Did you see our Relationship Finder improvements?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

A few minutes ago we released major improvements to our Relationship Finder.

It was fairly slow before. Now it's lightning fast.

It only checked 15 generations before, or 30 if you were willing to wait. Now there are no generational limits at all.

The limits on the triangulation feature have been removed as well, and it's better at naming distant relationships.

Perhaps the most significant improvement is that we can now account for "pedigree collapse," i.e. when you're related to an ancestor in more than one way. Pedigree collapse sounds bad, like cousins marrying cousins, but we all have it. If you had 40 generations of different ancestors it would be something like a trillion different people -- more than ever lived. So, when you have a cousin connection through a distant common ancestor you may both be related to the ancestor through multiple paths. Before we used to only show the first path to an ancestor. Now you can explore up to 100 different paths to a direct ancestor.

To try things out, click here and then to your Relationship Finder Quick Links.

Almost all of these changes were made possible by Ales Trtnik's incredibly fast connection finding code. This code has already enabled improvements to the Connection Finder, weekly connection features, and DNA test connections. And more is on the way!

If you have questions or spot a problem, please post an answer here. Comments at the top will be hidden after they are read once.

Thanks!

Chris

P.S. There is one drawback to our new system. New and changed relationships aren't immediately reflected in the Relationship Finder. We only update the relationships once a day.

Answer 1

Holy cow! That was FAST! I did a check for how I was kin to my wife, and the usual wait was not there, even though the Finder had to go back 18 generations. We also have a further 244 common ancestors.

This is a GREAT improvement!

Comments

Judy amazing!!

Answer 2

That is so fast my head is spinning! Kudos to the team and Ales for his "Ales Trtnik's incredibly fast connection finding code".

Mags

Answer 3

Blazing speed! Chris, you and I have 238 common ancestors, and all display in a split second. This is amazing.

Thanks Aleš, nice work!

Answer 4

WOW! Just WOW!!

Answer 5

Wow, that is super fast! I tried it on a line with pedigree collapse and I like the drop-down choice of which line to look at! I use this feature a lot, so I am very pleased 

Answer 6

At https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ap_Bran-2 , under DNA connections, there is  relationship icon -><- to the right of Gordon Griffin.  Clicking on that icon takes you to https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Griffin-11927&person2_name=Ap_Bran-2 At the bottom of that page under Relationship Finder there is a radio button for “limit to paternal line” .  Clicking on Find Relationship displays “Our paternal line limit does not work for direct ancestors” and females are included in the ancestral line. Is there a way show their direct paternal line relationship?

Thanks and sincerely,

Comments

WikiTree’s connection Finder can do this https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Connection&action=connect&person1Name=Ap_Bran-2&person2Name=Griffin-11927&relation=4&ignoreIds=

but the Relationship Finder display is better for showing  paternal line relationships between Y-DNA matches because it is more linear.

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You can find that connection on connection finder.

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Connection&action=connect&person1Name=Griffin-11927&person2Name=Ap_Bran-2&relation=4

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We posted the same thing. We were talking about this, but no explicit solution was found.

There is a way for you to find paternal / maternal line. Paternal line is the first in the distance group and maternal line is the last one. But it is not necessary the shortest one. so you need to check the next distance (2nd profile in your case).

I will see if there is a way to show the full paternal/maternal line as the first one.

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At https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ap_Bran-2 , when

• Gordon Griffin   is displayed under DNA Connections, I recommend that the relationship icon  be colored blue and that icon link to the profile using the direct paternal line relationship. For example at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ap_Bran-2 the icon should use this link https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Connection&action=connect&person1Name=Ap_Bran-2&person2Name=Griffin-11927&relation=4&ignoreIds=

Similarly, a pink relationship icon to show a direct maternal line relationship.  For example at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pfannberg-1 have a pink icon that links to https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Connection&action=connect&person1Name=Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha-25&person2Name=Pfannberg-1&relation=5&ignoreIds=

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I agree wholeheartedly with Peter that having the Yline and mtDNA line ability would be huge for Genetic Genealogists.

The links Peter has posted is what is needed.

Mags

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Peter, now first in the list and the automatically displayed one is the DNA connection if it exists.

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That is truly fantastic!  Thank you.

I assume if I click on the icon -><- under autosomal then it simply finds the most recent common ancestor?

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I spoke too soon :-( 

At https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Arsenault-64 , if you click on the -><- icon to the right of Denis Leger then his maternal line relationship with Arsenault is not shown.

Sincerely,

Answer 7

This is great. Thanks, Aleš.  Is there any chance of this being added to the API?

Comments

We were talking about it, and decided not to offer it through API at this time. Some of these functions are a huge thing for Connection finder and it will not be able to process too many requests. If we release the API, we have no control over the number of requests.

But there is a possibility to do it at some point. But we will not offer everything it can do. You should ask for specific feature and we will see. There might also be request rate limits, so apps don't kill our server.

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OK. Thanks.

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C'mon Ian, you're not going to push Ales to pre-calculate every possible route and store it in the data dumps? Won't somebody think of the 27 million children?

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I've asked for this to be added to the API before, so that I could (through my Chrome extension) add it to every profile that had a relationship with the member (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1193263/would-like-your-relationship-each-person-their-profile-page). It was suggested to me that there was not enough call for it to be added, so I tried to find some support.  There were some positive voices, but not enough, and even some negative voices(!).  In the end, I built a system myself (with thanks to Chase Ashley for letting me use his functions) and added it to the extension.  I think it's working well, isn't it?  But it would be much easier (and it would probably use less of the app server's resources) if this was just added to the API.

Answer 8

Holy cow, that is impressive!!

I have just discovered a possible line of descent all the way back to pre-1500s that I never knew about before!!!

I will be checking ALL my relatives now!!

Comments

The relationship finder says I am the 34x great granddaughter of Charlemagne - something I never knew before.

However many of these links before the 1400s are of unknown confidence. I need to know - just how much can we trust these connections.

I assume there are record for these links and relationships.

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Just about anyone with European ancestry can trace at least one lineage back to Charlemagne. And while that is totally plausible given how far back he lived and the number of noble houses his descendants founded, it's also true that most of those lineages will be poorly sourced.

Answer 9

Great work. Under the Magna Carta Surety Barons in my quick links, it still says it searches 30 generations. Assuming that can be deleted now?

Comments

Yes, I'm planning on doing a quick update to that page.

Answer 10

There is one small error that does need to be looked at.

As I said above, I checked to see if I am descended from Charlemagne since the gossip says that all Europeans are descended from him.

So then I checked if I am descended frrom Edward 1st King of England. yes I am descended from him as well - through 5 different lines of descent

When you click the first line - the heading said this - Robynne is the 21st great granddaughter of Edward.

That is fine. Nothing wrong with that at all.

BUT when I click INSIDE the box that says - Explore More - to find other lines of descent - and I click those lines of descent - I get these funny headings.

Robynne is the Edward I is the 24th great grandfather of Robynne of Edward.

Robynne is the Edward I is the 22nd great grandfather of Robynne of Edward.

Can these be fixed up please.

Thank you.

Comments

This bug was already noticed and is on the to-do list.

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Thanks Ales!!!

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I am SOOOOOOO  excited about this.

Robynne is the 29th great granddaughter of Hugues (Capet)

If this is true this explains why I have always had a fascination with France!!  It is a genetic thing. It goes back over 1000 years!!!!

I also have over 700 lines of descent from Hugues Capet. But the RF can only show 100 of them!!

I am SO incredibly excited about this!!!!

Can you tell  LOL

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Andre is the 31th great grandson of Hugues

And my spouse (Andre Lozier)  is ALSO descended from Hugues Capet (King of the Franks) as well!! LOL

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Who would have thought that a Kiwi from NZ of English Ancestry and a Frenchman from Canada were related!!

Andre Lozier and Robynne are 17th cousins four times removed

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The funny headings should be fixed now :)

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hehe Robynne, I'm in Canada and I have an Australian distant cousin (also member of WikiTree) to whom I am related several times over.  It's amazing the amount of travel our ancestors managed with the means at their disposal.

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Thank you so much Jamie.

Answer 11

This is such a cool improvement! I tried it out on Charlemagne who I knew I was related to, but had to do more than one relationship finder jump to get to him in the past. Now there's a direct path (he's my 35th great grandfather through the same line Abby Glann and I share) and it shows there are 160358 paths to my relationship to him. Whoa! That's mind blowing.

Comments

Isn't it mind blowing for sure , I am 33rd GGdaughter (closest) and over 100 other relationships, connection over 217,000 ways !! Like you just WOW!  I thought I was only related in the Martin Luther line.

Answer 12

When doing it with Charlemagne (Carolingian-77) it says

Charlemagne is the father of Anonymous

That is corre— No, not true at all!! 

Don’t know what’s up with that

Comments

Strange! I wonder if it's related to your privacy level.

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It looks like it may have been an issue with memory -- try it again, it should be working.

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Good now thx

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Sorry... I just laughed when I read your post... then I realised you were serious :o

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Wait... what!?

How old are you?

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Not 1275, that’s for sure…

Answer 13

I must have done something wrong.  I tried relationship-finding with my biological great grandfather, Haywood-44, and the Relationship Finder told me there was no blood relationship...

Same thing happened with me and my great grandmother on a different line.  Farley-140 not a blood ancestor, even though she is my biological great grandmother. Huh?

Ball-18960 (my mother).  Same thing - no blood relationship.

Comments

Maybe try refreshing the page? I tested and I was able to see your relationship to both of them.

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Tried refreshing (curious, since I went via Chris's link in the question above).  The results came up after several tries.

Got the link to my mother.

Got the link to my great grandmother (although I find it rather curious that it says 'Ros is the first great granddaughter of Susan'.  Shouldn't the word 'first' be removed?)

Finally got a biological connection to my great grandfather (Haywood-44) although the 'first' word comes up again, saying 'Ros is the first great granddaughter of Samuel'.

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The first actually means 1 x great granddaughter.

When you get back to 3rd great and 5th great it makes sense to read it as 3x (3 times) great granddaughter and 5x (5 times) great granddaughter.

Hope that make sense.

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But wouldn't it make more sense for it to say
'Ros is the great granddaughter of Susan'.?  Obviously, if I were the 7th great granddaughter, then it would say 7th, but 'first great granddaughter of Susan' makes it sound like I was the first great granddaughter that Susan ever had.

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I wonder if that is related to English being Ales`second language.

But you might want to talk to Ales  to find out.

Or there could be some other reason.

It could also be the coding requirements, If the system has to put in 2x Great grand daughter and so on, then it probably also is required to put in the 1x great granddaughter as well.

Answer 14

Great work!

I checked my relationship to U.S. President John Adams (the first relationship where I discovered flaws in the way Relationship Finder formerly handled pedigree collapse) and I was pleased to find that it now accurately calculates the shortest line of descent from the common ancestor.

Answer 15

Well in a split second I found that I am 18 degrees of separation from Bill Gates through a common ancestor, Tupper. AMAZING!! I love the speed!!  Thanks for the improvement!

Answer 16

That was FAST.. i went through before and checked my relationship to the Mayflower passengers (15 gen.) and got nothing... Did it again just for the heck of it and i'm related to 4 of them... does that make me a Mayflower descendant?  The relationship was from the 12 and 1300s...

Comments

Like you, I am related to some Mayflower passengers!  But I am not descended from any of them (that I know of yet.)

If the relationship finder says you are "both descendants of (Name)" then you are related to that person, but not "descended" from them.  To be a "descendant" it would say:

"(Name) is the (X) great grandfather of Clyde."

Answer 17

Thank you. That is absolutely fantastic!! I love how Wikitree keeps progressing. You guys do an amazing job.

A future possible thought for relationship finder, ability to put into the NAME-ID boxes, ID 1: NAME-ID, ID 2: "NOTABLE" or "ACTIVE", to be able to do a search for your closest Notable profiles, or closest Active member profiles.

Comments

Ooh that sounds pretty cool ! Not sure how hard it would be to implement, but I'd love it

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Something like this is coming fairly soon :)

Answer 18

Well, I guess I must be my usual grumpy self and say that I don't think this 40-generation ancestor capability is worth the tradeoff against once-a-day update.

I have found it useful to be able to check my relationship to second cousins five times removed, and the like, immediately upon creation.

And I have one single ancestor in generation 18, which is my furthest back ancstor. Not the shadow of a documented trail back to Charlemagne ;-) So I had no urgent need for this.

Comments

I think it's a cool thing, but is likewise of no use to me. I've never made it past about 12 generations! So I look on your 18 with envy.

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LoL!! my single 18-generation ancestor is nothing to envy - I don't feel that I have contributed anything to having him :-)

Where I do feel enviable is in having a complete set of my 128 sixth great grandparents and 82% complete in the next generation. There I have contributed substantially to the research - but, of course it is by sheer luck I haven't had any "father unknown" occurrences closer in time.

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You're right. I'm even more deeply envious of 128 out of 128!

But my 3/8 Irish heritage is what it is. I can't make records appear out of nowhere and looking on the bright side it's saved a lot of time and research effort.

Answer 19

This is so awesome!!  Thank you.

Signed,

One of millions (probably) of 33rd g/granddaughters of Charlemagne.

Answer 20

Chris, you and I have a common ancestor a ways back. That was very quick!