A Segment-ology TIDBIT

I have been religiously typing information in the AncestryDNA Notes box – for all Hint Matches and as many 4C Matches as I can (because they show up as Shared Matches). I use the MEDbetter Chrome extension (google it) to display all of my Notes, all of the time. This is particularly useful in the list of Shared Matches – to get a sense of a cluster of Matches. I’ve blogged about using the Notes box: format and usefulness.

I now use MEDbetter hashtags as follows:
#T for a Triangulated Group (TG) identification code (ID) – e.g. #T[01S24] means the TG is on Chromosome 01; the letter indicating the start location: roughly 10Mb for each letter (A = 0-10Mbp; S = 180-190Mbp); the two numbers after the letter indicate the first two generations of the Common Ancestor (CA) – in this case, on my father’s father’s line (using ahnentafel numbers). A lot of info is in the TG ID.
#A for the Ahnentafel number of a CA – e.g. #A0018P for my ancestors: John NEWLON 1798-1872 [Ahnentafel 18] married Mariah ALLEN 1805-1882; the P reminds me it’s on the Paternal side. A lot of info in the #A code.
#G for a GEDmatch ID – e.g. #GmA123456
I don’t really use the MEDbetter hashtag filter feature because it doesn’t consolidate for me; but I love MEDbetter for displaying the Notes all the time.
HOWEVER – I just tried the AncestryDNA Search feature and was blown away! I typed in [01S24] in the search box, and selected: Notes (this test). In 1 second it displayed 31 hyperlinked Matches with [01S24] in the Notes box! WOW!! What a way to review all of my Matches with one TG tag; or to view a cluster of Matches that you attributed to a Common Ancestor; or to find the Match with a GEDmatch kit you typed into a Note box. A lot of different ways to sort, find and group your Matches.
BOTTOM LINE – You can search on whatever you put into the Notes box!

EDIT: The Ancestry Search Notes option is added by the AncestryDNA Helper Extension in Chrome – it is required to do these searches. MedBetterDNA is not required to use the Search Notes option.

EDIT 2: The Helper is no longer available. So there is no way to search our Notes. However, you can group by colored dots.

[22V] Segment-ology: AncestryDNA Search on Notes TIDBIT by Jim Bartlett 20180601 EDIT 2: 20200402