Ancestry Thrulines doesn't show all relatives

[Pheno]

Well a quick check shows that isn't the reason. There are 55 trees (at least) that show this person.

It must be a Thrulines bug. So my question remains: is there a way to overcome it? It seems not (so far)!

Why not amend your person so that the details in your tree exactly match the details in another person's tree - albeit they may be incorrect.  Then wait a few days and see if there is a thrulines match.  You can revert to your original details again later.

May be wrong here, but doesn't the other person have to have taken a dna test in order that thrulines picks up the connection - after all that is the idea of Thrulines I think.  It seems unlikely that none of those other 55 people you mention as having this person in their trees have dna attached to themselves in their trees but ...........

Pheno

[Ruskie]

If there are 55 other people with the person in question in their trees, could you not just look at those trees and extract what you want rather than hoping thrulines will find it and offer it to you as a suggestion?

Maybe you could contact tree owners and ask if any have taken DNA tests? From what I remember, not all Ancestry tree owners have taken DNA tests.

Of course all of the 55 might be fantasy trees copied from other fantasy trees, so you would need to check for accuracy.

[Eric Hatfield]

I think that is true. The person in question, John Jones, is generally referred to as John Griffith Jones, but some people have John Griffeth Jones because the handwriting in some documents isn't clear. I have used both in my tree and given the algorithm time to take notice, but neither worked. Also, some trees have one and some the other.

Perhaps I should try simply John Jones and see if it makes a difference. I will try that and report back in a few days (Ancestry says it can take up to 48 hours to take effect.)

[Gadget]

I assume that you've read this article on the limitations:

https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-ThruLines?language=en_US

If your tree is private and not searchable, you won't see ThruLines, and your matches' private, non-searchable trees also won't be visible to you. Your DNA matches might appear in more than one of your ThruLines.

ThruLines uses information from family trees; they don't change the information in trees. If there's inaccurate information in your tree, you may receive inaccurate ThruLines. Only you and those you invite to see your DNA results can see your ThruLines.

ThruLines are available for ancestors up to 5th great-grandparents. ThruLines don't appear for 6th great-grandparents and beyond.

Also, it might be worth subscribing to Pro Tools so that you may  access  the enhanced version of shared matches, etc.

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/global-search/Pro%20tools
Some features are more useful than others.

Gadget

[Gadget]

Also -  link on previous message also includes:

Accuracy

ThruLines rely on family trees from you and other Ancestry members, so their accuracy depends on the quality of those trees. Mistakes in family trees can cause inaccurate ThruLines.

Because ThruLines are tree-based, they don't prove your relationship to a DNA match. For example, even if your tree lists someone as your second cousin and appears as a DNA match and in a ThruLine as your second cousin, they could still be a first cousin once removed, a half-first cousin, or another relationship.

To see how you might be related, click on the amount of shared DNA with a match. This chart also shows how often a likely relationship happens based on the amount of shared DNA.

[Eric Hatfield]

Thanks. Yes, I have read that. And I am using Pro Tools.

I'm aware of Thrulines' limitations, but this is the first time I have researched in Wales, and the surname Jones is very common, making it difficult to make definite identifications. And the relative I am helping has way more good DNA matches than I do. So it is hard to wade through all the matches. I was hoping Thrulines would help me by identifying the best matches to investigate first. So it is frustrating that John is the one great grandparent missing.

[Gadget]

Yes, researching Welsh ancestors can be difficult 

The large majority of mine were!

[Gadget]

I had a problem with discovering my great grandfather as my grandfather was illegitimate.
My sister and I started searching when I was 8.I finally discovered who he was  4-5 years ago so it took about 65 years!

I found that I had a small group of shared matches all  about 90 - 180 cMs with me. I contacted one of them who showed Welsh ancestry. She mentioned the village that I and my mother's line had lived. There were 5 brothers from whom the shared group descended from.  I had to work out which one of them was 'mine!  I spent 3 months working through records and constructing trees until it was obvious who it was. Unfortunately, all except one of his legitimate offspring had died early. Eventually, I found that one daughter had married and moved to South Africa.I traced her descendants in SA. I was then able to confirm the lineage.
I didn't use Thrulines or Protools  (Ptools weren't available then) I used just detailed research using tried and tested genealogical techniques.

Gadget

[rsel]

Thrulines shows ancestors back several generations, and then shows whether there are any DNA matches through each ancestor, or none. I am helping a relative resolve some uncertain paternity back 3 generations and the one ancestor (my relative's great grandfather) who I really want to look at is totally missing from Thrulines while the other great grandparents are all there.

Hi Eric,
    Just double checking, are you saying the person is not showing, or that the person is there with just no matches ?  Most of the people have responded on the second option, but i have a few cases where a person in my tree is not appearing on the thurlines screen at all. In most cases they are at the end of a branch, and also happen to be dummy names i used to see if anything could shake out from them.  I did mange to get one person to appear after unlinking and relinking them to the spouse, but doing the same actions didn't work on the other 2.

Richard