Ancestry - Pro Tools/Enhanced Shared Matches

[rsel]

Does anyone know if they will be adding a chromosome browser, or will allow us to see shared matches below 20cM? It's kind of unbelievable they haven't provided that yet.

I don't believe they officially will be doing either. However, what i have noticed on the new shared matches is that it is showing matches below 8cM as a shared match.  My first thought was they only appear if they have more than 20cM with the match you are looking at, but doesn't seem to hold true, so not sure what causes them to appear.

Richard

Do you mean you are getting shared matches (in the shared matches tab) below 8cM, but not above?

No i am getting them above the old 20cM as before, but now i am also seeing matches down to as low as 6cM in some cases.
What i was trying to say thoughs those matches between 6cM and the old 20cM limit seem to be a bit hit and miss.  So for example if i look at my matches with person B, i might see some matches down to 6cM on my side, but with B they look to have over 20cM as the shared DNA.  Howver, on my matches with person C, i have some matches down to 6cM, but with C they only share 15cM.

[4b2]

Does anyone know if they will be adding a chromosome browser, or will allow us to see shared matches below 20cM? It's kind of unbelievable they haven't provided that yet.

I don't believe they officially will be doing either. However, what i have noticed on the new shared matches is that it is showing matches below 8cM as a shared match.  My first thought was they only appear if they have more than 20cM with the match you are looking at, but doesn't seem to hold true, so not sure what causes them to appear.

Richard

Do you mean you are getting shared matches (in the shared matches tab) below 8cM, but not above?

No i am getting them above the old 20cM as before, but now i am also seeing matches down to as low as 6cM in some cases.

So you think it's sometimes showing lower than 20cM shared matches, but sometimes not?

[rsel]

Does anyone know if they will be adding a chromosome browser, or will allow us to see shared matches below 20cM? It's kind of unbelievable they haven't provided that yet.

I don't believe they officially will be doing either. However, what i have noticed on the new shared matches is that it is showing matches below 8cM as a shared match.  My first thought was they only appear if they have more than 20cM with the match you are looking at, but doesn't seem to hold true, so not sure what causes them to appear.

Richard

Do you mean you are getting shared matches (in the shared matches tab) below 8cM, but not above?

No i am getting them above the old 20cM as before, but now i am also seeing matches down to as low as 6cM in some cases.

So you think it's sometimes showing lower than 20cM shared matches, but sometimes not?

Basically yes, i suspect there is some logic to it, i just can't figure it out yet :-)

[rsel]

All, 
    Just a quick update on the new shared matches feature.  I have now been using it for a few weeks, and it has enabled me to make a number of discoveries that i otherwise wouldn't have done.  By being able to see how shared matches are related, its enabled me to actually create some family groups for the matches.
   For example i had some tests with just usernames or initials, and tree's that had say 1, 2 or 3 people that were just private/living people. However from the shared matches i could see that they were say the grandson/granddaughter of another test that actually had a real name or better quality tree. In one case i have managed to now identify a group of 28 tests, that all share a common ancestor, by linking up a number of smaller family groups. (I just wish though i could link that common ancestor to my family, but that's another challenge, NPE probably :-) )
   Even though i have found it a great help, i am still not convinced that its worth the monthly Pro-tools subscription cost. Mainly as the rest of the tools i consider a waste of time/space, and i don't think i would be using the new Shared Matches all the time once i get through my initial usage.

Richard

[4b2]

All, 
    Just a quick update on the new shared matches feature.  I have now been using it for a few weeks, and it has enabled me to make a number of discoveries that i otherwise wouldn't have done.  By being able to see how shared matches are related, its enabled me to actually create some family groups for the matches.
   For example i had some tests with just usernames or initials, and tree's that had say 1, 2 or 3 people that were just private/living people. However from the shared matches i could see that they were say the grandson/granddaughter of another test that actually had a real name or better quality tree. In one case i have managed to now identify a group of 28 tests, that all share a common ancestor, by linking up a number of smaller family groups. (I just wish though i could link that common ancestor to my family, but that's another challenge, NPE probably :-) )
   Even though i have found it a great help, i am still not convinced that its worth the monthly Pro-tools subscription cost. Mainly as the rest of the tools i consider a waste of time/space, and i don't think i would be using the new Shared Matches all the time once i get through my initial usage.

Richard

I also upgraded to Pro Tools and it's been very helpful. Though charging this price for a feature which can and is offered free as standard is a bit rich. Hopefully they will add on a chromosome browser and extra features.

The big negative with it is that when you open up the new shared matches page and then you open another shared matches page, interacting with the first one will now cause the page to fail and it will take two reloads to open it again. So it's become much slower to go through many matches quickly to catalog them. Please report that to them. There is a feature to make suggestions on the page.

As noted by rsel, it's now much easier to locate clusters of matches who are closely related and quicker find the common point in ancestry. As an example - one of my main mysteries was I have a 94cM match with the only info given being their name, a very common Welsh name. Another match in the cluster was 48cM with the line coming from a Hughes (mother's maiden name - Jones). So it would have to be ordering a birth cert. to proceed with that. With the new data of how they relate, I was able to locate a common ancestor for seven matches through a John Jones (b.c. 1849). But now I have that I am left with no idea how they fit in.

To add to that, I've found a couple of clusters where there were people with no tree, where it now turns out the son or daughter has a tree. So you can then limit your search to one side of that tree, and have a better idea of the shared cM from the parent.