The Leeds Method with Ancestry Matches - a Demo

[@seahawk100]

Tell me. Who DOESN'T have ANY endogamy in their ancestral history?

[@bobrutledge4436]

Excellent Tutorial. Thank you so much for this!

[@odessawallace8442]

I appreciate the speed of this and clear explanation

[@kjw79]

Good demo! I started this Leeds Method a few days ago and finally have a handle on understanding my matches. If you had more 2nd and 3rd matches your cluster columns would be fewer I think. Since you are working with 4th + cousins, that means your most common ancestors are an extra 1-2 generations back. Therefore as your ancestors multiply exponentially back in time, so will your coloured clusters. I see people worried about having more than 4 colours...but this is exciting! It is sorting out your shared DNA segments into more remote ancestor connections...ie older ancestors further removed from you and your mom. The 2 matches that were hidden are precious, ‘rare’ DNA that is unique from all your major lines. These very specific matches can lead you through a far-back brick wall. Hope that makes sense!

[@DataMiningDNA]

That makes great sense, thank you for the feedback.

[@paulbaltzer4745]

I loved the Macro spreadsheet. It works great. On your blog, I have left an Excel workbook of the Ancestry Color Dots which are much more accurate. Everyone is free to use them. Enjoy.

[@DataMiningDNA]

Thank you for putting the link on the blog. I took a look at your version of the color dots, and yes...much more accurate!

[@gandcpoage731]

@@DataMiningDNA Where do I find the blog and the spreadsheet. It's not linked under the video.

[@peterCalabria3]

Thanks for letting us know.

[@peterCalabria3]

Do you separate maternal from paternal ? Say for non expected paternal would they be related to each other? Colour is wonderful don’t understand how you get a surname that corresponds to your direct father ?

[@bridgetcampbell6629]

Beautifully explained. I really appreciated this. Loved the part where you were talking to Martha. I do that, too! Sometimes I have to scold them, haha.

[@DataMiningDNA]

Delighted it helped, and I really appreciate the feedback.

[@SandyRedmond-y3p]

Step 1 PLEASE. Exactly how do I even download my results to Excel so I can assign colors? THANKS!

[@citygonecountrygirl]

So how do you group them after? I have 15 colors.

[@billmckee3230]

Thanks for the clear video. BUT - this was the easy part. You wanted two lines and you got like 8. So what did you do to resolve this? What caused these 8 lines and how did you sort them through ancestors. You stopped just as you got to the most interesting part!

[@DataMiningDNA]

My conclusion in my own head is that my distributions of matches weren't going to get good results with the Leeds method. I just don't have enough closer matches for it to work well. Dana Leeds had warned of that. But it was an interesting process.

[@melnyc8973]

So what happens when there is ENDOGAMY and everyone over laps?

[@MsMandarin2012]

Thank you very much for your video. It helped me a lot. One thing though, I could not see how many of the shared matches you included. Do you include all the shared matches no matter the amount of Cms. Or do you use the same limit for the first batch ie 400 - 30 Cm? I had one go and I think I should not have limited the inclusion of the shared matches. I look forward to each of your newsletters and find them very helpful indeed. Thank you.

[@DataMiningDNA]

I used the same limit. Could be worth trying the other way!

[@Craig-ol2jm]

I'm up to column 22 using the Leeds Method ... am I doing something wrong? It is getting difficult to follow all the cells, names, and colours in my spreadsheet!

[@DataMiningDNA]

Success does depend on the distribution of your cousins. I had lots of columns as well because I had fewer close cousins than other people.

[@cynthiamcdonagh4458]

Fabulous video. I know understand how to do the colouring with matches. BUT still confused. What do I do with this Leeds List? I have over 5,000 unassigned matches, all 4th cousin down 8th cousin. It will take me days...maybe weeks to finalize this?

[@DataMiningDNA]

The Leeds method doesn't work well with more distant matches, so restrict it to the higher ones.

[@YesiPleb]

I got totally lost because I don't know what names you're picking from where because it's all pixellated.

[@AncestryNerd]

Great video. Thank you.

[@DataMiningDNA]

Glad you liked it!

[@Disblair]

Why go to the bother bother of creating a spreadsheet (not easy for everyone) when you can do the same thing by assigning colours on Ancestry?

[@DataMiningDNA]

Some people prefer spreadsheets. It's that simple!

[@JoeSmith-zg4fq]

Explaination was pretty good. But in trying to protect names you ruined it. I thought I was watching a satellite DirectTV show during a a rain storm. It would have been better using one color or just blanking out the parts you did not want to show. Very confusing between the colors for the chart and the colors for protection, This can however all be doing using the Ancestry color groups alone without a spreadsheet as demoed by Family History Fanataics.

[@DataMiningDNA]

Thanks for the comment. I always obscure names and will do so in the future - but I'll experiment with other ways to see if its clearer.