What next after Ancestry?

[Bob Spiers]

Some time ago I pruned my tree as I despaired of finding out about all these people and wanted to concentrate on what I had, rather than the descendants of every line. Now i think that the bigger the tree the more likely I am to recognise family names which are not my ancestors but may be descended from them. I certainly don't want to be a name collector but wonder what others do.

Yes I did the same with my DNA related Tree and recently changed it back to my full (public) Tree. The results have been beneficial in several ways, not least navigating my way in Thru Lines and I am about to do the same with my wife's Tree. I also believe the public tree bit plays a large part also, and that will come as no surprise to many.

My Heritage linked me to a known contact, useful as it verified my research but I don't intend to put a tree on there and now that they have asked for £29 to provide my Dad's ethnicity I doubt I will bother with them anymore at all. (I know I shouldn't want something for nothing but there are limits on what can be spent on FH).

I am no fan of the My Heritage website (as many in the Forum will know) and my own DNA tests have all been with Ancestry. I did relax a little to upload data to test their DNA venture, and apart from an initial item or two of interest, things just fizzled out and had no desire to respond to their requests to load a tree and subscribe.

 

[peter]

My Heritage linked me to a known contact, useful as it verified my research but I don't intend to put a tree on there and now that they have asked for £29 to provide my Dad's ethnicity I doubt I will bother with them anymore at all.

Why would you want to know what their estimate of your father's ethnicity is? Why not keep using the site to find cousins, just don't pay for something you definitely don't need and probably don't want?

 

[Kate]

Thanks for your replies. I did print off the Masterclass and follow it when searching for matches but should re read to see if I missed anything.
My Heritage seem to interpret ethnicity slightly differently so I was interested. I have East Anglian which is no surprise as I have maternal and paternal ancestors from there. Dad does not have East Anglia, though he matches with descendants of his ancestors from East Anglia. I was curious to know what MH would say, although I realise it is not an exact science and shouldn't be taken too seriously, though mine seem accurate.
I think it could be a good idea to add my new cousins to my computer based tree, then, as you say, I can add them to my collection on Lost Cousins.

 

[jorghes]

I use my DNA results with my enormous tree, where I add everyone I can prove (and delete anyone I can't). It has helped enormously to find people and verify their links, because often I can just look at their tree and think, I know that surname - then go to my own tree and find that surname and locate the right person.

As I have said previously, I have the most success in results with family members with more diverse backgrounds - my paternal line, which has a lot of emigration - rather than my mother's, entirely English/Welsh history with little emigration until about 1900.
For one example (I have been using Ancestry's new colour coding feature and adding results to "groups" according to the main family line they belong to), the largest groups I have identified so far include 29 DNA relatives from my main paternal line - most of which I have placed exactly in the tree, and 26 DNA relatives for my main Jewish line. On my grandmother's line, that main Jewish line jumps from 26 matches on my father's to 34 identified results.

 

[chrissy1]

I do follow your Masterclass Peter. I’m relatively happy with Ancestry but wonder what else is out there. I’ve read about GEDmatch and would like to know of other people’s experiences. How about transferring to other places such as My Heritage or FimdMyPast.
One point about you your Masterclass Peter. I have only had my DNA results for a week but I assume people are being added all the time to my match list. How often do you do you re-search your ancestral names?

ALL of my success has been with Ancestry. I also tested with FTDNA and after several years i have had no success whatsoever. My Heritage has given a few initial matches which I have managed to place, though nothing of note since then and a couple of matches placed via GEDMATCH. but the overwhelming majority have been with Ancestry. My ancestry is 100% English back to 5x gt grandparents and although I have a number of American DNA matches which I can't place, I have had amazing success with people both in the UK and elsewhere. I have no experience of Findmypast DNA to date.