AncestryDNA changes
In March (2019), things began to go awry on the Ancestry site to the accompaniment of much wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media as new features appeared and disappeared, worked and then stopped working on some browsers. A good sign that we are about to gain some new tools in time for Rootstech and so it proved. Things seem settled now although a new message system is apparently in the pipeline and some tweaking is still going on as the feedback is being fed back into the system.
The new features, which are still in Beta and need you to opted in, include a new presentation and layout, a facility for colour coding and filters. The profile page allows you to see, on one page, the amount of matching cMs, who else matches the person, to add a note and to add the person to a colour group, whether you have any potential common ancestors, a view of their tree if they have a public one and their direct surnames. There is still some tweaking needed in my opinion, but it’s getting there.
As of July (2019), the Beta became the norm and since then there have been other additions.
Procrastination … again
I am procrastinating, yet again, and experimenting with Scrivener. I think recent vet's bills (a Cocker Spaniel with Pseudomonas, spaniel owners will understand) will mean I won't be paying for it until just before the trial runs out, but I can already see it will...
RootsTech is coming back but postponed until 2021
We all hoped and yesterday it was confirmed, that RootsTech is coming back to the ExCel next November. It's not clashing with Comic Con this year so hopefully food will be more accessible during the day. I felt that I had missed a great deal last time so I have...
The tickets have arrived
Last year I missed out on Family Tree Live but this year I got myself organised in good time. I like "real" tickets so had to wait a bit, but they have arrived this week. I'm just going up for the day (and avoiding Saturday having looked to see who is playing at home...
I’m very glad I went … now for the next time!
As the exhibition hall wasn't going to open until 9.45 I had worked out that either I needed to go at sparrow's crack, get a lift to the station, brave the rush hour and be able to get to a 9 a.m. session or leave later and have to pay for a taxi. Early start won....
My first genealogical conference
Generally the hobby of genealogy can be rather solitary and you spend much of your time hunting down dead people and the live people you meet up with are cyber acquaintances with strange usernames. Apart from a small local family history fair and a U3A talk in the...
Surprise match
Since ThruLines appeared, a small group of descendants of James Budden and Mary Littlefield, my great x5 grandparents, has been building up. The Buddens are a West Sussex family and if I have the right marriage, Mary is from Hambledon just over the border into...
Genetic memories …. or just coincidence?
The picture above is taken looking west from fields in Yapton. The spire in the distance is Chichester Cathedral and if you stand in exactly the right place the spire can be seen on a clear day. It is about 12 miles as the crow flies. At least one of my ancestors must...
DNA and other musings
Ever since I first started my website in 2006, I had intended to include a sort of blog. Setting up the site while researching my family history, getting involved with FamilyTreeForum, relocating from Belgium to West Sussex and the incredibly fast moving world of...
Am I a name collector?
It's my tree and that is how I like it. The other day I saw somebody commenting that they would never bother to even look at a tree with fewer than 2000 people. This was in a Facebook group where the central theme was DNA. Others won't look at a tree with high numbers...
Test the siblings if you can.
The world of DNA testing for genealogy has been moving rapidly and I have been trying to keep up! Strong marketing by Ancestry with regular reductions in the cost of tests means that they now have over 14 million kits so I am gradually adding to my list of matches. It...
First thoughts and experience ( or lack of ….) with DNA
In October 2015 I finally decided to see what an Ancestry DNA test might show. I had vaguely started a one name study of my maiden name as we have been trying to join all the isolated pockets of the name together. I had a little luck and identified a match who from...
