AncestryHealth Results are in!

Recently, Ancestry.com announced the introduction of AncestryHealth, providing health and wellness reports for the first time. It costs $49 on top of the original DNA test price, and they are also offering a subscription (currently by invite only) that will include ongoing updates and new reports added in the future. This is very different to how other major testing companies offer health reports, subscriptions are not the norm and frankly I think it's a little cheeky from Ancestry, and I will not be paying the subscription.

But I did pay the one time fee for the current reports to see what they're like and the results are in. For people who tested particularly on the old v1 chip, your DNA has to be rerun through the lab because the raw data isn't ideal for the health reports they're offering, so it took a little bit of time for the results to come in.

AncestryHealth is offering 4 types of reports: Cancer Risk, Carrier Status, Heart & Blood Health, and Wellness Reports.

Under Cancer, there's currently only 2 reports: Hereditary Breast & Ovarian Cancer Syndrome, and Lynch Syndrome. They are careful to note that "No DNA differences found, but other factors may increase your chance of developing cancer." They also detail the fact that their test only includes 27 of the more than 2,400 DNA differences in the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. None of the genealogy related DNA tests that offer health reports include all known SNPs associated with cancer (or any other given condition). The only consumer DNA test that does is Color.

Carrier Status includes 3: Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Tay-Sachs Disease.

Heart & Blood Health has 4 reports: Cardiomyopathy, Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Hereditary Hemochromatosis, Hereditary Thrombophilia.

And finally 8 under Wellness Reports: Beta-Carotene, Caffeine Consumption, Lactose Intolerance, Omega-3, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E.

Unsurprisingly, there aren't many reports yet and it doesn't tell me very much, at least not much that I didn't already know. It was much the same when 23andMe first reintroduced their health reports too, the only difference is, 23andMe continue to update and add new reports at no extra cost whereas AncestryHealth are charging a subscription for it. I'm not really sure why Ancestry think that this will be competitive pricing, as it will be far more expensive for users in the long run. MyHeritage recently joined the health band wagon too, and like 23andMe, do not require a subscription for new reports.

So is AncestryHealth worth the extra $49? Right now, not really. Maybe in the future as they add more reports, it will become more useful but it's unclear if merely buying the test in the future will gain you those new reports that I can now only get if I subscribe. Seems silly to punish people for being early customers, but at the same time if AncestryHealth Core (the non-subscription) remains the way it is with only 13 reports, it will be a pretty pathetic health report. Ancestry haven't been very forthcoming with the details on the subscription though. Unless they decide to drop the subscription idea altogether, I doubt very much I'll ever recommend AncestryHealth at all. 23andMe provides much more information at a lower cost (in the long run), but remember, even 23andMe is not comprehensive. Even Promethease, with it's hundreds of reports, is not comprehensive because the raw DNA data it's working off of is not comprehensive and only includes a small portion of our full genetic profile.

Yet Another AncestryDNA Ethnicity Update

AncestryDNA's latest ethnicity update

AncestryDNA had promised another update to their ethnicity report this year, despite there only have been one last year (which was still being rolled out the last people earlier this year too) and it seems to be rolling out already, with little to no beta test like last time.

The reference panel has now jumped up to 40,017 samples, but don't assume that means it's going to be more accurate. As ever, it depends on the individual, and just how admixed you are. Also, unlike last year's update, we're not seeing any new percentage groups in Europe (though I do believe there's new ones in the Americas), just a change to the percentages (though there are some new Genetic Communities).

For me personally, the report just keeps getting worse and worse. They have now removed my Scandinavian results entirely, which is a shame because I did have one Norwegian great grandfather so I should be roughly 12-13% Norwegian. Of course, I may have inherited less than that from this particular great grandparent (and most ethnicity reports do reflect that), but I did inherit something from him (a great grandparent is not distant enough to not inherit anything), so the complete wipe away of any Scandinavian result at all (not even anything in Sweden, let alone Norway) is incredibly inaccurate and a shocking degradation.

Meanwhile, they've increased my French results even more to 21% (was 18%), even though I still don't have any recent French ancestry (I had a few French Huguenot ancestors from back in the 1600s, but we're talking about 2 or 3 out of 1024 or 2048 8th-9th great grandparents - a drop in the water that is generally too diluted to be detectable, and certainly shouldn't be as high as 21%).

They do appear to have removed a bunch of the low percentages that were likely noise, or coming from neighboring regions. That seems like a plus at first, but since my valid Scandinavian results were among them, it doesn't seem like a great improvement.

The other only changes were the swap of Germanic and England/Wales/NW Europe in terms of percentage amount. Previously, I had highest results in England/Wales, which was consistent with my tree, now I have highest results in Germanic.

My Italy results remained my the same, which might seem like a positive (at least they didn't go down), but they are remaining stubbornly at 12% when I should be about 32% (and this one I know for sure because my paternal grandfather tested and I share 18% with him, leaving me to share 32% with my Southern Italian paternal grandmother). I suppose the rest of my Italian DNA is showing up in France. If you look below, the map for France does cover Northern Italy, but of course I don't have ancestry in Northern Italy, only Southern, and AncestryDNA are the only ones who seemingly can't figure this out (well, they are the only ones trying to give France it's own category apart from LivingDNA which more accurately give me 0% in France).

In addition to these changes, we've also seen a redefinition of the maps. Although the categories haven't changed, they've just altered the maps to better reflect the regions each category is supposed to cover. At the same time, they've taken away the page that included more in depth details and background on each category, which is a major regression if you ask me. We now only have a short paragraph with info on the region and it no longer lists the "secondary" areas that each category covers, even though the maps still include them.

As you can see above, there is no longer a link to click for more information. AncestryDNA keep removing more and more details and information, as though they think we are too stupid to understand it. People are simply now going to have more questions and understand the results even less.

Also note how the map for France still shows the surrounding areas that this category includes, but for some inexplicable reason, AncestryDNA has decided to only include the "Primarily located in" information, which only lists France, and no longer lists the "Also included in" areas shown in the map, like Spain, Italy, etc. That won't be confusing for people at all.

I really don't know what they are thinking sometimes, and since they rarely ever explain or communicate their choices to their customers (apart from "we think this is better"), I doubt we'll get an explanation. We still never even saw the return of the Average Admixture chart (shown left) when it was lost in last years update, which was so useful for understanding what regions shared a lot of DNA with what neighboring areas (God forbid they actually admit that is a thing).

Having said all that, the report does seem to have improved for people who are less mixed, just like last years update. My half Italian dad's results went from 44% Italian (which is reasonably close to half) to exactly 50%. The rest of his results didn't change much, which means he still has too much in England/Wales and not enough in Germanic (only 5% Germanic when he should be more like 30%).

My paternal grandfather's results have evened out a little bit - his tree is roughly half German and half Scots-Irish (maybe some English), and his update says 51% England/Wales, and 31% Germanic, a slight improvement from 67% England/Wales and 23% Germanic.

My husband is the least mixed of all. He is a British native, born and raised, but half Irish. Grouping his ancestry the way AncestryDNA does, he'd be about 40% English and 60% Irish/Scottish. Last year's update gave him 38% England/Wales and 61% Ireland/Scotland with a random noise level of 1% in Benin/Togo. Today's update has him at 43% England/Wales and 56% in Ireland/Scotland. Not much of a change and still pretty consistent with his background, apart from that random 1% they've now put in Nigeria.

As for my mom's results, her previous update from last year saw no results whatsoever in Germanic even though she should be around 20%. Meanwhile, her Norwegian results, which should have been around 25% (that Norwegian great grandfather of mine was her grandfather) were inflated at 40% last year. She now had 10% Germanic, which is better than nothing, and 27% in Norway, which is almost spot on. The only thing a little off is the 14% in Sweden.

How have your results changed? For the better or worse?

Breaking Down More Brick Walls with DNA and ThruLines

Previously, I detailed how I broke down one brick wall with the aid of my DNA matches, involving a suspected maiden name. This time, I'm going to detail how it helped me prove that my ancestor Jonathan Deaves was the son of Isaac Deaves.

My 3rd great grandmother, Mary W Deaves was always a huge brick wall in my tree. When I first got into genealogy, I started out where my grandmother had left off with her research. She did not even have Mary's maiden name. I was able to find Mary's death record (shown left) which said her father's name was Jonathan Deaves. That at least gave me her maiden name, and her father's name, but there was no mother's name and for years I was not able to find out anything more about her father. I had no idea when he was born or died, though I assumed it was probably somewhere in or around Philadelphia since that's where his daughter lived. I had no idea who he married or when or where, or who his parents might have been. By the time of the 1850 census, Mary was already married and I couldn't narrow down any Jonathan or Jon/John Deaves, Daves, or even Davis in census records as conclusively the one I was looking for. So I'd made a little headway but I was stuck again, just like my grandmother had been.

Deaves seemed like a fairly unique name, although it is also written as Daves or Davis sometimes, which are very common, but I thought I'd give my DNA matches a search for the more unique spelling. Three matches showed up, and they were all descended from an Isaac Deaves or his father, Thomas Deaves. Looking into the records, Isaac Deaves did indeed have a son named Jonathan (named in Isaac's will) but how could I be sure he was the Jonathan Deaves I was looking for? The location was right but the will didn't mention any of Jonathan's children, or any other information about him (though even if it had, I had no other info on my Jonathan so how could I confirm it?). I couldn't find any other records to help confirm it either and I thought three matches were a good lead, but not conclusive. It didn't seem like quite enough, especially since I couldn't find anyone descended from Jonathan himself.

Then ThruLines happened. And suddenly, it was finding connections I hadn't been able to find. It's showing Isaac Deaves as a potential ancestor! I look again, and I (and my mom, who is one generation closer) now have six matches descended from Isaac, one from Jonathan, and three from Thomas for a total of ten, most of whom also matched each other (an important factor) and most of whom share a 15+ cM segment with me or my mom (meaning they are definitely identical by descent). I carefully went through each one and confirmed their descent from these men - it doesn't mean much to have this many matches to one branch if there's an error somewhere and most or none of them are actually descended from these ancestors. But once you do have this many numbers, it becomes less likely they each have an error, especially when they are descended from different generations in the same line because that means they can't have all just copied the same error.

Interestingly, I also have one other DNA match who is descended from a Deaves family in Glouchestershire, England, which is supposedly where Thomas's father was from (another Isaac), but I haven't been able to confirm this yet and with only one match, I can't confirm it with DNA. Hopefully with more research (either on the paper trail or with DNA), I can confirm or disprove it eventually. For now, I'm very happy with my breakthrough.

ThruLines only picked up on 4 people descended from Isaac, I found the
other 2

How to use Ancestry.com's Sharing Links

Many people, both Ancestry.com users and non-users, seem to be unaware of the company's option to provide a link of an individual record that anyone, even those without an account or subscription, can view, so I think it's important I detail how to use it to get the most out of it, both when sharing and receiving. The transcription is limited and you have to use your browser's option to save the image, but the image (when there is one) is available in full size to anyone when using this link. It's particularly useful to use with records that are only available online at Ancestry.com (and in my screenshots, I'm deliberating using a record from a collection only available online at Ancestry.com as an example). The link also does not expire like it does at some other websites so there's no time limit on accessing the record. So how does it work?

Ancestry.com has a help article with details, however it doesn't cover how to get a shareable link without actually emailing it to someone or posting it on Facebook or Twitter, and doesn't detail how to save the image of the record from the sharing link, so that's what I'm going to cover.

Click the "Share" button and select an option

For Ancestry.com subscribers:
1. Open any record on Ancestry.com that you want to share. Maybe you want to share it on Facebook or other social media, or you're adding it as a source to a collaborative tree like FamilySearch or Wikitree.

2. In the upper right area, click the "Share" button (shown above) - if the Share button doesn't appear, try refreshing the page. There will be three options, one to email someone a link, one for posting it to Facebook, and one for posting it to Twitter. If you're actually doing one of these things, then just select the appropriate option. Be aware that when selecting Facebook, it does not seem to give you the option to post it to one of your Facebook groups, let alone a specific topic within a group. So this is only an option if you want to share it in your newsfeed with all your friends. If you do want to post it in a specific topic in a Facebook group, use the following option instead...

To get a shareable link to copy and paste anywhere, close the popup window

3. To get just a shareable link that you can copy and paste to anywhere, select either the Facebook or Twitter option (the email option doesn't work with this for some reason) but instead of posting it to Facebook or Twitter, close the popup window. Either click the little X in the upper right corner of the popup window, or click "cancel" (shown above). The window will close and then a new popup window will come up with the option to copy a shareable link (shown below). Click the URL once and it should select the link, then right click it and choose "copy". You can then paste it anywhere you want.

Copy the sharing link to paste it anywhere

For non-Ancestry.com users:
1. Whenever you see an Ancestry.com link to a record that includes the word "sharing" in the URL, that means it's a shareable link and you'll be able to view it even if you don't have an Ancestry.com account or subscription.

As you can see, the transcription of the record is limited in the shareable view

2. When viewing the record, if it includes an image you want to save, first click on the image or the "click to zoom" option that comes up over it when you hover over it (shown above).

3. A popup window with the full image will appear - you can zoom in to read it better, but it does not matter what the zoom setting is at to save the image. There's no Ancestry.com option to save the image so you have to use your browser's option. Right click the image and select "save image as" or "save picture as" or whatever similar terminology the browser you're using says (shown below). Then name and save the image to your computer as you normally would - make sure you note where you saved it so you don't have trouble finding it later.

Save the image to your computer

Hope this helps, have fun sharing!

National Geographic's Genographic Project Discontinued

If you've done a DNA test through National Geographic's Genographic Project and been to their site recently, you'll have seen the announcement of the discontinuation of their project. Kits are no longer available for sale, but if you have one, you can still send it in for processing until December 31, 2019. Existing test results will only be available until June 30, 2020. Here's the full announcement:

"The Genographic Project was launched in 2005 as a research project in collaboration with scientists and universities around the world with a goal of revealing patterns of human migration. Since then, nearly 1 million people have participated in The Genographic Project through National Geographic’s “Geno” DNA Ancestry kits. The public participation phase of this research project is ending and, as a result, effective May 31, 2019, Geno 2.0 DNA Ancestry kits are no longer available for purchase. If you have already purchased a kit, you may still send it in for processing until December 31, 2019. After December 31, National Geographic and our processing labs at Helix and FTDNA will no longer accept Geno kits for processing. 

If you have a Helix Geno 2.0 kit with an expiration date that already has passed, you may still request a new kit from Helix prior to December 1, 2019. A replacement kit fee of $25, plus standard shipping rates, will continue to apply. Replacement kits must also be submitted for processing prior to December 31, 2019. For replacement kits please contact Helix customer service at (844) 211 – 2070 or support@helix.com. 

National Geographic currently plans to maintain this site, through which customers may access their results, until June 30, 2020. We recommend that you download a printable version of your results for later reference through the Print Your Results link available on your individual results homepage. Please see our FAQ page for more information."

Full page screen capture

To be honest, I didn't get much use out of my Geno 2.0 results anyway, and this doesn't hugely surprise me. I would take screenshots or save your results as a PDF, and of course download your raw DNA data. This way, you can retain all your reports and results after they are removed from the site. Since the Geographic Project didn't do much (if at all?) in the way of updating reports and didn't offer DNA matching with other testers, we aren't really losing anything if we save our reports and download our raw DNA data.

To download your raw DNA data, just go to your profile (go to https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/results/myprofile once logged in) and scroll down to where it says "This CSV file contains the raw analytical output from your DNA sample." Tick the box for "I agree to these terms" and click the "submit" button, then follow the instructions.

As for saving your reports and analyses, there is a print option on the site and in the print preview window, you can select "save as pdf" under Destination. However, be aware that this doesn't save any of the maps for some reason (it even saves the "heat map" text with references to the map without the heat map - some use that is!). To do that, I would highly recommend using a Chrome extension called Full Page Screen Capture to take full screenshots of all your reports. With the extension, you can save each page either as PDF or an image. It's a great little tool that comes in handy for more than just this, and it's very easy to use.

ThruLines No Longer in Beta

It's official, ThruLines is here to stay and DNA Circles have been permanently retired. If you're upset by this, check out my article on why ThruLines really is an improvement.

More than that, they've rolled out a few improvements to ThruLines and the match review page. Nothing major, but small things can have a huge impact on your workflow and several of these new items will do just that.

In ThruLines/Common Ancestors:

When viewing pathways with a DNA match to a common or potential common ancestor, clicking on individuals now first brings up a side bar on the right that lists "Relationship Records", which DNA matches have that individual in their trees, and which other trees (not DNA matches) have them in their trees. You can then click on any of those trees and basic data will appear in the same side bar so you don't even have to leave the DNA pages (though of course if you want to bring up someone's full tree you still can by clicking from the side bar). This really helps to streamline your workflow by not having to open as many new pages.

And let's go back to this new "Relationship Records" feature. In the side bar, it will list what records can be found which identify someone as the parent/child of someone else, helping to prove ThruLines pathways may be accurate and not 100% based on tree data. Of course in the example above the only Relationship Record found was for Find A Grave, which is not necessarily reliable - Find A Grave doesn't exact include source citations and often people get linked to the wrong families, etc. So be careful even with these Relationship Records, but they should be useful in general.

Another improvement you might have noticed is the "evaluate" tag shown on anyone who isn't in your tree already. This helps point out (particularly to newcomers) that ThruLines is only a suggestion and you still need to verify (or disprove) it before accepting it as fact.

On the match review page:

We can now view a 10 generation pedigree preview from the match review page like we used to be able to do before all these changes. Granted, you now have to click on "expand tree" which opens a popup box, and I believe this is only available to subscribers, but it's better than having to open a match's full tree in a whole new tab. And while non-subscribers can only view the 5 generation pedigree preview (so I've heard), that is better than the nothing they had before. So this should be an improvement for subscribers, and a big improvement for non-subscribers.

The preview of basic data on an individual in a match's pedigree is also back. When you click on someone in the pedigree preview, instead of opening their full details in the full tree in a new tab, we see the return of the popup box with vital data: birth, death, parents, spouse, and children. These are the basic things we need to more quickly identify a DNA match without getting cluttered with everything else that might appear on an ancestor's profile in their full tree.

But it's more than just the return of what we had before. If you notice in the expanded pedigree preview above, shared surnames are now highlight in green, something we've never had before! Of course, shared surname doesn't necessarily mean that's the branch which your relationship is from but the incorporation of shared surnames into the pedigree preview could be really beneficial for quicker reference.

There are still a few items I have complaints about, but they are mostly regarding the match review page, not ThruLines. It may be worth noting that the match review page, the match list, and the user profile are all still in beta, it's only ThruLines which has been fully rolled out now.

My main issues are:

1. We are we no longer able to select a tree when someone has an unlinked tree. We can click on it, but it opens the full tree view on another page - in the past, we could select an unlinked tree and instead of opening a new page, it would show the surname list, pedigree preview, and map/locations for that tree as though it was a linked tree, and then we could even toggle among other trees if the user had more than one. This was much more useful and without it, it's harder to compare surnames and locations and find a connection with an unlinked tree.

2. The loss of the Shared Locations list. The map is there but it would be much easier to see a list than have to click around the map. I never really used the map in the past, and found the locations list much easier to use.

3. There should be a distinction between "Common Ancestors" that appear in both my tree and my match's tree, versus ThruLines/Common Ancestors being found through combining multiple other trees together, which is much more speculative. If I have the same ancestor in my tree that a DNA match does, that should take priority and be a notable distinction from other ThruLines.

I guess with ThruLines coming out of Beta, this is unlikely to be implemented, but a girl can dream and hopefully with enough feedback, my other two complaints regarding the match review page might change.

Why ThruLines is an Improvement (Really!)

I've been hearing a lot of negativity about AncestryDNA's new feature ThruLines (aka Common Ancestors when viewing your match list - they are the same thing, just different ways to view them), which seems to be replacing both DNA Circles and Shared Ancestor Hints. It works by looking for a tree connection between you and a DNA match through other family trees, not just yours and your match's trees.

Naturally, this opens the system and connections up to a lot of room for error. We all know how inaccurate some trees out there can be, how those errors can get copied by the dozens, and I'm not going to pretend that this isn't an issue. Anytime you're working with trees, you absolutely must verify the information yourself before you accept it as fact.

But that doesn't mean ThruLines can't be useful. I've been working with them for a few weeks now, and I have found that the majority of them can be verified with a little work. Some of them I haven't been able to verify at all and remain unknowns, and others I have actually proven wrong, but the amount of them which I've been able to confirm far exceeds the old Shared Ancestors Hints which were limited to looking at your tree and your match's tree only. ThruLines is finding legit shared ancestors that neither the system or myself doing the work manually could have ever found before. Take the following example.

As you can see, Sally has a family tree with only 3 people in it and on top of that, it's a private tree. In the past, this would be a complete dead end. Unless I contacted her and she responded to tell me more about her tree or at least give me access (which I likely wouldn't do for every match at this distance), I would have completely written off this match in the past.

But now, ThruLines has found a common ancestor! Just by adding those mere 3 people to her tree and making her tree searchable even if it's private, Sally has allowed ThruLines to find a connection between us. Of course, I first have to make sure ThruLines isn't leading me astray, so let's look at the connection.

Part of what you're seeing here is the benefit of researching as far down the descendant lines of your ancestor's siblings as possible. When I first looked at our ThruLines relationship, I had only researched down to Samuel Gross, and Sally's tree only went back to her grandparent. The two generations in between were being filled in by ThruLines finding them in other trees. Of course, to verify the relationship, I had to do my own research and fill in the missing generations, but this was much easier since I'd already gotten a head start. I researched all the way down to Sally's grandfather, Robert. Since her tree was private, Robert was originally shown as private, but you can actually click on deceased people in private trees and get basic details like their name and birth, just like you would from clicking on results of a private tree in the search engine results (see below). If they are still living, you get nothing, as it should be - living people's privacy is always totally protected (also see below).

In the past, if a tree was private, we got nothing unless the tree owner chose to share info or an invite with us. But with ThruLines, we can now see which common ancestor we share and get basic data on each generation even from private trees, enough that we can then go and research the pathway ourselves and verify it, which is exactly what happened here.

ThruLines isn't perfect, of course. It's only as reliable as the trees it's using, and I have found errors in the trees it uses on occasion. Additionally, the system itself is not infallible and I have come across the occasional case where ThruLines is assuming two different people are the same person. In those cases, the error is with the system, not the trees it's using.

But we are genealogists - fact checking and verifying data is what we do. So let's do it! You might find ThruLines just as beneficial as I have so far. It has found common ancestors with people that the old system wouldn't have, and with people I never found have by searching manually on my own.

Are they really a 4th-6th cousin?

At all DNA companies, matching with other testers includes an estimated relationship (usually a range) based on how much DNA you share. The key word is "estimated". There's plenty of examples of finding relatives whose relationship to you actually winds up being outside the estimated range.

AncestryDNA has the option to click on how much DNA you share (when you're on the match review page - click the little "i" icon if you're on the match list page) where previously, it just gave us generic info about that estimated relationship degree. Now (and this may only be available on the new beta match list), it gives us specific probabilities of each possible relationship based on the exact amount of DNA you share. What I found is that sometimes, even their statistical probabilities don't stick within the estimated relationship range.

Above left is an example. This is with a confirmed 3rd cousin of my mom's, an estimated 4th-6th cousin. Again, it's not unusual that the actual relationship is outside the estimated range, but AncestryDNA's predicted relationship range doesn't even seem to be following their own statistical probabilities. As you can see, 65 cM shared has the highest probability (32%) of being 3rd cousins (or 2C2R, Half 2C1R, or Half 1C3R), which isn't even within their predicted 4th-6th cousin range. No prediction system is going to be perfect (because there's a lot of overlap between different relationships so no estimate will be exact), so I'm not saying anything is wrong with the system, I'm just pointing out that this new statistical probability option will tell you a lot more than the predicted relationship range, so don't overlook it.

Of course, this doesn't mean the actual relationship will always be the one with the highest probability. Lower down on my mom's list is a known 4th cousin sharing 57 cM, and the highest probability is still 3rd cousins at 28%. 4th cousins only have a 16% probability, but this match falls into that 16%.

These probabilities will especially be great for unknown close relations popping up, or telling the difference between full and half siblings. My grandfather's half niece, for example, has an estimated range of 1st-2nd cousin, but in the probabilities, it lists all the possible relationships, including half niece/nephew at 96% probability. In fact, at the amount of DNA they share, it doesn't even list 2nd cousins in the probabilities, ruling that out completely even though it's a part of the original predicted range.

DNA Painter offers the same type of probabilities, but collected from multiple companies, not just AncestryDNA data. It's a great tool for matches from companies who don't provide these probabilities, but now that AncestryDNA does, their internal probabilities are likely a better option for your AncestryDNA matches, since the data is specific to them.

More Changes from AncestryDNA

Yesterday, I clicked on a match to discover the old "Match Review" page and the newer "Compare" page had been combined into one. I kind of figured that's where they were headed with the changes they'd made to the beta match list, but I was pleased to see it finally happened.

Previously, there were certain features and tools missing from the newer "Compare" page, but the new "Common Ancestors" wasn't featured on the older "Match Review" page meaning you often had to open both pages to make full use of your matches. Additionally, there was no way to add a match to a group from either page, you could only do so from the match list. All of that has been resolved now, and they also reduced the size of the profile pictures, which previously took up almost the whole page on smaller screens - a complete waste of space that only forced us to scroll down more to see any useful information. These were some of my top complaints and now they're all fixed.

As you can see from the screenshot above, everything you need to make use of your matches (well, everything that AncestryDNA current offers) is on the single new page. You can add and edit notes, you can add the match to a group, you can see how much DNA you share without even having to click on anything, the pedigree preview is there (with the option to open their full tree), and Common Ancestors will show on the left if there are any. There's also the option to click on a built in tab to see your compared ethnicity and one for Shared Matches.

Where are the surname lists and location map? Don't worry, they're just a little further down the page (screenshot to the right). The only disappointing thing is that these no longer show all the way back to 10 generations, and the pedigree preview no longer shows back to 7 generations. They are now all limited to a mere 5 generations, which seems much too restrictive in my opinion. That means they only include back to your 3rd great grandparents, which means they will only apply to as distant as 4th cousins! I think we can all agree that there are many, many more distant yet legitimately identical by descent matches than that. Even ThruLines/Common Ancestors goes back further than that (5th great grandparents, or 7 generations). What this means is if there's no ThruLines/Common Ancestor found for a match, we're going to have to open up more pages to explore most matches deeper for a common ancestor, and that seems counter-productive to an efficient workflow. It almost feels as though AncestryDNA is trying to force us to be more reliant on ThruLines than anything else, which would be a big mistake considering ThruLines will only ever be as reliable as the trees it's using.

If you agree with these complaints and/or have any others of your own, remember to keep sending feedback to AncestryDNA through the "Prodvide Feedback" option in the bottom right corner of your match list page!

New Tools from AncestryDNA

ThruLines from the DNA homepage,
you can still go back to DNA Circles

Last week, coinciding with RootsTech, both AncestryDNA and MyHeritage announced several new tools and features to help you get the most out of your DNA matches. AncestryDNA rolled out ThruLines, which it seems will be replacing DNA Circles, and New Ancestor Discoveries, although for now you can still access the latter two. They've also completely revamped our match list, though this is only available in beta mode if you enable it in Ancestry Labs available at https://www.ancestry.com/BETA (you can disable it in the same place if you wish).

ThruLines works by automating sort of what I've been advocating people do manually for years: build on your match's trees to find a connection. Instead of only looking at your tree and the trees of your matches (like Shared Ancestor Hints and DNA Circles did), ThruLines looks to other trees outside your DNA matches to make the connection between you and your matches by building on both trees (much like how the We're Related app worked). As with anything tree-related, be careful about the connections it makes - I noticed one potential ancestor showing up because the system decided my ancestor Kate White was the same as someone called Katherine Weiss, which is German for White, but my Kate White is Scots-Irish, not German. And of course even putting aside the system making connection errors, the research other users do on their trees may be wrong.

ThruLines details/pathway

So do your own research and confirm or deny the relationship, but ThruLines is a great way to get you started and bring potential common ancestors to your attention so you're not just aimlessly building your matches trees, unsure of what to look for. The best thing about ThruLines? Unlike with Shared Ancestor Hints, it will actually show you the common ancestor (and pathway to them) even for private trees! Hooray, no more seeing that you have a Shared Ancestor Hint and messaging people to ask who it's for and never getting a response! Of course, private trees are still private in that you can't view the rest of the tree without an invite, but at least you can see your common ancestor and the pathway by clicking on the "private" ancestors in each generation of the pathway (it will take you to a page that lists their name and birth details only, but this is generally enough to confirm or deny the pathway). In the screenshot to the right you can see the common ancestor found with one of my matches through ThruLines. Clicking the numbers will expand the pathway and show each generation. Ancestors in dotted lines indicate ones which ThruLine has found through other trees - note that it names the tree owner and if you have a subscription, you can click on that ancestor and see their tree if it's public. One thing I don't quite understand about ThruLines is that it doesn't group married couples together - above you can see only one ancestor, Elisha Mills, is listed. His wife is also included as a common ancestor but listed separately. Previously, Shared Ancestor Hints included spouses as a part of the same hint.

If you've enabled the beta match list, you'll see some quite drastic changes (shown above). Your match list is now on an infinite scroll, color/custom groupings have been added, and you have several new sorting and filtering options. I don't love the infinite scroll - although the additional sorting and filtering options does make an infinite scroll less cumbersome, it is still cumbersome when you consider you have literally thousands of matches. That's a lot of data for an infinite scroll and basically assures you'll never reach the end of the list even when using most filtering options to narrow the numbers down. Additionally, if your browser crashes or you have to shut it down for any reason, you will lose your spot in the infinite scroll. With pagination, you can just note the page you were on and jump back to it, but that's not possible with infinite scrolling. While you may be able to find the spot you left, it's still going to take time to scroll, scroll, scroll down until you finally reach it. Infinite scrolling is not very functional and I really hope AncestryDNA's developers reconsider it.

Custom groups offer 24 different colors (shown above and right), so you can now group your matches however you want, such as a different group for each of your sixteen 2nd great grandparent's branches, and then a few more for other options (like maybe a group for a certain location, or an unknown cluster you've noticed, or matches you've identified a MRCA with, etc). You can add one match to as many different groups you'd like and each group gets a name that appears if you hover over the colored dot. This may eventually replace what I've been using the emojis for in the notes section (you can see they are still in my screenshot above), but not just yet since at the moment, groups are only available on the match list page, not the match detail page(s). So I still need emojis as a visual reference on the match detail page. I imagine this may change in time. The new match list is, after all, an opt-in beta mode and I'm sure there are tweaks and additions to come. If groups get added to the match detail page(s) then emojis might become unnecessary, unless you're using more than 24 of them (I am not). The benefit of groups over emojis is that you can filter by groups. And although Chrome extension MedBetterDNA allows you to filter by hashtags, it was cumbersome since it only hid matches without the selected hashtag and did not condense them - so a match with the selected hashtag on page 50 of your matches would still be on page 50. That is no longer a problem with AncestryDNA's groups (or infinite scroll, although that has it's own issues addressed above), however, since groups are limited to only 24 options, whereas hashtags are unlimited (there's a limit of how many you can search at a time in MedBetterDNA, but you can use as many as you'd like), don't get rid of those hashtags either. I still have all identified surnames hashtagged (and will continue to add them) because groups being limited means I can only use them to identify branches, not individual surnames, as there would be too many surnames to use with groups. So groups will likely replace emojis eventually, with added benefit of filtering groups, but it will not replace hashtags used with MedBetterDNA. Additionally, MedBetterDNA's essential feature of being able to always show notes means this extension isn't going to become obsolete. It's functionality has been influenced by the beta updates, but the extension's developer expects to update it to work with the new match list once the beta goes public (likely a few weeks after the new match list gets pushed out to everyone).

Other default "groups" (shown above/right) that Ancestry provides allow you to only show 4th cousins or closer, only show distant matches, or hidden matches, and as before, only show new matches, starred matches (colored/custom groups being separate from starred matches), or matches with your mother and/or father (if they have also tested). In fact, it now identifies "Mother's Side" or "Father's Side" in the far right column if your parents have tested (shown above). Note this only includes estimated 4th cousins or closer, so if you want to include more distant matches with your parents, you'd have to create a group for it (which is exactly what I've done).

Under filtering, a separate drop down menu (shown left), you can view matches with a "Common Ancestor". This appears to be replacing Shared Ancestor Hints, and it will include speculative ThruLines, so it's basically just another way to view your ThruLines (viewing them by individual match rather than by ancestor, which is what you see when you click on ThruLines from your homepage). The major downside to this, and I have already sent feedback to AncestryDNA on it, is the fact that there is no way to view only matches which have an actual common ancestor in both our trees versus those which are much more speculative because it's finding connections through other trees. There should be a way to separate them, as there is a noteworthy distinction between them. If you find this problematic as well, please make sure to send them feedback in the lower right corner of your browser while in beta mode (shown below/right).

Additional filtering includes "matches you haven't viewed". In the past, there was a "new" button which showed all matches you hadn't viewed yet and you could sort them by relationship or date. This is now split up so you can view new matches by date (including ones you've viewed) from the "Groups" drop down menu, or view matches you haven't looked at yet which is sorted by relationship from the "filter by" drop down menu. Personally, I use the latter the most, because I've made a point of looking at each estimated 4th cousin or closer and trying to figure out how we're related, so now when new matches come in, I periodically just look at new estimated 4th cousins or closer and examine them to stay on top of it.

Among the new filtering options include viewing matches you've messaged, matches with notes (very useful!), and matches with private, public, or unlinked trees, the latter being something we've all been asking for for years! Finally!

Best of all, you can combine options between the "Group" dropdown and the "Filter by" drop down menu. So if you want to see matches who you've you've sent a message to and labelled on your Smith branch, for example, you can do that.

Clicking the circled items opens the old "view match" page with the pedigree preview, etc

All of these new features and tools could be hugely beneficial, but my main disappointment is in the organization of much of it. In the past, clicking on a match opened the "view match" page we were all used to, including all the most useful features: pedigree preview, surname list, shared matches, map/locations, notes, and the option to message, star, trash, or mark as new. Somewhat recently, there was also added a "compare" button that took us to a different page which showed the comparison of our ethnicity reports, which was very interesting, but typically not very useful. Now with the update, clicking on a match's username takes you to that "compare" page instead, which does include shared matches and potential common ancestors, but does not include the ability to add or edit notes! It also won't show notes of the shared matches listed. Fear not, the old "view match" page with the pedigree preview and other features is still available: from the "compare" page, you can click "pedigree tree" or you can go straight to it by clicking on the tree info in the third column of your match list (even if there's no tree or it's private) - see above (edit: this option has now been removed, in order to get to the pedigree preview page, you can now only do so from the "compare" page). The problem is, the old "view match" page no longer includes Shared Ancestor Hints - in order to view them (now called Common Ancestors, or Potential Ancestors as a part of ThruLines) you have to look at the "Compare" page. And in order to view the details of those potential ancestors (part of ThruLines), it will open a third page! On top of all that, groups can only be added from the match list page, meaning in order to use all useful features, you have to switch back and forth among FOUR different pages. I can understand ThruLines being on a separate page because it's very detailed, but I see no reason why they can't combine the "Compare" and "View Match" pages and/or add grouping to those pages. It's ridiculous that the features are split among them, it's going to make my workflow that much less efficient. If you feel the same, please use the feedback option to make sure AncestryDNA know!

If AncestryDNA could resolve the two bolded issues, it would be almost perfect - now all we need is a chromosome browser and we're all set, but apparently that's never going to happen due to "privacy" issues.

Coming soon, I'll detail the new features from MyHeritage.

24genetics Review

My European countries map from 24genetics

24genetics offer DNA tests for health and ancestry related reports, and also accept raw DNA uploads from other companies for more limited report options. For the uploads, they only offer reports on ancestry, sport, skin, nutrition, and talent/personality. If you buy a test with them, you can also get health and drug response reports, but be aware that each one costs $149 - $199, and if you want all the reports, the "all in one" pack costs a whopping $399. This seems very expensive, and if you're looking for a health report, I wouldn't buy tests through this company, there are less expensive venues. 23andMe costs half this for their ancestry and health, and is on sale often enough you can get it for even less. 23andMe may not include all same reports, but you can then upload your data to other, inexpensive sources like Promethease for more.

Most of the reports from uploaded DNA say they accept data from 23andMe or AncestryDNA, except the ancestry report, which says it will accept DNA from 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA, or MyHeritage. The ancestry test costs $49, and the rest cost $69. You can order a promo pack including ancestry, sport, nutrition, and skin for $99. These also seem expensive for what you get, considering they don't have to run your DNA through a lab, so I only purchased the ancestry report and uploaded my raw DNA data from 23andMe.

The report is sent in an email as a PDF, much like how DNATribes before they discontinued their upload offer. In the PDF, you get an ethnic break down of your DNA first on a continental level called "Global Vision", then a country level, and finally a regional level. Like most ethnicity reports, they say the results date back "hundreds and even thousands of years".

My country results from 24genetics

My continental results (deserving of all caps, apparently) say:

EUROPE 99.20%
ASIA 0.80%

Most likely, the Asian results are just noise. You'll see in the country and regional break down that my Asian results are in a part of Georgia, in the Caucasus area (just above the Middle East), so it's possible this is related to my southern Italian ancestry, but given the small percentage, it may just be noise and not mean anything.

My country results:

Great Britain 33.80%
Italy 30.00%
Austria 17.10%
Greece 8.20%
Netherlands 5.60%
Switzerland 2.30%
Finland 2.20%
Georgia 0.80%

The top two results are very accurate, my family tree is indeed roughly 32% British, and I did in fact inherit about 32% of my DNA from my Italian grandmother. But rest of the results aren't very consistent with my known ancestry. The smaller results could just be noise, and I'm guessing the Austria result is coming from my Germanic ancestry. I'm not sure where the Greek is coming from, since the only Mediterranean ancestry I have is already fully accounted for in my Italy results.

AncestryDNA's PCA chart showing reference panel
populations and their genetic distance to each other

The main thing it's missing is my Norwegian ancestry. Though I had one Norwegian great grandfather, my Scandinavian results often come back lower than the "expected" 12.5% on most ethnicity reports, so perhaps I inherited less from him than expected. I do get a trace amount in Finland, but as you'll see below, it's in an eastern part of Finland, which seems like it would have more in common genetically with Russia than Norway. In fact, AncestryDNA used to group Finland and NW Russia together. Although they now have separated the two groups, their PCA chart (left) shows that the Finnish group has no overlap with Scandinavia (let alone Norway), but does have some minor overlap with the Baltic States (northeast Europe, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). So I doubt there's any connection to my Norwegian ancestor. Norway usually has more in common genetically with Germanic Europe and Britain, so maybe the Netherlands results are coming from my Norwegian ancestry, but I do also have Dutch ancestry, though much further back on my tree.

Maps are provided for the results, first showing the highlighted countries on a global scale (above right), and then zooming in on Europe (above left). I guess my one small result in West Asia didn't warrant a zoom in.

My regional results

My regional results:

Essex Medieval 32.30%
Tyrol 17.10%
Apulia 15.80%
Lombardy 13.60%
Utrecht 5.40%
Crete 3.20%
Kythera 3.00%
Romandy 2.30%
Finland Karelia 2.20%
Andros 2.00%
Cornwall 1.50%
Georgia Svaneti 0.80%
Treviso 0.60%
Groningen 0.20%

Essex Medieval is an interesting result because it specifies a time period as well as location. I wonder why the other results don't include a time period? I do indeed have ancestry from Essex, although there's a few branches from there, they are all from fairly far back on my tree, in the 1500s. I suppose that's consistent with the Medieval timeline, however, they seem to be attributing almost all my British ancestry to Medieval Essex, yet I have British ancestry from many other locations, some from much more recent time periods too (which should account for more of my DNA).

My European regional map

Tyrol is a region of western Austria which borders Germany and Switzerland, both places where I do have ancestry from, so I'm assuming that's where this result is coming from.

Apulia is an area of southeast Italy. I have no known ancestry from there, but my Italian ancestry is indeed southern/Sicilian, not northern, so I'll give it points for that. However, Lombardy and Treviso are a part of northern Italy, where I have no known ancestry.

Next is Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands. I don't know where in the Netherlands most of my Dutch branches come from, but one of them is actually from Utrecht, and another from Amsterdam. But let's face it, the Netherlands is a pretty small country (though it was once larger), so I'm not really sure how distinct DNA from different parts of it really are from one another - Amsterdam is really not that far from Utrecht (about 27 miles). Although this is a small percentage, my Dutch ancestry is from far back on my tree, so I would expect it to be a small percentage, if it would show up at all. I also get a very small hit (possibly noise) for Groningen in the Netherlands, where I don't have any known ancestry.

My Asian regional map, probably
noise

Now we get into percentages so low they may only be noise. Crete, Kythera, and Andros are all in Greece, which again, I have no known connection to. Maybe some of it is related to my Italian ancestry, but it can't be all of it, or that tips my Italian percentage over the edge of being too much. Romandy is a French speaking part of Switzerland, and I do have both French and Swiss ancestry (again, far back on my tree), so perhaps there's some legitimacy to this. Karelia is an eastern part of Finland I have zero connection to (again, it's unlikely it's from my Norwegian ancestry, and I have no known ancestry in Eastern Europe). Cornwall is the southwestern most part of England, which I have no known ancestry from, but could still be a legitimate part of my British DNA. Svaneti is a historical area of Georgia, which may just be noise or could be coming from my Italian ancestry.

Overall, I feel like my top most results from this company are accurate but it's missing significant locations and the smallest percentages are likely just noise. An interesting assessment, especially the more specific break down that you don't always get from other companies, but as with any ethnicity report, don't take it too literally. Worth the money? Probably not, maybe if it was cheaper.

Breaking Down Brick Walls with DNA

I'm going to detail one example of how DNA helped me break down a brick wall in my tree. This may be a somewhat unique case that might not always apply to every situation, but it's still worth detailing so people can get an understanding of how to work with your DNA matches in general.

Hope's baptism confirming her parent's names, but not her
mother's maiden name.

My 4th great grandmother was Hope Gibbs, b. November 3, 1805 in Philadelphia. I knew from her baptism record that her parents names were Caleb and Isabella (maiden name unknown), but I didn't know anything else about them. My grandmother had left notes with the names and some details of Hope's sisters, and indeed, research of some of them not only confirmed those details but also listed Caleb and Isabella as their parents, but still no details on those parents. I even found some DNA matches who were descended from those sisters, but none of those matches knew more about their parents.

I then found a marriage record of a Caleb Gibbs and Isabella Brannin in 1799, in Mt Holly, Burlington, NJ (Ancestry.com wrongly transcribed the location as Philadelphia), but given the difference of location, how could I know it was the right couple I was looking for? Further research on the couple married in 1799 revealed they were Quakers, and Isabella was the daughter of Barzillai Brannin/Branin, and the granddaughter of Michael Brannin/Branin, but I still was unsure about the connection to Hope Gibbs. Were these really her parents?

It took me a while to think of this for some reason, but I eventually decided to look for the surname Brannin in my DNA matches (well, my mom's DNA matches, since she is one generation closer to the ancestors in question). Theoretically, I figured if my Isabella was a Brannin, I (or my mom) would have DNA matches with people descended from her father or grandfather, I just hoped Brannin wasn't so common of a name that I got unrelated hits for it among my matches. It would be much more difficult if the name was something like Smith, and indeed, I had previously tried to search my DNA matches for the Gibbs surname, hoping to find people who descended from a father or grandfather of Caleb, but Gibbs was too common of a name and I was getting results for DNA matches with obviously unrelated Gibbs ancestors due to their location or time period (my DNA relation to these matches obviously lies elsewhere and the Gibbs surname is just a coincidence).

But the results and conclusions of the Brannin surname search were almost instantaneous - I quickly found 10 DNA matches descended from either Barzillai or Michael Brannin (two shown above), which would only be likely if I was descended from or at least related to them genetically. Not all recurring ancestors among your DNA matches will be your ancestors, some may be related to you in other ways, but combined with the existing question of whether my Isabella was Barzillai's daughter, the DNA matches conclude that the two Isabella's were indeed the same. Worth noting is the fact that two of the ten matches shared a segment with my mom of over 14 cM, which has over a 99% chance of being identical by descent, so these are not false positive matches. Also worth noting is the fact that some of the ten matches I found I had to uncover myself because their trees didn't go back far enough, but with a little digging, I expanded on their tree and trace their Brannin line back to Barzillai or Michael. Sometimes, you have to do a little of the legwork yourself.

Quakers are good record keepers, so confirming Isabella's identity was a huge breakthrough for me, and I then spend the next few days building this new branch of my tree, going back several more generations on both her paternal and maternal sides, something I couldn't have been sure of if I hadn't found the DNA connection. Of course, this also confirmed Caleb's identity as the man who married her, but unfortunately the Quaker records didn't go back as far for his ancestry. It at least confirmed his parents as Samuel Gibbs and Mercy (maiden name unknown).

By the way, if you're wondering about the notes showing simultaneously with both DNA matches in the screenshot above, that is with the use of Chrome extension MedBetterDNA. It allows you to always display notes so you can refer to them quicker and easier. It also has a lot of other useful tools, like the the hashtag option, which you'll see I'm also making use of - it lets you search your matches by hashtags in the notes field, so you can more quickly find the matches you're looking for. You may also notice the emoji icons I'm using - the green check mark and the black heart. There's no hidden meaning to the black heart, I'm just using it as a quick visual reference for that particular branch of my tree. Every one of my 2nd great grandparents gets a unique icon for their branch and I was running out of heart colors - that may seem excessive with 16 second great grandparents but it's working for me. The green check mark denotes matches with whom I've identified our most recent common ancestor. As a visual person (I am a photographer, after all), I just find the icons help my brain sort my matches. For non-windows users, you can also make use of flag emojis (the flags don't work on Windows for some reason) to identify matches with a MRCA from a known country.

I hope this helps illustrate how you can use your DNA matches to confirm questionable branches like this. Keep in mind that the further back the ancestors you're looking for are on your tree, the less likely you'll be able to reliably use or find identical by descent DNA matches descended from those ancestors. In this case, we were looking at my mom's 5th or 6th great grandparents, meaning she'd be around 6th or 7th cousins with those DNA matches, which is still within the realms of identical by descent.