Yes I would watch you do genealogy for hours. I am not kidding.

I just started a family tree on Ancestry, linked to my DNA. Now have hundreds of Thru-lines going way way back with pictures and family crests. I feel rich in history! Thank you Ancestry and my family who did research!

Crista Cowen you have THE BEST job in the whole world. Jealous! But grateful for you!

Thru lines helped me break through a few brick walls.

We're glad you enjoyed it, Donna. What have you learned from your research? We hope ThruLines will become a valuable tool for your research.

Delighted that I "found" your 5 step video - was looking for guidance on which site to build my family tree & you were very helpful & I really appreciate your step-by-step process. Thank you Crista!

Thank you, Crista for this great presentation. I have looked at my Thrulines before but I have never fully explored its potential use until now. I need to encourage my family Ancestry to create/do more with their trees.

I love your KZfaq videos - I watch them over and over again!

Great presentation! I'm watching these videos while i wait for my DNA results. I want to learn more about my father's side of the family and i hope i get what im looking for.

Lovely of you to do this for us!

Excellent, Crista ! You are a skilled presenter. When listening to you, I do not get annoyed by an endless string of "Uuuuh's" and Aaaah's," and I only hear a few "gonna's." I think I have listened to about half your posted vids at this point. Ancestry has a winner with you ! Congratulations to Ancestry for picking such a jewel to give a public face to your product !

Loved this! Can’t wait to play with the new tool. Great explanation as always. You know, by now I just shouldn’t be surprised... but, you get me with nee advances like these advances in connectivity throughout the site and I am BAM...! Happily surprised again! A mild case of Coronavirus is keeping me from research (hello, mistakes!) but I’m not too sick to watch you do your thing! Thanks ever so much, Crista!

I thoroughly enjoy listening to you. You are very personal. It’s clear you love your job and teaching. Thank you!

Excellent presentation by Ms. Cowan.. I sure hope there are many more of these presentations.

Great presentation. Every little bit of knowledge you have helps!

I love your presentation! Great job! Thank you!

Thank you that was so informative

Crista, you are awesome... I was in class at Roottech 2020 Feb loved the experience... Now to my thrulines Thank you again

I have watched several times hoping the new technology would click. It is very interesting and I enjoy watching Crista Cowan’s presentation. She has a wonderful sense of humor.

Love this! Thanks so much!

Thanks Crista ! Very informative.

Awesome presentation! Ya done good. Kept my attention.

Great video! Can't wait for new tools

Great video!! still a beginner!! thank you!

I want to thank you for this video it cleared up for me why my first cousins daughter and her 2 children don't show as related to some of our ancestors on Thru Lines, I now know that not everyone I have in my tree is in her tree.

Ancestry please include an option to see DNA matches when performing "Family tree search lists". This would help so I don't have to click the tree then click the profile to see if they have a matching DNA test. Instead it would allow me scroll quickly to prioritize DNA matches to my ancestors I am looking for at the moment. As it stands the closest thing to this is the thousands of DNA matches I have to scroll through that may or not trigger a "common ancestor" match due to misspelling or because royal title prefixes are included in the name. On that subject when is there going to be a prefix box for titles? WE NEED this! Ancestors are being labeled with titles in the name show up as not a match in name for other DNA matches or as DNA matches that are considered "half cousins". Thanks! great video by the way love the presenter more of her!

Thanks to the latest DNA shake up on Ancestry I lost quite a few ThruLines cousins. Some of them were my only DNA connections on some family branches.

Great video i learned i lot

I haven't used Thru Lines yet as I didn't understand how they worked. Thanks for this video Christa, now I can play with Thru Lines.

Thx Crista. You’re the greatest!

The circles used to include dna testers that alleged your ancestor but don't share dna with you. Any plans to bring this to thru lines? It's helpful. You can interact with more members who you share ancestors with. Also helpful for example, if you have an ancestor in your tree and zero thru lines dna matches, to find out 50 dna testers have that ancestor in thiers, then maybe your tree is off.

I'm a big fan, Crista. This was great!

another great presentation Crista! Am learning so much from you! Love your sense of humour, and my jaw dropped at the large number of descendants! I do have questions but I would like to absorb the 3 presentations I have seen recently. Is there a way I can ask questions other than via here? warm regards Wendy

It's nice that well finally be able to link matches to people in our trees.

what a great personality! good job explaining this process

You are a delight to watch!

She is so sweet bless her heart ♥️

I discovered this feature this summer and I absolutely love it! I still have to do deeper research because I still can't find my great grandfather's birth record to my gg grandmother even though I have ThruLines. I would like to see proof before I accept the potential ancestor.

Wow. Thanks.

Please move the microphone a little bit further away to reduce noise. Alternatively, you can run the video through an audio program and edit out the pops and buzz.

Ancestry needs to give their tests away to build up the database… it would then entice SO MANY MORE people to pay for testing this building the database.

How do I mark my trees, Private searchable. Really enjoyed Crista's presentation. Hope to find more.

Excellant just waiting for my DNA results

Cristas presentation was great! Thanks! However, she should not be displaying her full name and full birthdate on social media. This should be closely guarded information.

That was fun :)

Never met anyone who spelled their name like me. I'm a Crista too!!

Great!!!

This would have been a good time to check your Shipman line and Chaney line!

Thank you for sharing the presentation. I have a question. Why are some of my ancestors not on Thrulines, but they are on my tree. Each generation doubles, so I had 2 Parents, 4 Grandparents, 8 Great Grandparents. But when I got to Great Great Grandparents there were only 15 of them, there should have been 16 of them. I have identified who was missing, but her husband was on there, and she is definitely on my tree. Going back to the next generation, there were of course more ancestors missing. How does this happen?

For thrulines how does it determine/label the connection when it comes to intermarriage across two lines?. My paternal grandfather’s maternal grandmother was the sister of the father of my dad’s maternal aunt’s mother in law. While the brother of my 2x Gr grandmother shows as my2 Gr granduncle and his daughter shows on my android phone version of the ancestry app as my 1 cousin 3x removed she shows as the mother in law of my grand aunt on the iPad app but not my 1 cousin 3 x removed . While both findings are correct why is it showing differently on the two apps

I think this feature is my favorite. I have a odd story. I'm adopted by my mother's 3rd husband along with 2 siblings. I learned genealogy from his mother and she knew that as a very young child I wanted to know my birthfather. I started at age 14 when I found my adoption papers. But it wasn't until 2006 that I found him. Long story short, his current wife didn't believe I was his daughter but I was the child born during his marriage to my mom but she refused a DNA test. So I began looking for his siblings as that was the only option back then. But he was one of 3 boys placed in orphanage at young ages. Over the years I found two cousins but again no way to prove my relationship..But there was a story of their mother remarrying and maybe more kids..in 2019 I found 5 half siblings and they had just learned about the 3 previous children. They agreed to test with my oldest daughter as I'm no longer living in USA. Sadly we didn't match. My mother had died in 2013 so I'm lost to who my birth father could be. So now we had my daughter's test and I've gone through a few thousand sorting out folks. But what was odd a relative of my adopted father came up as a DNA match to my daughter..how was that possible? Lol I felt like the old song "I am my own grandpa, my daughter's father and my adopted father share a 2nd greatgrandmother through his mother..so grandpa is now cousin..and my youngest sister is her half aunt and her 4th cousin. To make it more fun her 3rd ggth father is one of the largest polygamist families of Utah history and I spent days just on his 7 wives and over 50 children. Sadly I've found nothing yet on a possible birth father except that I have a small group that have a higher rate of match but should be much lower..by my research they're 6th cousins but DNA wise they're 3rd cousin levels. My mother is from Georgia lines and so much intermarriage I think multiple connections cause this. But I have one cousin who we know is related by 6 lines yet she is not a DNA match to my daughter. Also I have entered folks as biological and removed my adopted father as my father but he still comes up as grandfather to my daughter? Yet this is just by marriage. I've noted this in comments on my tree to make clear but I have family who have added us but listed him as biological father..then I legally changed my name to boot. But again this is noted on my records. But my biggest issue is sorting through names only to find most are her father's side being mormon. So I'm hopeful my younger kids are now testing as their father isn't expected to have anyone in your database so all matches should be my side. Then I can sort easier. I wish I could get a test here but no mail system and I'm not planning on returning to USA. I doubt I will find my birthfather but I hope if I don't one of my children or descendant will. DNA helped me prove some family and break some brick walls.

Also my first cousins daughter and her 2 kids are the only DNA matches I have for my Maternal grandfather with the exception of my mother & of course me.

I don't have that new icon and it's October 2020. Did it not come out for everyone??

Hi Crista, what does it mean when it says "Potential Ancestor" underneath a relative? I know they are, but what does Ancestry mean?

Yeah I typically use my moms dna results lol cuz she has the account that’s being paid for every month for research

We also need a tool where we can make for example: two of my Dads brothers married two of my moms first cousins but it automatically in the tree lists them as my Uncles wives and doesn't allow me to add them as my cousin too.. We need to be able to have this option as well.. To be able to add in-laws as blood family as well not only on the tree but the individual for ppl to see when looking at the individual...

Serious question??? I have found tree's that have assumed (as you just said you might need to have that confirmed) and others have followed suit. Now we are basing our through lines with wrong information. It seems that people have just bought in to this wrong information. Any suggestions???

How can I connect my nephew's & other immediate family's DNA results to my tree? I've invited them to share my tree already, but they don't know how to connect. My nephew's (2) are having to be my male DNA (they are my full brother's sons). They are actually my Brother & my Husband's Sister's children).

When that new match tool coming out?

DNA Match Page: How about adding the LAST SIGNED IN DATE below the Matches photo along with the "managed by..."? Seems a simple enough addition as everyone's LAST SIGNED IN DATE is listed on their Profile page! It is frustrating to find a new match that has not been active for over a year!

Is there going to be a problem for me with thru lines because my chart has my birth name, but I use my name differently now, and that is what I would have put when I sent in my test.

How about a video on the problems with Thru-Lines and how to get around them ? Thru-line is great when it is accurate, but is the source of frustration and anger, when Thru-line produce bogus DNA hints. When incorrect information is present in other trees, and Thru-lines picks up on such date, Thru-lines will produce, and go on and on to produce, flat out wrong connection paths.

My Thruline ENDS at my great great grandparents… I’m PNE (father) so… me-thinks I have the wrong START to my family tree, that I need to build it from a DIFFERENT PNE (father)… am I thinking correctly? I picked my current PNE (father) based on a 1st cousin match… looked at her grandparents… there was ONLY one male descendant living at the time I was conceived so I used that male as my dad. Now I’m thinking I need to go back another generation to see if I have thrulines from their male progeny… I JUST started this Aug 2022, five days ago, so I am not sure I’m thinking through this correctly.

I LOVE Thrulines! However, I noticed a relationship error in an ancestor when viewing in Thrulines. It shows my grandfather's full siblings as half, and the half siblings as full. I have checked the relationships over and over, and appear to be correct in the tree. HELP!

Does anyone know why I would have thrulines for my father, but not my mother?

If you have a family tree that you do all your research on can you put other members dna in your tree? Both my husband and I recently took a test (still waiting on results) he doesn't have anyone on his ancestry account because all his family is in our joint tree, so can I add his dna to my account that houses our joint tree?

So the flaw here is that we gentiles aren't always as mindful of our histories, so it's possible for us to seek an ancestor and come to a different conclusion about which john brown born in 1833 is the ancestor. I have a number of possible Australian 4th cousins but they are choosing a second great grandfather that I cannot massage into my tree in any way. It's a common English name, there are boatloads on the east coast. if I attach my spit to an alternate tree what happens exactly? I may find new family with shared DNA but how accurate would that be really?

Hi Crista, Of the 10k+ dna matches I have, 158cm is the closest to me. My friends all have 3k+cms. It’s really saddening me.

Truline vs dna common ancestors the relationship list are not all the same, ex : if i change one to 4 cousin 1x this showing in the list and i work next match and she is same but as i update the 4th cousin 1x does show not on the list. Why. ?

My niece my sisters daughter. And I did my dad. My only living brother will not do the test. My sister and I want to take the DNA test.

How can I find a Mayflower Ancestor through DNA and/or Thru Lines?

How can I correct Ancestry it has my Grandmother married 2x to her only husband??

How is it that Thru lines says my Great Grandmother is a potential ancestor even though she is in my tree? My great grandfather is connected in thru lines

Crista, you say have one tree and I agree what I'm confused on is who to stop adding. If my aunt marries a man and have kids by that man, I will share DNA with that mans siblings children and children's, children will I not? So, if I'm correct where does the shared DNA stop?

What are the odds of Thru Lines connecting you to an ancestor that isn’t yours? I have a potential ancestor who’s daughter is being shown as having been born in the US, but she is documented as being born in Ireland. How do I remove this “potential ancestor”?

How do you make private but searchable on your tree.

This doesn't show how Crista works with ThruLines it just a long explanation of what ThruLines is,

Could Thru lines give an incorrect potential ancestor based on the trees presented but you do have a dna connection to a person?

Is there any way to get ahold of you

I have a thurlines doesn't look like that. Or at least on my phone. I'll have to do do it on the computer

Crista, I have my DNA test linked to my tree and have 3-4 generations on my maternal side documented on my tree. However, when I look at ThruLines, I only show paternal relatives. Even the filter says 0 maternal relatives. Does that mean NONE of my maternal side has taken the test? I'm so confused.

charles parshall

I’ve hit a brick wall with my genealogy and I’m trying to use my DNA Matches (cousins) and the same families and surnames that they have in their trees (Breaux, Guillory, Melançon, Shuler, and Ulmer) to break down this brick wall. I’m deciding that these cousins with the same families and last names are how we’re related. Is this faulty thinking? I can’t find any research on genealogical research and using the same surnames in your cousins trees on the internet to help prove your own family members or break down a brick wall. I’ve tried this same avenue of thinking with my Tyler side of the family and through finding cousins in my matches with the same Tylers (who I knew very well, Clora Tyler, Turner Tyler), it helped me to realize who they were after 12 cousins appeared with this same Tyler members and families. Has anyone tried this and is this a reasonable way to break down brick walls? Is this accurate? Thanks so much.

So, I have green pictures of ancestors in my tree, does that mean I have the wrong person in my tree? It is totally not my great great grandfather? I need to start searching again?

Crista on throughlines it shows mine and my daughters common ancestor is me. But it says im "unrelated". I dont know whats wrong or how to fix it or whats going on.

i have a first cousin match through dna but cannot for the life of me figure out how we are connected , my tree is pretty comprehensive now but I still cannot find a way to her tree which is just 2 generatins back

My match and I know how we match. We both have the ancestors in our trees.. But on my side, everyone has a dotted line around them. What have I/we done wrong?

Great, I only just found ThruLines this week! I must be a very low DNA-matching person to only have 18,000-19,000 matches... I thought that was loads! A lot less than average then. Small families in the last few generations. What if you decide some potential ancestors are probably wrong and change them to something more likely on your tree that makes more sense from records but all your matches descended from them have the 'wrong' potential ancestors on their trees? Does that mean those potential ancestors were right after all or just that everyone else has added them to their trees anyway without checking the records, dates and places? I see on the ThruLines that some of the potential ancestors that come up are the ones Ancestry suggested when I built that part of the tree but I was not convinced they were correct and left them 'unknown'. Others are completely new poping up from other people's trees. Some I thought were unlikely because they were too old or young or too far away, or because I found much more likely alternatives. Unlikely to still be having children at 45-50+ years old...!

COOPER mcvauley

My mother is not showing up on my DNA True lines. All of her sides do not show up. I do have her in my tree and my tree is public as well. Please help me.

My husband’s family has a wild story that his great grandfather is not is birth gr.grandfather. His through lines are attached to Gr. Grandfather. So does it mean that his Gr. Grandfather really is his Gr. Grandfather?

Did she say 50 thousand matches?? My dad only has about 2,700 and my grandma has about 4,100

The only family reunion we have is my grandparents children's children Families. Only one aunt is alive my uncle's wife. This is my Mom's side. My dad's side I had 2 aunt's and 1uncle

ADOLPH Cooper Laura

Hi how can I find out who my father is. From my DNA I have a third cousin and fourth cousins.

if fewer descendants take the test shouldnt it affect the results

Also why does my great aunt (my moms dads sister) show up as a cousin and my great uncle (dads moms brother) shown up as a close relative

IT ONLY SHOWS 2ND , 3RD AND 4TH OR 5TH COUSINS WHAT ABOUT FIRST COUSINS>=?

What happens if you where adopted and dont now your real or any relatives what happen then

further back you go the less DNA is shared the further back you go.