Ten Months of Growth on AncestryDNA

In July 2017 I reviewed all my DNA matches on AncestryDNA by recording  the shared CM number of every match. I repeated the exercise in February 2018 and again in early May 2018. I was particularly interested in: (1) the rate of growth of matches over this 10 month period of heavy marketing by the … Read more

Ancestry Opt-Outs are in low numbers

Ancestry introduced a new privacy policy in November 2017 that allowed customers to opt out of DNA matching. Customers who opt out receive their heritage breakdown, but do not see their DNA matches. They also are not shown on the match lists of all other customers. Prior to this change, customers who wished to disengage … Read more

Your 5th cousin isn’t a DNA match? Don’t jump to conclusions!

In Ireland, the “townland” is a small area of land supporting a number of households. The townland of Creeny (or Creeney) is in County Cavan. In 1901 there were six households in Creeny. This reduced to five in 1911. Two of the households have the surname of Gamble. Thomas and Mary Gamble sold their farm … Read more