Ancestry Common ancestors

[ms_canuck]

Hi, quick question on this topic of Common Ancestors on Ancestry:

I have found a DNA match of mine, and we share a common ancestor.  We have exchanged emails, and both agree that this is a firm match.  However, Ancestry does NOT pick up the common ancestor... any idea why that would be? 

I also had a couple of incorrect ones - mistake was on my side where I had assumed incorrectly the maiden name of my great grandmother (paternal).  Once I cleaned up that mess  both of those 'matches' disappeared from my Common Ancestor list.

Cheers
Ms_C

[Gadget]

Do you both have linked trees that show the common ancestor and are they public or, at least, allow the search index to view them?


add - I see you must have a searchable tree but does your match?

[sugarfizzle]

ms_canuck, Who knows how Ancestry works things out! Certainly not us, if Ancestry themselves can't work it out.

I am a match with mother, son and her brother at Ancestry. They all use the same tree for convenience, and are all attached in the right place.

Ancestry has suggested a common ancestor for two of us, which turns out to be correct. Neither of us had the common ancestors in our trees at the time, but research showed the connection to be valid. Common ancestor was one generation further back than we had both gone at the time.

The son is not shown as having a common ancestor, though clearly descended from the same line.

Regards Margaret

[sugarfizzle]

And here's another cracker.

A few weeks ago a new match. Comments - No tree Dec 2019, shared match AB, descended from C and D.

Today looking through Common Ancestors, the match appears, suggested CA are C and D. But she still has no tree. How do they work that one out?

Regards Margaret

[rsel]

I have found a DNA match of mine, and we share a common ancestor.  We have exchanged emails, and both agree that this is a firm match.  However, Ancestry does NOT pick up the common ancestor... any idea why that would be? 

Like other's have said Ancestry's logic is a bit strange, but when I found I wasn't getting a match that I knew should have come up (i.e. matching names, dates and places), I ended up just unlinking the my line from the MRCA (i.e. removing them as parents but not deleting the people) and then the next day re-linking them.  After a couple of days, that seem to trigger a 'rebuild' of the tree indexes and suddenly the common ancestors appeared.

Richard

[brigidmac]

Check carefully that you are all spelling the common ancestor the same way

If one of you has added a ?
Or a nickname
Or Mac rather than Mc
The matches will not show.

I darednt try the unlinkimg re linking thing ...I'm sure my tree branch would disappear intoablack hole

[ms_canuck]

Thanks (as always) for the prompt and helpful replies.  I did make some spelling changes to match and left it for a couple of days, but still no luck.  We both have searchable trees.  I will have to be brave and try the unlinking to see if that can trigger it.

Not sure how a 'No Trees' brought up a CA as per one of the replies, that is truly bizarre!  Oh well, as also stated 'how Ancestry matches is something often known only to Ancestry' (paraphrased).

Cheers all
Ms_C