Does anyone know how often Ancestry updates its DNA matches, please? I swapped my connected tree yesterday (from that of my maternal grandmother's to my new "DNA" one that covers all four grandparents and their ancestors - well, the ones I've identified so far, that is), but it's not changed the number of hits in either the "shared ancestor hints" or the "4th cousins or closer" categories.
Do I just have to be more patient?
STG
Shared ancestor hints and circles take a few days to generate, they have to go through your new tree and your matches trees.
Putting in a fuller tree won't alter the number of matches that you have, either 4th to 6th, or more distant matches. You will always have had matches with the missing three quarters of your ancestral line. As far as I know, ancestry updates matches every working day, US time. My 4th to 6th come in dribs and drabs, my 5th to 8th on a regular basis, just check 'new' or 'date' to see.
What you will see differently straightaway, I think (can't remember fully), is the shared ancestral surname list when you click on a match. Before, you would only have seen a quarter of surnames, now you should see the full range. Take a look at some of your unidentified matches - see if you can now see any extra shared surnames.
Follow the Lost Cousins strategies in the link given above, Peter Calver doesn't rate going through your 4th to 6th cousins all that much. However, I follow his guidelines to a certain extent and have obviously developed my own over time - I like to get new closer matches as well.
About half my confirmed matches are with 4 to 6 or closer, the other half from 5 to 8. Some 5 to 8 are in fact 3rd cousins, which is why it is important to look through them (though not all the many thousands of them on an individual basis!).
'Do I just have to be more patient?'
Emphatically yes, DNA is not a quick fix as many of us have discovered, but very rewarding when a long distant 'suspect' ancestor seems to be confirmed by DNA findings.
Regards Margaret
