What’s Changing At Ancestry DNA?

Yesterday I participated in a call with the folks at Ancestry and we were told that Ancestry has DNA tested over 18 Million users. That’s an incredible number of testers.

But that wasn’t all we were told about, there was other news. There are changes afoot at AncestryDNA.

Very shortly we will see the addition of longest segment to our DNA information. Then a match will look something like the match below.

The final bit of news is that Ancestry will be removing matches that are less than 8cM. The reason for this is that matches that fall below this amount of cM may actually be false matches. So they will be removed from your match list as well as your Thrulines.

I’m sure there are some of you, just like me, that have matches that fall in the 6-8 cM range that you believe you can track to a specific ancestor. So before you get upset, there are things you can do to keep those matches on your match lists.

If you have done any of the following to these match profiles they will stay on your list;

• emailed/contacted them
• written a note on their match profile
• put them in a group (given them a colored dot)

So if you feel that you want to keep a match you know what you need to do.

I know for myself personally, the removal of this group will probably remove thousands of people, and if they are a false match, then I don’t want them.

But when I run a report of matches in this range that have common ancestors, then perhaps these are some of the matches that aren’t false. I mean, I guess these people could have copied my tree, but I know I didn’t copy theirs.

So false or not, I decided I was going to make a special group for the ones that I want to keep. A new dot that’s called “They’re a Keeper.” I didn’t keep them all. I just kept the ones that are in the 6-8 cM range that have a common ancestor in their tree and a few select surnames that I like to track. (Names that seem important in the Beaton/Batten Mystery).

So I did do this, and it was interesting to see that for some of the younger generation who’s kits that I manage, they would have lost some people that the older generation that I’ve tested had in common but are at a much higher cM amount.

In one case, my second cousin would have lost someone that is a 6cM match, but that same match is a 49cM match to my Aunt and a 137cM to a second cousin once removed.

In another case, my son had a match that is a 6cM, which he would lose, but my Uncle has that same match, and he’s a 38cM match for him and a 25cM match for me. That match and I have figured out that he is my 3rd cousin.

It’s because I work with so many of my family’s DNA kits that I really see the randomness of DNA.

I may, at some point, move the “They’re a Keeper” people to another dot, but for now, I’ll keep them and see what happens.