My Thrulines improved! I doubt it was due to me

It’s true! Five days after messaging corrected information to other people with my Ancestor in their tree, my AncestryDNA Thrulines have improved. I no longer see my carefully researched Ancestor replaced with a ‘Potential Ancestor’ from other trees, who never actually existed.

While the desired result has occurred, I can’t claim that my experiment was anything to do with it. Out of the seventeen messages I sent, just three people responded (with thanks) and said they would update their trees.

Thrulines is a beta feature that is constantly changing. For example I noticed when I logged in today that my ancestors were now grouped by generation (nice!). I’m wondering if maybe Ancestry has listened to user feedback and changed who they choose to display. Either way, I prefer what I am seeing now and a few interested people have better information for their trees, so it’s a win-win.

Can I improve my Thrulines?

AncestryDNA’s new beta feature, Thrulines, takes the work out of cobbling together your DNA matches’ trees to try and work out where your connection is. Overall, I think it’s great! It has come up with connections that would have taken me hours to work out on my own.

Of course, it doesn’t always get it right.

I have one particular ‘Potential Ancestor’ suggestion that I know to be incorrect. What’s worse, it suggests replacing my good information about that ancestor with bad.

Sorry Edward Flower Darcy, you never existed.

Some might get upset about a suggestion to replace careful research with something incorrect. I can’t say I’m one of them. I do my own research before adding anything to my tree and if a hint isn’t right, I ignore it. I had that incorrect name in my own tree for many years and know it came from a death certificate, reported by a child who would never have know their grandparent. Due to people marrying at unexpected times, and dying in unexpected places, the correct information wasn’t easy to find.

While I’m not upset, I would prefer to be given good hints. There are about 10 Ancestry trees with the old information for each Ancestry tree that has picked up my new research.

I wonder what the tipping point is for Ancestry to shift its suggestion?

As an experiment, I’ve sent a friendly message to 17 people who have the incorrect information in their tree and given them corrected information. It will be interesting to see how many respond to my message, and if the Thrulines suggestion changes.