Ancestry wishlist

[Loderingo]

Ancestry says that they welcome suggestions so I thought I would start putting together a GenArchivist wishlist for Ancestry.  If this is successful, I may do the same with the other vendors. Here is my personal list.  Any additions?

New DNA filters

·         Allow filtering by number of people in tree e.g. public tree with >20 people
·         Allow filtering by community (top level or second level)
·         Allow filtering by ethnicity percentage (e.g. between 1 and 10% Irish ethnicity)
·         Allow filtering by number of shared matches (e.g. greater than 5 shared matches)
·         Allow filtering by where matches live (e.g. match lives in the UK)

Shared matches

·         Consider lowering the matching threshold to 15 CM (maybe for people who have a subscription)
·         At the moment, if you match person A with 50cm and person B with 10cm and they match each other, it will only show as a match when you are looking at person B’s shared matches.  Consider showing shared matches in this scenario on person A’s shared matches as well (it makes it easier to build match groups this way)
·         Consider introducing automation to make it easier to build match groups e.g. MyHeritage has autoclusters
·         Consider adding automation to show where the same ancestor appears in multiple trees in a match group

Chromosome browser and Sideview

·         Consider bringing in a full chromosome browser (if only for people who pay a subscription).
·         If you won’t do this due to privacy concerns, then consider linking specific segments to an ancestor or ancestral couple (e.g. Gedmatch has a Lazarus tool to rebuild an ancestor’s genome if there are enough descendants)
·         Introduce Sideview for grandparents
·         Consider showing if you match someone on their maternal or paternal side (if they set which parent is which in Sideview)
 
Common ancestors

·         Introduce a notification if someone you previously viewed has a common ancestor added
·         Introduce a way to reject a common ancestor, if you think it is wrong
·         Allow there to be multiple common ancestors, if you have more than one ancestral connection
 
Thrulines

·         Differentiate between potential ancestor Thrulines where there is solid proof via DNA i.e. there are DNA matches via other children of the potential ancestor and those where the DNA matches are more recent and the potential ancestor is just derived from other people’s family trees

Communities

·         Consider adding more granular communities in the UK

[rmstevens2]

I would really like to see Ancestry include Y-DNA haplogroup results at least as refined as those offered by 23andMe. That would tell me if a match, especially one with my surname or a variant of it, is likely to be related to me on my Y-chromosome line. Then I would know if it would be worthwhile to offer to sponsor that person's Y-DNA testing with FTDNA.

I would also like to see Ancestry offer the same sort of thing with regard to mtDNA. That would be really helpful, since one's mtDNA line is not easily tracked via surnames.

[Nqp15hhu]

Filter matches by grandparent.

[Loderingo]

Filter matches by grandparent.

Do you mean sideview for grandparents or something else?

[JonikW]

The main thing I want from them is the ability to see shared matches by simply buying a test but without subscribing. As an earlier tester, I feel they've reneged on the deal I originally signed up for and formerly enjoyed by taking this function away from me. Moreover, I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by removing the ability to understand how you're related to your matches without paying more on top of the cost of the test. Greater fees = fewer people who will cough up for the test, I fear.

There's actually a recently coined word for this kind of behaviour by platforms: "enshittification".  Ancestry has been owned by the private equity group Blackstone since 2020 so the need for profits has obviously risen up the agenda. Given that I'm not a subscriber, any matches I haven't already researched have become useless to me now. 

I personally feel their UK communities are already the best. Sure, on my English side I get Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, while other parts of the West Country in my actual tree that my dad has on Ancestry such as Dorset are ignored. But overall my regions are in exactly the right ball park and I can't imagine this could be done better.

[Loderingo]

The main thing I want from them is the ability to see shared matches by simply buying a test but without subscribing. As an earlier tester, I feel they've reneged on the deal I originally signed up for and formerly enjoyed by taking this function away from me. Moreover, I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by removing the ability to understand how you're related to your matches without paying more on top of the cost of the test. Greater fees = fewer people who will cough up for the test, I fear.

There's actually a recently coined word for this kind of behaviour by platforms: "enshittification".  Ancestry has been owned by the private equity group Blackstone since 2020 so the need for profits has obviously risen up the agenda. Given that I'm not a subscriber, any matches I haven't already researched have become useless to me now. 

I personally feel their UK communities are already the best. Sure, on my English side I get Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, while other parts of the West Country in my actual tree that my dad has on Ancestry such as Dorset are ignored. But overall my regions are in exactly the right ball park and I can't imagine this could be done better.

I think it was inevitable that some charge would come in as eventually the number of kits sold was going to start to dry up.  That said i take your point about taking away features so i will add that to the list of feedback.

In terms of the communities, the top level ones are OK.  If you look at the Irish communities though, they have added incredibly granular second tier communities e.g. "West Beara Peninsula", which is about 5 or 6 fishing villages.

[Nqp15hhu]

Filter matches by grandparent.

Do you mean sideview for grandparents or something else?

To be able to see which matches relate to which grandparent.

[Jalisciense]

I would really like to see Ancestry include Y-DNA haplogroup results at least as refined as those offered by 23andMe. That would tell me if a match, especially one with my surname or a variant of it, is likely to be related to me on my Y-chromosome line. Then I would know if it would be worthwhile to offer to sponsor that person's Y-DNA testing with FTDNA.

I would also like to see Ancestry offer the same sort of thing with regard to mtDNA. That would be really helpful, since one's mtDNA line is not easily tracked via surnames.

I think the same, bro

[Mabrams]

The current AncestryDNA chip does not have that many Y or mtDNA SNPs.

According to the ISOGG page, Ancestry has less than half of 23andMe Y SNPs.  1691 vs 3733. 
23andMe's list has been purposely selected, while it is unknown (to me at least) if Ancestry's SNPs are carefully selected or random.

As for mtDNA, 23andMe has over 4000.  Ancestry has 263.  No sense of equity.

I am not against Ancestry showing haplotypes.  But it will have to be on a new chip.  And that won't be free.

I have run my Ancestry v1 raw data through YSeq Clade Finder.  And Morley.  I got the same as my 23andMe V3.  But V4 and V5 are much stronger chips. 

I cant think of any third party sites that will try to analyze Ancestry's mtDNA.

~~~~~

I have a simple request for the wish list.

A Male or Female Filter.  So when I enter a name, I only get males (or females).  This would cut my results lists in half. 

e.g. When I enter "Smith" I only get 800 instead of 1600 etc ?

[rmstevens2]

The current AncestryDNA chip does not have that many Y or mtDNA SNPs.

According to the ISOGG page, Ancestry has less than half of 23andMe Y SNPs.  1691 vs 3733. 
23andMe's list has been purposely selected, while it is unknown (to me at least) if Ancestry's SNPs are carefully selected or random.

As for mtDNA, 23andMe has over 4000.  Ancestry has 263.  No sense of equity.

I am not against Ancestry showing haplotypes.  But it will have to be on a new chip.  And that won't be free.

I have run my Ancestry v1 raw data through YSeq Clade Finder.  And Morley.  I got the same as my 23andMe V3.  But V4 and V5 are much stronger chips. 

I cant think of any third party sites that will try to analyze Ancestry's mtDNA.

~~~~~

I have a simple request for the wish list.

A Male or Female Filter.  So when I enter a name, I only get males (or females).  This would cut my results lists in half. 

e.g.  When I enter "Smith" I only get 800 instead of 1600 etc ?

I wasn't aware of that. That's a shame.

My great miracle Y-DNA breakthrough match started as a measly 9 cM match at Ancestry, but he had my surname, so I was able to talk him into a Y-111 with FTDNA and then, when he matched me 110/111, into an upgrade to the Big Y-700. He had the solid pedigree information I desperately needed. It would have been terrible had he not agreed to Y-DNA testing with FTDNA. I am grateful to God he was almost as excited by the match as I was.

[Loderingo]

Thanks for all the feedback. I have submitted and will let you know if I get a response.

[randalgibbs]

This is from a Facebook post made yesterday by Blaine Bettinger about coming changes to Ancestry presented at RootsTech:

TYesterday at RootsTech Ancestry announced some pretty incredible improvements to DNA matching. The 13-minute video linked below highlights some of these improvements coming in the first half of 2024:

• New custom group labeling (new colors & emojis/icons)
  
• Ability to create up to 64 different custom groups (increased from 24)
  
• Updated relationship predictions (using age and segment data)
  
• cM amount shared by two shared matches!
  
• Filtering matches by genetic community and searching by ethnicity (requires subscription)
  

And the following improvements are expected in the future:

• Grouping all shared matches into a custom group with a single click (finally!)
  
• Sorting a match’s closest shared matches
  
• Identification of segment triangulation among a group of shared matches (likely without identification of the segment data)
  

Although Kelly Becker states in the video that “these improvements will be for all DNA customers,” it’s a bit unclear in the video which of the tools will be free and which will require a subscription. Regardless, for DNA power users all of these tools will be extremely useful!

Here's a link to the video he referenced: Deeper discoveries with new DNA Match tools | Ancestry®