For a couple of days I have been experimenting with new DNA-analysis tools from GeneticAffairs.com developed by Evert-Jan Blom, a Dutch genetic genealogist.
The GeneticAffairs.com website automates the retrieval of new genetic matches from AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, and 23andme.
For each AncestryDNA profile I registered I was sent a spreadsheet with details of the match and notes I had taken. GeneticAffairs’s return email came promptly.
Privatised screenshot of part of a report received from GeneticAffairs showing summary information including notes I have made for genetic matches.
GeneticAffairs also offers a match-clustering report, clusters of shared
matches and group shared matches according to likely branches of the family.
My first report was for my husband’s Greg’s matches, using the default settings.
Auto cluster report with names of shared matches privatised
The centimorgan thresholds did not provide enough matches for a useful analysis. I could identify most of the surname groupings.
I then tried a report for my father’s matches, increasing the thresholds significantly.
This produced too many clusters, many of them quite small. For the three largest clusters they produced relatively small matches at the 4th cousin level. I do not know how we are related to any of the matches in these large clusters.
Changing the thresholds for the analysis of Greg’s matches produced more meaningful clusters.
2nd auto cluster report generated for Greg’s AncestryDNA genetic matches with revised centimorgan thresholds of 1200 cM and 30 cM
As well as the main clusters, additional genetic matches in the columns highlighted with the green and orange arrows give clues about other clusters. For example, those additional genetic matches indicated with the orange arrow give clues about the identity of the most common recent ancestors for the matches in cluster 11. In fact I have confirmed the three matches in cluster 11 descend from our Way forebears.
The second report for my father using revised centimorgan thresholds of 1200 cM and 30 cM produced more meaningful clusters also.
GeneticAffairs has very generous free credits. You can try their reports before paying for a subscription.
Anne's Family History 
Very nice blog post. Glad to see it also works for non-USA customers. We just released a new AutoCluster version which performs a clustering of clusters. In your example, cluster 11 would most probably be placed next to cluster 1.
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Thank you. I will give it another try
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How did you manage to write on the diagram? And what can I open the CSV files with on a Mac.
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Hi Louise, to write on the diagram, pixelate names and include arrows … I use Skitch. See https://download.cnet.com/Skitch/3000-13455_4-189876.html For a quick introductory tutorial see https://youtu.be/loWkiLzi9lE
I use a Mac and when I download the csv file in Safari, clicking on it opens it in Numbers, the Mac spreadsheet program.
Regards
Anne
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