How essential is an Ancestry subscription for getting the most in my DNA test?

[Biggles50]

A wide and full tree will enable Ancestry to present Common Ancestor hints and Thrulines hints a small barebones tree will not do this.

You have a different definition of a bare bones tree to me. My Ancestry tree contains over 3,000 individuals, with their relationships, ancestors, descendants, collateral lines, and summary information for facts an events. So, for instance, it includes the dates and locations of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, appearances in censuses, occupations etc. where they are known. What it does not include from my offline tree are the sources for that information, any media such as image of source documents, places or people, or my notes and other research information.

It is perfectly capable of obtaining record hints, common ancestor hints and Thrulines suggestions.

The export function in my software can track accepted or viewed hints in such a way that they are not repeated when I upload an updated Gedcom, but I have never felt the need to use that aspect of the software. Any new sources or information discovered as a result of Ancestry, FindMyPast or other hints and matches I download, source and cite in my offline tree. That information will make its way into subsequent uploads of updated Gedcoms, but only as summarised facts. It works for me.

Thanks for that Phil

My own definition of a barebones tree is a limited number of people tree with just names, dates and locations.

[jc26red]

Thanks Phil, I use the same techniques as you and yes my tree is very wide and full and I do get plenty of useful thru-lines which I verify.

One other thing I did which proved reasonably useful was to downloaded the closest matches list  sort them in excel. many have the same person managing the tests… At least one will have some sort of tree visible which I can work on, that way you can do several at a time and clear some of the poor trees at the same time.
You tube have instructions on how to download the lists google sheets, I then opened the sheet in excel as I find it easier and quicker to use.

[fyremoon]

Thanks Biggles50 an phil57 for your input. It's very helpful to know what people consider a barebones tree, what they have up on Ancestry, what different software does. I really appreciate it as it gives me a bit of an idea before I start (if and when I decide to do a DNA test).

[Sloe Gin]

you can only have one tree linked to your DNA test(s) at any particular time.

That's disappointing.  Ideally I would split my tree into two, the paternal and maternal lines as there is no crossover between the two.

[Biggles50]

you can only have one tree linked to your DNA test(s) at any particular time.

That's disappointing.  Ideally I would split my tree into two, the paternal and maternal lines as there is no crossover between the two.

I am not sure why you would want two distinct Trees.

Personally I would keep one tree and then in Software like Roots Magic I would sync the whole tree into a Roots Magic project, and then check for Problems, Duplicates and perform a Tree Count, these actions would clear any issues.

Then I would start a new Roots Magic Project, select Father in the whole tree and drag him into the new project.

Then do the same with the Mother.

I would add myself and set me as the home person, then upload both trees to Ancestry.

So now on Ancestry I would have the whole tree, a Paternal tree and a Maternal tree then I would swap over the DNA link to myself in each tree, keep it there for a while and swap over as often as required.

With a strong DNA match I build a tree in Ancestry around them until I find where we have a Common Ancestor(s).  Once found I sync the Tree to a new project in Roots Magic and after error checking as prior, I drag the home person into my whole tree and merge the Common Ancestor(s).  The DNA match and their tree is now part of my whole tree.

I then sync my Roots Magic whole tree back to my whole Ancestry tree.

If you build a DNA match in your Ancestry tree but fail to find a Common Ancestor(s) you end up with what could be a large floating branch, do this with a few DNA match’s and you have a whole mass of unlinked branches.

[Sloe Gin]

you can only have one tree linked to your DNA test(s) at any particular time.

That's disappointing.  Ideally I would split my tree into two, the paternal and maternal lines as there is no crossover between the two.

I am not sure why you would want two distinct Trees.

Personally I would keep one tree and then in Software like Roots Magic I would sync the whole tree into a Roots Magic project, and then check for Problems, Duplicates and perform a Tree Count, these actions would clear any issues.

Then I would start a new Roots Magic Project, select Father in the whole tree and drag him into the new project.

Then do the same with the Mother.

I would add myself and set me as the home person, then upload both trees to Ancestry.

So now on Ancestry I would have the whole tree, a Paternal tree and a Maternal tree then I would swap over the DNA link to myself in each tree, keep it there for a while and swap over as often as required.

With a strong DNA match I build a tree in Ancestry around them until I find where we have a Common Ancestor(s).  Once found I sync the Tree to a new project in Roots Magic and after error checking as prior, I drag the home person into my whole tree and merge the Common Ancestor(s).  The DNA match and their tree is now part of my whole tree.

I then sync my Roots Magic whole tree back to my whole Ancestry tree.

If you build a DNA match in your Ancestry tree but fail to find a Common Ancestor(s) you end up with what could be a large floating branch, do this with a few DNA match’s and you have a whole mass of unlinked branches.

I have a single tree on Family Historian with myself as the root person.  As I am an only child the whole tree is only of interest to me.  For any of my relatives the interest will only be in half the tree: either my father's tree or my mother's tree.  If I want to share the tree with a cousin, it's better to split the tree accordingly, so it's not clogged up with branches that are irrelevant to them.

[phil57]

I have a single tree on Family Historian with myself as the root person.  As I am an only child the whole tree is only of interest to me.  For any of my relatives the interest will only be in half the tree: either my father's tree or my mother's tree.  If I want to share the tree with a cousin, it's better to split the tree accordingly, so it's not clogged up with branches that are irrelevant to them.

When I need to do that, I either create a chart specifically relating to the branch I want to share, and/or create a report covering the relevant people, or export a Gedcom from FH for the people/branch of interest. But I want my tree whole.

[Biggles50]

For my Cousins I set them as home person and view them, take a screen shot in both Pedigree and Tree Branch view and eMail the screenshots of the trees to the Cousins.

For each of my Cousins they are on the Family Tree and I have gone back at least 200 years on each of their parents who is not a blood relative so they do get a good tree and the resolution is good enough to print out and frame (having a 5k iMac or 4k PC monitor does help).

[Mowsehowse]

QUOTE:
"The easiest way is link your matches is to use the Common Ancestor filter, this display will then only show DNA matches where a link between you has been proposed by the Ancestry software.  The presented route is often cobbled together from multiple Trees that there are on Ancestry and hence care and validation of each person is really a good idea rather than blindly accepting what is presented as fully accurate.  We have found many errors and missing generations on said presented routes."

This is pure gold! Thank you Biggles.