Ancestry DNA contacts
 

Best mate now has nearly 450 PAGES of DNA contacts. And no computer.
I can see where the relationship lies for some of them, even if their research does not go back as far as hers does.
But is it worth making the contact in those cases? She hasn't a computer, so I'd be doing the slog.
My gut feeling is that unless the family is really exciting, I leave well alone.
Also, has anyone found a way of marking the contacts, so you remember how important each is, and why? I'm adding notes, but this doesn't seem the most efficient way.

Off the top of my head......could you utilise ahnentafel numbers? If you put the closest relative's number next to each contact, would that help? Or do you mean how useful the contact is in terms of knowledge?

OC

Well I sent about 10 messages via Ancestry to the closest DNA matches on one line and - zilch - not one reply - even gave them my email address in case they couldn't send message via ancestry.

I'd like to be able to sort the results into categories from useful to dross. There is a tagging system: tagged/untagged. This does not seem adequate.

As for how useful the contact is...... well some MAY be decended from Merlin, but I really don't want to know. And if they are decended from John Smith of Gasworks Street, they probably don't want to know.

I don't want a thousand conversations, but it's challenging to decide who might be a good contact without wading through all of them.

Thanks, Julie.
I've been in touch with two good contacts so far (and best mate sent a dispiriting email to a third who I shall have to pummel and say exactly how they are related)
But I know I'm not brilliant at the tantalising email to the right person either. Especially as I'm writing on her behalf.

On one line I have connected to half sister who of course I knew. A grandson of my half great aunt and a man that was adopted who was looking for his family - I have an inkling of him being a descendant of great grandfather's brother who died and two of his sons were sent to Canada under the Children's migrant scheme. I couldn't give him any answers so haven't heard from him again.

At the risk of sounding like an old misery, this is one of the off-putting snags about dna testing I find. Just like conventional research, you make contact or are approached by people who know little or nothing but are hoping you know everything.

My brother has a dna contact at second cousin level. Her tree is a wondrous work of fantasy with 22,000 people on it, not one of whom we recognise, nor is there any impelling geographical connection. I feel disinclined to sort out her tree for her in order to discover how we might be connected.

OC

I have found out how to remove those distant cousins who have neither tree nor shared matches, but with 450 pages each of 50 entries, I may be some time:D

Hmmmm. Hot matches, anyone?

OC

I am wading through pages of matches - some don't even have a family tree, so there is no point in even looking at them. Some I can tell from their surname where I think they belong, others no idea. Even some of those with a small tree on ancestry, there are no common surnames, so I can't tell where the match is, but 4th-6th cousin range says before anyone came to Australia.

On GEDmatch, most of the trees I can look at have ancestors who were born in USA back in the 1600s and 1700s, and don't go any further, so they are useless too.

And very few people answer the messages or emails, its so frustrating. I did get some replies, which was nice, but we generally don't stay in touch regularly. I check how long it is since they logged into ancestry - that will tell if they are researching or not. My niece says she did her DNA because her boyfriend did his and has never looked at it. I told her to log in and make me her manager.

Di