Ancestry Updates Ethnicity, Introduces New Features & Pushes Some Behind Paywall

I knew something had changed at Ancestry when I signed in a few days ago and saw the following message: Ancestry assured me that I’m fine, but people who don’t have a subscription can no longer see some DNA features. … Continue reading

Ancestry’s ThruLines Are a Hot Mess Right Now – But Here Are Some Great Alternatives

Right now, ThruLines at Ancestry is one hot mess. Aside from the inherent frustration, especially over a holiday weekend when many people had planned to work on their genealogy, I’d like to say, “don’t panic.” I don’t have any inside … Continue reading

AARP Member? Save 30% On Your Ancestry Membership

If you’re an AARP member, you are eligible to receive a 30% discount on your subscription at Ancestry.com. My subscription was going to expire. It couldn’t auto-renew because my credit card had expired which turned out to be a happy … Continue reading

Ancestry to Delete WorldConnect Trees and Shut Down RootsWeb Mailing Lists – Prepare NOW

This is a dark day indeed. Ancestry, who acquired RootsWeb, including the mailing lists and WorldConnect Trees back in the year 2000 is going to delete both. The original purchase agreement reportedly included the provision to keep both free, but … Continue reading

How to Share DNA Results and Tree Access at Ancestry

There are two types of access you may want to share with other users at Ancestry, and specific times when you’ll want to do each. If you have set your privacy selections to allow DNA matching, and tree sharing, your … Continue reading

Find a Grave (Owned by Ancestry), Seriously, JUST STOP Incentivizing the Creation of Memorials of the Recently Deceased

I’ve been horrified, as has any sentient being, about the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. I’ve also been increasingly furious these past few days because the practice of awarding “points” by Find a Grave, owned by Ancestry, to people who create … Continue reading

Ancestry’s SideView™ – Dividing Your Ethnicity in Two

Recently, Ancestry introduced a new view of your ethnicity called SideView™. In a nutshell, AncestryDNA uses your DNA matches to attempt to divide your ethnicity into regions inherited from Parent 1 and Parent 2. Based on your matches and the … Continue reading

Ancestry Only Shows Shared Matches of 20 cM and Greater – What That Means & Why It Matters

Recently, I’ve noticed an uptick in confused people who’ve taken Ancestry’s DNA test. They are using shared matches, which is a great tool and exactly what they should be doing, but they become confused when no shared matches appear with … Continue reading

Ancestry Rearranged the Furniture

I’ve been reading about recent visual design changes occurring at the Ancestry website and that the changes were being rolled out gradually to groups of users. Yesterday, I experienced it firsthand. Why is Ancestry making changes? Ancestry said they wanted … Continue reading

DNA Beginnings: Matching at Ancestry and What It Means

This is the fourth in the series of “DNA Beginnings” articles. Previous articles you might enjoy include: Announcing DNA Beginnings – A New Series DNA Beginnings: What is a Match? DNA Beginnings: How Many Matches Do I Have? Why Is … Continue reading