AncestryDNA Chromosome Painter Segments Tool Illustration

AncestryDNA Chromosome Painter Segments

This tool converts your AncestryDNA 'Chromosome Painter' segments into chromosome, start and stop points that you can use in your chromosome map. In order to use it you need to have taken an AncestryDNA test and received the results.
read blog post

This tool is now much more fiddly to use since Ancestry adjusted their code. Kevin Borland has made a much easier process:

  1. Install the bookmarklet by dragging it to your browser's bookmarks bar
  2. Then when you're on Ancestry's Chromosome Painter page, you can click on the bookmarklet to download a CSV
  3. You can import this into any DNA Painter chromosome map via Import segment data in the actions and settings area
Visit Borland Genetics Bookmarklet page

  • At AncestryDNA, visit your 'Origins' page.
    • At the top, click By parent
    • You'll then see a link, Chromosome painter
    • Click on this to view your AncestryDNA Chromosome Painter page.
  • New: as of August 2025, Ancestry have adjusted their site. If you want to use this tool, you will first need to do the following on the Ancestry Chromosome Painter page:
    • Open a console window within the browser tab or window that you have the Chromosome Painter open in (if you need info on how to do this, see this guide)
    • Paste the code below into the console and then *hit the enter or return key* 
      document.querySelectorAll('[inert]').forEach(e => e.removeAttribute('inert'));
      After you hit enter, you may see a message that says 'undefined'. This is not a problem, carry on!
    • Click here to watch a short video showing the exact steps
  • Then click on the main Ancestry Chromosome Painter page and Press CTRL-A (Command-A on a Mac) to select *all* the text on the page (not just the chromosomes themselves!), and then CTRL-C (Command-C on a Mac) to copy it to your computer's clipboard
  • Come back to this page, click into the 'Paste here' box above and press CTRL-V (Command-V on a Mac) to paste the contents of the clipboard
  • As soon as you paste, the tool will calculate the chromosome, start and stop positions. You can download them as a CSV and/or create a DNA Painter chromosome map with them.
  • You can also import the downloaded file into any existing DNA Painter chromosome map via the 'import segment data' tool.
  • More detailed instructions with screenshots in the blog post
  • (I realize this is a bit tedious. I hope to be able to retire this tool in future once segment coordinates are provided at AncestryDNA!)
  • At AncestryDNA you can specify which parent is maternal and which is paternal. If you don't do this, they will just come through as 'Parent 1' and 'Parent 2'
  • If you use data without maternal and paternal specified in this tool and you click 'Create new chromosome map', the site will treat Parent 1 as paternal and parent 2 as maternal.
  • Please remember that AncestryDNA's chromosome painter is a new beta feature and the separation between parents may not always be completely accurate.
  • Make sure you have opened and copied the AncestryDNA Chromosome Painter page in a browser that is not Firefox
  • Make sure you have followed the instructions in the second (bold dark blue text) bullet point above
  • After clicking CTRL/Command-A to select all, make sure you have clicked CTRL/Command-C to copy this data into your clipboard before pasting into the 'Paste here' field
  • Be sure to paste directly into the 'Paste here' field - don't paste into a text editor first since this will strip out the information needed to make the map!