How many '4th cousins or closer' matches have you got?

[rsel]

228 4th cousin or closer, and only 21,918 matches in total

[MIG79]

This is a question I've wondered about!

My Close matches 4th cousins or closer = 246
Distant matches = 51552, amazing!

I seem to have quite a number of families with 8 to 10 children.

I do have many links to a family (Clarke) I know nothing about other than linked by DNA.
Can I sneak a request for Barkers from Cheshire, Wirral, N Wales to be tested, very few from there..

[PrawnCocktail]

245 4th cousins or closer here, most of which I can't connect, as they've not managed to cross their tree to the UK (if indeed they have one).

Can I sneak a request for Barkers from Cheshire, Wirral, N Wales to be tested, very few from there..

I do have a Barker in my Cheshire tree (from Northwich) - but as I heavily suspect she wasn't the child of the man her mother married, it probably won't be much use! 

[LizzieL]

160 4th cousins or closer today, a couple of days ago it was 159 and a few days before that it was 160 again, can't work that one out. It was 140 when I got my results at the end of january this year. Total matches is 25,662.
I have a group of people - three siblings and two first cousins to these siblings descended from a brother and two sisters. One is predicted 3rd cousin and the others a bit lower cm so predicted 4th. They have an extensive tree going back several generations and I can't see any match at all. The locations don't match with any of mine either.
yet some 6th cousins have been found quite easily.

[jillruss]

Are you referring to the Beta that was introduced last night, Jill?

If so, you can toggle it to Off  (top right).

I don't know when it was introduced, Gadget (you expect too much of me!) but its the one that's there now. I don't see that the profile page now gives any personal info on the match - like age, residence etc. Other than that, I certainly like the look of the new lay out, so many thanks for pointing me at it. Kudos to Ancestry as well for continuing to make efforts to improve our 'experience'.

Jill - if it's from your DNA listing, click on the tree cell (whether there is one or not) and you should get up  the old info of your match

Thanks once more, Gadget. Found them! I think I must just have been confronted on the Beta system with profiles that never had the additional info re age, location etc on their original profile.  I will find my way around this new set up!

As for numbers, it looks as if mine is still very much on the small side - but I am not alone! Obviously, just a matter of luck as to how many of your prospective cousins have tested. I still think a lot of mine are hiding behind the proverbial door! Both my parents only had one sibling each but there are lots of children in earlier family groups.

Another question re the Beta system which is concerning me: my own profile shows the numbers in both my public tree (basic outline) AND my much larger tree which is (I hope) private, but the latter is headed Private Searchable Tree - what does this 'Searchable' mean re its privacy?

[shellyesq]

I have 1000+ 4th cousin and closer, and my husband has 951 4th cousin and closer.  We are American, which probably helps.

[jillruss]

I have 1000+ 4th cousin and closer, and my husband has 951 4th cousin and closer.  We are American, which probably helps.

Certainly seems to justify my suspicions that there are a heck of a lot of Americans on Ancestry DNA compared with other nationalities. But - possibly a contentious question - why do so many of them seem to stop their online trees before delving into their early non-USA roots? Is it because of poor access to records or what?

[ansteynomad]

I wondered that.  I’ve found the same.  Trees start with someone who apparently ‘just growed’ and there seems to be little or no interest in whatever happened to them before they touched US soil.

[shellyesq]

I don't think it's always lack of interest so much as it's not always easy to get back over the pond.  If you have an Ancestry subscription, it's cheaper to get US-only subscriptions or a public library may have US-only access.  For those of us with ancestors from the UK and Ireland, at least we have a common language and reasonably accessible records, but things get more complicated with branches from elsewhere. 

I would have to throw a lot of money at the problem and make a lot of effort to figure out our lines going back to Germany, Russia, etc.  I also have an immigrant ancestor who came from Ireland in the mid-1800's with a common name and no parents' names or specific area of Ireland known.  It's a longstanding brick wall that I don't think I will ever solve unless a miraculous family Bible shows up online.