Ancestry DNA Circles

[MickD67]

Hi all, be gentle I'm a newbie. 
Does anyone know why your linked tree on Ancestry has to be public in order to get the DNA circles?  Is it not possible just to have a linked private tree with an opt in?

TIA

[davidft]

From reading this

https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/ka215000000TzL6AAK/Exploring-Your-DNA-Circles-1460088593698

I would say the reason is that DNA circles are not just about DNA but the data entered in other peoples trees. It would be a tad unfair to expect Ancestry to tell you about the matches you may have in other peoples trees without them being able to be informed of the matches they have to your tree.

Others may have a better explanation ........

[rsel]

Just be aware making your tree public does not automatically put you into DNA circles, I don't have a single circle from any of my 3 DNA tests, despite my tree being quite detailed and public.

However, like davidft says, you can't expect the benefits of sharing other peoples research without sharing your own data. I know people have privacy concerns, but you can always create a second striped down tree that you link your results to, to gain the benefits of circles and the matches.

[diplodicus]

When I first obtained my DNA matches, I had no circles. After analysing a number of my close matches, I deduced that Evan Jones of Cellan, Carmarthenshire, was the connection, so I placed him in my tree as an "orphan".

The Evan Jones circle appeared and has 13 members.

It probably helped that he was an elder of the Mormon church and lived in Utah😀

Still can't find the connection. Cellan is Jones city🤔

[Towdlass]

I find it confusing that when I look at my results I find someone with whom I am supposed to have a close link but their family tree isn't public and so I can't have a loo to see where we might connect. So I send them a message asking them to have a look at my tree and would they be kind enough to allow me to see theirs. I wait and I wait and they don't even bother to reply.

I am not a part of any circles yet even though I would like to be. I'm just so amazed by the fact that so many of the people who have come up in my results seem to live in America. I was not even aware that anyone in my family had emigrated so this must be a whole new line for me to explore if I only knew where to start.

Towdlass

[familydar]

.

I wait and I wait and they don't even bother to reply.

Not just Ancestry.

Sadly there are a number of people who have no interest in collaboration.  They've seen our trees and have worked out where the link is.  It doesn't cross their minds that we might want to know the same thing.

Jane :-)

[diplodicus]

Don't give up Towdlass,

At first, we are all disappointed to learn that so few people respond to messages but it's better to accept that this is so and enjoy those moments when a positive response is forthcoming, especially when it leads to a breakthrough or a new branch in the tree.

I am not a part of any circles yet even though I would like to be

For a circle to form two things need to happen:

• You need to have a match with someone.
• Both you and this "someone" have to have the same individual in you trees.

If you suspect that they have someone in their tree who is also likely to be your ancestor too, then add this ancestor to your tree as an "orphan" (i.e. without any connections to other people in your tree).

I'm just so amazed by the fact that so many of the people who have come up in my results seem to live in America

That's simply a matter of the number of people who have taken the test in The United States and Ancestry's origins in the Mormon faith. As more people in the UK and Ireland submit DNA, the proportion of US to non-US matches will reduce.

[rsel]

For a circle to form two things need to happen:

• You need to have a match with someone.
• Both you and this "someone" have to have the same individual in you trees.

If you suspect that they have someone in their tree who is also likely to be your ancestor too, then add this ancestor to your tree as an "orphan" (i.e. without any connections to other people in your tree).

Even if you have a match in your tree, and a match to a descendent of that individual you may still not get a Circle.....I have a match to a 2nd cousin, and her mother, with both me and my father, and they show up as hints with the correct couple showing as our common ancestor, my fathers test has a match with another known ancestor back another 3 generations, again showing up as a hint. But no circle exists for that common ancestor across 5 DNA test results.  Ancestry's response about why not, is that its still beta (and that was only a few weeks ago, when it stopped saying beta on the web pages !!!!)

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi rsel, I am in the same situation as you. I have a known 3rd cousin and one 3rd cousin once removed, but no DNA circle.

Cheers, Ade.