AncestryDNA Removing Matches Less than 8 cM

This is a bit of off-the-cuff opinion that I posted in response to AncestryDNA’s decision to removed DNA matches from a user’s shared match list where the shared DNA is less than 8 cM. You can find more about the decision and how to preserve the shared matches at the low level here. I’m not saving mine for reasons outlined below.

People are apparently in a tizzy that AncestryDNA is going to remove matches from your results that have less than 8 cM of shared DNA. A few quick comments.

1) AncestryDNA will do what they want to do. Cry all the tears you want, gnash whatever teeth you have left, hollar all y’all want, etc. All you will get are dry eyes, nubs to eat with, and a sore throat.

2) I’ve never used my matches less than 8 cM. That’s because they are distant matches (if they are even TRUE matches) and determining the relationship is difficult.

3) I have so many double/triple/quadruple cousins on my maternal side that analysis at a small shared cM level is just about impossible. That’s on top of the endogamy issue I have there (and it is a separate issue). My paternal side has a fair number of double matches as well. Sorting out the small matches is not always worth the effort.

4) Life is short. There are original records on my 3rd, 4th, and 5th greats that sit unaccessed and unanalyzed. I’d rather spend my time transcribing 17th century records, etc. and learning something about their life than parsing out the teeny amounts of DNA–but that’s just me.

5) Don’t like their decision? Cancel your subscription.

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2 thoughts on “AncestryDNA Removing Matches Less than 8 cM

  1. Connie Guy Burgess says:

    I like the small percentages because it helps me follow a line of people that I wan to know more about!

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