First Cousins & The Leeds Method: When Clusters Merge (& How to Fix It!)

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Күн бұрын

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@bloubaker6424 27 күн бұрын

Thank you for this video! My grandchildren’s Leeds charts were so hard to figure out because I kept reading that you should not use 1Cs or 1C1Rs as leads but that was all I had for them. I finally figured out on my own that *generationally older* 1C1R were okay but since this was so new to me I kept looking to see if genealogists recommended it. Thank you for confirming what I learned!

@DanaLeeds 27 күн бұрын

You're very welcome! And thanks for sharing. I should also stress this: When you know how a match is related to you, do not use them as a key person if they share more than one grandparent with you. 🙂

@shuttlepilot 25 күн бұрын

Always look forward to your videos, Dana. I pick up a little gem every time. The y-1C1R, vs the o-1C1R was one of those gems!

@DanaLeeds 25 күн бұрын

@@shuttlepilot, Thank you for sharing! 💕

@ms2668 18 күн бұрын

Looking for a recommendation on how to identify the great grandfather of a friend and have tried a variant on the Leeds method, but with no luck. Two wrenches to throw into the equation: (1) I think the GGF is a cousin of the GGM (makes the cluster chart look like one huge red square) and (2) the family is Norwegian, so standard surname naming conventions are not used....so tracing families by name is almost impossible. If we need to have her male cousin do a Y-DNA test, what's the best company to use that would have a good Scandinavian database? Appreciate any suggestions.

@DanaLeeds 17 күн бұрын

That does make it more difficult! Y-DNA testing is a good idea, and the best place to test is FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA). However, you'll still encounter the same issue with surnames! A family member's Y-DNA turned out surprisingly to be Scandinavian, and I haven't worked that out yet. 😉For this case, I am first working to determine where the surprise "break" in his Y-DNA occurred. So I need to prove one generation at a time until I find a generation I cannot prove. Best wishes!

@staceybenson2259 27 күн бұрын

How do you use the Leeds method when you only have 10 individuals within the 90 to 400 cm range? I already know which side of the tree they are on and one of them is a half 1st cousin and who they descend from. Is there another method to divide your matches into 4 groups? I am trying to find out the parentage of my 3rd great grandfather.

@DanaLeeds 26 күн бұрын

@@staceybenson2259, Great question! First of all, when I created this method in 2018, many people only had about 10 matches in this range. So it often wasn’t enough to represent all 4 grandparents, but sometimes it was. And, it was still useful in creating meaningful clusters! At the time, Ancestry didn’t sort our matches into parent sides so that was another huge benefit. When trying to identify someone further back, like the parents of your 3rd great grandfather, here’s my basic method. (And I’ll put it on the list to make a video about!) Find one or a few highest match descendants of his child, your 2nd great grandparent. Then create a custom group of them and their shared matches. Each of those matches should be descendants of either the 2nd great grandparent couple, or his relatives, or her relatives. The trick is to start figuring out which group they are in and labeling them or even creating additional custom groups. This is easier when you are only looking for one side - often the unknown mother. Anyway, I call it the His, Hers, and Theirs Method. I hope this helps! And if you haven’t already identified any of these matches, you might see if ThruLines will help you. I have a couple of videos on ThruLines.

@MusicInMotion_67 26 күн бұрын

You mention one of your cousins is a half first cousin. If you know which side they come from you can use that person go to shared matches and mark everyone on that list as that Surname of which grandparent they are related through. That can help at least knock out one line.

@staceybenson2259 26 күн бұрын

@@MusicInMotion_67 That half 1st cousin descends from my paternal grandmother, not my paternal grandfather. I have already assigned them to my paternal grandmother line of Bates. I want the Benson line but keep striking out.

@bcRockstar 19 күн бұрын

I am looking for my father’s maternal paternal great grandfather. Besides his 1C1R and 1C2R matches, the other unknowns are mostly under 60 cMs. I have difficulty clustering successfully without higher matches. I have built trees and found MRCA for some matches but not others - I’m generally building back 200 years and am sometimes swimming in a sea of trees. I should mention this is all UK. Any advice for lower matches? I manage his sister’s DNA too. Thanks for a great video.

@DanaLeeds 18 күн бұрын

If I calculated correctly, you are looking for an unknown 2x great-grandfather, and you have siblings' DNA matches to work with. I would try to identify the highest match who is a descendant of the known great-grandparent couple. Then, create a custom group with that person and their shared matches. If it's possible to zero in on a possible location, that could help you focus on what part of these trees might hold the answer. Hopefully you will start seeing some of these trees connect. Best wishes! 🧬

@bcRockstar 18 күн бұрын

@ To confirm, my father’s maternal GF, John Williams, was the only child of James and Margaret Clement - James died (or disappeared) within a year of their marriage. Margaret remarried at least twice after James and even once before so I have managed to easily match DNA descendants of Margaret. My father and his sister are the closest descendants and I’ve been trying to eliminate matches known from their pool. I’ve done some clustering as well but wanted to give The Leeds method another go so wasn’t sure if there was a best way to do it for this scenario. I appreciate the advice. TY

@andreashiock301 26 күн бұрын

Thanks for the video. It helped with combining my clusters; however, when I try to sort them by color, the colors are not staying with the correct individuals. The columns with color are sorting but the names that go with the color are not. How are you getting the names to sort with the colors?

@DanaLeeds 26 күн бұрын

@@andreashiock301, Are you using Excel? If so, don’t highlight any cells. Or, you can select the entire chart with the tiny triangle in the top left by the A and the 1. Then when you sort, if you have headers - so words in row A - click the box that says you have headers. Try that. If it doesn’t work, I can make a quick video. :)

@andreashiock301 26 күн бұрын

@@DanaLeeds Yes, I am using Excel. I tried the things you listed and the names are still not sorting with the colors. Thanks though :)

@DanaLeeds 26 күн бұрын

@@andreashiock301, Let me create a quick video and I'll share it. :)

@DanaLeeds 25 күн бұрын

@@andreashiock301, Hi! I was going to film a short video to share with you, but I am sick today and not up to it. But you can find where I sorted in Excel on this video at 6:29: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sH6nk4htZ8Rgg9U Hope that helps! If not, I use AI or search KZbin to help me troubleshoot.

@andreashiock301 24 күн бұрын

@@DanaLeeds Thanks for the link to your video. I got it to work finally but not exactly the way you did. If I highlighted the whole page, the sort feature was grayed out and I couldn't select it. Finally, only highlighted the headers and was able to select sort.

@KarenL8426 25 күн бұрын

What do you do if you only have 2 grandparents? My parents were siblings.

@DanaLeeds 24 күн бұрын

Hi, Karen. I’ve never worked with that situation, but essentially you’d be first trying to separate those 2 sides - basically their parents. Then you could hopefully split the next generation into 4 clusters. It would also be helpful if you had a 1st cousin of theirs that was paternal and another that was maternal. Wishing you the best!

@KarenL8426 24 күн бұрын

I can’t really separate the matches for my mother and father because the cousins are the same. I can get 4 lines if I go to my great grandparents. So should I just do that as if they were grandparents?

@DanaLeeds 24 күн бұрын

@@KarenL8426, (Not a great excuse, but I've been sick and just getting up & around & trying to work) Yes, I would focus on the 4 lines of your great-grandparents and act as if they're your grandparents.