Do you get tired of clicking on an AncestryDNA match to remind you how they are related to you? Do you sometimes confuse your Jones branch with the Smiths? If you’re an AncestryDNA user on Chrome, there’s a super solution.
American genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger has created a fabulous organizing tool that allows AncestryDNA users to identify their matches by family branch — and it’s free.
Called the DNA Match Labeling, the tool is a Chrome extension, available through the Chrome Web Store, that adds a coloured circle tagging feature to my AncestryDNA matches.
It’s easy to add the extension. Go to the Chrome Web Store and click on the button, Add to Chrome. Almost immediately, the extension will appear in your tool bar on the top. You don’t need to do anything else to make the extension work.
Then, open AncestryDNA in Chrome, and you will see a table of eight colours at the top of each page where you can enter text to label each colour.
The results of each person you manage or view will have a separate table.
The extension allows you to add a colour next to a match. (See illustration on left.) This allows you to quickly see who is from the Smith, Jones, Tremblay, or Leblanc sides of the family.
To label a match with a colour, click on the empty white dot next to a match’s picture or male/female icon, and select a colour from the pop-up colour selection tray.
To change an existing colour, click on the coloured dot next to the match’s picture, and select a new colour.
If the match has not yet been viewed, you will see the AncestryDNA blue dot, indicating an unviewed match, with the DNA Match Labeling dot underneath.
An extension is a small software program that customizes the browsing experience on the Google Chrome web browser. The DNA Match Labeling does not work on other browsers, such as Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.
If you are comfortable with your browser and reluctant to change to Chrome, consider adding Chrome just to access AncestryDNA.
Web browsers are free to download.
For help, join the Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques Facebook group.
Thank you so very much for this extension. I just uploaded it and it works great.
Glad to learn you like it. I was surprised at how effortless it was to add to my browser and how easy it is to easy. I kept looking for the catch, but there appears to be none.
Can only one color be pick per person? I have some that tie in to at least 2 families
Only one colour per person. I find it works best when labelling the lesser-known third and fourth cousins.
My wife reads your column and told me about this. Once I got the link, I installed it immediately and color coded four families in less than four minutes.
Very user friendly. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but now I see how this can be a very useful tool