Just did a little survey - 1/3 of my matches have no trees!

[LizzieL]

You're lucky it's as high as a 1/3. I go down pages and pages of "No trees" and many of the unlinked trees when I investigate have 3 or fewer people - all private of course.

[brigidmac]

Sometimes no tree people have a friendly profile picture

Which encourages me to send them a note of what im looking for and why and they may at least tell me where their grandparents come from .
Adoptees often dont have trees or only know mithers name and dont know if still living
so they usually appreciate contact

[melba_schmelba]

IgorStrav.

You can attach a private tree to your DNA results if you want to, but it isn't particularly helpful to any of your matches. Make it searchable, so that others can at least others see surnames and places

I would rather keep mine private, so have made my main tree both private and unsearchable.

I have attached a direct ancestor only tree to my DNA results - no attached records or sources.

As I am the one who makes contact with others, this works well for me, but it doesn't work all that well for other matches looking at my tree, but it's the best I can do.

Regards Margaret

Oh it is helpful Margaret. My trees are private but searchable and link to each of my parent's DNA. As I found with many of my common ancestor links, it is often my trees that have been used to make those links for me and others to see.

[Craclyn]

From my top 50 there are 26 with public linked trees, 8 with unlinked trees and 2 with private trees. So I have 72% with trees.

[sugarfizzle]

My top 50 -

18 public decent sized tree.
9 private tree
9 unlinked tree
14 no tree or very very small tree, 1 or 3 person tree

Percentage same as Craclyn's.

24 connection found, 26 no connection found.

With their improved DNA matching with common ancestors I have a lot more confirmed matches (within the bounds of Ancestry having no chromosome browser).

Regards Margaret

[sugarfizzle]

IgorStrav.

You can attach a private tree to your DNA results if you want to, but it isn't particularly helpful to any of your matches. Make it searchable, so that others can at least others see surnames and places

I would rather keep mine private, so have made my main tree both private and unsearchable.

I have attached a direct ancestor only tree to my DNA results - no attached records or sources.

As I am the one who makes contact with others, this works well for me, but it doesn't work all that well for other matches looking at my tree, but it's the best I can do.

Regards Margaret

Oh it is helpful Margaret. My trees are private but searchable and link to each of my parent's DNA. As I found with many of my common ancestor links, it is often my trees that have been used to make those links for me and others to see.

Point taken, Melba. With the new common ancestor link, private trees, as long as they are searchable, are useful to all those with possible 'common ancestors'. But to me, looking at fairly close matches with a private tree and no common ancestor, they aren't much good at all. 

There again, I think that the direct ancestor only tree which I have attached to my results is of limited use to others, as the connection is often to be found by tracing the siblings.

If I matched with either of your parents at 5th to 8th cousin level for example with no common ancestor suggested by Ancestry, their tree would be of no use to me whatsoever, unless perhaps I could identify a likely surname or place of interest by searching. My tree would be of little use to you unless we both had the same direct ancestor or place, which you could readily see.

If we were connected the generation before a brick wall, the only way of identifying MRCA would be if both of us had full, well searched, well sourced public trees attached to our DNA, with siblings, half siblings, nieces etc included - as wide a tree as possible. But we are both DNA enthusiasts, we would work our way around this if the evidence was compelling enough. Others with less enthusiasm might give up at the first hurdle.

Confronted with a private tree, I skip past it most of the time, but as you say, they are becoming more helpful. 

Regards Margaret

[IgorStrav]

IgorStrav.

You can attach a private tree to your DNA results if you want to, but it isn't particularly helpful to any of your matches. Make it searchable, so that others can at least others see surnames and places

I would rather keep mine private, so have made my main tree both private and unsearchable.

I have attached a direct ancestor only tree to my DNA results - no attached records or sources.

As I am the one who makes contact with others, this works well for me, but it doesn't work all that well for other matches looking at my tree, but it's the best I can do.

Regards Margaret

Hi Margaret

My tree is Private but searchable.  I can see no way of 'attaching' it to my DNA results without making it Public.

When I first received my DNA results, I made the tree Public for a period to see if I would be included in any DNA circles.  This did not happen, and so after 3 months I made it Private again.  During that time I was not contacted by any DNA matches.

I have a number of DNA matches who have Public Trees, some with many people on them.  There are a great number of matches where I can see no connection, despite the number of names on their tree.

So I've concluded that anyone interested in contacting me will probably do so, with or without a Public Tree.
I've had no approaches from any DNA matches since my results were available last year - all the contacts have been via me approaching other people.

And some of them I've done quite extensive trees for.

Not complaining - it is as it is.

[Craclyn]

IgorStrav, You can attach your DNA results to a private searchable tree. This will then give you access to Common Ancestors and ThruLines. Your matches would be able to see limited information about a person in your tree who is part of the chain in their ThruLines but would not be able to see parents, children or sources.

[IgorStrav]

IgorStrav, You can attach your DNA results to a private searchable tree. This will then give you access to Common Ancestors and ThruLines. Your matches would be able to see limited information about a person in your tree who is part of the chain in their ThruLines but would not be able to see parents, children or sources.

Thanks, Cracklyn.  I already have access to Common Ancestors and ThruLines - so I assume that matches can already see the limited Tree information you mention.

When I open my DNA page, I see a prompt suggesting I 'update my Tree Privacy Settings', and when I look at these it confirms my tree is Private but Searchable.

It's just that I don't recall having been asked to 'attach' a tree to the DNA results.