Thursday, June 13, 2013

A Sneak Peek at the UPDATED AncestryDNA Search Filter

AncestryDNA has been hard at work perfecting the new search filter these last few weeks. Not surprisingly, it has undergone some changes since I last shared it with my readers.

Stephen Baloglu, Ancestry.com's Director of Product Marketing, described what appears to be the version that will go live in the next few weeks:

The search includes looking within your DNA matches for surnames and birth locations in their family tree that they have linked to their DNA results. It does not currently include searching for username, but we may update that in the future. The top request was surnames/birth locations, so we started there. Also, we expect people to more likely know surnames they're looking for much more often than ancestry username.

He also shared these screen shots and accompanying descriptions with me on June 6th. Click to enlarge them for a closer look.








 






























In a YouTube video on Ancestry.com's account (dated June 3, 2013), this slide is shown describing the AncestryDNA search filters.

Notice that the username search was, apparently, still expected at that time. Ancestry.com employees Anna Swayne and Crista Cowan discuss it on the video from about 15:30 to 16:00.  Crista clarifies that the username filter will be "an ability to search by the name of somebody who is a DNA match" and Anna says that it "will be coming soon". However when I asked Ken Chahine, General Manager of AncestryDNA, about the username filter at the recent DNA conference on June 6th, he explained that Ancestry.com does not currently have the option to search by username built into their system, which is limiting AncestryDNA's ability to provide it. [Update: I have asked for clarification on this point.]

Although this additional filter would be convenient, in my opinion, it isn't essential. For example,  I would like to search my mother's account to determine which of my matches with a surname of interest also appear in her account, but I can do so almost as easily by searching on that surname. Further, to search your account to see if your research partners appear as matches, you can also filter by your shared surname(s). I would really like to see an "In Common With" filter to determine which of my matches are from my mother's side, but, fortunately, I can already use Jeff Snavely's tool for that purpose.

With these upcoming filters, Jeff's terrific tool and Family Tree DNA's recent announcement that they are accepting raw data uploads from AncestryDNA (for only $49!), this test is becoming much more useful for genetic genealogists. (Now, if only we could get that chromosome browser onsite!)

Stephen tells me that there still isn't a confirmed date for the new search filter's arrival, but I expect it to appear sometime this summer.

17 comments:

  1. Since Ancestry accepts Y-DNA and mt-DNA from third parties, will they soon be accepting Autosomal DNA from 23andMe.com and FTDNA.com that is from the same platform?

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    1. Hi,
      They have not made any statements as to whether they will be accepting incoming uploads in the future.
      CeCe

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  2. They still don't understand why we NEED to search by User ID. It's NOT to find out if Mary Sue from your bridge club is a match.

    1. How are we supposed to go back to review a match we've been working on without going through 50 to 100 pages of matches? There's no SORT BY USER NAME feature.

    2. How are we supposed to compare match lists with someone so we can figure out where our common ancestor might be lurking? "We don't have any in-common surnames but my match SuzieQ5755 has a few of yours. Is she a match for you?" Crickets. How about a way to DOWNLOAD a match list - which would be useful for many other reasons.

    All I can say is thank the Universe for Jeff Snavely.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Gaye,
      I don't think it is that they don't understand why we need it. They just haven't been able to provide it yet for some reason. In order to offer that option in addition to the others, we probably would have had to wait even longer for any filters at all.
      I plan to search by surname to find a match that I have been working on (preferably an unusual one).
      Yes, we are extremely lucky to have people to Jeff, Rob and YOU building tools to make our work more efficient.
      Thanks, Gaye!

      Delete
  3. CeCe - You can search by username in the member directory at Ancestry.com under the Basic Information tab. I'm not sure why Ken would say that wasn't possible? Any chance of getting clarification?

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    1. You're right! I took the statement at face value since I always have trouble locating specific public trees on Ancestry.com. I see that the ability is pretty well buried. I sent an email asking for clarification, but there were others there with me when the statement was made, so I am confident that my memory is not faulty on this point. I'll let you know what I find out.
      Thanks, Angie, for pointing this out.
      CeCe

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  4. Interesting... "Ancestry.com does not currently have the option to search by username built into their system"

    Yet on ancestry.com, click Collaborate -> Member Directory -> Basic Information. Search by user name. Their internal API doesn't support it?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you're right. Angie pointed that out (above). I wrote to try to get clarification as to what Ken meant.
      Thanks for commenting,
      CeCe

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  5. Thanks CeCe! I look forward to this search capacity. Meanwhile, where can I find out what "Jeff's terrific tool" Ancestry DNA extension does? After being on David Pike's site today (trying to phase 2 parents and 2 kids without success) my blundering around trying to figure stuff out battery is empty and I could use some hints.
    Thanks for all that you do! You can discard after reading - no need to post.

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    Replies
    1. I would have discarded it, but then I couldn't have answered you! :-)
      Here is some info from Judy Russell: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/06/02/making-ancestrydna-useful/
      You can get it from the link on my post highlighted at "Jeff's terrific tool".
      Thanks,
      CeCe

      Delete
  6. Gotta have a chromosome browser! Too few people use GEDmatch.

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  7. I am eagerly awaiting the reopening of GEDmatch to new users (I didn't know about until a few days ago unfortunately) and I agree, a chromosome browser would be awesome!

    I just wanted to post that the addition of the search functions has helped me break through several long-standing brickwalls. I've been plugging in suspected maiden names, names on documents, etc, and while most of the time I don't end up with any relevant matches, sometimes I hit gold. I keep all my matches, even if they don't make sense at first. Boy, when I was able to quickly search through them by name and/or location I was amazed at how relevant some were.

    I've had a few consistent people show up in my cousin matches (like on 20-30 different trees matching the same 2 or 3 people) that I can't place in my tree anywhere. I work from the present to the past in finding ancestors, not vice versa, and it is unnerving to have matches that I think are most certainly ancestors from the 1600's, but I'm unable to figure them out. I've heard of worse problems, though lol

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  8. Still not in Canada, what a pity.

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  9. Still not in Canada, what a pity.

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  10. Amazing! All these new tools and search options are keeping me up nights. I have DNA on Ancestry, FTDNA, 23andme and Gedmatch. Ancestry was the most difficult to get results from. Many matches have no family trees or they are private and you had no clue where you matched. It was just being told you matched. Searching was difficult and time consuming. I had given up going back to Ancestry because of that. These tools open up more doors.

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  11. I have wanted the ability to search by username. Jeff's tool does the trick. I have family members on different sides of the family that did DNA tests. The ability to search by username on each DNA test results will allow me to narrow down which side of the family the match is on.

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  12. Love Jeff's tool. I have family members on both sides of the family that did the DNA test. The ability to search each of the DNA results for a username will allow me to narrow down the side of the family a DNA match is on. Hopefully this will save me some searching time.

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