Do you trust ThruLines on Ancestry.com?

Question

I know so people who will not even look at the ThruLines because they said the information listed there isn't correct. . I tried to explain that because a person doesn't have the same names in their tree that you do doesn't make them not DNA connected to you.

At the end of the day that person shares a small or large amount of DNA so you're still related, and maybe it's you that has the wrong information. A simple email to that person and working together to fix the issue to because the ThruLine are saying you share a common Ancestor and DNA.

What do you think about Ancestry ThuLines? I Love it and thank it's a great tool.

David Anthony Taylor

Answer 1

Thru lines is a useful beginning point.  Mostly because ancestry has the largest database of DNA tests. It is indeed a shame that they have squandered this resource by not providing a chromosome browser  as 23 and me and FT DNA do. Hopefully they will learn that their business model is deeply flawed after it begins to affect their bottom line. It is helpful to find you have 100 or 200 DNA matches through a 4th great grandparent  because it gives you a starting point and about 10% of those people will write back. I have not found many errors  And nearly all that I have found are the result of a family member lying to a census taker over a hundred years ago,  about grandchildren that they were raising for their un wed daughters. This error is hard to correct... family shame and a false written record seem to win out over the facts.

Comments

I agree with you 100%

David Anthony Taylor

Answer 2

The accuracy of ThruLines is entirely dependent on other peoples research. Some lines I see are reasonable but many of the current "Potential Ancestors" for my lines are provably wrong. It can be a good tool to find hints but at the end of the day, most of the trees it uses are unsourced and you still need to verify.

The matches part does speed up who to contact by giving the common ancestor. I've had about a one in ten response rate on contacting. Slightly better than contacting those without trees (most of those only care about the ethnicity estimates). It is a useful tool.

So far, none of those I've contacted were willing to correct errors in research. Mostly because it disproves a treasured family story or myth. 

Comments

I Love your answer Doug, I don't get why people will not correct errors in their research. Oh I know why, they aren't doing the research.

David Anthony Taylor

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I agree. And the poor response is frustrating.

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"Genealogy without evidence is mythology"

Answer 3

I use Ancestry ThruLines as a starting point to find potential names. Then I verify the names via Ancestry records.

Answer 4

It depends. I find it is less accurate the further back on my maternal side, there is one branch in the South that comes to mind. There are people popping up on those branches I know I am not related to based on research. People have conflated our ancestor with another man who had a similar name and was living in the same place at the same time. With smaller families in my tree, it tends to be more accurate.

Comments

I know just what you mean Miranda, I have about 10 family members all named Michael Tanner. Father,  Son, Grandson. Nephew,  Cousin,  Uncle all with the same name... lol

It's so easy to get off track when you have 5 Michael Tanners all born in the 1800's.

David Anthony Taylor

Answer 5

I've found Thrulines a valuable tool, and it's aided in filling in gaps in the familytree, particularly at 3rd cousin and closer.

 So far at that level no errors, I've also filled in gaps back to the 1600's, with enough DNA matches to be confident that the Truelines result is correct, given two sets of common ancestors using common matches to establish the branch the DNA belonged to.

DNA tells you who you are related to, Truelines is a starting point to find the sources to prove, or disprove, the path.

Regretably Ancestry does not have a chromosome browser and triangulation tool, MyHeritage does and you can upload your test there and find more matches. Using both sites and their respective tools can give a fuller picture.

Comments

 Gary Burgess  if you're not on GEDmatch.com site you really need to check it out as well. It's a free site. Thanks for the reply what a great answer.

David Anthony Taylor

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Hi

 I've uploaded to Gedmatch, but currently picking the low hanging fruit on Ancestry and MyHeritage.

 Gedmatch is an issue to me due to the cost of another subscription to access triangulation, and having to break my research trees into sections to add them.

 It's on the backburner while I list potential triangulation matches. I've only had the DNA results for 3 months and need to follow up the leads to find potential Gedmatch tests.

Answer 6

My own situation is that 28 of my 32 gt-gt-gt grandparents are well-established, they all show up in my ThruLines, and the 4th cousins that appear under them make sense.

When I go back to gt-gt-gt-gt grandparents and beyond, it's a mixed bag. There's well-established ancestors, ones who I haven't gone through the process of documenting exactly how I know they're ancestors but I'm pretty sure they are, there's a few that have seem like they could easily be right, but I haven't seen any proof, and ones that I really have my doubts about.

On the whole, it seems to help identify how many of my DNA matches are related, and that's handy, but you just have to keep in mind that it's not perfect, and errors by other researchers can creep in there.

I've had a couple of cases where people had attached their DNA results to the wrong person in their tree. One person had attached to her mother, and I contacted her and she fixed it. Another person attached his result to his father, so he's on my ThruLines as a 4C, when he's really a 4C1R. He didn't do anything to fix it.

The most screwed-up such case is of my brother's fiance. Her mother tested, and apparently was generations off, as fas as where in her tree she attached. So the fiance's mother shows up in her ThruLines as a great-grandmother, of something crazy like that. I pointed it out, but they still didn't do anything last I checked.

Comments

Your last two paragraphs are worth noting.

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Be nice Tommy Buch ... LOL