So many AncestryDNA matches.

I had my DNA test done through Ancestry and managed to get my half-sister to also get her DNA test done. So now I have 277 pages of matches and she has 168 pages of matches. With 50 hits per page, that is a lot of matches.

So how do I go about comparing my matches with my sister’s matches? Reason I want to compare is the fact that we only share one parent, our Mother, this means these are her ancestors. Plus my mother was adopted by her step-father and we have no idea of who her biological father is and I was hoping to see some sort of common denominator.  

Anyway, the problem to compare our matches, since Ancestry doesn’t have a way to “Export” the list of matches; I had to manually key in the names of the matches into an Excel Spreadsheet. Next problem, how many names will I really going to compare? 168 pages is a lot of names. So I decided I would go until my matches switched to a confidence level of low. This meant 13 pages of names.  Therefore, I did the first 13 pages of matches for my sister too, even though her confidence level of low started around page 10. I wanted our list to be the same length.

Next, I did a search on the web to find a formula that would compare the list of matches and I was lucky to find the formula. So my sister’s matches were in column A and my matches were in column C. I keyed the formula of =IF(ISERROR(MATCH(A3,$C$3:$C$651,0)),"",A3) in Column B3. I copied the formula down until line 651.  

As you can see it worked great to identify the matches and I can see exactly which page the match was from too. Since I keyed in the matches, starting with page 1 and working to page 13; I went into each of her matches, and Starred the match and recorded a note.

However, I wanted to record the matches for me too. So I had to modify the formula for Column D and thus used =IF(ISERROR(MATCH(C3,$A$3:$A$651,0)),"",C3). I placed that formula in D3 and copied it down to line 651. This allowed me to identify the same matches, but now I know what page the results could be found for my results. I Starred my matches and recorded a similar note.

I am not sure if all this work is going to help me much, but it makes me feel as if I am trying to discover our common matches.

On my wish list from AncestryDNA is as follows: The minimum is to be able to export a list of our DNA matches such as all our matches, or only those we have starred, or just the new matches. My big dream wish is that there would be a way to compare my matches with any other match from my list. For example, I would like to know if I have any common matches with kathyval.  By comparing our common matches, I might be able to figure out what branch we have in common by checking out all our common matches.

My Workspace

After reading the latest Family Tree Magazine and seeing all the "professionals" work spaces, made me rethink my work space.

Actually, I have a wonderful work space, my husband built me a dedicated building/room. It is a 12 foot by 12 foot room that is about 10 feet off the back of the house, behind my master bedroom. Between my master bedroom and my "Computer" room is what I call the Kitty Garden. This is an enclosed area that we let the cats out and they are safe and can't wander off. This is unless your name is Phantom, because he is my jumper and he jumps over the 8 foot fence. Actually he jumps up to the top part which is lattice and then climbs over and jumps down. However, I digressed.

Back to my work space, I set this space up back in 2003 when my husband built me this wonderful building. I have two doors, one facing the back of my home and the other perpendicular to that door facing my side yard. That door shares a wall with the window, which I can see the pool.

I decided to put a U shaped desk into this space as you can see. I have a lower lateral file for my records and the hutch expands over the open desk top and the lateral file against the wall. I love the cubbies for papers, books, folders, sheet protectors and other things. I also like that I have to closed door storage. The one in the corner has all my computer manuals, disks and such that come when you purchase hardware. I have my printer manuals, my computer manuals (all computers, laptops and tablets). This why if I need to re-install anything, I know exactly where to find it. The other closed door storage has all my labels and such. I have many different kinds and sizes of labels for all my projects, even those for non-genealogy related items. To the right of the hutch you can see part of my book shelf. I found out quickly that I needed more bookshelf space and this is a small one about 19" wide, just big enough so that I can still open my door that is facing the back of my home.

As you can see, I have way too much stuff. However, I have learned that it takes baby steps to de-clutter. Actually, I managed to take out a huge garbage bag of stuff. I finally trashed some old hardware that either doesn't work or I don't use anymore.

I use two monitors, because I like having my genealogy program open on one screen and the internet open on another. I have my printer on the left (in the picture) on a stand that stores the rest of the ream of paper that doesn't fit in the printer. The other side has some fun color paper that I might use. I love the two drawers on the bottom of this stand, for post-it-notes and other little handy objects. I like the fact that I have two work areas, one on the right and one on the left of me. I can work on two projects if need be. I try not to do that but, sometimes in the middle of my genealogy project I might need to do something for my society and thus I can keep the papers separate from each other.

I know I have lots of room for improvement. First of all, I have stop shopping for small office supplies because I was becoming a hoarder of office supplies. I have post-it-notes coming out of my ears, I have tons of scrap paper too and thus I don't need anymore. Plus I manage to pick free supplies from various trade shows, so I have learned that I need to say no.

I also need to be better at not hiding stuff in my computer room, because I don't know where to put it in my home. I need to make room for everything and not ignore the problem and put the items in my computer room. I need to keep my desk as clean as if I was working outside the home. My husband would get a kick out of visiting me at work because my office and desk and work were immaculate while my home office was not so much. I also still have areas of my computer room to clean up, but since I am leaving for the summer, it will have to wait until I get back. At least I will be coming back to a mostly organized room.

So how would you grade your space? I would give my space a grade of a B-. It is a little above average but there is still more that needs to be done.