Colour clustering

Last week, one of the genealogy bloggers I follow wrote about a new way of sorting her Ancestry DNA matches. She calls it the 'Color Cluster Method'. It certainly produces colourful results and it's quick and easy to follow, so I thought I'd try it. All going well, it should divide our matches into four clusters, with one to represent each set of great-grandparents.

The first step is to list the second and third cousin DNA matches at Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, however, I only have four such matches in total at this level, barely enough to create a single good cluster, never mind four, so I had to move the goalposts. Though not recommended, I added the fourth cousins Ancestry.com deems high confidence matches to the mix. Some of them are known third cousins anyway and it gave me twenty-six matches to play with.

It sort of worked. I got nine groupings, but among them, four distinct clusters are obvious. And, while not specific to any particular set of great-grandparents, three of my grandparents are definitely separately represented by the first three clusters, as depicted below. 



On my mother's side, the yellow cluster, in column 1, contains known cousins on her paternal Wynne line, all being descendants of my great-great-grandparents John Wynne and Bridget Hynes.  The orange cluster, in column 3, includes two cousins on her maternal Byrne line. They are descendants of my third-great-grandparents, Myles McGrane and Margaret Doyle, but the other matches in this group have not yet been proven. And, on Dad's side, the blue cluster, in column 2, includes five identified cousins on his paternal Byrne line, all descendants of my third-great-grandparents, Andrew Byrne and Anne Clynch.  

So, does the green cluster, in column 4, represent my other grandmother, Dad's maternal O'Neill line?  That's the big question. It would make for an interesting conclusion, as currently we have no known DNA matches on the O'Neill side. 

None of the matches in the green cluster have been identified yet, but as there is no overlap between any of these four clusters, i.e. no match has been allocated more than one colour, the chances are the green group represents a different lineage - maybe the O'Neills. 

The next step is to ascertain surnames common to different members of each group, so as to gather clues to the identity of our as yet undiscovered ancestors. Luckily, four matches in the green cluster have an online family tree, though only two include the surnames of their great-great-grandparents. (Note: if you are following the method as it was intended, and originally included only second and third cousin matches, you need only list the surnames of great-grandparents here). 

Regrettably, there are no surnames in common among any of the matches in the green cluster, bar one. Two matches, including the one with no online tree, share the surname Donvan, an unusual distortion of the Irish name, Donovan. And, Donovan is a known surname in my O'Neill lineage. But, I've already investigated this match, without success; their Donovans seemingly go back to Co. Cork, whereas ours were well established in Dublin city, by the early nineteenth century. 

The remaining five clusters presumably represent earlier generations still. Their lineage may even be indicated by the second colour some matches share with members of a main cluster. 

So, food for thought... 

Perhaps my cousins might like to try out this method? Aileen, Phyllis, Holly - you all have lots of cousins at second and third cousin level. Give it a go! & let me know how you get on. 

See Dana Leeds' easy to follow instructions on The Enthusiastic Genealogist blog at NEW METHOD: DNA Quick Sort and Color Clustering: Identifying Common Surnames and Color Clustering: Working with "4th Cousins" and Color Clustering: Top 25 Fourth Cousins.