I was wrong.
ThruLines at AncestryDNA in their display of data in my ThruLines descent is indicating something is in my tree that is not. This screen shot from my ThruLines for John G. Trautvetter contains information from my database for every entry that’s in a white box. The gray box information is not in my online tree.
Reading the image, it is saying that John and Theodore Trautvetter are half siblings–after all John M. is my 2nd great grandfather and Theodore is stated on the image as my “half 3rd great-uncle.” This suggests that the two men are half brothers in my tree–after all the boxes are white on the screen indicating the information is from my tree.
Except in my tree these men are full siblings…because that’s how they interacted their entire lives, how they presented themselves, and what their records of birth in Wohlmuthausen, Germany, indicates. There’s one online tree at Ancestry that has their relationship incorrect–indicating that they are half siblings (which they are not.)
But apparently ThruLines is pulling that “relationship” from that tree and modifying it in the display that it claims is from my tree.
If it wants to suggest things from other trees in my ThruLines that are not in my online tree, that’s one thing.
But don’t say all the information about two men is from my tree and then grab a relationship between them that’s in someone else’s tree.
Meredith says:
I’m a member of a Facebook group discussing and helping each other with the new ThruLines feature. Several people have made the statement that “ThruLines changed my tree” and other members have adamantly said this was false: that ThruLines only offered suggestions based on DNA and other members’ trees with matching ancestors. Your example and explanation clearly prove what the first set of group members have been saying. Thank you for explaining it and illustrating it so concisely. Ancestry needs to do a better job of indicating every detail that comes from your tree and what comes from others.
mjnrootdig says:
Thanks, Meredith. My actual tree still has the information I put in it, but the displayed ThruLines tree does show information color coded as being in my tree that’s not–in this case the relationship. Sometimes I really don’t think the programmers at Ancestry.com really communicate what’s going on with others in the company.