WILL THEY HELP? Can Ancestry ThruLines Build Your Family Tree?

[@barbarah5756]

Thanks so much for addressing this issue. I have been noticing the same things as you discussed and knew that certain people DNA Thrulines keeps suggesting to me as matches are incorrect, because the members who own those trees have the wrong person attached. I have even made a public tree explaining/showing who the correct ancestor is, backed with documentation. But, unfortunately, many people simply copy and paste information and don't bother to do the research or add in the data that verifies their choices, which totally skews other trees. It's quite frustrating!

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

It is rather frustrating. Which is why I wish Ancestry had more tools like this one from Genetic Affairs. kzbin.infoLnZ13VCkRfc?feature=share

[@barbarah5756]

Couldn't agree more! However, for years now, I've been deep diving into my Smiths so far that I hesitate to pause it long enough to try to work out how to use this tool. It looks marvelous. My biggest brick wall is my maternal 2X great grandma Elizabeth Smith. She appears as a wife in two censuses only. There are no marriage records, death records, burial records for her and the 1850 census data is completely missing for all three possible districts in which she would have been with her family. I only know her maiden name from a cousin, but they got it from an older relative, who has since died. I've narrowed down the correct Smith family, but cannot determine which of the many sons she descends from, or if she was possibly illegitimate. Thanks for all you wonderful videos, they have helped immensely!💗

[@dianegreen7079]

Thank you!!! Finally someone has shown in a very clear and concise manner how to evaluate Thrulines’ matches. I love your tutorials and I hope to collect many more. Diane Green

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

You're very welcome. Welcome to the channel

[@deckocards6988]

That's interesting about the genetic pitfall re: adopted ancestors. I don't run into this because I don't know of any adopted ancestors but I wouldn't have thought that Ancestry could not distinguish biological vs adopted family. Great video!

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Thanks my friend. Few people recognize it unless they have adoptive or illegitimacy in the family trees. Andy and I both have combinations of the two and we're picking up on them. I have another (more detailed) video about this coming out soon (though some folks have had an unintentional sneak peak. oops!)

[@vagal2312]

Thanks so much for another informative video. I personally love ThruLines for the clues it provides, saving time in the long run when I have very limited time to work on my tree. However, you mentioned a flipside to that coin which we have to be very mindful of. There are going to be many people who add the suggested paths without doing thorough research, so we will need to be very diligent with proving our own trees. In other words, don't use ThruLines and its suggestions as an end result. Use them as additional research tools that could help us on our journey to find our TRUE ancestors.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Va Gal. Exactly! ThruLines have a number of terrific benefits but we must be careful how we read into the SUGGESTIONS (Ancestry's requested emphasis).

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Thanks for joining the livestream today

[@vagal2312]

@@FamilyHistoryFanatics It was my pleasure! I'm heading over to Amazon now to get some of your books.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Wow. That's great.

[@KentPetersonmoney]

It did identify a possible slave owner as my 5th great grandfather. I am 21% European so me having a 5th great grandfather that's a slave owner is not far fetched. I added him to see if other people would have common ancestors

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Sweet! Keep me posted on your research.

[@douglasvilledarling2935]

I am kinda on the opposite path. I am looking for my 5th great grandparents. 21% is A LOT! From that far back. Keep a close eye on wills, slave schedules, Quaker meetings and newspapers. I found a will on another person's tree that said "I leave to my colored wife" Best of luck

[@KentPetersonmoney]

@@douglasvilledarling2935 yeah it is quite a bit. Some white people did show up as possible 4th-6th cousins as my matches. So I could have a 3rd great grandparents that were fully white. Don't have all my 3rd great grandparents or even all my 2nd great grandparents accounted for.

[@aimeesims4]

Recently I contact my first cousin that I was able to successfully find with ThruLines and I was able to share a will with her that showed how we were related and get her tree one more generation back. ThruLines however did have our relationship wrong, but luckily she had a well documented tree and I was able to figure out which Common Ancestor she was related to due the name of her ancestor’s husband. My husband and I have an inside joke about the surname “Caveness.” We could not for the life of us read this surname on a will for one of my ancestors. Which made it very difficult to track down his daughter. With the ThruLines suggestion we were able to figure out the name! Now anytime we can’t read a name one of us will say “I know, it’s Caveness!” I agree, be very careful when you approach ThruLines, they can be a great resource, but very dangerous if you just start “grabbing.” Great video on what to look for when evaluating your ThruLines!

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Aimee, thanks for sharing your experience. I love the quip. "I know, it's Caveness!"

[@marydalton6530]

What to do when I know part of the info is not my family?

[@michaelwiley5427]

I have passed adding some cousins because I have the person listed full name I have, with birth and death dates , while that cousin only listed given, with no middle, and did not have the birth or death dates, as if they started a tree but gave up quickly. I have too many duplicates to knowingly create more.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

There is that limitation with ThruLines. We can be bypassing common ancestors with our DNA matches when they don't have complete or accurate information in their trees. Thanks for commenting.

[@dranet47]

I'm hoping that ThruLines helps me (someday) figure out who my paternal grandmother's biological parents were. I have very few matches on my father's side because I think her parents may have been immigrants or at least fairly recent arrivals in the U.S. I'm keeping an eye on any match that I can't connect to my maternal side (about 95% of my matches are maternal).

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Best of luck. Make sure you have posted your DNA results on MyHeritage, 23andMe, and FamilyTree DNA. The more databases you are in the greater your chances of finding a relative.

[@jasonjase8661]

Dna is not very useful without documents. Most people know very little of their ancestry. You will have thousand of dna matched and have a really really hard time finding out how.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Agreed!

[@jjbud3124]

I have distant relatives who have listed an incorrect ancestor, so I do have the problem of people listed in error as ancestors. I have the marriage certificate to "prove" the answer but no way to get rid of the errors in the ThruLines.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

June - I hear and feel your pain. I do allow for the possibility of unexpected biological events disagreeing with my paper trail research, as I'm sure you do. Yet I'm become frustrated with people's understanding of ThruLines and how they can go through genealogical errors (the same way Ancestry Member tree hints do as well).

[@douglasvilledarling2935]

Family History Fanatics I agree, DNA is a great tool to confirm. We had my grandmother's birth certificate with her father's name written, but dna confirmed someone else

[@josh9671]

Where is Emmaline Ward from? I have Wards in my family here in the UK.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Great question. Emmaline is a bit of a brick wall for me. Her father is Oscar Ward who married Jeannette Norton in Gennessee, Michigan. I'm SUPER stuck in that area. I had a professional researcher look an they're stuck as well.

[@josh9671]

Family History Fanatics I heard and researched that my born surname ‘Ward’ they is Irish Wards, English Wards and Spanish all being not related but have the same surname with origins from different places in the world. My Wards come from Lancashire in England with possible connections into Yorkshire in 17th and pre century. Have you looked into see if your Wards come possibly from England or Ireland?

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

I haven't had much luck with their origins. Their appearance in Michigan lacks records to direct me further back. It's frustrating.

[@josh9671]

Family History Fanatics I need to get my older Wards DNA tested to get past my major brick wall of my 6th great grandfather and further

[@rosannelytle6428]

It was very difficult to hear you.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Sorry. Typically I'm extremely loud. Not sure how I managed to be soft this time.