Remember, right after April Fool’s Day, when Ancestry gave me two ancestors who weren’t? I check my account every day, and every day for the past two months, they have been there, looking back at me, making me wonder if somehow I’ve missed something – but with no tools to figure out what, where or how.
Diedamia Lyon and John David Curnutte.
Yes, I was getting fond of John and Diedamia who I was beginning to refer to as my adopted NADs.
But today, today is different. Yep, I have the same number of matches, the same number of hints, the same Circles….but my bad NADs are gone. Bye bye John and Diedamia!
So my New Ancestor Discoveries (NADs) have apparently been undiscovered and have disappeared, or maybe got reburied, just like they never existed. Poof. Gone. Never happened!
Of course, these ancestors didn’t exist in reality, but according to Ancestry they did. But not anymore. No explanation. Just got up one morning and they were gone…slunk off in the night. Not even a goodbye note. After two months together. I’m crushed.
And look what else I found today. Why, Ancestry reinvented my family story it seems. The timing of this announcement is extremely ironic. But maybe it’s the explanation I was looking for. Reinvented. That must be it.
Is this a joke?
So, Ancestry….which time were you wrong? Two months ago or now? Were John and Diedamia ancestors, or not? Just how, exactly, is one supposed to know?
Which “story” is the true one? Were you “just kidding” when you gave me those ancestors, or now that you’ve taken them away? Not funny.
You said DNA would confuse people…and by golly…you’re right. Only it’s not the DNA itself that’s confusing, it’s your conferring and then unconferring of ancestors – with no documentation or tools. Without tools, we’re forced to believe you…but which version do we believe?
How are we supposed to have any confidence in these hide-and-seek, peek-a-boo, now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t ancestor discoveries? Did I somehow miraculously stop matching all 5 of the people who descended from John and Diedamia? Did you, ahem, make a mistake? Crystal ball broken maybe? If so, an explanation and maybe an apology would be nice. You can’t just rip my purported ancestors away from me like that with no explanation. What if I had really believed you in the first place…that John and Diedamia were my ancestors?
Thankfully, I didn’t believe you because based on 30+ years of genealogy research and chromosome browsers and similar tools provided by other vendors, I’ve confirmed my tree. But a lot of people will believe you….what about them?
And that lovely story that came along with John and Diedamia. You mean that story you told me about my ancestors wasn’t true? But it was MY story…you said so. It has all those names and dates and places and pictures. How could it be wrong? It seemed so real. What happened? Oh yea, I forgot, you reinvented it.
You know, I’d check on the solidity of those matches myself, but I can’t because, well, you don’t give me any tools…you know….like a chromosome browser…because you’ve implemented a superior methodology for matching. Instead, you’d much prefer, in fact, you require that I simply trust you based upon the excellent track record and credibility you’ve established. You’ve suggested that I might not understand how a chromosome browser works and I might make mistakes, and that, of course, would be just awful. Why, I might even give myself incorrect ancestors. Thank you so much for protecting me from those grievous errors.
But hey, maybe I’ll get a new NAD soon and we can do this all over again. Won’t that be fun! Or maybe John and Diedemia will be back to visit. One never knows!
Say what Ancestry….how about you don’t give me any more bad NADs or any more NADs at all, because there appears to be no way to tell the difference between authentic ancestor discoveries and bogus ones. For that matter, don’t gift me with any more re-reinvented stories either based on cumulative bad trees. I’ll just settle for a chromosome browser instead. What do you think? I don’t much care for this new methodology of incorrect ancestor gifting, retracting and reinventing. I’d prefer to make my own mistakes…thank you.
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