Branch Trees

The final step shows a list of ancestors found in trees of shared matches found on your main DNA branch. This step is where the real work begins in tracking down your missing ancestors.

The ancestor list is sorted first by the number of times the ancestor was found in match trees. Ancestors that appear multiple times are more likely to be the ancestors that created this main branch. Next the list is sorted by date of birth to help find the ancestors who lived in the correct time period.

The circled number beneath the name is the number of matches with a tree containing that person.

Clicking on a shared match in the right column will take you to the tree on Ancestry of that match.

The search box allows you to find ancestors by birth or death year, name, or birth or death place. If you are entering a year, it must come before any name or place. Any ancestors who lived within the time period of the specified date will be displayed. If a birth or death date is missing, it will be esimated from the other date. When both dates are missing, the ancestor will be displayed.

If your screen is not very wide, you can turn off Show Places to hide the birth and death places and/or Show Matches to hide the list of matches.