Last week I wrote about the six things I include in the notes on AncestryDNA for each of my brother’s DNA matches. With matches for hundreds of 4th cousins or closer and thousands of distant cousins on AncestryDNA, I needed a simple but efficient method of working through and sorting his matches.
As you can imagine I don’t have notes for every match. There are so many matches with no trees attached and I have become choosy about which ones I add notes to. Close matches and shared matches have priority.
When I’m on the results page or viewing shared matches I click on the notes icon to open up the information I have on the match. There is no need to go through several clicks to get to the information as described in my post last week.
When I’m viewing Shared Matches and they don’t have notes, I take a moment to add the cMs/segs and the other 5 things I add to notes when accessible.
Chrome and atDNA Helper
Although Google Chrome isn’t my default browser I’ve added it to my list of tools along with the web browser extension atDNA Helper. It adds extra functionality to the AncestryDNA site. A warning if you are not familiar with this extension. There are known issues of the extension not always working. Very often I have to close the browser and open it again to get the extension to work. This workaround, as well as several others, are mentioned here: Welcome To atDNA Helper Extension Website
atDNA Helper Extension Update (25 April 2019): The name of the Chrome extension AncestryDNA Helper was changed in March 2019 to atDNAHelper after they were notified the name was a violation of Ancestry’s trademark name. The support team for the extension has set up a new website at www.atdnahelper.com (the old URL was ancestrydnahelper.com). Bob Pittman has updated the user guide as of 25 March 2019 to reflect the change and simplify the instructions: atDNA Helper Extension for the Chrome Browser, Vol. 1 Installation and Scanning.
The extension has a feature which allows you to search for users, surnames, and notes. I use it to manage my notes. For sorting through my DNA matches, in Chrome, I click on View all Matches. The search box feature (circled in yellow above), found above Ancestry’s filters for Hints, New, and Starred, is what I use to search the text in all notes.
I can search for surnames in the notes, messages sent, or kit numbers. When I search for the term cMs a complete list of all matches with notes is generated. This is the consistency I mentioned in my post last week. Each match has different notes but cMs is the one word which is used in all notes.
The success rate of contacting matches through Ancestry’s message service has been low for me! I would like for people who share DNA with my brother to upload their raw DNA to GEDmatch so that I can use the tools on the site to compare the results. While I wait, this is the method I use for working through and sorting my brother’s DNA matches.
How are you sorting through your DNA matches? Have you been more successful getting replies to messages? Please leave a comment below. I would appreciate your feedback. Thanks!
© 2016, copyright Cathy Meder-Dempsey. All rights reserved.
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Thanks for this post and the previous one. I find your approach very helpful and I plan to start using it. It’s always good to save clicks and keystrokes.
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You’re welcome Eileen. I hope it helps. If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them. Thank you for reading both of the posts.
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Thanks for your encouragement. I have been consistent in using the notes. So helpful to search them. When I open the notes field I have a phrase saved on the clipboard: “VIEWED (DATE) no tree private tree no match.” By pasting those few things, I save in typing them over and over. I just erase the phrase I don’t need. Then when searching for the ones I had labeled “no tree” I can see the date I viewed the file. I then open them again to see if a tree has been attached since I viewed the file last. If I use ‘no match” I type in the shared surnames. Then if I want to search for Morgan in the notes, they will be easy to find.
Another feature I use from this extension is clicking on the green ancestors box for that person. I save them individually instead of trying to use the hit-or-miss search for all ancestors. It doesn’t work for me very often, so I abandoned that feature.
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Thanks so much for sharing and stopping by. Very time efficient!
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Would you mind telling me what you mean by the “green ancestors box” for a person when you’re using the Ancestry dna extension? Thanks!
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Mary, I’m assuming this is a question for Es who mentioned a feature of the AncestryDNA Helper extension on Chrome. If you have the extension, on the Pedigree and Surnames view scroll to the bottom below the lists of surnames. This is where the green box is: Download Ancestors. Good luck and thank you for stopping by.
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Thanks so much, Cathy. I’d never have figured that out, though I use it all the time.
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You’re welcome. It would be nice if Ancestry would give us more tools to work with so we wouldn’t have to rely on programmers and extensions.
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Well, well, who knew there was that little icon to hover over and view notes. Thanks Cathy!
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Diane, since your note in your current blog post was so similar I thought you already knew you could open them up without going to each profile! I hope this helps you be more efficient. DNA can be so time consuming. 😉
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Cathy, thanks for writing this. I’m trying to learn how to use this extension and your post has been very helpful. Still learning my way around the various extensions. So many matches so little time.
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I hope it’ll help you to manage your matches a bit more easily. Presently, I use the Snavely tool, AncestryDNA Helper, only to search notes. In
Rocking the Shared Matches on AncestryDNA I mention the Chrome extension MedBetterDNA which keeps the notes open on your match lists. I find this really helpful when viewing Shared Matches. Thanks for stopping by, Diane.
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