6cm matches etc
 

I have concentrated on close matches of 4th cousins and above but now on here I find that those matches with less than 8cm are to go on ancestry.

Well I've just scrolled down on the 6cm matches and there's so many and they're still coming.

So how do people go through them with so many - do you have to check each one.

Is it worth looking at 6cm over 1 segment as many of mine seem to be?

Julie, I've been starting with those with a common ancestor. I seem to have a few!

I filter them first with common ancestor and public tree. I found quite a few on mine that were very good matches, told me something I didn't know. Then knock off common ancestor once I have gone through them and just leave public tree and go through them and put them in a group or other groups if you can spot the link.

I read something a while ago which said that an Ancestry DNA match with 6 cM's and more than 1 segment started off as more than 6 cM's of matching DNA but some of that was ignored because of their algorithm (Timber) which ignores matching DNA that is common in certain populations. If you started off (before the Timber algorithm processing) with only 6 cM's shared across more than 1 segment, they would not be counted as a DNA match. Though I realise that doesn't actually answer your question!

Thanks everyone.

I just tried to find common dna ancestors and nothing was coming up even though I do have real matches - anyway eventually it did and most were with only 1 segment but not linked to anyone.

Now is that because son's dna tree is private? So if I make it public it might work and give some links? It's also complicated because he hasn't got an ancestry sub but I have and manage his dna.

I have made his tree very basic just names and some years of births and deaths but no place names.

I find this dna very confusing.

"Common ancestors" is closely connected to ThruLines, and it should work the same whether the tree is public or private, as long as the DNA test is linked to the tree, and the tree is searchable. So if you have made it a private, non-searchable tree, you will need to change it to searchable.

Tree settings > Privacy settings - untick "Also prevent your tree from being found in the search index".

Thanks will do that Kate.

I've found all the matches with trees - they are at the 6cm level.

I have checked each one, Julie, and gone back to check the 6cm ones to ensure I have comments/goups for the ones I want to retain.

The sort I am interested in would be ones with shared matches. I have eliminated 26k unlikely matches. Had they announced this at the start of lockdown, I might have completed that excercise for trees I manage, but there's no chance now.

It's a daunting task - not sure I am up to it.