Bubble Groups

Do you have to practice a procedure several times before the process sinks in? That’s my situatioin with my Shared Matches of Matches class thru Your DNA Guide.

In this class, the concept of ‘Bubble Groups’ is introduced. I watched the videos for the case study and then re-watched the videos trying to do the steps with some of my own data. While my primary goal was to learn the process, I was also hoping to identify a ‘mystery match’. Instead of a pile of paper, I worked with a Google Sheet.

• Downloaded my Crawford-Smith group of matches
• Sorted those matches by cM shared which helped identify groups A-D and labeled their group
• Created a column for ‘tree notes’
• Added a column to note the bubble group the match is in
• Added sheets to track each group and to create a ‘relatinship tracker’ page

Because I had one of the DNA matches in my RootsMagic file along with several members of the group, I elected to work with that group to try and identify the rest of the group.

Working with the information I already had about the family and the number of cM shared, I attempted to create a genetic tree.

• My Bubble Group match (TS) is shown in yellow
• Female matches already in my tree are shaded with bright pink
• Male matches already in my tree are shaded with deep blue
• Matches not currently in my tree are shaded with tan

Match SH is shaded with light green. I have him in my tree as a full sibling to TS. Ancestry says he is a half brother or nephew to TS even though he shares 2020 cM with TS. When I checked the shared cM project, it indicates that a sibling can share 1613-3488 cM.

Until I have additional information, I’m going to leave SH as a full sibling to TS.

Now that I’ve ‘repeated’ the case study, I need to do the homework!