly rather than weekly basis.

I also have a group for 'not an ancestor match despite what Ancestry has detailed in Thrulines'.  This means I don't keep going back over them.

Pheno

[LizzieL]

I look every day, particularly in February when the "Christmas present" test results are coming through

I'm a sad person who doesn't get out much 

I look at the new matches first and then check through the "Common Ancestors" as quite a few pop up who have tested a while ago but have only just added or extended or linked their tree, or someone else's tree has just provided the missing link

[Pheno]

My unerstanding is that Ancestry only update the dna matches weekly on a Thursday.

Do you find new matches on a daily basis Lizzie?

Pheno

[LizzieL]

Yes, I'm getting 4 to 6  a day at the moment.
I checked at 7 o'clock this morning after breakfast and had 4 new matches, checked just now and two more have popped in.
In second week of Feb when the Christmas present results were peaking, I could be getting more than a dozen  a day. Maybe the once a week on a Thursday thing is to update shared matches and thrulines.

[Pheno]

Might start checking more frequently then.

[Millmoor]

I check at least once a day, often using the Ancestry app. on my phone. Interestingly the app is already identifying shared communities with some ( not all) matches.

William

[TonyV]

I think that how frequently you look may depend to some extent on why you tested in the first place and what the outcome was. I tested simply to try to break down brick walls but the result was that I suddenly didn't know who my genetic father was. The need to find out immediately became all-consuming so I now look every day. If the result had been otherwise I would probably not look more frequently than every couple of days or even weekly.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

My unerstanding is that Ancestry only update the dna matches weekly on a Thursday.

Do you find new matches on a daily basis Lizzie?

Pheno

Multiple updates each day but that is only apparent if you check multiple times a day and obviously is reliant on results being an actual match.  At normal times I tend to see 3-5 matches a day but with the Black Friday and Xmas kits now largely processed I've had around 400 new matches since Xmas, sadly only a couple are above 20cM so I'm still in the quantity over quality trap that plagues my progress.

I have at least had a couple of replies from test managers letting me know which parent the link relates to from the perspective of a match, armed with that I can at least try and build the relevant side of their tree without wasting time and effort on the wrong parent.


I use other sites including My Heritage and Gedmatch, MH tend to send an email on a Sunday if there's a new match  to my kit or those I manage, Gedmatch email today told me of a new match.....a kit I manage and uploaded back in mid January!