During a phone call with AncestryDNA representatives this week (unfortunately I was not able to attend), numerous genealogists heard two major announcements:
- The AncestryDNA database has hit 18 million test takers (such great news!); and
- There are significant changes coming to our DNA match list.
The announcement started to appear on the DNA match list page yesterday:
Clicking on the link brings up information about the changes:
The changes to the DNA match list comprise the following:
- The number of shared segments should improve
From the announcement: “The DNA you share with a match is distributed across segments – short segments, long segments, or some combination of both. Our updated matching algorithm may reduce the estimated number of segments you share with some of your DNA matches. This doesn’t change the estimated total amount of shared DNA (measured in centimorgans/cM) or the predicted relationship to your matches.”