DNA: Gamechanging Ancestry Pro Tools

Professor Claire Bradley of the International Institute of Genealogical Studies helps students learn the benefits of using Ancestry's new Pro Tools and how they can make a huge difference in your genealogical work using DNA matching. This is a recording of a live class event our students attend. You're invited to sit in and learn along with us.
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[@Disblair]

Nice explanation. The problem I have is understanding the layout of the shared matches and how people are related to each other. I am really struggling to get my head round it and it is always just briefly mentioned in the videos I have watched, including this one. I guess I will just have to bite the bullet, pay the money, and hope I can figure it out.😢

[@GenealogicalStudies]

We'd love to have you in classes with us. :)

[@clairebradley9912]

It's one row of your matches and one row of the shared match's in common matches. Yours are in descending order but theirs are not. You can sort yours in oldest to newest as well. Be careful of the relationship labels on the in common matches, they are not necessarily a confirmed relationship but a most likely. You should still consider other possibilities even for close relations.

[@mattpotter8725]

It basically now tells you how many cM you match shares with the person in your shared matches, so say you have a match that matches you at a predicted 2nd cousin distance, and in the shared matches for that match you have someone with and the same number of cMs, they might be sisters or they might be 1st cousins, or 2nd cousins to each other (or any other possible relationship), which previously we'd never been able to know unless maybe they had trees or matched or didn't match other people themselves, but it was basically a bit of a guessing game, without doing a lot of work and then, having done this it can almost be impossible to work out. Also they tell now, the new Pro Tools feature, they give you all matches not just the ones over 20cM, so ones all the way down to 8cM, which really helps if you're looking for distant ancestors, in my case where a great great grandfather came from, and identify and contact distant cousins through him.

[@lindleyroff1096]

I do not yet have Pro Tools. I have been using both Family Tree Maker (FTM) and Ancestry (without Pro Tools) and have been adding my DNA Match Notes to FTM. Most of my matches are back in the 70 Cm or lower range, most of which I have identified MRCA. Given that I have both FTM and Ancestry without Protools and have identified most of my matches between 70 and 25 Cm, any idea what benefit it would be at this time to obtain Pro Tools. Many thanks, Lindley in Western Canada

[@GenealogicalStudies]

Hi Lindley, I'll forward your question to Claire. However, she is out of office for a holiday. I'm sure she will check in as soon as she can. Thank you for your question. Angie

[@clairebradley9912]

You can use them to flesh out your tree by perhaps seeing people who are close matches to each other. I've noticed a big variance between siblings and how they match people. A man who matches my brother at 11cM matches me at 89cM - he's our 3C1R. One of the good things about Pro Tool is the monthly sub, so you can try it at a low cost for one month and see if it gives you value, then cancel if you don't want it any more.

[@ConcettaPhillipps]

I have found it when notes/groups aren't saving on the shared matches page to do it from the main DNA profile page and it will save.

[@clairebradley9912]

I'm noticing fewer bugs like this a month on from launch.