On January 15, 2025, the Genetic Genealogy Special Interest Group (GG SIG) of the OGS presented an on-line seminar entitled:
DNA Clustering: Using the Leeds Method to Sort Your Matches
The presenter was Ben Dawson of the London Branch, co-chair of the GG SIG. More than 130 participants checked in to the Zoom call.
For people who are still trying to figure out how they might extract useful information from their DNA results (as I am), this was a great introduction to a very straightforward and accessible method of analysis.
Ben showed how this method, developed by Dana Leeds, can help you figure out how you might be related to your matches, grouped by most likely Grandparents. It is simply a matter of copying into Excel your lists of matches (from Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, etc.) along with the number of Centimorgans of DNA each shares with you. Each match is then examined to see how much DNA they share with your known cousins and second cousins. Based on what you observe, the matches can then be sorted by most likely common grandparent.
This was an excellent presentation, that clearly and efficiently covered all the material. Ben gave us lots of illustrations and demonstrations from his own family tree.
Handouts and recording will be available on the OGS website in about a week. They will be accessible by the public for a week and to IPSIG members for the foreseeable future. Links are posted below.
I’m looking forward to the next one.
Links:
OGS Genetic Genealogy Special Interest Group
