Through The Trees

Have you viewed your AncestryDNA match lists lately? If so, then you may have encountered a large popover declaring “We got better at predicting close family relationships.” Ancestry will “now look at more DNA clues to better identify close family-like half siblings and first cousins.”

An Ancestry Support page explains “the Update to DNA Match Relationships” as “a more advanced approach” to predicting relationships. The new methodology considers the quantity of DNA you share with a specific match and the amount of DNA you both share with your common relatives. Employing this genetic network-focused method, AncestryDNA establishes “how people are connected,” delivering more precise relationship predictions for closer matches.

AncestryDNA’s revised relationship prediction model only applies to a small subset of matches:

Grandparent or grandchild

Aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew

Half siblings

First cousins

Great-aunt or -uncle or great-niece or -nephew

Great-grandparent or great-grandchild

The update has no impact on more distant relations or parent-child cases.

In the early 2020s, a well-known genealogy software company sought to broaden the appeal of its product. This meant, among other things, expanding the types of relationships in their existing family tree interface. Modernizing the system made sense. The definition of family had evolved over time. Some historic connections transcend biology, shape the human experience, and deserve recognition. A committee assembled to organize the effort. Focus group facilitators discussed proposed changes with customers. Enabling users of a family tree building program to link slaveholders with the people they enslaved became a priority. The warm reception from users seemed to cement a path to progress.

But the committee’s chairperson, while constructing a family tree as a wedding present for one of their children, learned that their new in-law descended from slaveholders. The committee chair decided then that what users really needed is “a way to hide this stuff.” The proposed relationship label update never materialized. Fragility halted progress.

Witnessing that reversal inspired me to build Inclusive Ancestry. A new free Chrome extension, Inclusive Ancestry, empowers Ancestry users to document (in their trees) their marginalized ancestors’ enslavement, unfreedom, forced migration, and internment. Japanese American internment during World War II, the regulating of Native American identity and location, and the spectrum of unfreedom that defined African American life in the antebellum era lack representation in Ancestry’s fact/event system. Inclusive Ancestry seeks to fill that gap. Here’s how.

While using a Google Chrome browser window, install the Inclusive Ancestry extension.

Log into Ancestry.

Navigate to the profile page of an ancestor in your tree.

Click the “+Inclusive Ancestry” hover bar near the bottom right of your screen. It will change color when you hover your cursor over it.

Select from the Inclusive Ancestry menu the fact or event you want to add to your ancestor’s profile.

Enter data into the appropriate fields.

Click “Add to Timeline.”

On the Ancestry Facts tab, click the + Add button in the timeline column. This will open Ancestry's "Add fact or event" menu.

Select “Custom Event” from Ancestry's "Add fact or event" menu.

Inclusive Ancestry will autofill the Custom Event box.

I wish I had better news. Just after releasing a subscriber-only beta version of DNA Relatives Clustering, 23andMe technically has restored limited access to their chromosome browser, Advanced DNA Comparison. In October 2023, 23andMe removed Advanced DNA Comparison and Relatives in Common after becoming aware of a data breach. While 23andMe partially resurrected Relatives in Common some time ago, segment data downloads, the segment overlap (triangulation) indicator, and Advanced DNA Comparison had remained under lock and key. To some degree, they still are.

23andMe will only allow you to see the chromosome browser and the segment overlap indicator, what were once standard features, if and only if you have tested on 23andMe’s V5 chip for “Ancestry+Health” and have subscribed to 23andMe+. Even if you do that, “[y]ou can only compare your own profile (or profiles you manage within your account, or connected profiles) against your DNA relatives and connections.”

In other words, 23andMe’s non-subscribers who had been awaiting the return of the site’s most valuable tools must pay a ransom for a watered-down revamp. And even if you subscribe, one subscription only applies to a single profile. If you manage a multi-profile account and want to use Advanced DNA Comparison across all profiles, then it appears you must pay a separate subscription fee for each profile on your account. And each of those profiles must have tested on 23andMe’s V5 chip to be eligible for the subscription.

If this sounds impractical and unethical, that is because it is. As I mentioned years ago, many genetic genealogists tested their eldest living relatives on previous versions of 23andMe to capture and analyze endangered data. Now, some of those relatives are deceased; they cannot retest on 23andMe’s V5 chip, making those profiles ineligible for 23andMe+ subscriptions. The 23andMe V5 chip has lower compatibility with other older versions of 23andMe or even current versions of AncestryDNA or Family Finder, complicating cross-platform analyses on third-party websites such as GEDmatch. V5 also delivers less precise mitochondrial DNA haplogroups than previous 23andMe chips. From a genetic genealogy perspective, these facts make the V5 chip seem less desirable. And for those who tested on older versions of 23andMe, V5 is not an upgrade. 

Ethics matter. Developing a new premium service with new premium features makes sense. But this is not that. This is revoking access to standard features that have existed since the late 2000s, diminishing their functionality, and then requiring users to endure yet another exploitative recurring revenue model all to get access to a less useful replica. That is categorically unethical. Given that 23andMe removed these features because of a data breach after placing several other standard features behind a paywall, this latest turn seems, at best, desperate, tone deaf, and extortionist.

23andMe claims that “The reintroduction of this tool isn’t just a simple ‘unlock’ of old software. We’ve rebuilt the engine using our enhanced HybridIBD™ technology.” But the value proposition does not justify the cost. And, in case you were wondering, users (regardless of their subscription status) still lack the comprehensive matching segment data download capability. 

If you want immediate access to a chromosome browser without additional fees, then transfer your 23andMe raw data files to GEDmatch. Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder and Living DNA also allow free uploads; their chromosome browsers require a one-time fee for each profile.* Ask your 23andMe matches to transfer as well.

I sympathize with the customers who invested in this technology to find family, only to lose so many matches, so much data, and so much functionality to misplaced priorities.

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Join me and The GU272 Descendants Association on Zoom on Saturday, 15 November 2025 at 11AM Eastern for the second episode of our Fall Genealogy Lecture Series. With me as your host, our guest speakers, Meaghan Alston, Sarah Carrier, and Nancy Kaiser of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present "Family History Research in Records of Enslavement" at Wilson Library, a panel discussion of the enslaved genealogy research resources available within one of the nation's most unique repositories.

See the invitation here: https://rb.gy/s6oz9g

Space is limited. Register now: https://forms.gle/taxEHjVprB4FSRss5

Join me and The GU272 Descendants Association on Zoom on Saturday, 27 September 2025 at 11AM Eastern for the launch of the second annual Fall Genealogy Lecture Series as we discuss resources, technology, and methodology.

With me as your host, our first episode will feature:

Thom Reed, Program Manager at FamilySearch International, as he explains how to use FamilySearch to discover African American ancestors.

Edwina Parks, Hannah Scruggs, and Lisa Crawley, Genealogy Reference Assistants from The Robert F. Smith Explore Your Family History Center at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, sharing their journeys in genealogy, including the museum's public genealogy sessions, public programs, outreach presentations, community curation activities, and curation of small-scale exhibits.

Family Tree DNA’s Group Projects have long allowed genealogists access to a collaborative community populated by individuals researching the same families, surnames, and geography. But that access will soon be more limited.

Family Tree DNA has decided that users “with only a free autosomal transfer will no longer be able to join projects.” While “current members who have already joined with a free transfer will not be affected, future transfers” must “either unlock Family Finder or add another test type to their kit in order to join a project.” This means that if you uploaded raw DNA data from one of the other autosomal DNA test companies (AncestryDNA, 23andMe, etc.) to Family Tree DNA, then you will no longer be permitted to join group projects unless you either pay $19 to gain access to advanced features or purchase a different test from FTDNA.

Also, FTDNA plans to limit the number of projects users can join. Expect the company to implement the new policies within the next few weeks.

Ancestry has deployed a pre-launch campaign for their new digitization product, AncestryPreserve. For $299, AncestryPreserve will allow you to convert 10 items into high-resolution digital files over 4-6 weeks.

Artifacts eligible for digitization include photographs, audio cassettes, documents, slides, and negatives. Ten items equates to 250 pictures (including negatives, slides, and print photographs) or 250 documents or ten audio tapes. AncestryPreserve customers must ship their items in a designated “kit” to Ancestry. When the digitization process is complete, the customer receives the finished product - 600-4000 DPI scans and mp3 audio files - in “a new album in the Tree gallery of the Family Tree you selected upon registration.”

The current campaign does not describe the file formats for the digitized images and documents, but explains that the company will return the original items to the customer. 

The Family Tree DNA - WikiTree integration is here. As of today, WikiTree users who have tested with or uploaded data to Family Tree DNA can now "add their WikiTree ID" to their Family Tree DNA profiles. One benefit of doing that: DNA matches can more efficiently determine relationships. WikiTree's accessible web interface also typically includes more data than most GEDCOMs. Those who have never attached a family tree to their FTDNA profiles may find the WikiTree integration useful.

If you need more excitement, FTDNA plans to launch more features leveraging the power of WikiTree, including enabling "you to link your matches for Family Matching with WikiTree."

Learn about FamilySearch's latest enhancements

New location and label for the Index and Group Data tabs

Instead of tabs on the side sheet, you'll now use the names and information buttons in the header to switch between the indexed data and group data. Same details, just easier to find.

One button for attaching to Family Tree and saving to source box

Instead of separate buttons, click Save Record to attach the record to a person in Family Tree or save it in your source box.

Copying the citation

23andMe's organizational change - the resignation of CEO Anne Wojcicki and the company's voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing - has captured a lot of overly pessimistic attention today. The media cries about impending doom, while expected, are not warranted. I see opportunity in the company's latest privatization strategy. After the Special Committee of 23andMe's Board of Directors rejected Anne's acquisition proposals, she explained her resignation on something called X (formerly known as Twitter): "I have resigned as CEO of the company so I can be in the best position to pursue the company as an independent bidder."

Those of us who have used 23andMe to find ancestors and living relatives through several media firestorms over many years know better than to fall prey to ill-informed sources that care more about instigating chaotic public reactions than in actually reporting facts. So here are the facts: https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/30805135934615-Questions-related-to-23andMe-s-Chapter-11-Filing

If you want to follow 23andMe's Chapter 11 process as it unfolds, then feel free to use this site: https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/23andMe/

In the meantime, 23andMe users should maintain their 23andMe accounts. 23andMe is not shuttering, but restructuring. Since, at this time, next to nothing is changing for customers, deleting your data will not generate any benefits for you. Deleting your data will not "protect" you from any of the dystopian nightmare scenarios that so-called "journalists" dream up and distribute to their collective audience. You will only regret deleting your 23andMe accounts.

Every Saturday at 11AM Eastern this February, you can attend The Descendants Association's Black History Month Salon Series via Zoom to hear from authors, historians, genealogists, geneticists, and descendants uncovering the stories of America's Jesuit-enslaved communities.

The series' first installment on February 1st, Meet The Authors Day, launched by founding genealogist and descendant Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, President of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, will feature authors discussing books about Jesuit enslavement including Rachel L. Swarns of The New York Times discussing The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church, C. Walker Gollar, Ph. D. presenting his study, "Let Us Go Free" Slavery and Jesuit Universities in America, and William G. Thomas III, Ph.D., explaining his analysis of Jesuit-enslaved families' freedom suits in A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War.

On February 8th, learn the latest discoveries about Jesuit enslavement from historians Adam Rothman, Ph.D., of Georgetown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery, Sharon Leon, Ph.D., of Life and Labor under Slavery: the Jesuit Plantation Project, and descendant Kevin Porter, GU272 Descendant Association Reparative Research Coordinator and Community Liaison.

The February 15th event will feature Jeffrey Harrison, S.J., Project Coordinator, and Kelly L. Schmidt, Ph. D., Reparative Public Historian, discussing the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation project. David Miros, Ph. D., Director of The Jesuit Archives and Resource Center, will also introduce various resources for researching Jesuit-enslaved ancestors.

Attendees will enjoy a DNA Day on February 22, where Nicka Smith (AncestryDNA), Robin Smith (23andMe), Daniel Horowitz (MyHeritage DNA), Sherman McRae (Family Tree DNA), and Martin Blythe (Living DNA) will join me to show how bleeding-edge genetic technology opens new vistas into human history.