DNA Results arrived so now a few basic ?'s & a dilemma

[VTinOZ]

My Ancestry results have arrived, so now starts the processing & of course I looked & thought why can't I ...
See how many matches there are. Where do they hide that?
Order the matches to suit me. I can see sort by relationship or date & filters Hints, New & Starred. Well that seemed straight forward, some have hints, they're all new, nothing is starred. Have to start somewhere so click on a view match to see what it shows, oh ok no family tree means send a message, well will come back to those later... hmm, 'tis no longer new so where has it gone & how do I find it again in the x number of pages. Nothing seems to say the number of pages there are? OK next page, all no family tree, hmm how do I send the no family tree ones to the end?
Are there any other ways to sort?
So far the search by birthplace seems the best way to start, & finding Peter's masterclass again because I don't remember what it said.
& now to my small dilemma... I have a tree on Ancestry, it is private because a number of family members would only agree to be included if it was, but it seems I need a public tree to best utilize what Ancestry offers.
Do I need to make a new tree, leaving out all the sources & photos & certificates etc. & the people who will object to it being public?
Opinions please...

 

[peter]

Everything you really need to know is in the Masterclass!

 

[Pauline]

To answer two of your questions:

You have to work out how many matches you have in total as it doesn’t tell you anywhere. In the page number box on the top right of your list of matches, insert different page numbers until you find the last page on which there are matches listed. There are 50 matches per page, so from that you can work out how many matches you have.

When you click on a match to view a person, to the left of the photo (or generic head) you will see a star, a circle and a dustbin. Click the circle to mark the person as viewed or unviewed (new). This way you can keep matches showing as new if you’ve only had a preliminary peep.

 

[VTinOZ]

Everything you really need to know is in the Masterclass!

Thanks for the link Peter

 

[VTinOZ]

To answer two of your questions:...

Thanks Pauline, would be far more sensible if Ancestry just stated the number of matches. Now that I've looked about a bit the DNA home page tells me I have 12 shared ancestor hints, 3 starred matches (I starred them myself, each is a 1st cousin that I suggested take the test), & 260 4th cousins or closer. I've no idea if those numbers are about average, or more or less than usual, but it seems, in my results, most have 'no family tree'.
Thank you too for the tip on viewed & new circle, if I ever find the couple I had a peep at again I will mark as not viewed

 

[jorghes]

One of my set of results is 24 shared hints and 154 4th cousins or closer, while another is 6 shared hints and 186 4th cousins or closer.

Those stats are different for each test depending on how they match with the DNA database. You can add the stars to whoever you want. The shared hints means that Ancestry thinks it’s found the link between you, i.e the shared ancestor. It only works if you both have the same ancestors entered. For example one of my cousins was on there but doesn’t come up with a hint because they hadn’t filled in their grandfather’s parents - our shared direct ancestors.

 

[Pauline]

if I ever find the couple I had a peep at again

If neither had a family tree then probably your only hope is if you happen to stumble across them again. However, unless clicking on "shared matches" brought up anything positive, you are unlikely to learn much from these matches anyway.

If you "lose" matches that had a family tree, or later add a tree, then you will probably find them again when doing a surname search.

 

[Pauline]

it seems I need a public tree to best utilize what Ancestry offers

Ancestry would like you to make your tree public but whether you actually need a public tree is another matter. Peter touches on this in his master class and there have been several discussions here about the relative merits of public and private trees.

I initially had my Ancestry tree set to private, but a couple of months after receiving my DNA results I changed it to a public tree. The main reason was to see if I would be added to any DNA circles and if there was anything useful to have from them.

I wasn't added to any DNA circles although my sister was added to two, and as she is linked to my tree I don't know why I wasn't included also. As to their usefulness, that is debateable - for example, different people had added children of the couple slightly differently, so it looked like they had had 25 children. There was also a page with a time line of historical facts, but in the several months my tree was public I only managed to get that page to load once.

My tree is now private again, and I just send out invites to those DNA matches interested in seeing it.

So you don't need a public tree and it's really up to you if you want to upload a limited version of your existing tree.