StoryScout - New feature on ancestry.com

[dicko99]

Has anyone else tried the new StoryScout feature on ancestry.com? It's at the bottom of the DNA dropdown menu but only on the .com site for now.

Both me and my partner are related to Louisa May Alcott via our completely unrelated grandparents! One as 6th cousin 4 x removed and the other as 9th cousin 2 x removed.

I guess if you go far enough back, everyone is related to everyone... 

[Pheno]

Also on co.uk.  Have just looked, my grandmother who spent all her life in the UK is featured in a story about being in New York.

Not sure I will be making much use of it.

Pheno

[Gadget]

I tried it with my grandparents but I was told that there were too many matches and they wanted to know more about them.  I thought they were supposed to be telling me!  All they need to do is to go to my linked tree.

I'm not very impressed. Yet another gimmick to attract the punters.

Added - switched to .com to access

[jillruss]

Its a gimmick but its good fun!

I'm not sure how much of it I can actually believe, though!

Apparently, on my paternal side, my 6th cousin 5x removed was Henry David Thoreau, American writer. I've heard of him but never read him. On my maternal side, apparently my 4th cousin 6x removed was James Madison, 4th President of the USA!

Its difficult to follow the trail because when I click to show the full descendancy, I can't seem to move the diagram up in order to view the whole thing. Has anyone else had that problem? or managed to overcome it?

I've certainly discovered lots of ancestors who went to the US from here (UK) but none the other way round so I'm not at all sure how these American connections can be correct.

Still, as I said, its good fun. 

[Sinann]

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

[dicko99]

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.

[dicko99]

Its a gimmick but its good fun!

I'm not sure how much of it I can actually believe, though!

Apparently, on my paternal side, my 6th cousin 5x removed was Henry David Thoreau, American writer. I've heard of him but never read him. On my maternal side, apparently my 4th cousin 6x removed was James Madison, 4th President of the USA!

Its difficult to follow the trail because when I click to show the full descendancy, I can't seem to move the diagram up in order to view the whole thing. Has anyone else had that problem? or managed to overcome it?

I've certainly discovered lots of ancestors who went to the US from here (UK) but none the other way round so I'm not at all sure how these American connections can be correct.

Still, as I said, its good fun. 

I'm related to him too via another grandparent!

[Meelystar]

Just tried it via ancestry.com and got Emily Dickinson back for my Grandpa. No idea if it’s right because I haven’t got that far back but it showed the line. It may be gimmicky but it looks good fun!

[PrawnCocktail]

I tried it too, and guess what, I too got presented with Henry David Thoreau! Tree correct back to John Hitchcock (1700, Oxfordshire), then it goes, Elizabeth Jones - Elizabeth Graves - Mary Church - Richard Church (1608 - 1668)

Parents of John Jones I have as John & Elizabeth (no marriage), and now find a hint for an Elizabeth Jones on Elizabeth's profile - born in Herefordshire. The only Mary Church that fitted the dates and married surname, was born, married and died in the US.

On top of that, for another of my great grandparents, it gave her the wrong mother. And never picked up at all on my grandfather's relationship with Thomas Hepburn who started the Miner's Union. Not that you'd expect it to, it's clearly fixated on the States, as usual.

So appears to be absolutely useless, at least for the UK.