Shared Ancestor Hint thrown off by tree discrepancies

Overwhelmed with the number of matches lately but today I took the time to work the Shared Ancestor Hints and noticed this.  

The match in question is genealogically a 5th cousin which this should show.  It's really not thru any fault of Ancestry that it isn't showing correctly.  I believe that it's actually caused by the match's entry for the husband of Annie Rice.  We both have the husband as James Hatfield but the middle initials are different for each of us and the other tree has him living over 40 yrs more than what I have in my tree.  That difference likely caused the comparison tool to think it was comparing two different Annie Rices.  I did check the shared matches and they are my Pittman/Hatfield cousins.  I think the DNA may actually be thru the Hatfield line on this one or there may be different shared segments of DNA among all of us and part may be Rice...some Hatfield and maybe some Pittman.  Be prepared to investigate and see what is causing things of this nature.  Triangulation is necessary if I want to be able to mark the matching segment and assign it to a specific ancestor or ancestor group.

Shared Ancestor Hints are just that--Hints

I was extremely happy to get 14 new 4th cousins or closer matches on my AncestryDNA results overnight.  I wish people understood the importance of uploading to GEDmatch. Too many treat the circles or the DNA Hints as facts.  To them it is unnecessary to upload their raw data atDNA results to GEDmatch because Ancestry has told them the connection. Sure,  if you don't want to prove your research, go ahead and believe that!  Ancestry gives you hints and clues,  It is on you to investigate and research those.

I have the perfect example among my matches.  This match is kin to me on my Mom's side thru the Luna line at my 4th Great Grandparents.  She is not DNA kin to me or my Mother but she shows as DNA kin to my daughter and the Shared Ancestor Hint is my 4th Great Grandparents(my daughter's 5th Great Grandparents)  Clicking on the "i" shows that my daughter and this match have a shared estimated atDNA of 6.6 centiMorgans(cMs) shared across 1 DNA segment.

Ancestry has done a better job on their wording on the Shared Ancestor Hints than they did when they first appeared.  [If you want to learn more about hints & shared records watch Ancestry's Crista Cowan and her presentation, "Don't be a Searcher, be a Researcher" from RootsTech 2017.


What we should hear  "You have a 6th cousin through the Luna line of your maternal Grandmother with whom you share a 6.6 cM  portion of DNA across 1 segment.  It is possible that it may be through that Luna line. You need to investigate further"

Instead many people feel that they don't need to investigate further and take that info at face value whether it is through lack of understanding, laziness or just not really carrying to know the truth. I'm not talking about those that just tested to learn ethnicity and don't care to do more. I am fine with that.

Thankfully this match agreed to upload to GEDmatch.  Since both of my daughter's Paternal Grandparents have tested I was able to tell that the connection was through my daughter's Paternal Grandmother's lines.  I was also able to take it back a step further in finding where to look as my daughter's PGM's Mother(my daughter's Great Grandmother) had also tested.

The match amount at GEDmatch to:
Daughter:  11.3 cMs on 1 segment
Her  PGM:  12.4 cMs on 1 segment
Her PGM's Mom 12.6 cMs on 1 segment

I should also mention that while my Daughter tested at AncestryDNA, her PGM tested at 23&me and her Great Grandmother tested at FTDNA.  We can compare all of these test at GEDmatch.

I did run the One to One for this match against my results and my Moms and she didn't have any measurable DNA match with us.

My first impression of AncestryDNA's DNA hints

While I'm not a current subscriber to Ancestry, I have had my DNA tests done there and I have a Family Tree on their website.  They announced new technology using trees and dna evidence to further our research.  See the Ancestry announcement at their blog.  I received the following email about this new feature.

When I clicked on "Show Me"  I was taken to my Mother's DNA kit which I admin.  It showed me a list of 3 new discoveries of her Ancestors.

This is going to be a great tool but I see some issues with it.  The three people it showed were persons I already know about.  When you click on the discoveries you are taken to an outline for that person with the option to "Learn More About" which, when clicked, takes you to the subscription options for US & World if you aren't already subscribed.   If you click on "See her connection" to this new ancestor you are taken to the 14 day trial option page. The Sarah Reid I had not put in the database.   She did not die in 1850 though as it states.  She was killed in 1793 by Indians at Greasy Cove(which is in present day Unicoi Co. TN). Only two of the children survived. I am a descendant of the daughter, Mary Polly Lewis who was taken by the Indians and later ransomed by her brother who traded a gun in order to get her back.  Wm. Lewis'  2nd wife died in 1850.  Wm. Lewis was already in my database and I'm not really sure why they would call this a new discovery.  It looks like a mixed soup of information for the 1st and the 2nd wife and showing them as one.  Odd.


The Nancy M Hitchcock is not an ancestor of my mother.  She is a cousin.  Her Brother James P. Hitchcock is my Mom's GG Grandfather...they both married into the Fleming family.   Nancy married the brother of James' wife and that may be why the DNA is making it appear here.

They have already put Nancy's husband Alfred Fleming in Mom's DNA circles as an ancestor(which he is not) though they do correctly list him as an Uncle.  odd.  Will it be doing this in all cases where you have two siblings of one family marrying two siblings of another?  What will it do for cousin marriages?  It is some what easy to see when you know of the intermarriages..but if you don't it further adds to the confusion.  Maybe there is something in the works to help with this.

 As with anything new there is sure to be a learning curve on both sides. I just hope this will be a very useful tool for researchers.