It happened about a year and a half ago when Ancestry introduced their new Timber algorithm and half my matches for all six of my testers went away. Now their is the announcement below circulating among various DNA groups.
New Advances in DNA Science Coming Your Way
While you've been exploring your DNA matches, we've been refining and expanding the science behind DNA matching to find your relatives. And we've got some exciting improvements coming your way soon.
These advancements are expected to deliver more-precise predictions of whom you are related to, and how closely, among the million-plus others in the AncestryDNA database. And we will be making this available for free to all AncestryDNA customers.
What does this mean for you?
Your DNA match list will automatically show the new results when the update is available in the coming weeks. You’ll receive an email letting you know when it’s ready. In the meantime, it’s business as usual. You’ll continue to get new DNA matches as we find new possible relatives as the database grows.
Of course, we can’t make your list of DNA matches more accurate without removing some of the less-accurate ones. So, while you’ll have new DNA matches to research, some of your current DNA matches may no longer appear as a relative. We’ll be providing a way for you to download DNA matches that you marked with a star or have added notes on the site that no longer appear on your updated list.
What makes this possible?
AncestryDNA has quickly become the largest consumer DNA database, with 1.5 million people and growing rapidly. This is one of the major reasons our science team can develop significant improvements to finding and predicting relationships among AncestryDNA customers. We’re excited to share more details around the improvements when we release the update so you can dig into the science and technology.
So, stay tuned and look forward to the new possibilities for discoveries.
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About right now all my genealogy students are laughing their heads off. I have this thing that happens anytime I teach a class involving Ancestry or AncestryDNA. Shortly after the class is over, Ancestry will always make major changes. This semester I taught a beginner and advanced class centered around AncestryDNA. Just damn!
