It's time for another DNA testing company comparison and
this time we're going to compare the Ancestry Thru
Lines feature versus MyHeritage Theory of Family
Relativity.
Hello, I'm Devon Noel Lee with Family History Fanatics where
we help you understand your DNA, climb your family tree,
and write your ancestor stories along the way. So, while we
start comparison the tool two tools that are on DNA testing
companies, we're focusing on the tools that help us to build
our DNA trees quickly and if you do have to have taken a DNA
test with both companies, you need to make sure that you have
linked your DNA test to a person, probably you or those
you've you've gotten a standard testing kit for, you have to
link them to a family tree and the more people that you have
in that family tree, the more success you're going to have
with the two tools from Ancestry and MyHeritage but
once you have done that, how do they stack up? Now, the first
area that I want to award points to is which platform
makes it easier for you to navigate to their quick tree
building tool utilizing DNA test and remember, these are
theory. They're not hardened stone. This is the absolute
right ancestor but which website makes it really easy
for you to get to your ancestor answer. So, on Ancestry Thru
Lines, you can get the there in a number of ways. The first way
is you can click on DNA and you can click on ThruLines.
Now, you're here on the through lines. Quickly find an answer
ancestor let's say Thomas Clayball with 31 matches and I
can quickly see the different paths of relationship with
these DNA matches. Three there, 7 there, one there, multiple 5,
nine, three, and so on. So that was pretty easy. There are
other ways that you can get to this view. You can click on
trees and be in your family tree. I can click on any of the
people in my tight degree and it says three lines and will
take me to Henry Joseph's ThruLines. The other way
that you can get there is from your DNA match list. Let's say
I want to look at this one with my common ancestor. I can view
the relationship and then I can click the ThruLines for
further comparison and I'm back to the Claybaugh. Very easy to
get to your ThruLines. MyHeritage has it requires you to
a number of clicks before you can get to your theories of
family relativities if you have some. So first you need to go
to DNA matches and after an update then Theories of Family
Relativity will sometimes have this big bold bar for you. If
it doesn't appear for you then what you need to do is scroll
down and see if you're going to see something that says it like
right here your Theory of Family Relativity and that's a
new one but you're going to fill all tree details has
Theory of Family Relativity. Once you get there, you can see
some of your relations. Click on view theory and now we are
pairing trees theories between my DNA test and my DNA match. I
feel like the the website that is easiest to navigate to get
through the suggestions of how I'm connected to my matches
through trees is Ancestry. And so I'm going to give one point
to Ancestry for their ThruLines for ease of navigation.
How often your theories are updated. So, with Ancestry,
they are running ThruLines for you and giving you
recommendations pretty much every day. So, when you make a
change to your tree, a major change to your tree like
changing who your grandfather is, you typically need to wait
two to three days before the ThruLines will populate
with the altered data. That's pretty quick and then you can
make the change back to the other grandfather that you
thought you might be related to in two to three days, you're
good to go. Anytime there's a new DNA test taker within a few
days, they will have through lines appear for themselves and
those new connections will appear for you. Meanwhile, it
is my understanding that the Theories of Family Relativity
are not updated with the same frequency as Ancestry. So, you
will have your theories for a while then MyHeritage will do
a massive update and you can pick up some new potential
theories but you have to wait for them to run the process
they say it's because they go through another topic we're
going to talk about here in a moment and because of all of
the ways they're trying to give you hints they can't do it as
often. So for that we're going to go ahead and give the point
to Ancestry that they update frequently with your DNA
recommendations for building the truth. Let's talk about
being able to see multiple paths of relationships for you
and your DNA matches. Now, we're going to go back to my
heritage just because it was pulled up last and with this
match, it this recommendation is through this path from
Alonzo to Myra Marr to Alonzo right here, okay? So another
path could be this way. I can pass through this tree and go
through that connection point to this individual. Notice how
they didn't have very many people in their tree but
MyHeritage was able to use this third part, third tree to make
that happen. So, that's really easy. What if you are related
to a cousin through different common ancestors. So, notice
this this is Nicholas Claybaugh and Rebecca Dickey. Right at
the top, I have theory two and I have theory one History and
notice how the individuals at the top are different. This is
Edward Nash and this is Polly Nash. I like how it is easy to
see the different potential common ancestor combinations
that you have there. Now, on Ancestry, they don't
necessarily have multiple paths of how you connect to your
relatives. So, let's look at this match. Um I have a through
line for James Brown and I have some of these potential
ancestors. Uh why are they potential? Because I keep my
tree fairly narrow on Ancestry. It's very large over on Family
Search but there's this William Brown and he is a potential
potential brother of Samuel Curtis Brown. I haven't been
able to figure it out. Records don't tell me DNA would be the
only possible joining factor and we have a number of people
down here who say, well, maybe it's through William. However,
if we go to our matches, I think they're through a
different line. That different lines is over here it says well
it could be through James Brown but view more possible
relations or common ancestors excuse me and then there's this
Joseph Fix Fickle and Nancy Town Tanhill. So I'm going to
click on that ThruLine and it's entirely possible that
that's how we're related as well because the thickle
married a Brown and so Marv married a Brown. So, the aunt
and the niece married Browns who could be brothers or maybe
they're not brothers at all. I think it's a tie that both
companies help you see different path of relationship
to between you and your common ancestor and your DNA matches.
Let's go ahead and get that A tie. The next area I want to
focus on is utilization of records. Now, some of you
already know who's going to win this one. So, what happens is
you have a DNA test that you match and you have yours and
you built your trees but there's no third tree or your
tree that makes a connection. Well then what? Are you out of
luck? No. You're not out of luck. So over on MyHeritage
sometimes you're going to find trees where you're going
through other trees. My heritage will not only use
trees built on MyHeritage platform but trees built on
Ginny as well as trees built on family search but what really
makes their platform different is that they can pass through
records. So, when you see a little brown icon, you could
click there and notice up here it says 1910 United States
Federal Census. When I click and zoom in for Charles Bear
Bell and Mary Ethell, we find that there is a census record
that I can look at and when I get into the census record,
here is the bridge that connects the two differing
trees together. So, I really like that MyHeritage not only
utilizes tree information but it uses its record information
and I really think this is pretty revolutionary which is
why sometimes you have to sacrifice the frequency of how
often they update in order to get the record pass through for
your matches so I'm going to go ahead and give them a half
point for that because I feel like it's really really awesome
I just would have like to happen a whole lot more so the
next area that we have to address is triangulation and
triangulation isn't a record triangulation it's a genetic
triangulation triangulation is where in a specific location on
your genes the person A matches person B person B matches
person C and versus C matches person A, it the same spot
genetically. There's only one website that shows you that
location triangulation. So, we're going to come over to
MyHeritage and I'm going to show you when when I review the DNA
match, I also can see the Theory of Family Relativity and
I can scroll down a little bit further and I can see that
myself and my DNA match match another person, another person
but what's the really and truly makes all the difference in the
world is this little icon right here that doesn't want to
magnify. It is the triangulated segment. So, this match matches
in two triangulated spots. So, not on do our trees match and
not only do we share DNA, we share DNA at the same spot so
it's highly likely that our trees and our DNA match almost
perfectly and because of that triangulation tool from the
chromosome browser have to give the win to MyHeritage and
because that chromosome browser gives you so much more
confidence than just relying trees. I really feel that
that's worth two points. So, who went out in the end? It's
going to have to be my heritage. Now, we have been
saying this a lot on the Family History Fanatics Channel. If
Ancestry would develop a chromosome browser, they would
blow the competition out of the water. Since they don't, my
heritage gets the win. They edges it out just slightly. So,
what do you think? Do you agree it you disagree? Is there
something I'm not taking into consideration when I'm looking
at the jewels? Let me know in the comments below and we'll
see you next time.