My DNA Wish

Abstract business background.

When I was at Roots Tech earlier this year, as usual, I stopped at the AncestryDNA booth. In one of the discussions, a staff member asked what would be my DNA Wish. I told him my wish would be that Ancestry change the profiles so that I  would be able to tell if that person was a match to me through DNA. I said that often when I’m checking someone’s tree, I wonder if they were on my list of cousin matches. At the time the gentleman stated that it was a fantastic idea and that he was going to pass that information along. I remember telling him jokingly that he should remember that it was “my idea.” Well, today I’m thinking that they either were already working on this same idea or they took my idea to heart.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen what would appear to be something that looks like they were working on it. It’s been evolving over recent months.  Sometimes it appears on people’s profiles and then disappears from people’s profiles as Ancestry updates their system. But today the change seems to be working great.

When it was evolving, I was a little disappointed because it seemed only to tell me if “my” DNA was a match. What about the other kits that I manage? How would I be able to know if they were a match? Well, today that seems to be corrected.
Here is an example of a profile that I looked at and you can see that I personally am not a match to this person. But note the word “your” in blue. I can change it and choose another person’s DNA kit. So in the second example, you can see that Margaret is a match to this person’s DNA.

not-a-match-to-ellen

is-a-match-to-margaret

As for people who may not have done DNA testing, there is no side by side profile photos as shown above just that person’s profile photo and information.

I don’t believe Ancestry has announced this change to profiles, but because it was something I’ve wanted I’ve been watching it evolve. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me and I won’t even be upset if they don’t say that it was my idea.

 

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