"Potential" Common Ancestor - Anyone else got one of those?

[LizzieL]

I got a new DNA match yesterday which was also flagged up as having a Common Ancestor. The problem is the Ancestors are not on my tree and Ancestry has identified the couple as being my Potential 4 x great grandparents. The DNA match has only done a couple of generations on his tree so have not gone back as far as the couple in question. But on checking they do look like they really are his ancestors. However I don't believe they are mine.
But a lot of trees (or one tree and its many clones) have  Elizabeth Christopher baptised in Arundel in 1790 as the same person as one born in Sutton, Sussex in 1781.

[Creasegirl]

Have you used the timeline function to see where the 2 trees split.  You can get this by clicking on the person it says is your shared ancestor.

[LizzieL]

yes I have checked, it splits at my 3 x great grandmother and her supposed sister.

[Galium]

I have quite a few 'potential ancestors'.  Some I think are probably mine, but I just haven't had time to confirm and put them in my tree.  Some I am quite sure are not, but the only way to get rid of them is to find out who should actually fill that position in my tree and put them in place. 
I find them a bit of an irritation mostly, rather than helpful.

Obviously, a match is related to you, whatever 'potential ancestor' ThruLines wants to hint at as your common ancestor, but the actual common ancestor may be someone else entirely.

Eg. a match to one of the trees I manage has given themselves an incorrect ancestral couple who happen to be in the tree I have, and which ThruLines thinks are a link between the two matches.  I have worked out where the actual link is, and ThruLines acknowleges it as an alternative, but never as the most important one.

[Albufera32]

Potential ancestors are hints like any other - treat them with the same caution you do all other Ancestry Hints.

The only issue is, as mentioned above, you can't dismiss them as easily as ordinary hints if you decide they are wrong.

[LizzieL]

I have plenty of potential ancestor hints, but never before a Common Ancestor prediction based on a Potential Ancestor. Unfortunately this is based on a lot of totally incorrect trees. One person has found someone born in the same county as my ancestor, 9 years later and decided she married my ancestor. "Names match, nothing else does, who cares. Job done!  "
And several other people too lazy to do their own research have just blindly copied
"Wow, look everyone, with just one click I can add another four thousand people to my tree, how clever does that make me?!"

No-one bothered to check burial records to find "their" lady died a spinster at age 22 in her birth town, ao could not possibly be the mother of my 2 x great grandfather, born two years after her deaths

[Pheno]

As mentioned previously, the only way i could change a similar scenario in my thrulines was to use the 'evaluate' button to see which trees the info was being taken from and then message all the tree owners explaining the incorrect info and supplying the correct records and asking them to correct their trees as it was having an adverse effect on thrulines (which will lead into potential common ancestors).

I think this was about 30 odd trees (but of course you can copy and paste the message) and obviously not all were read or actioned.  However enough did to make a difference and over a period of time thrulines corrected themselves for me and those other people had a more correct tree.

Long winded but result achieved.

Pheno

[LizzieL]

I'm starting to try that, only messaged two so far, no response yet, but only contacted yesterday. There are two separate incorrect links so I have two messages to copy and paste.
One has completely ignored the fact that his ancestor said his father was Edward on his marriage record - even though he himself included it as a source on his tree! and decided to pick a random Henry as the father. It was quite easy to find the right baptism fitting age and place of birth on censuses with parents Edward and Lydia.
The other one I mentioned in earlier reply who gave birth two years after her death.

[Pheno]

Well don't hold your breath, but over a period of time it has been successful for me.  Most responses have been positive and thanked me for pointing out the error and supplying the correct info.

Most said that they would amend their tree but it took some of them an awful long time, however a follow up message mostly did the trick.

Pheno