Monday, August 31, 2020

35,230 AncestryDNA Matches Are Gone!

It looks like AncestryDNA has removed all of the 6.0 to 7.99 cM DNA Matches from my match list.  

Yesterday, I had 69,063 matches on my list.  

Today I have 33,833.  That's 35,230 removed - 51%.

Here is my Shared DNA Matches count now:


However, I still have about 300 DNA Matches that I added a gold star, a group color or a Note to over the past months:

I lost no starred or group matches, and no Common Ancestor matches.  I hope all of my genealogy friends saved what they wanted to save.


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Disclosure: I have a complimentary all-access subscription from Ancestry.com, for which I am thankful. Ancestry.com has provided material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and has hosted events and meals that I have attended in Salt Lake City, in past years.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm very sad about this as this now makes sense for a distant relative who contacted me and yet we don't appear on each other's DNA networks. Very disappointed with Ancestry as these are the connections that link me back to a common ancestor back in England and Scotland and now they're gone. Why? Kim Jones

Randy Seaver said...

Hi Kim,

Ancestry gave two reasons:

1) About two thirds of these 6.0 to 7.99 cM matches are false positives because the segments are so small.

2) With over 18 million DNA testers, the volume of matches is tremendous. Eliminating the 6.0 to 7.99 cM matches removes about 50% of the volume from their servers.

They did provide a way to save the 6.0 to 7.99 matches - by adding them to a group, starring the match, or adding a Note to the matches. I saved all of my Common Ancestors and more - about 300 in all.

They did give us a warning six weeks or so ago that was well publicized, so this wasn't a surprise.