This article is very quick and dirty because it’s all that I can do at the moment and you need to have this information NOW! Please read the entire article because you’ll find instructions at the end. Yes, I know this is very short warning, but please do not shoot the messenger. I started typing the minute tonight’s conference call was over, literally.
Ancestry was kind enough to hold a second conference call about their upcoming changes this evening with the bloggers group. The first call during Rootstech let us know changes were coming. Tonight we received more details.
This is not the end of the world and not a repeat of Autosomalgeddon that occurred when people lost 80-90% of their matches when Timber was introduced.
Let’s get the bad news over with so we can move on.
The Bad News
- You will lose some matches.
- Ancestry indicated that no one lost anyone 2nd cousin or closer.
- The change is imminent – meaning if you’re not doing something tonight and tomorrow, get busy on the “To Do” list at the end of this article.
- You may lose Circles or NADs due to disappearing matches. The average loss was 1 circle and NADs were similar, although they did not provide a number.
- Today you can see matches to matches up through the 4th cousin level. At the 5-8th cousin level, you cannot see matches to matches. The category most dramatically affected was the 4th cousins shifting to the 5th-8th cousin category, WHICH MEANS YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO SEE YOUR COMMON MATCHES WITH THOSE PEOPLE.
The Good News
- You will have new matches.
- Most people will have a net gain in matches and the example we saw was significant.
- Ancestry will allow you to download previous match information on matches that have disappeared but ONLY IF YOU STAR THEM OR MAKE A NOTE ON THE MATCH. This was not originally in the plans and we want to thank Ancestry for adding this after the Rootstech call.
- There will be two new papers, one white paper on Ancestry’s new methodology and technology, and one on matching.
- Ancestry will review feedback after the rollout so if you have something to say, it won’t be effective on Facebook or to your friends. The only place it stands any chance of being effective is if you submit your feedback to Ancestry directly. And I’m betting civil feedback carries more weight than nasty feedback – no matter how you feel. That old sugar catches more flies than vinegar thing.
The Interesting News
- Most of the changes people will see are in the relationship estimates of more distant cousins, meaning 4th cousins or more distant.
- Most of the lost matches will be in the most distant, 5th-8th cousin category.
- Most of the gained matches will also be in the 5th-8th cousin category.
Your Immediate To Do List
- Star or note every DNA/Tree match, meaning those with leaf hints.
- Screen shot every Circle and NAD if you care about NADs, and record who is in the Circle or NAD.
- Record all of your matches with matches information for 4th cousins or closer. I would begin with 4th cousins because those are the most likely to disappear. Those with tree hints are the most valuable to you, so I would start with those.
- DO THIS NOW!! We can’t provide you with any release dates because Ancestry will launch when they are ready, and they don’t exactly know what day that will be. So, if you do this today, the worst thing that will happen is that you’ll have all your data. If you wait, the worst thing that will happen is that you’ll lose valuable information.
Oh, and did I mention time is of the essence????
Get busy everyone. If you wait, you’ll be sorry.
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Thank you. Time to catch flies. DNA, the great paper shredder…
Thank you, Roberta!
I think (but am not 100% certain) that this has already started or happened, just found a previous 4th cousin match in the 5th-8th cousin range.
They said it would not be gradual and would happen all at once. But maybe you were a test case.
It seems like it’s already happened to me too then……TONS of new 5-8th cousin matches, as well as 4-6th cousin matches. I had already starred quite a few previously and they are still there, but not sure if some are missing now.
Please postpone these actions. I have located my family tree all the way back to 1020AD. If you do this I will lose them. Please I beg you to wait at least 90 days so I can have time to print and save the information. I have worked too hard to lose it all. Please postpone any changes for at least 90. Please please please.
I’m not the person to ask. Contact Ancestry.
Vickey, why aren’t you entering what you’ve found through AncestryDNA into your own Ancestry tree? These changes will only affect what AncestryDNA lists as matches.
This is only effecting people who did DNA not the other trees that you found people by looking at their trees.
How did you prove your family tree back to 1020 A.D.?
This is the reason I didn’t pay for this.
This will have significant negative impact for African American people in particular who have completed DNA testing. Our ancestors were separated form each other over a period of almost 300 years. It has been largely through verbal history or surnames and matches at the 4th cousin or later that I have been able to track my early ancestors. Surnames of African Americans and their geographical relations changed as their slave owners changed. Hopefully Ancestry will allow exceptions. Also my maternal DNA has very very few data base matches in any ancestry search system. I need all the help that I can get.
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Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 01:26:14 +0000 To: marionbk@msn.com
I don’t know how to star or note any of the tree matches. Where do I find this info? How does one take a Screen shot? And what are the Circles and NADs ? Help… Oh No.
Do you know why ancestry is doing this???
Stars are on the left of each match. Click on it. Google how to do. Screen shot. I can’t describe it from my phone.
I have an IPhone and to screen shot you pull up what you want on your screen then push the home button on the bottom and the power button at the same time. That screen shot will save to your photos. Then you can print it.
Go to your DNA home page. Click on View All DNA Matches
All potential cousins are listed. To the left of their picture is a star to click on and it will turn yellow. I did all cousins through 4th just till I have a chance to look at it and eliminate later.
Any DNA circles are on the bottom of the DNA home page. I screen shot it with my smart phone on the Ancestry app I downloaded for free. You may be able to print this page if you don’t have a smart phone. Or take a picture of the screen with a camera.
Thanks for the information Diane Meyer, but how do I get back to the information in the yellow star later. I also took screen shots. Never knew how to do this before today. Trying to capture them all before the change.
We don’t know the details of how.
consider installing the free version of Evernote, a good user-friendly way to capture and categorize screenshots
Family Tree DNA has been in the business much longer than Ancestry and I believe is much more professionally grounded in the business of DNA. I encourage everyone to test through Family Tree DNA. Ancestry does some shady things to customers and one never knows what they’re up to other than somehow screwing people over to make more money. If you share photos and documents with anyone on Ancestry, those people can use those materials and not provide proper acknowledgment or credit. Ancestry uses YOUR information to sell their product and in return you get a gigantic annual fee. Ancestry took over Heritage Quest, or in some way changed the way Heritage Quest could be freely and easily accessed through my local library in Horry County, SC. Heritage Quest is perhaps the most valuable resource I ever used, and now I do not even know how to access the materials.
Hmmmm. In Ohio we access Heritage Quest free through our library. Don’t know if SC offers that. Check it out!
Contact your library. You may be able to access online by logging into the library and your account.
We still have access to Heritage Quest for free in Loudoun Co., VA. However, the search feature has been changed to look like Ancestry’s, which I hate. Some of the search options have gone away. The old way worked well.
Family tree DNA ethhcnicity finder is horrible picking up minority dna aroung the 0.8-0.9 range which is not noise. Also they do not give you matches under 12 cm, therefor leaving out matches on smaller segments that can be used as proof.
Thank you so much for warning us Roberta.
I would also recommend downloading AncestryDNA Helper by Jeff Snavely and using it to download matches and ancestors of matches. Fortunately I downloaded all of the ancestors of my matches about 2 weeks ago.
I’m not that worried about the DNA Circles since I already have good segment and triangulation data on my DNA Circle ancestors.
As far as the NADs go, I only have one couple who are not my ancestors but I downloaded data on them when they first appeared anyway since they might be a clue of sorts.
How do you “star” them or “screen shot” ?
There is a star on the left of every match. Click on that. You’ll have to google for how to do a screen shot for your type is system. I can’t describe that from my phone.
Just click on the gray stars to make them turn yellow.
I am also searching out all my matches for my surnames of interest, especially the uncommon names, and starring them so that I don’t lose them, no matter how distantly related.
What is the best way to “record matches” as you suggest in #3? How best to do that? Help, don’t know how to do which first, I have 233 pages of “matches” in total (is that a lot or a little?) pretty new to it.
I would star them first. Then I click on the matches to matches tab and record who is there in a spreadsheet.
Thank you, what’s the best way to record the matches in a spreadsheet? And, if I go through my 233 pages and star them all first? Then where to do the matches to matches tab? Thank you!
On the second page is where you can see the other matches.
I would focus on the matches with the green leaf hints first. You can select that on the first page, and then it will only give you the list of those with leaf hints.
I only have tree hints on my known relatives. Does that mean I don’t have to worry about this so much?
No, it’s for all matches.
Thank you!!!!
i have thought doing DNA test Ancestry.com but since they are owned my the Mormon church i just haven;t flet it was right…i don;t trust them and not sure why they are collecting all the info on Americans and getting their DNA results…
Ancestry.com is not owned by the LDS church.
They are privately owned and there was an article in the past couple weeks about new investors.
I can assure you that the Mormon Church (LDS Church) does not own ancestry.com. It is a privately owned corporation and it’s corporate offices are about an hour from my home.
The Mormon church is unaffiliated with Ancestry.com: The company is majority owned by Permira funds, along with certain minority co-investors.
Many thanks Roberta!
Roberta, when you mention on step 3 to record all of your matches with matches information for 4th cousins or closer, do you mean just starring them or making a note on each? I starred everything thats a 4th cousin or closer so I thought that’s what you meant.
Starring and making a note will accomplish the same thing according to ancestry.
Got it – thank you. I didn’t see someone else had already asked the same question. Sorry about that.
oh, you mean, I’m getting rid of all my cousins? that i just found?
You are not making it clear to people like me. 1. What website? do we go to? 2. What is “Screen shot Circles or NADs” ? 3. What does star or note mean?
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 01:26:15 +0000 To: aallttaa@hotmail.com
If you have tested you’d DNA at ancestry.com you’ll go to your DNA matches page there. If you have tested you roll we’d the stars on the left of your matches. Click those. Taking a screen shot is a computer thing and not a DNA thing so you can google for that.
It is evidently happening now. I have second cousin matches that have shown up. Curious is that some are showing up unstarred when I know I starred them no more than an hour ago when Roberta put the “to do” list out.
I wonder if we have overrun their system.
Reblogged this on sheseeksroots and commented:
Urgent, act immediately or you could loose a lot of information.
While trying to make stars on my husband’s lists of Matches, Ancestry just cut me off at page 6.
There were 86 possible pages of Distant Cousin Matches, but I was NOT going to go more than 10 pages.
Got as far as 6 pages when Ancestry wouldn’t allow any more Stars.
Tried to go back to the previous page and it wouldn’t load.
Back to the beginning and there are now only 6 pages of Matches for my husband – just those I marked with stars.
It’s happening NOW!
Phyllis
thank you!
how much is the DNA testing
$99 unless there is a sale.
Thank you! I just found out I lost my Dad’s matches to his grandfather’s family found in USA.
Are they taking away matches because they believe the information to be incorrect? I am starring them as you suggest however I would not want to save information if it was wrong. Thank you for your reply.
They have indicated that they have improved their software. If uou match these people the matches are not incorrect but the may fall below their new thresholds.
Thanks for the heads up about the changes. As an Australian with relatively recent British ancestry I’m not expecting this will have a significant effect on my results.
I appreciate this is breaking news, but is it possible to get some details about what the changes they are making actually are from a technical perspective?
They will release that information with the update.
NADs = New Ancestor Discoveries
see
https://www.ancestry.com/academy/course/ancestry-dna-circles
I used Ancestry previously and they destroyed those records. I’ve learned my lesson.
Hi Roberta, Thanks for the post, but I have 196 pages of matches times 50 per page which is 9,800 matches. There is no way I have time to star them all. Is there a way to star all at the same time? All The Best, David French
No but try Jeff Snavely’s plugin. It’s chrome and I have had problems with chrome plugins. DNAGedcom.com has a download tool too but I have not used it in forever. It’s worth a try.
I usually have 10-20 new cousins listed every day but none at all for the last 3-4 days. Is it related to this?
Probably not.
I’ve starred the DNA, but what do I do with the green shaking leaves in the tree? Thanks
The tree will not be affected. Only your DNA matches.
I have experienced the same thing. I administer trees for 5 individuals and for the last several days, I too have not had any new matches on any of them – very unusual as usually I get several new every day – I knew something had to be up with ancestry.dna and I’m betting this is somehow related!
I’ve experienced the same thing. I administer tests for 5 individuals and for the last several days, I too have not received any new dna matches for any of these individuals. This is very unusual as usually there are at the very least, at least several new matches every day for most of my tests. I suspected that something was up with Ancestry.dna and have been googling to see if there might be some problem – I think this is somehow related.
Who benefits from this and how? What is the purpose? Does Ancestry benefit from it? How are they spinning that we benefit by the changes?
Improving the match algorithm benefits everyone – ultimately. Remember that genetic genealogy is still very new and all companies, FTDNA and 23andMe as well as Ancestry do well to continue to refine their software as new information is made available. For hundreds of years people have worked their family trees without the benefit of dna.
New matches, but no mention of updates to the admixture calculator?
Not in this rollout.
Looking up corporate history of Ancestry tells me they are owned by Permira Funds. Looking that up brings me to Wikipedia, which says, “Permira is a European private equity firm, founded in 1985. The firm advises funds with a total committed capital of approximately €20 billion. Since 1985 the Permira funds, raised from pension funds and other institutions, have made nearly 200 private equity investments.” There is much more information . . . which you can read on Wikipedia or elsewhere. The Mormon Church, to the best of my knowledge, and it is the kind of thing i would know, does not own Ancestry.com. b
I’m brand new at this game, in fact I’ve just posted 2 Ancestry DNA kits to 2 of my cousins today. I’ve got 2 samples with FTDNA and these re my 1st with Ancestry.
Could someone please explain how this news will effect my tests? Many thanks in advance.
You’ll only get the new version.
What is a NAD? How do I save the circles?
New ancestor discoveries. Print screen takes a picture then open the circle and record the info about who is in it.
Evidently they have already completed this as I am in NO DNA circles anymore, and several of my matches have shifted (or went who knows where…)…. Thanks for the heads up though, it is appreciated. Any clue WHY they did this- did they make mistakes in assigning relationship levels or something??
why not just upload to GedMatch???
You’d have to convince all of your matches to do that. Most don’t.
This all makes me crazy. I don’t know why they can’t leave things alone even for a little while.
At this time, you can check for shared matches with ANY match at any confidence level and often you will see some. However, the only people you will see in the shared matches list are those of Very High confidence or higher. Hopefully, this is not changing.
I tried to print off my circles. It only showed a few on one page so I decided to do each one. I did one and it checked it and it was fine. Then I did the rest. All that showed up was a large symbol or black circle. It all makes me furious. Any suggestions anyone?
Thanks
Try your print screen button and then paste into a word document.
So if I go through and star everyone I won’t lose any of my matches?
It seems like every time Ancestry does this Ancestry is saying ” Oh we were wrong about who you match”.
How can we now trust that their “new” technology will give us the correct ones? Notice 23andMe and FTDNA don’t do this.
You’ll still lose them but you’ll be able to see your previous matching info.
What will this mean for us that have not yet but is getting ready to take our dna test.
You’ll just get the new version. No issue for you.
Thank goodness I had starred my distant cousin. I read your blog at 8:30 this morning, went to Ancestry and the DNA page is already not visible.
Right now Ancestry is required to maintain a system that only generates revenue through new members. I would bet the rent that there aming for a annual user pay system. The pay one time was a great promotion to get the program populated but with there latested dumping of the user software side of the company and the addition of new shareholders corporate greed is about to kick in with an eye on your pockit not your genealogical interests.
Weeks ago I went from 21 circles to 16 circles then to 17 circles. I wondered what had happened, maybe this was it or a test???
My circles have changed recently too. They are always adjusting I think, but their new update comes more in the category of a major change in the underlying process.
Thank you for the ‘heads up’ – 95 pages of matches screen-dumped and saved
Thank you Roberta, from the Woods Wood Fowler Group, for sharing this ancestry DNA upgrade. At present one member was able to take advantage and gather as much detail as possible before the upgrade takes place. AllyWoods Wood Fowler
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
May be too late. I just tried to get to my matches page and nothing happened hen I clicked on either Show All Matches or even “2599 4th cousin matches”
Interesting. Both my husband (Jewish) and I (25% Acadian) have hundreds to thousands of 4th or closer. And I manage 4 of his cousins and my brother. No way can I star all of those matches. Most of my hints are with my distant (5th or greater, no matter what Ancestry says) Acadian cousins. I’ve got that line well researched so if some of them disappear, no worries. The NADs they have shown me are flat out wrong and I wish they would disappear. I have already starred the distant ones that I care about. And I’ve got notes on most of the 3rd or closer. Thanks for the heads up.
I’m a novice. . . I.have sent in my vial and received notice that it is in testing. I assume from your info that I will not be receiving the 4th or more distant matches. That is a shame as there is where I was most interested. As I said before I am just learning about this. If Ancestry holds off on the change and I receive my results prior. . .I will do what you say before I even understand what I am doing/reading. Thank you very much for your information.
You will ptobxnly have lots of distant matches but some will be different than they would be today.
Thanks so much. I spent the morning printing everything to PDF and making notations for all the notes that didn’t print out. Oy! Still, it’ll be interesting to compare what I lose/gain once Ancestry makes the changes.