What Happened To Pedigree Thief?

[As of June 2020, Pedigree Thief no longer downloads from Ancestry.] Pedigree Thief is a free chrome extension that used to download your DNA matches and shared matches from Ancestry. It no longer works for this purpose. Check out our tutorial on an alternative way to copy your Ancestry matches to an Excel spreadsheet. What … Read more

A Comparison of Tools to Download Ancestry Matches

Are you wondering how to download your matches and shared matches from Ancestry? This article compares and contrasts differing tools to download Ancestry matches. [Update 16 June 2020: Ancestry has stopped third party tools from downloading matches. The tools described here will continue to work with other DNA sites where specified.] Running Your Own Download … Read more

DNAGedcom Client – A Review with AncestryDNA

What is the DNAGedcom Client? The DNAGedcom Client is a desktop application that will download your DNA match information from several DNA test sites. The application includes many other features than the download, but this review focuses on the download for AncestryDNA. [Update 16 June 2020: Ancestry has stopped third party tools from downloading matches. … Read more

Ancestry Match Downloader Status

This was supposed to be a product review of the Ancestry Match Downloader chrome extension. Unfortunately it’s not downloading matches currently. Judging by the reviews and support comments, it stopped working sometime in January 2020. “worked fine on first try about 3 weeks ago but now no longer functions. Wont scan or anything.” Jan 2020 … Read more

Whatever Happened To The AncestryDNA Helper?

This was supposed to be a product review of using the AncestryDNA Helper chrome extension to download matches. It’s turned into a bit of a detective hunt instead. The big reveal: the extension has been discontinued by the developer. Read on for more… Looking For An Alternative? Before we get into the skinny on AncestryDNA … Read more

How To Count Your Ancestry DNA Matches

If you’re wondering how many Ancestry DNA matches you have, you need to know where Ancestry shows the total count. And they don’t make it obvious! This article shows you how to count your Ancestry matches, and what to do if the display goes missing. How Many Ancestry DNA Matches Do I Have? Your total … Read more

Ancestry Distant Cousin Threshold

As you scroll down the Ancestry Match List page, you’ll eventually see a “Distant Cousin” marker. This is the Ancestry Distant Cousin Threshold. Matches above the mark are what Ancestry calls 4th-6th cousins (and closer). Matches below the mark are what they consider to be “Distant Cousins”. The Ancestry Distant Cousin threshold is 20 centimorgans. … Read more