Antley Method

Do you have autosomal DNA on Ancestry? If so, have you used the colored dots to ‘group’ your matches? I had used some of the dots to ‘group’ some of my matches.

During RootsTech 2023, I watched one of Diahan Southard’s presentations where she talked about ‘mystery matches’ and dots. Intrigued, I participated in one of her webinars where I learned more about her AncestryDNA Dot System.

While I don’t spend a lot of time figuring out my DNA matches, I could see how her method of applying dots based on ancestral couples could help organize matches and ultimately help figure out ‘mystery’ matches. Thus, I redid my dots based on my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents.

Recently I heard about the Antley Method. At the time, I simply joined The Antley Method Facebook group knowing that I wanted to revisit the topic and learn more. And am I ever glad I did.

Jim Antley created an app that takes a group of DNA matches from the Ancestry website and creates a spreadsheet of those matches showing what color dots have been applied. He has a webpage where one can access his DNA Matches Dot Sytem Display Tool. At the top of the page is a link to the USER MANUAL, Tutorials and Videos. I found the user manuel to be easy to follow.

Basically, there are several steps to the process.

• Filter AncestryDNA matches by selecting a colored dot (NOTE: Since large groups of matches don’t work with the tool I was careful to not make too many selections in the filtering process.)

• Once the filter is applied, scroll down until you hit the bottom of the selected DNA matches
• On the side of the screen, right click to open the menu and select SAVE AS

• Accept the default name for the file and make a note of where you are saving it. (I created a separate folder for each group of dots and saved the file in that folder.)

• Go to the DNA Matches Dot Sytem Display Tool, click onthe Choose File Button, locate your file and click UPLOAD FILE
• A window opens showing the options available in handling your file. I left most of the choices at the default setting. However, I changed the ‘Show Dot Colors on Groups’ to YES.

• Click on Crate DNA Matches Dod System Chart and a table of your matches opens showing the groups each match is in.

The data can be copied/pasted into an Excel spreadsheet for saving.

While these dot colors are easily visible on Ancestry’s page, it isn’t easy to look at a page of matches and realize that a person matches on both the maternal side and paternal side of the tree. When I use this tool, I can easily spot the instances of paternal side dots on matches selected for a maternal branch of my tree. (Hutchinson/Harding and Currey/Burke are paternal branches on my tree while Wells/Crandall/Nafus is my mom’s side of the tree.)

Thank you Jim Antley for creating this tool and freely sharing it with the genealogy community.