Category: General Info

A great many family members have started a family tree on Ancestry. One thing you have to do with hints is view the supporting documentation/sources. If you just pull in info from member trees you may get wrong information and make a mess of your tree and information. I know because I’ve done it. When evaluating member trees in hints. Always, before inporting the information, check out the sources. I am not saying to always ignore the information. It may give you a “hint” to dig a little deeper. Also don’t just add a source without verifing the information in the source. Ancestry supplies hints based on “best available” information. I would say maybe 80% is accurate. But there is that 20% that may be wrong. Bottom line, check the sources.

A few observations about DNA testing. I am finding very interesting information via DNA. Here is a little overview.

I did the Ancestry DNA test. Ancestry tests your Autosomal DNA which is pairs of 22 X and Y-Chromosome’s and one Sex.

I may do the Y-DNA (Y-Chromosome) at some point, Ancestry does not do Y. Males pass down the Y-Chromosome in it’s entirety from generation to generation. Mitochondrial DNA tests trace people’s matrilineal (mother-line) through their mitochondria, which are passed from mothers to their children.

You will get thousands of DNA matches. And Ancestry & My Heritage will show you how much Chromosones are matched. The higher the percentage the greater the match. For instance for mom there is this.

Shared DNA: 3,470 cM across 32 segments

Unweighted shared DNA: 3,470 cM

Longest segment: 203 cM

A centimorgan (abbreviated cM) is a unit of measure for the frequency of genetic recombination. 1 cM = 1% chance of a split/match.

Don’t get me wrong you can get matches on the Paternal side as well. For instance I have a match for a cousin that was adopted out. Born an Ackerman and was adopted out in the first year. I didn’t know about this cousin until 2020.

Shared DNA: 493 cM across 23 segments

Unweighted shared DNA: 493 cM

Longest segment: 55 cM

This is pretty definitive that he is my 1st Cousin 1x removed (my cousin’s son) whom we recently discovered. However I am unable to research him any further without knowing his birth father.

It is said that any match with less than 20 cM is unreliable. So tread lightly on those as possible. The key would be supporting source documentation.

There are many things you can gleen from DNA and I encourage you to go ahead and do it.

I recently added Pro Tools to my Ancestry.com. This has put me on a course that is very interesting. When I looked at my DNA matches, those that either didn’t have a tree or have a private tree, meaning I can’t see it, I thought what’s the point. Yes, it’s a DNA match but now what? With Pro Tools you can take that DNA match and view Shared Matches. Anyone who is alive shows up as “Private” in their tree, if they have one. You may have a name for the initial match. Or you may have initials. And it will show you male or female. So there you have 2 clues. If you don’t have the last name in your tree, that’s where Shared Matches can come into play. A shared match may have the last name.

I will actually add that person to my tree as a floater. How do I do that? I add them as a sister or brother to me then go to their profile then to Edit Relationships and remove mom and dad. Now they are in my tree just sitting there all alone. So if I added Jane Doe, I can then add a father with the last name Doe with no first name. I may take a guess for a birth year. If a shared match has Doe in their tree, Jane is most likely a relative. Of course Doe could be a married name. So sometimes you may need to add a husband with the last name of Doe.

Then more searches. Maybe I’ll get a city and state from the shared match, so I’ll do a Google search for Jane Doe in that city. As you can see just because they have no tree, doesn’t mean I can’t find them. It just takes a bit of digging. Now if they have a basic tree with maybe grandparents, that makes things a bit easier.

So far I have added a bunch of family members this way. Adding the match and a bunch of the matches relatives.