Ancestry removing matches less than 8cM

[LizzieL]

A quick example:

I have a known relative  -

Ancestry - 120 over 6 segs, largest segment 47cMs
My Heritage  - 133.4 over 7segs, largest segment 48.6cMs

Ancestry's algorithm  chopped off some. We all know what algorithms can do!

I have numerous ones like that and  Gedmatch too

I have a known relative who doesn't match with me on Ancestry, but we do match to the same group of people. I have a match with him on Gedmatch though.

[melba_schmelba]

Why can't they just show us the real results, not adjusted to what they think they might be.

Looks like it's the 'wisdom' of Ancestry's Timber algorithm at play, but now we can see it more starkly as presumably the larger segment is the pre Timbered figure  . So now it is going to be even more confusing for people and they are going to have even less confidence in it .

[LizzieL]

One of mine's  been "timbered " a lot
My match with GB:
25 / 1 longest 38 on Anc,

43.8 /2 longest 37.4 on MH,

38.3 /2 longest 31.4 Gedmatch

Gedmatch shows I have two matching segments with her very close to each other on same Chr , totalling 38.3, longest 31.4.
My Heritage puts these together and finds a match at 6.4 on a different Chr, which there is no sign of on Gedmatch even when I reduce threshold to 5.
Ancestry also adds these two bits together, then timbers it to 25,

GB and I have match with a third person (LC) over part of this large segment and the small bit on the other chr. This match appears on Gedmatch and MH but not on Ancestry. I would have thought it was big enough to be picked up.

[RavenclawDragonlord]

This is the latest from Roberta Estees Blog (found it in my Spam!!)

Does it help or confuse the whole issue more


https://dna-explained.com/2020/08/09/august-hot-news-ancestry-match-tagging-script-dna-sales-

Kim

Ohhh! This seems to be what I've been searching for! Thanks for sharing that link as the code seems to scooping up a lot of the matches that would have just disappeared as my mum has loads of small DNA matches, some that I've been able to prove are connected.   

[melba_schmelba]

Another good blog from Roberta about the fact that many Thrulines connect to sub 8cM matches - ergo are all these now invalid according to Ancestry? Secondly attempting to find connections in your low matches via searching by family surname and how well she managed to do through manually tracing her own Thrulines with those name matches

https://dna-explained.com/2020/08/14/6-7-cm-matches-are-172-thrulines-all-wrong/

[Flemming]

Just found a 7cM match that is helping with an 18th century brick wall. Also finding shared matches at these lower levels that are helping tie clusters together. What with this and the race against time to save these lower matches... Very unhappy with it all. Can someone get hold of Ancestry's senior management and give them a good shake?

Does anyone have an email address for them that works? As Roberta says in her blog, the one she has comes back as non-working. The website itself only has chat or phone options and don't have time or patience for either.

[jillruss]

I've found quite a few establishments have taken to doing this. They always - rightly or wrongly - blame it on covid.

I wonder how this would go down if the boot was on the other foot:-

'due to the covid pandemic, I'm sure you will understand that I am unable to pay for my subscription this year. I do hope you will bear with me as, due to a resultant shortage of finances, I am unable to respond to your request at the moment. Be assured, I value your patience. '

[lisalisa]

I sent them an email last week, it was via the website, I didn't find an email address, but contacted them via the support centre, then I clicked on the dna symbol, clicked on test results, then there is a 'contact us' button.
I sent them my concerns via the form.


I got a polite and 'thoughtful/relevant' reply some days later which included, 'Your feedback has been forwarded to the appropriate department for consideration.'

I don't know if it helps the situation or not, maybe if enough people did it, I don't know.

[Gadget]

They do have a Free Phone number on the same page link:

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/ancestrydna-support

I've not tried it!