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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: rsel on Saturday 24 December 16 13:00 GMT (UK)
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Hi All,
Does anybody know how Ancestry decides what to list as a shared match against a DNA match? I just recently got my parents tested, to help check out my own results. I was expecting that the majority of my matches would then show up matching to one or other parent, however I have only about 20 showing up out of 3,000ish total matches. Before anybody says it, my parents do match very well to me :-) Some of the matches that do show up as 'shared' are appearing on both mine and my parents lists of matches, so its very confusing....
Richard
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Shared matches are restricted to fourth cousins or closer:
https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-Shared-Matches-Feature-1460089700549
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Shared matches are restricted to fourth cousins or closer:
https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-Shared-Matches-Feature-1460089700549
Thanks DevonCruwys, i had read that article previously, and i consider parents to be a 4th cousin or closer match :-) hence my question.
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I think this means that the 20 matches that show up in the shared matches feature and which match either you or your parents are predicted to be fourth cousins or closer. The remainder of your matches are likely to be very distant cousins beyond the fourth cousin level and they wouldn't be picked up by this tool. You don't tend to get many matches in the fourth cousin category anyway. I only have 35 predicted fourth cousins. This category does actually include fourth to sixth cousins so I presume the shared matches tool only includes the high-end matches in this category.
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I think this means that the 20 matches that show up in the shared matches feature and which match either you or your parents are predicted to be fourth cousins or closer. The remainder of your matches are likely to be very distant cousins beyond the fourth cousin level and they wouldn't be picked up by this tool. You don't tend to get many matches in the fourth cousin category anyway. I only have 35 predicted fourth cousins. This category does actually include fourth to sixth cousins so I presume the shared matches tool only includes the high-end matches in this category.
From my experience within my own matches, this is not the case. I have plenty of 'distant cousins' within my own list who come up with a shared match to a 4th cousin or better, however they don't point back the other way from the 4th cousin to the distant cousin :-)
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I have some matches which are shared matches but I have a first cousin once removed and our second cousin twice removed - these don't show up as shared matches - what am I doing wrong?
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I have some matches which are shared matches but I have a first cousin once removed and our second cousin twice removed - these don't show up as shared matches - what am I doing wrong?
I have never managed to find out what drives it at Ancestry, there is obviously some filtering criteria but what that is anybody's guess :-)
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I think this means that the 20 matches that show up in the shared matches feature and which match either you or your parents are predicted to be fourth cousins or closer. The remainder of your matches are likely to be very distant cousins beyond the fourth cousin level and they wouldn't be picked up by this tool. You don't tend to get many matches in the fourth cousin category anyway. I only have 35 predicted fourth cousins. This category does actually include fourth to sixth cousins so I presume the shared matches tool only includes the high-end matches in this category.
From my experience within my own matches, this is not the case. I have plenty of 'distant cousins' within my own list who come up with a shared match to a 4th cousin or better, however they don't point back the other way from the 4th cousin to the distant cousin :-)
I agree with you here and I'm getting these as shared matches as well.
I've always assumed that although one is a distant cousin to you, they are probably 4th cousins or closer to each other. So we get a bonus shared match, by association.
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From my experience within my own matches, this is not the case. I have plenty of 'distant cousins' within my own list who come up with a shared match to a 4th cousin or better, however they don't point back the other way from the 4th cousin to the distant cousin :-)
And that's exactly how Ancestry works.
If you click on someone in the Distant Cousin category, Ancestry will show you any Shared Matches you both have in the 4th Cousin or higher categories.
But if you click on someone in the 4th Cousin or higher categories, Ancestry will still only show you any Shared Matches you both have in the 4th Cousin or higher categories - it will not show any Shared Matches you have in the Distant Cousin category.
I'm not suggesting that's a good arrangement - but it is how Ancestry is set up.