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Genealogy Assistant features

Highlight Shared Matches by cM

Shared matches on an AncestryDNA match page, with the 34 cM shared with you shown in bold red and outlined, between rows whose 11 and 16 cM stay black.

What problem does Highlight Shared Matches by cM solve?

Highlight Shared Matches by cM shows the larger cM values on an AncestryDNA match’s Shared Matches tab in bold red, so the strongest shared matches stand out as you scroll. Without it, you have to read two numbers on every row to find them.

How does Highlight Shared Matches by cM work?

Each shared match has two cM values: the DNA they share with you and the DNA they share with the match you are viewing. Each value is shown in bold red, a little larger, when it reaches its own threshold. The thresholds are 25 cM with you and 50 cM with the match unless you change them.

Values below a threshold keep Ancestry’s usual style, so the red ones are easy to pick out. The two thresholds are set separately. You can raise the one for DNA shared with the match, for example, without changing the one for DNA shared with you.

Each cM value also gets a small open-in-new-tab icon. Click either value to open DNA Painter’s Shared cM Tool in a new tab with that amount already filled in. The tool shows which relationships fit that amount and how likely each one is.

How do I use Highlight Shared Matches by cM?

  1. In the Genealogy Assistant pop-up panel, make sure Highlight Shared Matches by cM is turned on.
  2. Open a match from your AncestryDNA match list and click the Shared Matches tab. Values at or above your thresholds are shown in bold red.
  3. To change the thresholds, click the settings icon next to Highlight Shared Matches by cM in the pop-up panel. Advanced Settings opens at DNA Match Highlighting.
  4. Type the threshold for DNA shared with you in Ancestry Shared Matches. It saves as soon as you click away from the box.
  5. Type the threshold for DNA shared with the match in Ancestry Matches of Matches.
  6. Reload the Shared Matches tab to see the new thresholds.
Advanced Settings over an Ancestry shared matches list, with Ancestry Shared Matches and Ancestry Matches of Matches outlined in red.

Related features

  • Highlight DNA Matches by cM: Shows matches above 25 cM, or a threshold you choose, in bold red, with maternal matches in pink, paternal matches in blue and public linked trees in green.
  • Download Shared Matches as CSV: Download the shared matches of any DNA match to a CSV file, every page or as many as you choose, with the extra triangulation columns on a ProTools account.
  • Ancestry Shared Matches Sorting: Pick how shared matches are sorted every time you open them, by date, by cM shared with you or by cM shared with the match you are viewing.

Highlight Shared Matches by cM is a feature of the software Genealogy Assistant.

Genealogy Assistant is an extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari which supercharges your family history research by adding over 100 custom features to popular genealogy websites like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA and more. You can watch a full video walkthrough on YouTube.

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