Categorizing Mother's AncestryDNA Matches

After the Indiana Genealogical Society's annual conference, where I heard some powerful lectures from Blaine Bettinger, I've been spending more time at AncestryDNA looking over my DNA matches.  In particular, I've been focusing on my maternal side matches, as that is where I hope the 120-year old mystery of June Gilliland's father might be solved.

Using some of the tools at AncestryDNA, I've been marking the matches that I can identify in a couple of ways. 

If I know the relationship, I am using the Note feature to add a note to the match that spells out the exact relationship.  This has come in handy when I've had to try to remember exactly how a match ties into a family.

These notes are edited when I click into the matches, but will also display the first couple of lines when I am at the main screen looking at all of mom's matches.

Another feature I've been using is the ability to color-code groups of matches.  Ancestry gives you a color palete and allows you to create groups of matches that you can use in any way you would like.  I've chosen to create groups based on ancestral couples, so I can tell in an instant what branches of ancestors the match shares with mom.

I use these groups to indicate the MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) of the match.  For example, if the match shares, Charles Lambertson and Pearl Beals, then I group them in the Lambertson-Beals group, even though they might also fall into the more recent Lambertson-Gilliland group.

Using these features, I've been able to identify and catergorize several matches without having to reach out to them and ask them how we might be related - I'm able to figure out our common connections and can decide who to reach out to for more information at a later date.