Ancestry Hints. Are they worth it?

[PeterM]

There are discussions elsewhere about whether Ancestry Hints are a nuisance or whether they are useful. I sometimes get annoyed by these hints but I recently found them very useful.
I knew about a Charles Coates, son of Tobias Coates, Born in Hampton, Middlesex, England, but nothing else. I noticed a hint on Ancestry of a Charles Coates, son of Charles Coates and Jane Smith, marrying in France. My first reaction was to dismiss it as I had no records of the family in France. But I do have a Charles Coates marrying a Jane Smith in Hampton, Middlesex.
I opened the record to find that the parents, Charles and Ann, were from Hampton, England. This made me look closer. This showed a daughter of Charles, son of Charles, marrying an Elisebeth Marie Cleyesen in France. They had a daughter Louise Coates who married Charles Guillotin. He was from a family that had a castle in the south of France. I do not understand French but a contact on Geneanet kindly agreed to translate the contacts. Apparently, he is not related but had undertaken some research into his wife's family, This led to a murder. The husband of Louise had killed someone and this was even reported in English newspapers.
So now I always check hints, deleting most of them. You never know what may show up!

 

[At home in NZ]

Obviously to some people, like you Peter M, Ancestry Hints are valuable. However, the sheer number that build up when you're working on other trees or part of a tree is daunting.
Almost every time I add somebody about 10 or 11 Hints pop up, this is most annoying when the person is somebody's mother or father in-law because I do not collect any information about those people other than their names.

Over the weekend I looked at the All Hints page for one of my trees and found 11 pages of Hints for the 1950 US census that have appeared behind my back so to speak.
In all there are 225 pages of Hints in that tree. 258 pages in another tree and a smaller number in each of the other trees

'photos' from other people's trees are mostly discarded unless the item is a copy of a certificate I do not have.
Obvious mismatches are discarded without a second look.
Keeping up with it all is very time consuming and hampers progress.

We now have yet another way of being advised of Hints, it is a Bell next to the Hints leaf. What with 'Possible records' appearing in the middle of a person's profile, , the Bell, the Leaf and the Hints tab in the Profile I think there is overkill.

I have contacted Ancestry about the Bell as I would like to be able to switch it off.
The stock answerer is:
We are trying to implement new features to our website to gain better experiences for our members.
To that I say, bah humbug!

 

[jorghes]

Ancestry hints most definitely can be useful - but once you have cleared the initial stock of good hints, they slowly begin to become more outlandish and more useless. While there still can be glimmers of good and useful hints, it's often overwhelmed by the dross.

I've also had the feeling that the hints that you get are influenced by what is accepted as "proof" by other users and added to their trees. I often wonder if that's why I get hints for UK Censuses for an ancestor who emigrated to Australia in 1839, but I know some trees have him, somewhat impossibly, appearing on the censuses from 1841 onwards living in Sussex (he was born in Hampshire) and having children in the same or adjoining years in both Australia and the UK. [This is also generally why, if I accidentally add the wrong record to an individual on my tree, I will delete and re-add them to "reset" the hints I invariably get.]

And I agree with At home in NZ they build up at alarming speed and simply become a morass that you never think you're going to climb out of. I know I won't be anytime soon.

 

[peter]

I've also had the feeling that the hints that you get are influenced by what is accepted as "proof" by other users and added to their trees

Of course they are - it would be very strange if Ancestry ignored that information. How are they supposed to know that your tree is accurate and somebody else's isn't?

I often wonder if that's why I get hints for UK Censuses for an ancestor who emigrated to Australia in 1839, but I know some trees have him, somewhat impossibly, appearing on the censuses from 1841 onwards living in Sussex (he was born in Hampshire) and having children in the same or adjoining years in both Australia and the UK.

The reality is that some emigrants did come back - perhaps not from Australia, but certainly from the US (there are examples in my tree). And soldiers whose wives were allowed to travel with them had children born in all sorts of outlandish place (again there are examples in my tree). I certainly don't think it impossible that someone born in Hampshire might turn up in Sussex, an adjoining county!

Ancestry hints most definitely can be useful - but once you have cleared the initial stock of good hints, they slowly begin to become more outlandish and more useless. While there still can be glimmers of good and useful hints, it's often overwhelmed by the dross.

That's inevitable - when you are looking for needles in haystacks, the more needles you remove the more likely it is that you're only going to find hay.

Hints have two primary purposes: one is to help people who are starting out, the other is to direct more experienced researchers to record sets that they might be unaware of, or might not have thought to check. How useful this information is will vary enormously between individual researchers - I rarely look at hints, but I have no objection to Ancestry coming up with them, because I'm not obliged to look at them, and when I do there are occasional gems.

 

[Pauline]

Of course they are - it would be very strange if Ancestry ignored that information. How are they supposed to know that your tree is accurate and somebody else's isn't?

That sums up both the potential usefulness of hints, and the reason why they can often be so useless - hints are only ever going to be as good as the trees the information comes from.

But I think there is a big difference between hints that prove to be incorrect and those which are just plain absurd; it is the latter which I find really frustrating and all too often the majority of hints I get fall into this category. Moreover, the absurd ones tend to arise because Ancestry offers researchers no kind of reasonableness check that other tree sites (such as FamilySearch) offer.

 

[At home in NZ]

hints are only ever going to be as good as the trees the information comes from.

I have Tree Hints switched off, so I am not seeing those sorts of Hints.
Elsewhere in the Forum, if my memory serves me right, there is discussion about the algorithms used by Ancestry for what should be termed as 'genuine Hints'.
However, when you get a Hint about a marriage of a person who died at a very young age where is the logic in the algorithms.
It is those sorts of Hints that annoy.

When I use the All Hints page and select Phots, that is also where many 'useless' Hints appear, sometimes I find a gem such as an obit notice I haven't got but when it's simply a screen shot of a census or a family crest

 

[peter]

However, when you get a Hint about a marriage of a person who died at a very young age where is the logic in the algorithms.

As I said earlier, how are Ancestry supposed to know that your tree is right and someone else's tree is wrong?

 

[At home in NZ]

As I said earlier, how are Ancestry supposed to know that your tree is right and someone else's tree is wrong?

It is absolutely nothing to do with what is in other trees because I am talking about a marriage register that is supposed to be for the person in my tree. That marriage register has not come from somebody else's tree, it has come from the parish register collection in Ancestry.

To quote a part of the information about Hints, from Ancestry, and I suggest you take note of the 'or'.

'Ancestry Hints® are records or other people's family trees that may contain information about people in your tree.'

Having Tree Hints switched off means I only see records, photos and stories as illustrated in this, from the Hints page of one of my trees

 

[At home in NZ]

Here is an example of an absolutely ridiculous Hint, discovered a few minutes ago.
My man was born in 1587 and I have not been able to establish any other facts about him.
The Hint is for a marriage from the
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.

The Hint is for a man with the same name but who ever got married at the age of 264 ??

 

[Pauline]

I have Tree Hints switched off

So do I, but as I understand it, the record hints you see are still based on records that others have added to their trees. Unless, and until, two researchers have added a record to their trees, it will not be used for hints. At least, that was how it always used to work, but maybe it has changed recently.

 

[At home in NZ]

So do I, but as I understand it, the record hints you see are still based on records that others have added to their trees. Unless, and until, two researchers have added a record to their trees, it will not be used for hints. At least, that was how it always used to work, but maybe it has changed recently.

I seem to remember reading up on How Hints Work in the Ancestry Help section a few years ago but like most things in Ancestry it has all changed.
There is still a section on Hints some of which i quoted in thread #8 and another page on how they are updated etc. but there doesn't seem to be any information on the criteria for selection of a 'matching' record.

 

[peter]

As I said earlier, how are Ancestry supposed to know that your tree is right and someone else's tree is wrong?

It is absolutely nothing to do with what is in other trees because I am talking about a marriage register that is supposed to be for the person in my tree. That marriage register has not come from somebody else's tree, it has come from the parish register collection in Ancestry.

I wasn't suggesting that there wasn't a record, only that in someone else's tree the available records have been used differently. For example, from time to time I come across a tree where one of my relatives is shown as dying young, supported by a death or burial record, whereas I know that they married and had children. How are Ancestry supposed to know that I'm right and that the other tree is wrong when both are supported by records?

 

[Pauline]

I seem to remember reading up on How Hints Work in the Ancestry Help section a few years ago but like most things in Ancestry it has all changed.

I definitely remember reading something on Ancestry about record hints only appearing when the record had already been added to at least two trees, but I can't find anything remotely similar now. I have been assuming that record hints are still identified in the same way but maybe that is no longer correct. Does anyone know?

 

[At home in NZ]

I wasn't suggesting that there wasn't a record, only that in someone else's tree the available records have been used differently. For example, from time to time I come across a tree where one of my relatives is shown as dying young, supported by a death or burial record, whereas I know that they married and had children. How are Ancestry supposed to know that I'm right and that the other tree is wrong when both are supported by records?

If you have Hints for this person what are they? Another person's tree or records from Ancestry's collection?
The answer might help me understand your logic.

My logic says that if Ancestry has a record in their collection that has the same name, birth date and place it will produce a Hint using that record.
My logic also says that if there is a tree in Ancestry with a person with same name, birth date and place it will produce a Hint using that tree (sometimes many trees).
That is my take in what I quoted from Ancestry in thread #8. Repeated:
'Ancestry Hints® are records or other people's family trees that may contain information about people in your tree.'

 

[Pauline]

My logic says that if Ancestry has a record in their collection that has the same name, birth date and place it will produce a Hint using that record.

Thinking about my recent hints suggests that record hints arise when others add that record to their tree. I keep only an outline tree at Ancestry (for my DNA) and haven’t changed anything for quite a while. Many recent record hints are from datasets which are not new and are not showing as recently updated. Thus the most likely reason why these hints have appeared now is because someone has recently added those records to someone in their tree.

 

[At home in NZ]

Thinking about my recent hints suggests that record hints arise when others add that record to their tree. I keep only an outline tree at Ancestry (for my DNA) and haven’t changed anything for quite a while. Many recent record hints are from datasets which are not new and are not showing as recently updated. Thus the most likely reason why these hints have appeared now is because someone has recently added those records to someone in their tree.

My most recent hints on the tree I am working on today include Hints from the Geneanet Community Trees index which I don't really want!
In another tree the most recent Hint is for a baptism in the
Manchester, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915 collection, which is the same as the one I already have from the
Lancashire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1911 collection.
I can't be bothered to look to see if the collection has been recently updated but I suspect the Hint appeared because I was working on that person in that tree the last time I was in it.

I do find when I add somebody I will get up to 10 or 11 hints for the person, so how does that work??

 

[Pauline]

how does that work??

As I understand it, Ancestry hints work not by comparing people in your tree direct with the records, but by comparing them with people in other people’s trees. When a person match is found it is a comparison of the records attached to that person in the different trees that gives rise to record hints.

So when you add a new person to your tree, Ancestry tries to match them with the same person in other people’s tree, and then offers you hints based on what records have been added to that person in the other trees.

Turning off tree hints means you don’t get offered chunks of other trees in your hints, only records and photos.

 

[peter]

Thinking about my recent hints suggests that record hints arise when others add that record to their tree. I keep only an outline tree at Ancestry (for my DNA) and haven’t changed anything for quite a while. Many recent record hints are from datasets which are not new and are not showing as recently updated. Thus the most likely reason why these hints have appeared now is because someone has recently added those records to someone in their tree.

That sounds quite likely, though we also know from ThruLines and Common Ancestors that Ancestry link together multiple trees (including private trees) to make connections - for example, the last Common Ancestors hint I got was for a 4th cousin whose own tree only went back 2 generations on the relevant line. So they might do something similar with records and hints - for example, if a female relative marries (or remarries) their surname changes, which could lead to a different death record being suggested, even though the death records dataset has not been added to.

Something else to take into consideration is that all hints and hint-like features work in the background using spare processing time, so it can take quite a while for changes in records, trees, and algorithms to propagate. We also know that Ancestry introduce some features for a subsection of users - that could be another factor in what we perceive.

Also we know that Ancestry collect data on hints, so this may affect whether those hints are offered to others.

 

[peter]

If you have Hints for this person what are they? Another person's tree or records from Ancestry's collection?

I don't know whether I received hints or not - I don't usually look at hints. I probably spotted the erroneous death entries when following up on DNA matches.

 

[PhilGee]

The biggest problems with hints is "the reader/copier", followed by intentional misleading.

For the former, D.S. (my second cousin once removed; b. 22 Dec 1909 Grittleton [GRO: Chippenham 1910Q1]; d. South Glam.) and daughter of S.J.S. is shown by a descendant as the daughter of A.S. and S.E.P. (D.M.S. b.1909 [GRO: Swindon 1909Q4]; d. Australia). Now there are a very large number of trees that have incorporated the detail from the descendant's tree

For the latter, I have a DNA match where the paternal line 3gt-grandmother did not marry - in the last month they have added a fictitious "husband" This could be the result of my addition of a "possible/probable" father for her only son - based on the fact they were living in adjacent streets in the following census a few years later; plus his parents are direct ancestors of 10 of the 12 shared matches.