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A DNA related 4th-6th cousin put my grandfathers name on her tree, with a close but different first name. Thrulines then changed my grandfather to a “potential grandfather” with a link to her name. I’d just ignore that a more on.....but this affected my DNA match list, and my first & second cousins related through this grandfather no longer are indicated as having common ancestors with me (although my tree and their tree still have the correct name of my grandfather). There are few individuals directly DNA linked to that side of the family and without noting that we have common ancestors I’ll be unable to know who they are (and vice versa) when new members have DNA tests.
I e-mailed the 4th-6th cousin and politely asked that she correct my grandfathers name on her tree and why, but she hasn’t responded nor, as far as I can tell, made any changes. Her tree is private.
What would you do? FWIW, I do like knowing which DNA individuals have common ancestors.
(And my info on my grandfather is 100% accurate. My mother is alive and she and I know who her father was, correct spelling of name, etc).
I've noticed the same thing happening. I try and remind myself this is in the early stages and hope that they will work out some of these kinks.
Despite its many flaws, I have already found Thrulines to be useful. It helped me break through one brick wall. It also gave me additional evidence that a family line I wasn't 100% confident in is most likely correct. I could also see this going the other way, spreading even more misinformation throughout trees.
She just contacted me and is making the changes . I'm soooo happy and so fortunate that she is making the changes.
But it was a good lesson to me as to how Thrulines works and how it affects your DNA match list/common ancestors.
Thrulines has been excellent in giving me most likely correct info that I still need to verify (and those tree owners are on my DNA match list and known family members with fairly large trees). But the individuals Thrulines have listed as 5th generation grandparents are very questionable!! My "5th grandfather's" tree only has one name on it and the source is a facebook link....with wedding pictures that are current! The tree owner hasn't had a DNA test.
Ancestry has already made some changes. My grandfather changed from potential grandfather to grandfather – private. It lists his correct name only when you click on the relationship box. And it lists the 4th-6th DNA cousin to contact for information.
No changes made to DNA list common ancestors (still not showing up for DNA matches through this grandfather). I have a feeling this isn’t going to change.
I definitely think that if two people share DNA and have the same ancestor in their tree, that should take priority over what any other trees say. Send AncestryDNA feedback, hopefully it will be improved since it's still in beta.
I contacted Ancestry and asked (1) how does Ancestry determine when to ignore an existing ancestor in your tree in favor of a suggested replacement? And asked how my issue can be corrected.
The response (long) was they are working on the many issues and as long as your tree is correct that is all you can do short of contacting anyone listed with an incorrect tree.
Sigh, that doesn't get my DNA matches through my grandfather to show up.
I've noticed that they are trying to clean up some of the mistakes but with so many actively researched and modified trees it will be a fulltime job and much confused.
I strongly believe there was someone with my grandfather's name who lives in Massachusetts born a few years after my grandfather that is being picked up as my "potential" grandfather. I contacted one of the people who had connected this guy to my family and informed her of the error but she has yet to fix it. Since that error is there my "potential grandfather"'s tree is being matched to me and not my grandfather who is on a few extended family (2nd-3rd cousins I know) who are on ancestry. His mother has an extensive family tree that has been confirmed through DAR. Every few days I review Thrulines and report this error. It is beyond annoying because I'm like 99% sure I would find some distant cousins through my confirmed great-grandmother.
There is a "Was this useful" option when you look at a link. I used that to explain that an ancestor link was bad and it disappeared a few days later. I did not get a written response saying they fixed it but the incorrect link went away.
I contacted Ancestry and asked (1) how does Ancestry determine when to ignore an existing ancestor in your tree in favor of a suggested replacement? And asked how my issue can be corrected.
The response (long) was they are working on the many issues and as long as your tree is correct that is all you can do short of contacting anyone listed with an incorrect tree.
Sigh, that doesn't get my DNA matches through my grandfather to show up.
Use the "Send feedback" option in the lower right corner (if you're using the beta match list) - you won't get a response, but since it's in beta and they are collecting feedback, they might take suggestions for improvements on board.
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