52 Ancestors Week 50: Lines

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 50 is "Lines." We often talk about researching a family line, but that isn't the only kind of line you could write about. Telephone or telegraph lines. Railway lines. Fishing lines. "Drop me a line sometime." Let your imagination run free for this theme!

No "Blurred Lines" here. There's always The Weird Al parody!.

    It's been a while since I posted anything DNA-related. I can't really say when the last time I talked about it was. It must have been during the summer. I'm not sure. What do you say we revisit an old friend this week? You might remember this guy. His name is Thrulines. Not Trulines. Not Bylines. THRUlines. The tool comes courtesy of the fine folks at Ancestry.com and I think it's high time I take a deep dive into the wonderful world of Thrulines because there have been some changes in mine! Oh, yes. There have been some changes!

The great eight!

    For those who don't know, Thrulines is a tool on Ancestry where it connects you to a DNA match thanks to data pulled from other peoples' trees including yours. The results, of course, will vary depending on how good other peoples' trees are, how good your tree is, what sources back up the information etc. The quality depends on so many factors and so many variables. It makes your head spin! To get Thrulines all you need to do is get your DNA tested, create a tree and build it up to at least your grandparents and connect the tree to your DNA test. Wait about a day and you should get your Thrulines. YAY! You'll find them under the DNA tab on the top menu.

I have many Italian Thrulines like this!

    That's great and everything. But, what do you do when you DON'T have Thrulines for a certain ancestor? I don't have any for my 2nd great-grandfather, Marco Ferraiolo as you can see. Hmm. That is a bit of a problem. What's the reason for this? Well, there could be a lot of reasons why a Thruline won't appear for a certain ancestor.

    The first and most obvious reason could be because people who descended from him did not test or build a tree. That's one reason. Another reason could be that you have a misattributed parent in your tree and that's why a Thruline won't appear despite having many DNA matches from a certain branch of your tree.

    In my case, I don't have Thrulines for Marco Ferraiolo because Marco's other children either stayed in Europe or moved to Argentina as explained in several older blogs. This is why it's a good idea to employ the WANDER method and the Genealogical Proof Standard to find out if what you have is accurate and why you might not have Thrulines. 

E=MC found cousins squared!

    This is why it's a good idea to put your DNA on other vendors like MyHeritage. They have a tool which is similar to Thrulines called "Theory of Relativity". I wonder if Einstein's relatives know about that one....

    If you descend from a recent immigrant like I do, chances are good relatives not based in your country have tested. You could find close relatives around the world like I did. But, that's just what my experience tells me. Your experience will, of course, be different. I'm fortunate in that I knew I had relatives in Europe. I just didn't know where. DNA confirmation and paper trails proved the connection and created a "Theory of Relativity" for my connection with my cousin. Conversations with the DNA match also helped.

That's....a lot of potential Christmas card recipients.

    Over on my mother's side, Thrulines tend to be a bit more populated. Especially the ones for Jean Baptiste Bibeau and Therese Laroche, my 4th great-grandparents. Eighty-four DNA matches just for me! My mother has about one hundred! The paper trails confirmed them all and no I haven't put all of those people in the tree. Just a handful. Gotta love Quebec, right? Of course the reason for the sheer volume of matches is because of the number of people who tested and who all have well sourced trees.

     This isn't to say I don't have Italian Thrulines like this. I do. The Thrulines for Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato, my 3rd great-grandparents, have eight matches. The Thrulines for Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco have ten. It used to be nine. But, my dad's cousin just tested so the count increased. =D These are all again based on other peoples' trees. (Usually mine).  I have other cousins who descend from these lines and others who don't have trees or connected their tree to their DNA tests.  So, a Thruline may not appear because  of that reason. This is why it's a good idea to dig. I would like them all to build the trees up and have a forest of Thrulines (confirmed ones, mind you) appear. That could just be OCD talking.

One of the most lonely Thrulines I have.

    Unfortunately, there might be instances where no matter what you do, you might not ever get a Thruline for a specific ancestor. Take my second great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens' parents Austin Stevens and Evaline Augusta Fisher for example. She had one brother who lived to adulthood. I've talked about him before. His name was Arthur and he was buried with the Kimball family for some reason. See this blog for details. From all outward appearances, it seems he didn't have children. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen.

    The Thrulines pop back up for Evaline's parents, John Sargent Fisher and Frances Miranda Frothingham and yes I have quite a few distant matches who descend from their children. There are quite a few who descend from Evaline's sister, Emma. She even has a picture! Makes me wonder if a pic exists of Evaline somewhere out there. Paper trail confirmed the Thruline a long time ago and I have talked with the DNA matches. From here on out everything looks good. OR DO THEY?!

    I've been lucky with my Thrulines. Most of them have been backed up by paper trails, DNA confirmations and conversations I've had with various DNA matches. However, at the 5th great-grandparent level things tend to get a little wonky. I'm not saying they're inaccurate. However, sometimes things can be a bit skewed this far back.

    If you're fortunate enough to have built a tree this far back, you can build the tree downward and decide for yourself if the Thruline is accurate. That's what makes this tool so much fun to use. It wholly depends on your research and the research of someone else. It's almost like....a collaboration! Gee. Where have I heard that before? *Cough* WikiTree! *COUGH!*

    That's what Thrulines essentially is. It's technically Ancestry's way of getting users to collaborate on a tree via DNA matches. If you look at a Thruline and say "Hey, that person is connected to me?" You can message them and see how it all works out. The feature may have some flaws and in the end the pros tend to outweigh the cons. To get the most out of Thrulines what you need to do is make sure of these things.

1. Your tree is built up and is as accurate as possible.

2. You have ironclad sources backing up your information.

3. You have patience to deal with DNA matches who may have altered a Thruline due to their own errors creeping into your Thruline.

4. There are going to be errors. If you find them, fix it. 

Keep all of these in mind and you'll find that Thrulines is a very handy tool!

See ya next time!