Ancestry has really been on my last nerves for a while now. They did an update a while back where you can’t view your DNA relatives in common with someone or view their tree unless you have an active subscription, and I find that move left a sour taste in my mouth. Even without a subscription, I could separate my DNA relatives into groups to figure out how they are related to me. But it gets even worse – groups, even my custom groups that I had created over many years, are now paywalled. I swore that I wouldn’t pay for Pro Tools, swore that I would not pay for another subscription, but Ancestry kept enticing me with $1 subscriptions, and I cave every single time.
In June, I decided that I would take the bullet and pay for Pro Tools. I parted with my €11.25 very reluctantly. Oh, I was punching the air and saying if it wasn’t worth it, I would be so mad. I’m even more pissed off that it has proved very useful. The one feature that I bought this subscription for was the Advanced matching. Basically, it does what 23andme and MyHeritage both do; it shows you the cM your DNA match shares with your matches in common and how they are possibly related to those matches. Angry, I am so angry because it immediately proved that my theory about a half-second cousin was correct. I had guessed at the connection to our shared DNA matches, but I really did not know how much DNA she would share with our shared matches, and now I know.
I actually wrote a post about this match and how I went about proving that she was a half-second cousin. I just have the information about how much DNA she shares with my known half-second cousin 2x removed.
Here’s the post if you haven’t read it: Detective Lynnette and the Case of the Mysterious DNA Relative
I want to say I don’t know if I will renew, but I am still undecided because I have not done everything I wished I could do with this new tool, and I will no doubt continue to get more DNA relatives and I’ll need to figure out how they are related to my other matches. I will probably stagger my subscription because I cannot pay for this every single month.
Crucianize 