JimP
LostCousins Member
I just noticed that, apparently shortly after the release of the updated ethnicity estimates, Ancestry changed how they classify matches.
The old system identified matches as "Close Relative", "2d to 3d Cousin", "4th to 6th Cousin", or "Distant Relative".
A few months ago (maybe longer), they allowed editing of the default relationships to allow the user to input a known relationship. I took advantage of this, went through my matches, and assigned the proper relationship (up to 5th cousins once removed and 6th cousins, the most remote listed on the drop-down menu) to each match that I could place. (by the way, over 95% fell within the ranges on the chart in the master class).
Now I notice that all matches have a specific relationship assigned. I looked at one new match. Ancestry classed her as "2d cousin" . Looking at her tree, I could immediately see that she is a half 2d cousin once removed -- a bit of an outlier at 275 cM shared DNA, but she is part of a group where a lot of my matches have higher than average shared DNA.
I find this latest move by Ancestry to be a great oversimplification, and possibly deceptive.
The other change is that the drop-down menu for editing relationships now extends only to 4th cousins, and anyone beyond that can only be listed as "distant relative". I have identified 133 matches between 4c1r and 6c1r. I have identified another 17 matches beyond that, extending to the 9th and 10th cousin level (all of these matches stem from "Great Migration" ancestors, and many are multiple cousins with whom I share as many as 8 or 10 pairs of ancestors).
The old system identified matches as "Close Relative", "2d to 3d Cousin", "4th to 6th Cousin", or "Distant Relative".
A few months ago (maybe longer), they allowed editing of the default relationships to allow the user to input a known relationship. I took advantage of this, went through my matches, and assigned the proper relationship (up to 5th cousins once removed and 6th cousins, the most remote listed on the drop-down menu) to each match that I could place. (by the way, over 95% fell within the ranges on the chart in the master class).
Now I notice that all matches have a specific relationship assigned. I looked at one new match. Ancestry classed her as "2d cousin" . Looking at her tree, I could immediately see that she is a half 2d cousin once removed -- a bit of an outlier at 275 cM shared DNA, but she is part of a group where a lot of my matches have higher than average shared DNA.
I find this latest move by Ancestry to be a great oversimplification, and possibly deceptive.
The other change is that the drop-down menu for editing relationships now extends only to 4th cousins, and anyone beyond that can only be listed as "distant relative". I have identified 133 matches between 4c1r and 6c1r. I have identified another 17 matches beyond that, extending to the 9th and 10th cousin level (all of these matches stem from "Great Migration" ancestors, and many are multiple cousins with whom I share as many as 8 or 10 pairs of ancestors).
