Ancestry has released a new feature that many of us have been eagerly waiting for: how much DNA your matches share with each other and the estimated relationship between them. This can help when a new match has no tree, for example, if their sibling or parent has one. Read on for a description of my first experiments with this tool.
Most Mondays I go look at my new DNA matches on Ancestry. Typically I first click Unviewed and then click Common Ancestors.
The buttons I click (added arrows are mine)
If no matches come up, then I unclick the Common Ancestors button in order to see all the new matches. Next I sort them by date to see the most recent first. Sometimes I first pick one parent or change the range of cM to view (via the button called Shared DNA). Then I scan the resulting list. I typically click on the new matches with trees and the most DNA. I find that if you contact people when they have just received their results, they are more likely to respond.
I had a wonderful surprise when I clicked on a new DNA relative’s name to go to their match page with me: a message informing me that if I upgraded to the Pro Tools I could see how my matches were related to each other including the cM. Of course I upgraded, only an extra $10 per month. By the way, as they are just rolling out this feature it is a bit slow today from all of us trying it out.
My match with Gary turned up two distant relatives from different lines, perhaps I can figure out where he fits in
Now my page for that new match looks like the above. Note that you can click on the projected relationship to get the full explanation including unweighted DNA and longest segment just like on a match page.
However on the shared matches page my colored dots have changed to squares with the first letter of the group. Not sure how I feel about that change. A benefit is that it shows you how many people are in that group when you go to the edit groups. At least the colors are almost the same. On the trees and ethnicity pages it is the same colored dot as before, for now.
A few glitches occurred. I was not able save the new notes I made from the shared matches page. I can only save them from the tree and ethnicity pages. Also it was easier to set the colored dot group on those pages, as the save from the shared matches page seemed delayed.
Now how to use this new feature? Well for one, when a new match has no tree perhaps one of their close relatives does. The icons on this new shared matches display page show you if there is tree and if it is private. They also indicate if there is a shared ancestor. Put your cursor on the icon and it will tell you what it means.
My first step is to scroll through the new shared match list looking for the highest matches to the new one, in case I have already figured out that other relationship. Using this technique I was able to determineat least one shared ancestor.
Another possibility is that there will be enough more distant known cousins who match the new one to figure it out. Now that you know the shared cM, you can even use WATO to figure out the likely relationship.
I wonder how soon the Genetic Affairs site will be able to work with the screen save of these pages to build trees for you.
However I plan to spend the next few days (weeks?) using this feature to build the tree of my mystery matches from the presumed unknown father of my gg-grandad who was a Westbye from Skoger, Vestfold, Norway or was it my gg-grandad who was actually the Westbye? Click here for that story. Knowing the shared DNA among them will confirm the tree I have built or more likely expand it. I will start with my highest Westbye match and look at her shared matches.
Next, since so many of my wonderful cousins on the Wold side have shared their DNA with me, I can do the same from their DNA page. Then I can work with the new probability tree called BanyanDNA and perhaps figure it out. I thought a Y test might solve this but when I asked several Norwegian Westbyes to do Y testing at my expense, they had no interest in doing so. Not everyone is as interested in this stuff as I am.
The Pro Tools have several other nice features. I particularly like the descendant lists it can make, an important tool that was missing. I actually use the GENI.com site for that and other such reports since my family tree is much more solid and complete over there. The one on Ancestry is the one I use to test hypotheses and so I keep changing my gg-grandad! Plus it has plenty of errors and duplicates that the Pro Tools can find but I usually use my desktop software, Family Tree Maker, to find and fix those.
More soon on my Westbye experiment!
