We’re excited to share this guest blog post by Jon Smith – a member of our Research Like a Pro Study Group.
Overview
A genealogist who applies a visual and numbering tagging system to DNA matches gains a powerful tool for organizing and interpreting genetic data across multiple testing platforms. This system uses color coding and numerical labels to map each DNA match to a specific ancestral line, enabling faster analysis and more reliable conclusions.
Ancestry assigns default colors to represent four grandparent lines in their family tree fan chart: green for paternal-paternal, blue for paternal-maternal, yellow for maternal-paternal, and red for maternal-maternal. A researcher who adopts these colors and assigns numbers within them can easily identify shared matches across all five major testing companies, though some platforms impose restrictions on group counts or color availability.
Color and Generation Structure
Because Ancestry supports up to 64 groups (with only 32 available colors) plus a 65th group using a star icon, a researcher who starts with the lightest shade of green for the lowest generation of a most recent common ancestor (MRCA) pair can then progress to medium green for the next generation of the same line, and dark green for the third and fourth generations, with dark green serving both depth levels since only three shades exist within the color family. This graduated approach within each color family allows a researcher to distinguish ancestral depth immediately, while addressing the lack of 64 colors. Using the generation number as the label character displayed inside the colored tag gives the researcher an at-a-glance depth indicator without opening any additional records.
The following table illustrates how generation depth maps to color shade, using the paternal-paternal line as an example:
Labeling System
Each tag label a researcher creates follows a three-part structure:
- A single number indicating the number of generations back to the MRCA pair
- The Ahnentafel number of the first relevant person in the genetic match — typically an even number for male ancestors in full grandparent sets, or an odd number for female ancestors when half-grandparent relationships occur
- The abbreviated names of the MRCA couple or single person, adjusted to fit Ancestry’s limited number of characters in the label
Example – Fan Chart
Figure 1 – Example Fan Chart[1]
Use dashes to separate each part of the label to facilitate extraction in external spreadsheets for shared matches analysis.
The next section shows how to map each ancestral line to a specific color within the Ancestry group editor, which is the practical step that produces the color-coded tags visible in the fan chart above.
Example – Edit your Group
Figure 2 – AncestryDNA mappings of lines to colors[2]
The following example illustrates the Pat-Pat-Mat line displayed in an aqua color, which signifies that a Smith male married a Raby female. The Raby couple carries the Ahnentafel number of 18, allowing any researcher who views the tag to immediately place the match within the correct ancestral branch.
Figure 3 – AncestryDNA Color options[3]
The next example displays the various tag groups, using the four primary colors from the Ancestry Fan Chart, with the next color in the Ancestry color schema used for the maternal line surname.
Figure 4 – AncestryDNA Match Groups[4]
If the reseracher plots all of the colors out on a DNA Fan Chart, the resulting diagram will resemble figure 5. The chart includes the first Ahnentafel number of each MRCA pair for each cell value in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th GreatGrandparent rows.
Figure 5 – DNA Fan Chart with Ahnentafel Numbers of MRCA Couples[5]
When a researcher sees a person carrying the following tag:
they can use figure 5 to immediately determine the Ahnentafel MRCA pairs of 16, 18, 32, 34, 36, 38, 64, and 66 without consulting any additional notes. Please note that Ancestry.com only displays the first 8 tag colors with a +# for the additional number of matches.
If the researcher scrolls through their Shared Matches in descending centimorgan (cM) order, they can easily see the location of each match within their Fan Chart without consulting other notes.
Figure 6 shows a live shared matches list. Each match displays the colored generation tags the author applied, allowing immediate placement of every match within the Fan Chart without consulting any separate notes.
Figure 6 – Example Shared Matches with colored tags[6]
Platform Variations
Different DNA testing platforms impose their own constraints, but a researcher who understands these limits can adapt the same core schema across all of them:
- MyHeritage: Supports only 30 groups, so a researcher uses a smaller subset of colors and numbers while maintaining the same labeling schema. While MyHeritage supports a longer number of characters in the label, the researcher should use the exact label format from Ancestry to ensure consistent filtering across all platforms (see Cross-platform consistency in Benefits).
Figure 7 – MyHeritage DNA Groups[7]
- Living DNA: Supports only 16 colors but allows unlimited groups, however, the researcher should use the exact quantity and labeling utilized with Ancestry’s matches to ensure consistent filtering across all platforms (see Cross-platform consistency in Benefits).
- FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe: Both platforms do not provide a color tagging system; however, Genea’s Genealogy Assistant provides a solution.
Genealogy Assistant
Genea.ca provides an extension for Chrome, Edge, and FireFox called Genealogy Assistant that provides unlimited tag groups and colors for Shared Matches at both 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. In both products, the researcher will view an extension over their matches labeled Add/Manage Groups. (For more information on how those particular features work, view these articles at Genea: 23andMe and FTDNA.) While Genealogy Assistant provides additional matches and colors, the author strongly recommends using the exact quantity and labeling utilized with Ancestry’s matches to ensure consistent filtering across all platforms (see Cross-platform consistency in Benefits). Since the window in Genealogy Assistant for FTDNA and 23andMe Add/Manage Groups significantly resemble each other, figure 8 only shows the groups from FTDNA.
Figure 8 – FamilyTreeDNA Add/Manage Groups[8]
Spreadsheet Integration
In addition to the sorting tools that each platform provides, a researcher who downloads match data into spreadsheets gains a flexible way to group and filter matches into custom clusters. Because the researcher uses dashes to separate each part of the tag label, a spreadsheet application or AI tool can split the label string into three discrete columns — generation number, Ahnentafel number, and ancestor name — using a simple delimiter-based parse. The researcher can then sort by generation to isolate all matches at a given depth, filter by Ahnentafel number to focus on a single MRCA pair, or pivot across multiple downloaded kits to identify shared matches that appear in more than one tester’s results. Third-party tools or AI tools can ingest these labeled exports and use the embedded tag data as pre-built cluster keys, accelerating analysis that would otherwise require manual cross-referencing across platforms.
Benefits of This System
A genealogist who applies this visual tagging system consistently gains several significant advantages:
- Immediate visual identification: A researcher who glances at a match’s color and label can instantly place that match on the correct ancestral line without opening the match’s profile or reviewing notes.
- Scalability across generations: Because the system assigns a distinct generation number and Ahnentafel reference to each tag, a researcher can expand the system as far back as the platform’s group limits allow, accommodating many ancestral generations within a single consistent framework.
- Cross-platform consistency: A researcher who works across all five major testing platforms can apply the same schema everywhere, reducing cognitive load and ensuring that tags carry the same meaning regardless of where the analyst reviews them.
- Reduced reliance on written notes: Because the tag itself encodes the generation, the Ahnentafel number, and the ancestor names, a researcher does not need to rely on a separate set of notes to interpret a match.
- Faster clustering: A researcher who has tagged matches consistently can group and filter them in spreadsheets with minimal effort, because the tags already encode the sorting criteria. This accelerates the identification of shared ancestral clusters.
- Adaptability to platform constraints: The system accommodates the group and color limits of each platform, so a researcher who encounters a platform with fewer options does not need to abandon the schema — only reduce the subset of colors and groups in use.
- Improved collaboration: A researcher who shares tagged match lists with a collaborator equips that person to interpret the matches immediately, because the labeling system communicates ancestral placement without requiring additional explanation.
- Support for half-relationship identification: The use of odd Ahnentafel numbers for female ancestors in half-grandparent situations allows a researcher to flag and track half-relationships within the same tagging structure, avoiding the need for a separate system.
- Cross-Tool analysis of shared matches: A researcher who downloads tagged match data into spreadsheets or third-party analysis tools can leverage the embedded tag labels as pre-built sort and filter keys. Because each tag already encodes the ancestral line, generation depth, and Ahnentafel reference, the researcher can instantly group shared matches by common ancestor, identify overlapping clusters across multiple kit holders, and spot unexpected cross-line connections (matches who appear on more than one ancestral branch) that platform interfaces alone would obscure. This transforms a large, unwieldy match list into a structured dataset that supports both broad pattern recognition and granular lineage verification.
Ancestry DNA Colors
Figure 9 provides a list of the 32 colors used by Ancestry along with their hex code and R,G,B code to allow a user to use the same exact colors regardless of DNA Testing Platform.
Figure 9 – Ancestry DNA Colors[9]
References
[1] “Tree Layouts: Horizontal, Vertical, Fan, and Map Views,” Ancestry Support, accessed March 22, 2026, https://support.ancestry.com/articles/en_US/Support_Site/Vertical-and-Horizontal-Tree-Displays, Jon Smith’s personal tree surnames.
[2] Ancestry.com, “Edit your group” (sidebar), in AncestryDNA Matches, Jon Smith’s personal tree, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-matches/compare/.
[3] Ancestry.com, “Edit your group” (sidebar), in AncestryDNA Matches, Jon Smith’s personal tree, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-matches/compare/.
[4] Ancestry.com, “Add/remove DNA matches” (sidebar), in AncestryDNA Matches, Jon Smith’s personal tree, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-matches/compare/.
[5] Smith, Jon. 7-Generation Fan Chart with Ancestry.com DNA Match Group Colors. Generated using Claude (Anthropic), March 27, 2026.
[6] AncestryDNA, “DNA Matches for Jon Smith,” accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-matches/list/.
[7] MyHeritage.com, “Manage Labels” (sidebar) in MyHeritage DNA Matches, Jon Smith’s personal tree, Accessed March 22, 2026.
[8] FamilyTreeDNA, “Add/Manage Groups” popup in Family Finder Matches, Jon Smith’s personal tree, Accessed March 22, 2026.
[9] Smith, Jon. Ancestry Colors. PNG image. Generated using Claude (Anthropic), March 27, 2026.
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