Thruline issues

[Phoenix]

I'm entering a branch at a time, and because I found someone with a definite common ancestor, I linked the latest branch to Ancestry sources for her tree and mine.

After waiting about a week, I discover my 5th great grandfather is called Oldfield, born in 1878 (same sort of age as paternal grandfather's eldest brother!) and linked to some dozen trees.

How?

[kiterunner]

Because someone's tree has a mistake in it, I guess.

[Kit]

Thrulines are based on other people's trees so they are only as good as what is out there.

My George Best does not have parents James and Frances but nearly every tree out there has them as his parents so anyone with George in their tree will get them as the parents. I wish we could have a delete option if we don't like the thruline. It says evaluate but we can't do anything once we have.

[Phoenix]

Agreed.

As Ancestry have (temporarily, I hope!) disabled the hide button, I've been looking at some of my common ancestor matches. Pure hocus.

[Margaret in Burton]

My thrulines have a full family tree going back generations for Peter Henry Harrison, which as regular members will know was deposited on this earth from outer space, this Peter Harrison is lists is the one from York who is still in York in 1911 and the elusive one is in Ashby de la Zouch.

I would love to be able to delete it or even hide it but can’t.

[Phoenix]

I even put up a counter tree, Marg for the true entries, but that didn't work.

However, I am pleased to announce that I can now hide matches and the ancestors in my tree are given the correct names (speculative and potential names from other trees, I can understand, but I do expect the John Smith in my tree to be called John Smith, not to be masked by an imposter with a different name, different dates, in a different part of the country.

[Durham Lady]

I'm surprised that my results have come already, they were received on the 15th October and arrived today! but how to understand everything with the thrulines will take some time. Am I correct in understanding these thrulines are just like the hints we already got from Ancestry, some good some useless?
Also, I have seen the link to a "cousin" in Australia, 4th–6th Cousin
Shared DNA: 64 cM across 6 segments, we've been in contact for some time, but, I can't see a link to another cousin in Australia who share's the same common ancestor with both of us. She has also done her DNA and should come up the same as above.
Day 1 and I'm totally confused :)

[Phoenix]

I found a genuine, valid 4th cousin. He shared 6cM dna with me. His daughter does not show up at all.

It is statistically possible - but vanishingly rare - for 1st cousins to share very little DNA with each other. I've found people I've been corresponding with who share DNA with my other tests (aunt, cousin, sib's child) but not with me. (And I have to say, I feel aggrieved - what right have they, not to have more in common with me!)

[kiterunner]

I'm surprised that my results have come already, they were received on the 15th October and arrived today! but how to understand everything with the thrulines will take some time. Am I correct in understanding these thrulines are just like the hints we already got from Ancestry, some good some useless?
Also, I have seen the link to a "cousin" in Australia, 4th–6th Cousin
Shared DNA: 64 cM across 6 segments, we've been in contact for some time, but, I can't see a link to another cousin in Australia who share's the same common ancestor with both of us. She has also done her DNA and should come up the same as above.
Day 1 and I'm totally confused :)

Yes, Thrulines need to be checked thoroughly as they could be right or wrong.

The ISOGG Wiki has a table of the chances of shared DNA showing up on the different sites for various degrees of cousinship:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics


So if the other cousin is more distantly related to you than second cousin, it is quite possible that she doesn't share DNA with you.

[Durham Lady]

Yes, Thrulines need to be checked thoroughly as they could be right or wrong.

The ISOGG Wiki has a table of the chances of shared DNA showing up on the different sites for various degrees of cousinship:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics


So if the other cousin is more distantly related to you than second cousin, it is quite possible that she doesn't share DNA with you.

Thanks Kite, I'll save that link, it looks interesting.
The cousins are both the same distance related to me so it's maybe me not looking properly. J says she's found our link in her results and me to her brother but not her sister ! Mmm, it's obviously not as straight forward as I expected. :confused:

[kiterunner]

Yes, but even if the cousins are both the same distance related to you, one could match you on DNA and the other not, unless they are both first or second cousins.

Sorry, maybe when I said "second cousin" in my previous post, it was confusing? I meant the relationship second cousin.

[Phoenix]

My local society is having a seminar on this precise topic next month - and I'm already booked that Saturday.

[Durham Lady]

Thanks Kite, I'm sure in time I'll understand more and be able to work my way through it all, well that's the hope at least LOL

Phoenix, you'll have to take plenty of notes and tell what you learn.

[maggie_4_7]

I'm surprised that my results have come already, they were received on the 15th October and arrived today! but how to understand everything with the thrulines will take some time. Am I correct in understanding these thrulines are just like the hints we already got from Ancestry, some good some useless?
Also, I have seen the link to a "cousin" in Australia, 4th–6th Cousin
Shared DNA: 64 cM across 6 segments, we've been in contact for some time, but, I can't see a link to another cousin in Australia who share's the same common ancestor with both of us. She has also done her DNA and should come up the same as above.
Day 1 and I'm totally confused :)

This might help understand that DNA inheritance although not totally random can differ for each descendant of the same parents.

https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/03/05/understanding-patterns-of-inheirtance-where-did-my-dna-come-from-and-why-it-matters/

[Phoenix]

Best Mate's thrulines currently only start with her 3rd great grandparents and only show potential ancestors. She has masses of matches with common ancestors, but when I click on them, I'm told the connection can't be found.

Are these known issues which will be resolved, or do I start playing?

[Durham Lady]

Checking some of my thrulines, and wondering,
are these links to other folk definite dna links or just because we all have the same name in our tree? Just wondering if it's worth contacting some of them as it looks like I might have the correct 5x g grandparents after all, I was never sure, or is it that we have all "found" the same marriages and assumed, but have a connection somehow.
Sorry if this sounds confusing, my brain is practically addled with it all. :)

[Phoenix]

I had a whole load of DNA matches to an entirely incorrect marriage. Unsurprisingly, no links to the earlier generation.

Do you have DNA matches to the woman's side? If you can find her siblings, or ancestors amongst DNA matches, that would strengthen the theory.

[Janet]

Checking some of my thrulines, and wondering,
are these links to other folk definite dna links or just because we all have the same name in our tree? Just wondering if it's worth contacting some of them as it looks like I might have the correct 5x g grandparents after all, I was never sure, or is it that we have all "found" the same marriages and assumed, but have a connection somehow.
Sorry if this sounds confusing, my brain is practically addled with it all. :)

Daphne, from Ancestry:
AncestryDNA® ThruLines™ (https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-ThruLines)

are these links to other folk definite dna links

No.
"Since ThruLines™ are based on the family trees of you and other members of Ancestry, they're as accurate as the trees they're based on."

"Because they're based on trees, ThruLines™ don't prove your specific connection to a DNA match."

or just because we all have the same name in our tree?

Yes.
"We use the family tree linked to your test to find people who are in your tree and are also in your matches' linked trees."

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I think the DNA connection to a specific individual (your "match") is definite (you do share some snippet or snippets of DNA, large or small, close or distant) but that is all you know.

Your tree and his/her tree might match for the right reasons or for entirely wrong reasons. To give an extreme example, if you and your DNA match share a family trait of wanting to be related to royalty and you each have a tree jerryrigged to make you a direct descendant of Alfred the Great and Genghis Khan, then that tree match should light up brilliantly on ThruLines.

Does that help, or have I made matters worse? (Full disclosure: I haven't used ThruLines yet. :o:d)

[Durham Lady]

Here's an example of what I am seeing for 1 line, I've removed names from the 3 matches. The common ancestor seems to be George Gregore c 1720. I descend from a daughter they descent from a son.

Predicted relationship: 4th–6th Cousin
Shared DNA: 41 cM across 1 segments

Predicted relationship: 5th–8th Cousin
Shared DNA: 10 cM across 2 segments

Predicted relationship: 5th–8th Cousin
Shared DNA: 9 cM across 1 segments

[Phoenix]

When you click on shared matches, for the lower cMs, do they show the higher cM as a shared match?

My personal gut (and therefore unscientific) opinion is that if the link is a birth 300 years ago, there are 999 other links that it might be, or just a local DNA.

Does the 41 cM match link to any other DNA matches? That seems a very strong link for so distant a cousin.

[Durham Lady]

When you click on shared matches, for the lower cMs, do they show the higher cM as a shared match?

My personal gut (and therefore unscientific) opinion is that if the link is a birth 300 years ago, there are 999 other links that it might be, or just a local DNA.

Does the 41 cM match link to any other DNA matches? That seems a very strong link for so distant a cousin.

I'll have to check all that out, Oh, the 41cm match is descended from the same daughter as me but a younger brother of my 2x great grandfather.