Ancestry’s Updated ThruLines: What I Like and What I'd Like To See In Future Updates

The updated layout of Thrulines appeared in my account yesterday.  I think it's a great visualization tool.  It lets you see how many DNA matches have been identified AND fall within the specifications to show up on Thrulines for each branch as you can see in the image below of my Thrulines out to my 2nd Great Grandparents.  

There is nothing that checks to see if the matches are on the correct side though and even if you do evaluate and add or choose not to add there is no option to mark a match as "not valid thru this line."  Case in point, my paternal 2nd cousin once removed (also paternal for him) who is also a maternal 4th cousin once removed (thru his maternal lines) but shares no DNA thru the maternal connection. He shows up in the Thrulines of the Paternal line and the Maternal line. While we are close enough thru the maternal line to have many shared maternal cousins I know he doesn't share DNA with me thru that side because he doesn't share any DNA  with my Mom who has also tested at Ancestry.

Below is a look at my Paternal Grandmother's branch.  The Thrulines doesn't offer the next generations for my 3rd Great Grandmother, Margaret Frizzell. This is due to pedigree collapse as she is a sibling of James M Frizzell my 3rd Great Grandfather(they are the children of Nathan Frizzell and Ruahama Weaver.  It also doesn't show a duplicate of Nathan and Ruahama in card view.  I can't remember if it did prior to the layout change or not.  Regardless they would need to handle pedigree collapse the same over all views of the new display.  I'm guessing it would do the same on a repeat grandfather who had children by multiple wives.  

You can change back to the classic view (at least for now) by selecting Thrulines card view option from the menu on the left. .

When you evaluate the connections a side bar pops out much like it does when you are running comparisons in Hints

Vertical View of match's line of descent from
Polly Jakes sister of my 3rd Gr Grandfather, James Jakes(1788-1847)
of Franklin Co., Virginia

View I see when I click on Samuel Bird, son of Polly Jakes

The image above shows the timeline view

Just below that is the option to toggle Sources which for this one included: 

Records (7) 

Ancestry Member Trees (3)

Photos (1)

Family (6)

What I Like:

• Multiple View Options: Flexibility to switch depending on research needs.
• At-a-Glance Overview: A larger, cleaner overview across several generations.
• Dynamic Zoom: Seamless zooming in and out on horizontal or vertical views.
• Better Layout of Details in the Evaluating Process

What I’d Like to See Next:

• An "Evaluate & Dismiss" Feature: The ability to mark a proposed connection as invalid and remove it from view.
• Parent Side Filtering: Automatically suppressing match suggestions that contradict verified Parent Side assignments. While this wouldn't eliminate incorrect connections that happen to sit on the right parent's side through a different line, it's a great start and would clear up many common errors.

Do you have the new view yet?  What are your thoughts?  

Ancestry’s "Describe This Event" Tool

Have you noticed the new BETA "Describe This Event" option popping up on facts in your Ancestry family trees? If you have the feature it would show up in facts or timeline of a profile as seen in the above image. It's been active in my account for several weeks so I’ve been testing it out, and while it has a lot of potential for streamlining how we document our ancestors' lives, it definitely comes with a few caveats. Because it generates information strictly from linked records, it is heavily susceptible to transcription errors and misinterpretations. If an indexed record has an error or misreads a handwriting detail, that error is included in the generated summary even if there are corrections that have been made for it.  As with any AI generated text, there can be misinterpretations. Thankfully, the edit function allows us to clean up those transcription mistakes and add missing details manually

One of my biggest frustrations with adding detailed citations or notes directly to source records in Ancestry has been running into strict character limits. So far, the Description field doesn't seem to have that issue. Having an open space to write comprehensive event details, or lay out proof arguments without hitting a character limit wall is a huge win for thorough researchers and hopefully will inspire others to be more detailed in their research.

I’m still waiting to get access to the updated version of ThruLines. I’m eager to test out the new layout and navigation once it rolls out to my account.