26 June 2019

DNA Circles is Going Away — Very Soon

Did you find Ancestry's DNA Circles utility helpful?  It was introduced in an AncestryDNA blog post in November 2014
Finding evidence that you’re a descendant of a particular ancestor is one of the powerful applications of DNA testing. AncestryDNA has created a groundbreaking new way to make those kinds of powerful discoveries. We call it DNA Circles™ and it’s currently available in BETA for AncestryDNA customers.
DNA Circles re-imagines what matching can do. It goes beyond finding a common ancestor with your DNA matches and can link you to additional AncestryDNA members with the same common ancestor thus creating a Circle of people who are all related.
Now, as of 1 July, DNA Circles is disappearing. When that was mentioned at the recent OGS Conference some were disappointed.

It's replaced by ThruLines™ which illustrates how you may be connected to a particular DNA match through a common ancestor. According to Ancestry it works by "using the public or private searchable tree linked to your AncestryDNA test to search for people who appear in both your tree or other Ancestry member trees that are marked as public or private searchable. ThruLines uses this information to illustrate how you and your DNA matches might be related through common ancestors."

I had no DNA Circles so for me losing it is of no consequence. I do have POTENTIAL MATCHES in ThruLines™ starting with a 2nd great grandparent. Strangely no matches at that level of common ancestor are supported by a DNA result — they appear to be only in trees or records.

ThruLines comes to the fore at my 3rd great grandparent level when DNA matches start to appear. Some are in endogamous populations are don't appear to be genuine relationships others point to newly found cousins.

If you found DNA Circles results helpful why nor save them with a screen grab or transcribing the information. You have until Canada Day.

2 comments:

Bob H said...

I have used both, and since Thrulines were introduced, I much prefer them. Through them, you can see exactly how you are related to another person, and just last night I noticed that they were suggesting a possible relationship. They were actually questioning whether a relationship is correct.

Gail Roger said...

Unlike you, I'd say the vast majority of my ThruLines™ are DNA-related, but yes, the "potential ancestors" are usually egregious, and often displace my own documented ancestors, which is rather annoying, if not presumptuous! On the whole though, I find ThruLines relatively (nyuck-nyuck) helpful - if taken with a grain of salt - and can't possibly miss the DNA Circles, because, like you, I've never been included in one: being American seems to be a prerequisite!