Thanks for spreading the word. These welcome facilities were rolled out some time ago now. Unfortunately the list of relationships to pick from does not go further out than 5th cousins, so one has to pick distant relationship - not so useful.
I'm delight that Andy included how one can potentially separate Mother's/Father's side when neither took the DNA test. This technique is quite helpful. I just wish more of my family was interested and willing to take the DNA tests. I seem to have plenty of 5th cousins. Where are the rest of my relatives? Thank you for showing us this new Ancestry tool.
I agree with Trevor Rix. I wish they took the options down to 5th Removeds and 6th. I've been picking 5th, and then adding 'actually 5th once removed', for example, in notes. Maybe this will be expanded soon. I can hope....
Devon says: I used this feature on my Aunt's DNA match list that I manage. We don't have parents who have tested, so all of our maternal/paternal is manual. However, when I use this with color-coding, notes, and the Shared Match list, I'm able to do some sorting of DNA more easily. I am blessed to have distinct grandparent and great-grandparent lines. However, I did discover enough DNA matches for a potential brother of my 2nd Great-Grandfather Samuel Curtis Brown. However, that potential brother is the aunt of Samuel's wife. So there's a little tree collapse happening. BUT enough folks who descendant from William Brown, I should be able to see if there are double relationships or just one. Fingers crossed. That'll involve WATO BUT I can use the AncestryDNA match list to make it work.
I guess I'm kind of lucky in that I have a large number of known family members (paternal and maternal) from close family to second cousins and for some time if I look at a match I just click on Shared Matches and see who we both match and if I know the lineages from those people I can figure out (most of the time) how we are probably related. Plus I've done enough of the on hands research that I have the documentation to back it up as well. However there is one situation that still is not resolved -- the time and place and persons of the Non-Paternal Event (NPE) of my direct male line. In other words, when and where did my family surname change from CHANDLER? Still do not know that.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics If I had all the answers no. However if I KNEW the biological paternal line I would be on the right track and not wasting time looking at the wrong documents. Plus it is my direct male line and there is somewhat of a spiritual thing there as well I guess. And I am not the only researcher interested in finding the lineage. The Chandler Family Association Y-chromosome DNA Project has an interest in finding the paternal ancestry of all of the groups but particularly Group 7 (of which I am considered Group 7A) which has four (to date as far as I know) subgroups 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D. Most participants of 7A are said to be descended from John Chandler the Emigrant -- arrived as a small boy in the flotilla of three ships one of which was carrying the first official Governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord De La Warr. So the bigger question for the CFA is first of all AM I a direct descendant of John Chandler and which lineage from him down to me OR am I a descendant from a first cousin or brother not yet discovered. At one time I was the Deputy Chairman of the CFA Genealogy Panel and would do research to help others with their brick walls. One of the resources I used was the CFA Lineage Database (CFALD). I found it a bit sobering that I would help others find their connection in CFALD, but, because my NPE is unknown my own lineage is not allowed in it. Only those WITH known Chandler ancestry. Also I was asked to upgrade my Y-chromosome to be a litmus of Group 7A. I did so. Even though it has not (to date) helped me personally to find my own NPE. But, I have other projects to keep me busy, so, it's not something that keeps me awake at night ;-) It would be nice to know, but, it isn't necessary if it never happens. Some records are just lost forever.
The color coding would probably only confuse me. I could not keep track of them eventually. Plus too many first cousin marriages, sisters and brothers of two family marriages, even a father and son married sisters marriage, not to mention lots of relations who are only halves (including my own half-siblings). I just do it manually in a notebook. Except I have figured out pretty easily which side is maternal or paternal all the way down to about 40 cM. One word of caution -- Ancestry DNA sometimes glitches (or did on me several times) and entire groups of matches will not show up unless you reset it. I figured out I needed to list them in order of cM's and make sure there are not large gaps between the cM's. Had to cross out an entire page of matches because it did that. And start again. But thanks to both of you for giving me an idea of how I can use the autosomal matches to my advantage. Still kind of disappointing that some administrators of DNA projects don't use autosomal matches at all -- only the Y DNA. Especially for some of us who have NPE's in our direct paternal line. I guess the one advantage is that I have TWO of those to research! lol Kind of like kids who have more than four grandparents.
Andy this is only great if you have one of the parents otherwise Ftdna beats this hands down with their algorithm. It's just way to much work doing this manually.
While I would love auto-tools over manual, auto-tools have just as many problems and manual work. And, not everyone has the ability to use auto-tools since they have unknown parentage or don't have the DNA of known parents. So, there are pros and cons to each. Is that no true?
Iain... I agree, Ancestry should stop making ethnicity improvements and focus on genetic genealogy tools. But, I wonder if they sold the ethnicity features rather than the tree building ones and they are trying to appease that crowd? I'm never sure.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics true but in this case I am referring to Ftdna algorithm that once you have a tree on their site and have linked some matches to the tree their algorithm can then flag some of your matches to maternal or paternal. This they do without parents dna being uploaded. Of course the trick is a tree and known matches that you can link to the tree. 😉.
I am in the process of doing this and have a question for when I have finished. Listing ALL of my Ancestry DNA matches in a notebook from largest cM's all the way down to the smallest (6 cM? or maybe smaller? not sure) and noting in the side margin P for Paternal and M for Maternal. The number of cM's for each match and my estimation of the most recent ancestors (couples if known or just one -- usually husband) that are probably how we match. Then is it better for me to start with the lower cM matches and do comparisons with Shared Matches and work my way UP to the higher ones OR is it better to start with the higher cM matches and work my way DOWN to the lower ones and why is one better than the other? I would probably choose the lower as I think that is where I would find more earlier ancestors (for those matches who may have already done that research) than my great-great grandparents (all of whose names I already have with documentation to back at least that much up). The one great-great grandmother still giving me fits is a JONES! lol Go figure! lol And her first name is Elizabeth! Talk about a generic name all around! lol
I don’t have my parents DNA but I have been color coding through connections. I am finding many people that are related to both my mom and dad. But I have no idea how. Is this common? I am also confused on how I should code. My dad’s side is easy because his family came from Switzerland and there are hardly any confirmed connections which is very sad to me. This was the side I was hoping to find. So I have been coding his that I can confirm to his mom’s side. My mom is throwing the wrench in things. When I find someone connected to a person that is connected to both sides do I make the main person connected to both sides as well? Or go with the majority of the same connections. Does that make sense lol See why I am confused lol TIA
Thank you for posting this however ancestry refuses to allow me to add ANYONE EXCEPT mother's side. Father's side is greyed out despite having DNA linked all of my close father matches which there are in fact more of. I have ZERO close mother matches on one test I manage. Why does it still say Mother's side with ZERO option to change this? HELP! LOL I have been trying to get a response from Ancestry about this apparent glitch since this was added.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Could you send me a screenshot? Use the form on our website begin the conversation. www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/contact
Hum...I did this for a 3rd cousin just now. She is on the fathers side and nothing changed for the other matches. I'm going to guess Ancestry has all the matches under 20cM blocked? Or she doesn't match anyone else? Which means all of the other matches are on the mothers side?
See my other response. I believe the feature referred to in this video only automatically sets sides of the tree if you have a parent tested. I don't have parents that are tested and I have to manually set my matches to mother or father's side on Ancestry.
Actually, this question is more complex because it depends on many factors. If you're trying to use the paternal cousin to trigger the maternal/paternal labels, that's not how it works. You have to manually designate the matches she matches with you as from the father's line. That won't capture all the father's line matches. just the ones that share DNA with her. There are other angles to answering the question but that's the first one.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Since this post two more 3rd cousins have popped up. No idea where in the tree they sit. They are on different companies, so not sure how they relate to each other. One did send a MRCA they think is the link. But the name is unknown. No X match and different Haplogroup. Still working with the other match. She is from Okinawa and has all Okinawan names.
I noticed Ancestry shows my daughter in law is 4% Southern Japanese. I noticed about half her matches have 0% Southern Japanese and the other half range 2 to 10% Southern Japanese. Could this indicate a mother / father side indication? I know it won't be 100% accurate.
Alan. That is very possible. I'm not an expert by any means but 4% Southern Japanese could be legit in and of itself (not a misread for a different country) and if you your daughter-in-law has matches that also have that same origin, that's a good indication that she has an ancestor with genetic ties to Japan. 4% is equivalent to a 3x Great-Grandparent + plus a little bit more that happened through random recombination or a combination of two different people. If your daughter-in-law can have her parents to do testing, it's possible to determine if this connection is through both parents or only one. She'd have to do more research.
@@calebrw She was adopted from Northern Japan. She has a 3rd cousin who we are pretty sure is on the father's side. She does not show any Southern Japanese. The cousin said their family originated from Hokkiado and moved to Aomori maybe in the 1880's.
@@calebrw Just for fun, I worked out if a MRCA for a 4th cousin was 100% Southern Japanese, the 4th cousin would be about 4%. Of course there could be other people mixed in. But it would also seem like I should not see about 40% of the matches having 2 to 10% Southern Japanese coming from one GGGP?
Thanks, I think it may be something else going on. A 3rd cousin from Okinawa just popped up recently. Her family tree has all what would be considered Okinawan names. She is working on who the link may be. Wait and see how this works out.
Sadly, I have a full time job that prevents me from taking clients. However, the folks at Legacy Tree Genealogists have some amazing Genetic Genealogists that would be happy to work with you. www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics
First, I never roll out videos regarding new features as soon as they go live. The tools often change dramatically. So, I like to wait for things to settle in. Second, MyHeritage makes recommendations and now has the ability to clarify the recommendations. So does ancestry.
Thanks for spreading the word. These welcome facilities were rolled out some time ago now. Unfortunately the list of relationships to pick from does not go further out than 5th cousins, so one has to pick distant relationship - not so useful.
Yep. Devon has found that to be true with her 5C1R and such.
I'm delight that Andy included how one can potentially separate Mother's/Father's side when neither took the DNA test. This technique is quite helpful. I just wish more of my family was interested and willing to take the DNA tests. I seem to have plenty of 5th cousins. Where are the rest of my relatives? Thank you for showing us this new Ancestry tool.
I wait until the test kits go on sale, then give them as gifts! People usually (not always) take them once they unwrap 'em. :-)
You're so welcome.
What I also do is check the shared matches. If we both share a match that I recognize as my fathers side, I have my answer. 😊
Great tip.
I agree with Trevor Rix. I wish they took the options down to 5th Removeds and 6th. I've been picking 5th, and then adding 'actually 5th once removed', for example, in notes.
Maybe this will be expanded soon. I can hope....
Devon would agree with you as well.
Devon says: I used this feature on my Aunt's DNA match list that I manage. We don't have parents who have tested, so all of our maternal/paternal is manual. However, when I use this with color-coding, notes, and the Shared Match list, I'm able to do some sorting of DNA more easily. I am blessed to have distinct grandparent and great-grandparent lines. However, I did discover enough DNA matches for a potential brother of my 2nd Great-Grandfather Samuel Curtis Brown. However, that potential brother is the aunt of Samuel's wife. So there's a little tree collapse happening. BUT enough folks who descendant from William Brown, I should be able to see if there are double relationships or just one. Fingers crossed. That'll involve WATO BUT I can use the AncestryDNA match list to make it work.
I guess I'm kind of lucky in that I have a large number of known family members (paternal and maternal) from close family to second cousins and for some time if I look at a match I just click on Shared Matches and see who we both match and if I know the lineages from those people I can figure out (most of the time) how we are probably related. Plus I've done enough of the on hands research that I have the documentation to back it up as well. However there is one situation that still is not resolved -- the time and place and persons of the Non-Paternal Event (NPE) of my direct male line. In other words, when and where did my family surname change from CHANDLER? Still do not know that.
If you had all the answers, would genealogy be fun? Good luck on figuring out the name change.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics If I had all the answers no. However if I KNEW the biological paternal line I would be on the right track and not wasting time looking at the wrong documents. Plus it is my direct male line and there is somewhat of a spiritual thing there as well I guess.
And I am not the only researcher interested in finding the lineage. The Chandler Family Association Y-chromosome DNA Project has an interest in finding the paternal ancestry of all of the groups but particularly Group 7 (of which I am considered Group 7A) which has four (to date as far as I know) subgroups 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D.
Most participants of 7A are said to be descended from John Chandler the Emigrant -- arrived as a small boy in the flotilla of three ships one of which was carrying the first official Governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord De La Warr.
So the bigger question for the CFA is first of all AM I a direct descendant of John Chandler and which lineage from him down to me OR am I a descendant from a first cousin or brother not yet discovered.
At one time I was the Deputy Chairman of the CFA Genealogy Panel and would do research to help others with their brick walls. One of the resources I used was the CFA Lineage Database (CFALD). I found it a bit sobering that I would help others find their connection in CFALD, but, because my NPE is unknown my own lineage is not allowed in it. Only those WITH known Chandler ancestry.
Also I was asked to upgrade my Y-chromosome to be a litmus of Group 7A. I did so. Even though it has not (to date) helped me personally to find my own NPE.
But, I have other projects to keep me busy, so, it's not something that keeps me awake at night ;-) It would be nice to know, but, it isn't necessary if it never happens. Some records are just lost forever.
I am trying to colour code my DNA matches, however I need to edit or correct the name of my great grandparents. Any idea how to do that?
The color coding would probably only confuse me. I could not keep track of them eventually.
Plus too many first cousin marriages, sisters and brothers of two family marriages, even a father and son married sisters marriage, not to mention lots of relations who are only halves (including my own half-siblings).
I just do it manually in a notebook. Except I have figured out pretty easily which side is maternal or paternal all the way down to about 40 cM.
One word of caution -- Ancestry DNA sometimes glitches (or did on me several times) and entire groups of matches will not show up unless you reset it. I figured out I needed to list them in order of cM's and make sure there are not large gaps between the cM's. Had to cross out an entire page of matches because it did that. And start again.
But thanks to both of you for giving me an idea of how I can use the autosomal matches to my advantage. Still kind of disappointing that some administrators of DNA projects don't use autosomal matches at all -- only the Y DNA. Especially for some of us who have NPE's in our direct paternal line. I guess the one advantage is that I have TWO of those to research! lol Kind of like kids who have more than four grandparents.
No worries. A tool is only helpful if it helps your research. If it creates more confusion, don't use it.
I LOVE this new feature!
Glad you like it.
Andy this is only great if you have one of the parents otherwise Ftdna beats this hands down with their algorithm. It's just way to much work doing this manually.
Ancestry have a lot to learn from their competitors!
While I would love auto-tools over manual, auto-tools have just as many problems and manual work. And, not everyone has the ability to use auto-tools since they have unknown parentage or don't have the DNA of known parents. So, there are pros and cons to each. Is that no true?
Iain... I agree, Ancestry should stop making ethnicity improvements and focus on genetic genealogy tools. But, I wonder if they sold the ethnicity features rather than the tree building ones and they are trying to appease that crowd? I'm never sure.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics true but in this case I am referring to Ftdna algorithm that once you have a tree on their site and have linked some matches to the tree their algorithm can then flag some of your matches to maternal or paternal. This they do without parents dna being uploaded. Of course the trick is a tree and known matches that you can link to the tree. 😉.
I am in the process of doing this and have a question for when I have finished.
Listing ALL of my Ancestry DNA matches in a notebook from largest cM's all the way down to the smallest (6 cM? or maybe smaller? not sure) and noting in the side margin P for Paternal and M for Maternal. The number of cM's for each match and my estimation of the most recent ancestors (couples if known or just one -- usually husband) that are probably how we match.
Then is it better for me to start with the lower cM matches and do comparisons with Shared Matches and work my way UP to the higher ones OR is it better to start with the higher cM matches and work my way DOWN to the lower ones and why is one better than the other?
I would probably choose the lower as I think that is where I would find more earlier ancestors (for those matches who may have already done that research) than my great-great grandparents (all of whose names I already have with documentation to back at least that much up). The one great-great grandmother still giving me fits is a JONES! lol Go figure! lol And her first name is Elizabeth! Talk about a generic name all around! lol
I would work from known matches with largest shared cMs to the smallest. The smallest cMs are more difficult to figure out.
I don’t have my parents DNA but I have been color coding through connections. I am finding many people that are related to both my mom and dad. But I have no idea how. Is this common? I am also confused on how I should code. My dad’s side is easy because his family came from Switzerland and there are hardly any confirmed connections which is very sad to me. This was the side I was hoping to find. So I have been coding his that I can confirm to his mom’s side. My mom is throwing the wrench in things. When I find someone connected to a person that is connected to both sides do I make the main person connected to both sides as well? Or go with the majority of the same connections. Does that make sense lol See why I am confused lol TIA
Thank you so much. I've seen the "Do you know this person" tab but never paid any attention to it.
Glad I could help you understand it.
what do you do if you made a mistake in selecting which parent and you confirmed. How can this be fixed?
Click the match. Underneath their username at the top click the pencil to make amendments.
Thanks Trevor for answering this.
Thank you for posting this however ancestry refuses to allow me to add ANYONE EXCEPT mother's side. Father's side is greyed out despite having DNA linked all of my close father matches which there are in fact more of. I have ZERO close mother matches on one test I manage. Why does it still say Mother's side with ZERO option to change this? HELP! LOL I have been trying to get a response from Ancestry about this apparent glitch since this was added.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Could you send me a screenshot? Use the form on our website begin the conversation. www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/contact
Hum...I did this for a 3rd cousin just now. She is on the fathers side and nothing changed for the other matches. I'm going to guess Ancestry has all the matches under 20cM blocked? Or she doesn't match anyone else? Which means all of the other matches are on the mothers side?
See my other response. I believe the feature referred to in this video only automatically sets sides of the tree if you have a parent tested. I don't have parents that are tested and I have to manually set my matches to mother or father's side on Ancestry.
@@calebrw OH OK. I thought it looked for matches to that person and marked them.
Had the same thought. I already color code them so now I have to go back in and manually say which side they're on? Meh.
Actually, this question is more complex because it depends on many factors. If you're trying to use the paternal cousin to trigger the maternal/paternal labels, that's not how it works. You have to manually designate the matches she matches with you as from the father's line. That won't capture all the father's line matches. just the ones that share DNA with her.
There are other angles to answering the question but that's the first one.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Since this post two more 3rd cousins have popped up. No idea where in the tree they sit. They are on different companies, so not sure how they relate to each other. One did send a MRCA they think is the link. But the name is unknown. No X match and different Haplogroup. Still working with the other match. She is from Okinawa and has all Okinawan names.
I noticed Ancestry shows my daughter in law is 4% Southern Japanese. I noticed about half her matches have 0% Southern Japanese and the other half range 2 to 10% Southern Japanese. Could this indicate a mother / father side indication? I know it won't be 100% accurate.
Alan. That is very possible. I'm not an expert by any means but 4% Southern Japanese could be legit in and of itself (not a misread for a different country) and if you your daughter-in-law has matches that also have that same origin, that's a good indication that she has an ancestor with genetic ties to Japan. 4% is equivalent to a 3x Great-Grandparent + plus a little bit more that happened through random recombination or a combination of two different people.
If your daughter-in-law can have her parents to do testing, it's possible to determine if this connection is through both parents or only one. She'd have to do more research.
@@calebrw She was adopted from Northern Japan. She has a 3rd cousin who we are pretty sure is on the father's side. She does not show any Southern Japanese. The cousin said their family originated from Hokkiado and moved to Aomori maybe in the 1880's.
@@calebrw Just for fun, I worked out if a MRCA for a 4th cousin was 100% Southern Japanese, the 4th cousin would be about 4%. Of course there could be other people mixed in. But it would also seem like I should not see about 40% of the matches having 2 to 10% Southern Japanese coming from one GGGP?
The size of the Japanese reference population is so small, I'm not surprised you're not seeing larger percentages (or matches for that matter.)
Thanks, I think it may be something else going on.
A 3rd cousin from Okinawa just popped up recently. Her family tree has all what would be considered Okinawan names. She is working on who the link may be. Wait and see how this works out.
How can someone hire you! I want to find my dad
Sadly, I have a full time job that prevents me from taking clients. However, the folks at Legacy Tree Genealogists have some amazing Genetic Genealogists that would be happy to work with you. www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics
This is been available for many months, it could be automatic without the need to do them one by one as myHeritage already does
First, I never roll out videos regarding new features as soon as they go live. The tools often change dramatically. So, I like to wait for things to settle in.
Second, MyHeritage makes recommendations and now has the ability to clarify the recommendations. So does ancestry.