RootsChat.Com

General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Britgirl on Wednesday 26 August 20 17:02 BST (UK)

Title: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Wednesday 26 August 20 17:02 BST (UK)
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post so feel free to move if it  should be in a different section but  I'm at a complete loss.

I manage 3 DNA tests on Ancestry - both parents and my husband. All DNA tests have been linked to the correct person in their respective trees but for some reason my husband's ThruLines is the only one that shows "actual" ancestors on ThruLines - my parents have nothing but "potential" ancestors.

I think I've tracked it back to the uploaded family tree where there is a DNA icon on all my husbands direct ancestors in his tree but not in my parents trees.
When I click on the DNA icon in the sidebar of my husbands tree it shows that all the options are set to On.
However when I go to my parents trees and do the same the 'ThruLines Icons' setting is set to off and is greyed out so I can't change it.

I've looked at all the possible settings in each of the 3 trees and I can't see anything that is set differently on my parents accounts from those of my husbands so I'm at a loss as to how to activate the greyed out 'ThruLines Icons' setting.

What am I missing???  ???
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Pheno on Wednesday 26 August 20 17:17 BST (UK)
I may be wrong but I think all the people to whom you attach dna, in order to get thrulines, have to be on the same tree!

You will need to merge your trees (possibly into a new one) and attach dna for each of the 3 tests you manage to those people on that one tree.

Pheno
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Wednesday 26 August 20 19:54 BST (UK)
Thanks for your reply Pheno. I really do hope not!!! It will take forever!  :(

I get Thru Lines just fine on each of the accounts, but pink and blue ancestors show only for my husband!  My parents only have green potential ancestors - even though they've chosen the correct people.

For some reason only my husband's tree is allowing the Thru Lines Icons to be set in DNA Discoveries when viewing the tree, and it's the only thing that is different.

I see the same when I log into their own accounts too - not just when I'm viewing them in my own account.
It doesn't affect the ThruLines matches I get at all - I'd just like my parents ancestors to be definitely there instead of potentially!  ;D
There must be a setting I'm missing somewhere that will un-grey the Icons!  :(
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: brigidmac on Wednesday 26 August 20 23:25 BST (UK)
I manage three trees too each to a different dna test

If you dont include all the relevant people on each tree thru lines
Wont show up

For example if your paternal cousin tests but has not included your father on their tree.or you have not included her parent
But you have both included grandparents it will show green as potential

Is your husband s tree wider ?

Or it could be a temporary glitch

I have matches which dont show because the relative has included punctuation . Titles nicknames or different spellings .

Do any of ,those explanations explain whats going on ?

Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: brigidmac on Wednesday 26 August 20 23:31 BST (UK)
Pheno I think each dna has to link to a separate tree but you could have one master tree

Its easy to copy people from one tree to another

Brit girl I dont know what you mean by dna icons set to on
I.ll have to check my settings.
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Pheno on Thursday 27 August 20 09:06 BST (UK)
Pheno I think each dna has to link to a separate tree but you could have one master tree

Its easy to copy people from one tree to another

Brit girl I dont know what you mean by dna icons set to on
I.ll have to check my settings.

No, I manage 3 other dna tests besides my own and we only have one tree between us all to which each of our dna is linked.  Thrulines and matches work perfectly well.

I have other ancestry trees but no dna linked to them.

Pheno
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: brigidmac on Thursday 27 August 20 10:00 BST (UK)
Thanks pheno
I wish Id known that earlier and knew the technology to add DNA tests to my tree
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Thursday 27 August 20 10:56 BST (UK)
Thanks all.

The Home person that each tree is built around is the one who took the DNA test ie my husband, my mum and my dad, and the test is linked to them. I haven't taken a test and don't appear in any of the trees - the test taker is the person I built the tree around.

ThruLines shows up on their accounts, and on mine which manages them, but in both their accounts and mine my parents ancestors show as potentials rather than definite. As far as I can see it doesn't stop ThruLines working as it should, so maybe it's just something I need to live with!  ::)

When you are looking at a tree the sidebar that shows the icons for which view to have the tree in, the house icon, zoom in/out,  and the rotation icons etc, at the bottom is a DNA icon and if clicked it opens up a panel called DNA Discoveries.
ThruLines Icons is off and greyed out in my parents trees but is on for my husbands.
Possible DNA Matches is on and
Connected DNA Matches is on.

What it seems to do is add a little DNA symbol to his direct ancestors in the tree.
It might be that this setting being off and my parents showing only potential ancestors when looking in the ThruLines section is completely unrelated, but it's the only thing I can see which might explain the difference!  ???

Mind you it took me forever to be able to see the ThruLines in the first place because when the link to accept the sharing of their trees came through it didn't actually say something useful like "click here to confirm" only a "Check it out" button - so I didn't click it because I already knew what was in the tree so didn't need to 'check it out'! Turned out that was the acceptance link!!  ::)
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Pheno on Thursday 27 August 20 11:38 BST (UK)
Thanks pheno
I wish Id known that earlier and knew the technology to add DNA tests to my tree

DNA attachments are easily managed from the DNA tab.  Just go to settings and you can then attach the dna result for the person whose test you are looking at to anybody in any of your trees.  You can then revolve through all the tests you manage and similarly attach those tests wherever, but to get them all on one tree you obviously need to attach them to individuals all in the same tree.

I sometimes swap them about between my trees (but to the same person) to see the effect.  Easy enough just to swap them back again.

Pheno
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: brigidmac on Thursday 27 August 20 14:36 BST (UK)
Wow id not seen those DNA settings for trees
Have changed settings for my mums tree
Will see if I get more or less green potential s

I will also practice switching dna to a diffèrent tree and back pheno
I remember doung that years ok to see if there were any links to nanas adopted family which I had on a separate tree.
But im always petrified of losing the dna data if I get it wrong.

Are your thru lines working now britgirl ?
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Friday 28 August 20 13:56 BST (UK)

Are your thru lines working now britgirl ?

No, in fact going through all my smaller matches before Ancestry removes them ( ::)) I've noticed that because they're only showing as 'potential' ancestors, when  a Common Ancestor is flagged within a match it can't identify which one it is - so the common ancestor function isn't working because of it either!  :'(
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Pheno on Friday 28 August 20 14:00 BST (UK)
My reaction would be to add all these potential ancestors, if you are happy that they are correct.

In this way thrulines might start working again (and common ancestors).

Pheno
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Friday 28 August 20 17:55 BST (UK)
My reaction would be to add all these potential ancestors, if you are happy that they are correct.

In this way thrulines might start working again (and common ancestors).

Pheno

Good idea! It bugs me to know what the cause is though!
I'll take a deeper look when I'm not so busy trying to save those distant matches!
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Saturday 29 August 20 16:58 BST (UK)
Oh dear oh dear!!
I accepted the potential matches for my mum's parents using her own tree from the hints.

The good news is she now has pink and blue parents in ThruLines.
The bad news it it seems to have removed all the people I had entered onto her tree - in her account -  and now it shows just mum and her parents only!  :o

However, if I look at her tree from my account the people are still all there - almost as if there are now two trees with the same user name!  ???

And the DNA Discoveries ThruLines Icons setting is still off and greyed out in both accounts!

Sigh - I can see me just deleting both hers and dad's trees and starting again!   :'(
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: brigidmac on Saturday 29 August 20 17:06 BST (UK)
Sometimes it takes time for parameters to adjust aftwr changes
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Saturday 29 August 20 17:53 BST (UK)
Sometimes it takes time for parameters to adjust aftwr changes

Yes, I'll wait at least 48 hours to see if anything happens first - though they say it can take a month for some things to sort out!
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Sunday 30 August 20 18:11 BST (UK)
Sometimes it takes time for parameters to adjust aftwr changes

Yes, I'll wait at least 48 hours to see if anything happens first - though they say it can take a month for some things to sort out!

Well that didn't take long! I now have no ThruLines for my mum at all - anywhere!!  ::)

I give up! Will delete the lot and start again at some point when I've regained the will to live!
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Sunday 30 August 20 19:22 BST (UK)
So I deleted the "potential" parents I'd clicked on for my mum and the people in her tree have reappeared!!!

So basically I'm back to where I was at the start of this thread - or at least I will be when (hopefully!) ThruLines reappears tomorrow with all her "potential" ancestors back in place!  ;D
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: Britgirl on Thursday 03 September 20 19:47 BST (UK)
Well, in the end I emailed Ancestry's customer support and I must say I'm very impressed - they got back to me so quickly and it was such a simple fix - even if I would never have discovered it by myself!

So, in the hope it might help anyone else in the future - here's what they said the problem was:

After reviewing your account, we noticed that there are a few relationship errors in your family tree that are effecting both Thrulines from showing correctly and the ability to turn on the Thrulines icon in your tree. For example, your parents are not listed as your biological parents in your family tree; the relationship is set to "Unknown." In order to fix this, navigate to your profile page, click "Edit" in the top-right corner and select "Edit Relationships" in the drop-down menu. There are a few more "unknown" relationships that we recommend fixing in order for Thrulines to show correctly.

So who'd have thought that clicking "add father/mother" wouldn't automatically make them biologically related to their child!  ::)

But anyway - the DNA Discoveries "ThruLines Icons" toggle is now "on" and checking with ThruLines I can easily see which ancestors need fixing as they gradually change from green to pink/blue!!  ;D

Thanks for your help and listening ears during my misery!
Title: Re: All my ThruLines ancestors are "Potential"
Post by: jlalor on Sunday 13 December 20 17:28 GMT (UK)
Britgirl - Thank God for you!
I struggled for hours with the same issue you faced.  After reading your post, and solution, I'm happy to say that it has worked for me as well!

I owe you!!!

Jonathan