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Sorting & Grouping Your DNA Matches for Success

7 MIN READ

Pete Hoyt, Genetic Genealogist for AncestryProGenealogists®
14 October 2024

Sorting Towards a Goal

Whether you’re trying to identify a biological parent(s) for you or a parent/grandparent, determine the original identity of an elusive grandparent, or find the place of origin of one of your recent ancestors, your DNA matches may offer your best chance of success in answering some of these questions. Using them will be dependent on being able to isolate the matches related through the relevant or unknown family line.

AncestryDNA® currently provides the option to sort your DNA matches (see this article to learn more about Grouping and Filtering AncestryDNA Matches) into 24 groups. Experienced genealogists have likely used every group possible, while novices may have only used one or two, if any. However, no matter your research level it’s vital that you use the group feature in ways that work best to assist you in researching your goal.

While everyone should use groups in a way that makes sense to you, it may be most beneficial to limit the total number of groups of matches you use for a singular research goal. Too many groups can get overwhelming and confusing and keep your focus away from narrowing in on the matches most relevant to answer your research question.

How Many Groups Should I Have?

You may now be wondering how many groups of matches should be enough, and what is too many? All of this will be dependent on your research goal.

Fortunately, AncestryDNA already separates your matches into two groups: Parent 1 and Parent 2. Due to some circumstances, you may have matches that are labelled as “Unassigned” or “Both Sides.” If you have tested at least one parent, Parent 1 and Parent 2 will be automatically labeled as Paternal and Maternal (see this article to learn more about Matches by Parent).

If you have not tested either of your parents, you may be able to quickly determine which parent is maternal and which is paternal based on looking at your close matches. Say your research goal is along your paternal line, and you have determined that Parent 1 is paternal, some people may choose to view/sort and group from viewing Parent 1 matches only. However, I personally do NOT recommend this approach.

I have seen many situations where, for one reason or another, an individual may have multiple “unassigned” or “both sides” DNA matches. In these cases, there may be one or more unassigned match that is relevant to the research goal. If you prematurely filter the match list by parent, you may overlook these unassigned matches. Therefore, best practice will be to view ALL matches and then view the group of interest once you have identified the group or groups that help you towards your research goal.

My recommendations for total number of groups depending on your research goal:

Self-Adoptee/Unknown Parent(s): The ideal number of groups of matches when either you are an adoptee or have an unknown parent(s), should be as few as two (one group for parent 1 and one group for parent 2), and ideally no more than four. However, if your matches through the target unknown parent are distant (the closest match sharing less than 100 cM) you may have many groups of matches.

Unknown Grandparent: You should have a minimum of three groups of matches (one group for the parent you are NOT researching, one group for the other known grandparent, and one group for the unknown grandparent). You may have multiple groups of matches through the unknown grandparent, but it is ideal to narrow down to one or two groups if possible. (If you have many groups of distant matches through the unknown grandparent you will likely have a complex research problem on your hands.)

Unknown Great-Grandparent: The minimum number of groups of matches will be four, but you could have several through the unknown great-grandparent.

You may be noticing a pattern, or you may be a little confused. Let’s look at a research scenario with visuals to illustrate an example of sorting and grouping for success.

Research Scenario

The information you have about your great-grandfather, Grandpa James, is limited. You know the year that he married Grandma Jane, but the only record you have for this marriage does not list his birthplace or names of parents. Shortly after the birth of his third child, Grandpa James passed away. You have been unable to obtain a death certificate/record, and Grandpa James and Grandma Jane married between census enumerations (doesn’t this always seem to be the case!) leaving you with little to no information about Grandpa James and his origins.

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Following our ideal group of matches, we know that we should have a minimum of FOUR groups:

  • Group 1: Your Maternal DNA Matches
  • Group 2: Matches related through the ancestors of Paternal Grandmother
  • Group 3: Matches related through Grandma Jane, wife of Grandpa James
  • Group 4: Matches related through the ancestors of Grandpa James

Since I work on many different projects at once, I use a grouping system that is easily recognizable and reusable. For example:

  • Maternal is pink (using the pink on the second row of group colors)
  • Paternal is blue
  • Paternal Grandmother or Maternal Grandfather is yellow
  • Spouse of target great-grandparent is orange

When sorting and grouping your DNA matches, it’s important to remember to sort by the shared matches of individuals who descend ONLY from the couple or individual you’re focusing on. This means:

  • All matches through the parent who is not the line of interest should be sorted by adding matches shared with your parent, half-sibling through that parent, aunt/uncle, grandparent(s), first cousin(s), second cousin(s), etc.
  • Matches on the parent line of interest, but related through the other grandparent should be sorted by adding matches shared with your grandparent, half-aunt/uncle through that grandparent, grandaunt/uncle, first cousin once removed, second cousin, etc.

Therefore, using this system, sorting DNA matches to target the group(s) related through the parents/ancestors of Grandpa James should be attributable as portrayed in the following image:

When using this system, if you identify two groups of matches that can be attributed to Grandpa James, it could be helpful to use the lighter and darker shades of blue to stay consistent with the color scheme. However, use whichever color code that makes most sense for you.

Let’s say that the research goal is to identify the parents of your maternal grandfather’s father. The groups could look like the example below:

Pedigree Collapse and Endogamy

Some may think that this sorting method may not work for them if they have instances of pedigree collapse in their trees or come from an endogamous community.

Pedigree collapse occurs when an individual has the same ancestor(s) more than once in their family tree. This could include where any level of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc were first cousins to another parent, grandparent, etc. If your parents were cousins to each other (close or distant) then you may have many matches labeled as Both Sides, and you will likley share more amounts of DNA than expected with each match due to multiple relationships.

Endogamy occurs when a group of people within a geographically small area (especially an island and or landlocked stretch of land) intermarry for many generations (commonly found within communities like Ashkenazi Jewish, Polynesian, Puerto Rican, Mennonite, etc). Because of this, the matches may all be shared with each other due to multiple distant relationships, and some matches may share more DNA than expected without ever being able to identify shared ancestors who likely lived hundreds of years ago.

While sorting and grouping can be more challenging when affected by pedigree collapse and endogamy, there should still be a focus on matches with known relationships through each family line. Here are some tips in sorting your pedigree collapse/endogamy matches:

  • Focus on matches with a single known relationship. It’s common in communities where pedigree collapse is common that members of the same families intermarry. This means that you may have multiple relationships through multiple ancestors when both of your parents were from the same communities. However, if a match only has one known relationship to you then you can focus on that match to sift out the matches through a particular line. Note that this match may have other connections through other matches so it may take more in-depth tree analysis to determine the match of interest.
  • Identify matches that only have a single parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who belongs to an endogamous community. For example, if both of your parents were Ashkenazi Jewish, even if they did not have any known shared ancestors and had origins in different Eastern European countries, it’s possible that you will have matches related through both lines, just very distantly. However, if you have a match who only has one parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who was Jewish then you know the match will only be related to you through their Jewish line. So if you have a known second cousin who only had one Jewish grandparent you can feel more confident that the matches shared with the second cousin are likely only related through your grandparent related through that matches. Note that one of the new ProTools features allows you to see how much DNA your Shared Matches share with each other. Utilize this feature to identify matches that are more likely to be related through a particular ancestor(s) and those likely related through more distant unrelated ancestors.

Conclusion

To recap, sorting for success begins with focusing on a goal and sorting and grouping your matches based around that goal. Of course, you may have multiple lines of research interest and may be dependent on an unwieldy number of groups. In these situations, it may be more helpful to focus on one research question only and then start over and re-sort and group after solving that goal, or if you’re ready to move on to a new one.

Success in solving a research question will always be dependent on DNA matches, their family trees, and bringing these matches together; however, by sorting and grouping for success you will have a better chance of solving your research goal.

If you’d like professional help from AncestryProGenealogists® to help you navigate through historical records and support you creating a designed family history narrative, visit us at www.progenealogists.com.

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