Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Ancestry's We're Related Mobile App - My Top Cousin Is ...

Slick Willie!  Bill Clinton.  Who knew?  How special.  My grandkids will be so impressed, my daughters not so much.


When I tapped on the app, the screen went to the "Insights" - the ones that Ancestry says I am related to.

So Bill Clinton is my 8th cousin 2 times removed.  If I tap on the blue relationship, or on the tree icon at the bottom of his screen, I get to the common ancestor screen:


George Soule (1593-????) is our shared ancestor, according to Ancestry.com.  If I tap on the "8 v" link on Bill's side, I can see his descent from George Soule:


There are several more generations, then at the bottom of the page:


Ancestry asks the question: "Does this path look correct to you?"

How can I judge?  Some of their data on the early generations don't match my data.  Look at the death date for Nathaniel Ayers!  Then there's the 42 year old guy who marries a 12 year old in 1862 and fathers Bill's grandmother at age 73.  That could have happened, I guess.

Where did Ancestry.com get their information about Bill Clinton's descent from George Soule?  Did it form a consensus of Ancestry Member Trees?  Did they create a set of Famous Person Family Trees?  Did they resurrect the old One World Tree database?   If so, I'd like to see the sources.  Did if use another online family tree, such as the FamilySearch Family Tree?  Or Geni.com?  Or WeRelate.com?  Or OneGreatFamily?

It's important that we all realize that the intent of this mobile app is to have some fun and interest family members into doing their genealogy and family history.

More famous cousins coming up soon ...


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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

My Tiny Book Review Site said...

what is the app?

My Tiny Book Review Site said...

what is the app?

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Can this be done without an app?

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

Shame on Ancestry! The Mayflower passengers are among the most researched set of 102 people on the planet. It is very easy to prove a Mayflower lineage within the first five or six generations because of the Silver books project. One peek at the Soule book shows that Elizabeth Soule had only one child, Isaac Walker. Who is this Mary? The only AYERS in this book is a Susannah. Also, the "go to" book for the lineages of American Presidents is by Gary Boyd Roberts "Ancestors of American Presidents" (I have the 2009 edition). There is even a chapter on Presidents with Mayflower links. Clinton is not included. Nor does he even have a single New England ancestor. Someone really dropped the ball on this one!

Lori Thornton said...

I'm wondering if it only uses living persons. I should have shown as related to some early U.S. presidents, but I had two living presidents, a living first lady, and two people in the entertainment industry.

Janniel said...

Couldn't you just have said President Clinton, or Bill Clinton? If you want to use derogatory names for people, please let us study your life a little closer so that we can honor you with one as well. Thanks

Unknown said...

Just called ancestry because im having problems with " were related app " She told me this is NOT an ancestry app its an app off of facebook and is not accurat its for entertainment