StoryScout - New feature on ancestry.com

[IgorStrav]

Just looked up mine, and on one of my most troublesome and difficult to search lines in the poorest of the poor East London area, I'm apparently a remote cousin of someone who signed the US Constitution.

yeah, yeah

[jillruss]

Having read these latest posts, it seems that it is indeed centred around the USA - should have realised they will have much more American info to choose from, and not always the correct kind!

As with their Common Ancestors , Thru Lines features, its working from the same information be it right or wrong.

Treat it as a bit of fun and no more! Been there, done that...

[PrawnCocktail]

And to work up and down the pop-ups, use the tab for the one to add extra information on your grandparents, and the up and down arrows to look at the so-called connections

And do use the menu top right on the stories - I've reported all mine as inaccurate!

[Flemming]

One of my grandfathers appears to have had a secret marriage to unknown lady and then also secretly died in the US before coming back to the UK to die again.  Why can't Ancestry spend their time and money on developing something useful?

[Sinann]

I don't have a drop down menu on DNA, only on Trees and Extras.

I see the same as you on ancestry.co.uk but on the .com site the clicking DNA reveals a dropdown menu. It seems you can use the two sites interchangeably so that's what I do.

R.

Cheers. Doesn't sound like I'm missing out on anything much but I'll give it a go.

[davidft]

Thanks for posting this its been fun exploring it.

Started with my paternal grandmother and they had problems initially which is not surprising as her mother was adopted so you need to know the change of name.

Her husband was a bit easier and it took me to his grandfather as his grave is on findagrave. Yes they got it right and all his details  . Also some American women's rights person in the 19th century is my x times cousin 


Then tried my maternal grandmother and found her and apparently she is related to "Jack London" the author

Finally tried my paternal grandfather. Eventually found him, they have him married to the wrong woman. They do say that via one of his ancestors a long way back i can trace a connection to Andrew Jackson US President but given they can not get his wife right I'll take that with a pinch of salt.

My overall opinion is, it is a bit of fun but they should have a facility whereby you can tell them when they have got something demonstrably wrong.

Oh and I don't like that you have to sign up for it, i didn't bother to find out the cost 

[Sinann]

Either nothing or some graves on Find A Grave of people with the same name.

[LizzieL]

Why can't Ancestry spend their time and money on developing something useful?

What can be more useful than a tool to find if you're distantly related by marriage several times to some obscure historical person?
A chromosome browser - surely not?

[davidft]

Just an update to say when I used the story scout I encountered problems with two of my grandparents and the information returned. I reported this to Ancestry who have investigated and found a likely cause of the problem. The Ancestry assistant said they are taking all feedback on this new tool and looking at ways to improve it.

So I guess if you do have a problem using storyscout it may well be worth reporting it so they can investigate and hopefully make the tool more robust and practical in the future.