new beta on ancestry dna results

[Sinann]

Sinann, Are you looking in the right place?

Any page > Top middle> Extras> Ancestry Labs > My Tree Tags and New & Improved DNA Matches, both beta

I'll check that later, I did find it last night but couldn't remember how I got there, wouldn't work at the time though.

Ah ha, Thanks, found it.
Choice of two, something about tags and trees, didn't bother with that.
Improved matches, tried that, seems okay at least you can see your notes along side the match a bit easier.

[Sinann]

Totally agree. melba.  Also, the My Heritage 'Theory of Family Relativity ' appears to be the same!

Gadget

Thanks . I am worried we are all going to go a bit mad with a new toy...but it's just the same old thing as before with a posh new name, which they no doubt took weeks to come up with, with numerous meetings and cake served .

Had a better look today, I appear to only have ThurLines and there I have 15 matches. Just went through them all and it was great, a few I already knew and had been in contact with but a couple were non responders to messages so I was able to work out where they fitted, a few others were up to 5th to 8th cousin which I wouldn't even have looked at before.
I'm happy with how it worked.
Just a pity no one from my father's side has a tree so no matches on ThruLines on that side.

Sorry to be a party pooper , but I really think people need to not give in to the 'rush' of having these new promising ancestors appear. Really this Thruline is the exact same thing as Ancestry tree hints, with the only difference that it is now tied to DNA. We on the board have pretty much condemned tree hints as an almost unmitigated disaster, spreading wrong links multiple times over with the ease of being able to copy onto your own. In my case at least 60% of these Thruline matches are wrong, even when multiple DNA matches are showing, because people have simply chosen the wrong person, but with the same name and rough birthdate, and proceeded to trace back 100+ years, providing zillions of other exciting Thruline matches, but I know they're all wrong .

I'm sure your correct but I didn't just slot them in willy nilly I checked all the shared matches, it is possible they have connected themselves to the wrong person but they do at least connect to the correct family,
and I've only listed them under their believed ancestor on my offline tree so I won't be sending anyone astray.

That's the thing - I have one ancestor, that if I didn't know otherwise, it would look like an absolute cert, and on Thrulines it is showing as a DNA link to three other people all neatly tracing back to this one person. But that person is the mother of someone of the same name, not our ancestor. They didn't find the right link because I found the baptism from a local baptism index rather than the big websites. People should always try these local indexes such as family history society or private indexes if a search fails on the main sites. People may be under the impression that because there is a DNA link that gives these ancestors credence, I am afraid it doesn't at all.

That a shame, and must be very annoying but in this case the 3 people I'm looking at, 2 I also match to one of their parents and if the parents can't get their grandparents names correct that there is no hope. The other one I'm a bit wary of I need to chat to some contacts and send him a message.

I should also add of my 15 matches on ThruLines 8 descend from the same couple (including the 3 in question) so it's easy enough to cross reference with the ones I'm in contact with. About 70% of all my known DNA matches are from one set of my great great grandparents, I think we all inherited the same genealogy bug from them .

[sugarfizzle]

Sorry to be a party pooper , but I really think people need to not give in to the 'rush' of having these new promising ancestors appear. Really this Thruline is the exact same thing as Ancestry tree hints, with the only difference that it is now tied to DNA. We on the board have pretty much condemned tree hints as an almost unmitigated disaster, spreading wrong links multiple times over with the ease of being able to copy onto your own. In my case at least 60% of these Thruline matches are wrong, even when multiple DNA matches are showing, because people have simply chosen the wrong person, but with the same name and rough birthdate, and proceeded to trace back 100+ years, providing zillions of other exciting Thruline matches, but I know they're all wrong .

I think we are all in agreement here melba, each DNA clue has to be properly evaluated.

But it isn't mainly a case of people choosing the 'wrong person with the same name and rough birthdate' though there will be some.

It is Ancestry, picking A from one tree, B from another tree, C from another tree, then combining them into one big line of descent, sometimes correct, often incorrect. The match hasn't got the wrong tree at all, it is Ancestry at fault.

Hopefully teething problems - on my side I have found two definite false connections, several which will need further investigation, but the majority appear to be valid matches (not Thruline, but New & Improved DNA Matches, checking out shared ancestor hints).

It is still in beta phase, I have given feedback, I think we all need to do so to make the most of this new offering.

Regards Margaret

[melba_schmelba]

I think we are all in agreement here melba, each DNA clue has to be properly evaluated.

But it isn't mainly a case of people choosing the 'wrong person with the same name and rough birthdate' though there will be some.

It is Ancestry, picking A from one tree, B from another tree, C from another tree, then combining them into one big line of descent, sometimes correct, often incorrect. The match hasn't got the wrong tree at all, it is Ancestry at fault.

In my case, it is definitely the case of someone, rather than searching out the parish indicated by census entries, took a baptism in a nearby county , and then proceeded to trace that person's ancestry back over 100 years, all of which ancestors now show up on my Thruline and seem to have been copied to multiple trees. I think it is a bit of a plague now, people just think ALL records must be online and if they can't find it, it must not exist. But in this case the parish is covered by no online indexes, only a private index (but as I said, you could also go to the register at the local record office).

Hopefully teething problems - on my side I have found two definite false connections, several which will need further investigation, but the majority appear to be valid matches (not Thruline, but New & Improved DNA Matches, checking out shared ancestor hints).

It is still in beta phase, I have given feedback, I think we all need to do so to make the most of this new offering.

Regards Margaret

I agree that the common ancestor thing seems to be more reliable, but I am not sure if that is just luck so far. I am not sure if you match some but not all of the other person's tree, whether it still shows up as a common ancestor?

[Kimbrey]

I have seperated  my mother's line(Irish roots) from my main tree as that one was where I was stuck!
I attached my DNA to that tree(maternal line) as  I have my paternal line back to the 1600s.

I tried the Trulines option and it is a mess,presumably because my autDNA is from both parents but is only reading names attached to that one line?

Cannot find a way to escape back to previous method or delete the obvious false "Potential Ancestors"

I do not "do" Facebook but I believe there has been a lot of comment on there about this change.

Kim

[jillruss]

Had a better look today, I appear to only have ThurLines and there I have 15 matches. Just went through them all and it was great, a few I already knew and had been in contact with but a couple were non responders to messages so I was able to work out where they fitted, a few others were up to 5th to 8th cousin which I wouldn't even have looked at before.
I'm happy with how it worked.
Just a pity no one from my father's side has a tree so no matches on ThruLines on that side.

Sorry to be a party pooper , but I really think people need to not give in to the 'rush' of having these new promising ancestors appear. Really this Thruline is the exact same thing as Ancestry tree hints, with the only difference that it is now tied to DNA. We on the board have pretty much condemned tree hints as an almost unmitigated disaster, spreading wrong links multiple times over with the ease of being able to copy onto your own. In my case at least 60% of these Thruline matches are wrong, even when multiple DNA matches are showing, because people have simply chosen the wrong person, but with the same name and rough birthdate, and proceeded to trace back 100+ years, providing zillions of other exciting Thruline matches, but I know they're all wrong .

I have to agree with this conclusion. I've only just started looking at these ThruLines but it strikes me that - as with those hints - you'll waste an awful lot of time discovering not much at all. I remember spending days going through my '99+' hints when I first received my DNA results, all to no avail. In thw words of The Who 'I Won't Get Fooled Again'.

Instead of introducing these gimmicks, I wish the Men (and women) In Suits at Ancestry would do a brainstorming session on how to persuade testers to include a family tree. It doesn't have to be huge - I've managed to find links with people showing just 3 or 4 people on their trees. Failing that, at least try to persuade them to complete their own personal details, as in location, age and real name (for those who insist on using silly cryptic usernames or, even worse, those annoying initials which are neither use nor ornament).

I appreciate Ancestry won't want to put people off taking the test but surely their marketing people can come up with a persuasive answer and convince them it will be to their advantage?

[Gadget]

I think, at a late age, I've become a Luddite.

 I'm not impressed and Thrulines is worse than useless. My own methods are yielding far more than theirs.

Gadget

[Sinann]

What triggers them to disappear? I've only got two left. I only looked at all of them, I didn't add them to anything.
Easy come easy go, they were fun while I had them.

[Finley 1]

binned that idea

guess who