Ancestry Thrulines

[davisd]

Has there a change in the past couple days with Thruline matches?
It's showing me individuals marked "Potential Ancestors" and it was a couple of days ago, showing individuals marked DNA Matches or something similar. Now I have to scroll over each individual to see how many DNA matches if any.

Mick

Yes the Potential thing is new to me and somewhat annoying. However, I'm not sure whether it's a mixup as I have two trees with many of the same people and these potential ancestors seem to jump back and forth from one tree to another. I'm not sure what to do about it. I keep activating them and they remain potential.

[Gadget]

The potential ancestors ,mainly  on a green background, have been there for as long as I can recall. I have them for some 5th greats where I've not got them in that particular line in my tree. Most of them are doubtful.

[brigidmac]

A lot  of the times when theu lines dont show up its
 because your relatives have named ancestors differently using nicknames alternative or any extra punctuation

Thru lines cant cope with James "jimmy BROWN
or womens surnames written as Smith was Jones
Or gggf Alan Brown

There is a function for "also known as"

+ A suffix box to add ladies married names but i find if you use that search won't find premarriage census

Im helping someone whose ggfather is Alfred Gharles + surname
Matches are showing to wife . mother and gparents but not him i think it may be that other people have him as
plain  Charles so shows as a sibling

If dates are two years out they..ll show as siblings not the same person

[davisd]

The more I look at Thrulines, the more nonsense it becomes. I may in fact have DNA in common with some of the people they throw in, but some of  the ancestors are out of whack - totally.

[bikermickau]

Is this because of incorrect trees on Ancestry?

Mick

The more I look at Thrulines, the more nonsense it becomes. I may in fact have DNA in common with some of the people they throw in, but some of  the ancestors are out of whack - totally.

[brigidmac]

 i wonder how much out of whack your thru lines are Dave

I m lucky that my mother and paternal aunt born around 1930  took dna tests too
my mother comes from a recomposed families
all  thru lines thru my maternal 3x ggparents are correct ..incudin half 1st cousins twice removed and 2nd cousins 3x removed
but this is because i have followed each line down and so even if others trees are not correct the suggested routes are thru my tree definitions
occassional y 3rd cousins show up as half third cousins because the dna match as put step parent instead of biological one or has a different birth year so their John X b1820 shows up as a brother to my John X b 1823 when its same person
that skews time lines s if they put abt 1820 rather than 1820 i think the match shows up

also have correct thru lines to all paternal 2ndggparents except one couple
there is ine connection further up but mostly not to this line so tho my paper tail goes back to 1700's im beginning to think great great grandfather was a placed baby probably from a relatives family . one ancestor was to a single mother and there is a dna link to the man she named as father and to his half sister who also descends from a named birth father

mum's closest match apart from me and full cousin and several full and half second cousins

is a half cousin who had no idea his grandmother had a baby before marriage his tree isnt linked to dna so thru line doesnt show

[davisd]

It's not that I doubt the science at all - it's Ancestry's reliance on other peoples trees. As you mentioned names can be oddly or misspelled and then things pop up as Potential. But I have some appear that are way off. One especially troubles me - My grandfather who died in Australia after emigrating from Ireland. His great grandfather (who were basic laborers in Antrim for centuries), whose name I doubt I'll ever find is listed as a man living and dying in Tennessee USA in the mid 18th c. with a long genealogy back to Scotland - I think a fantasy tree.  I am more than dubious as I know the temptation to say - Oh look - there's a lovely line that goes back and back...

From what I can understand the trees and the DNA can be off kilter and while there is a match of some sort it could well be through another ancestor's line altogether. That's at least my (poor) comprehension of the system. So yes it can be spot on and even point out mysterious links. I'm just finding odd ones.