Ancestry.com please do NOT Delete Small DNA Matches!

Comments

#401

All connections are important.

Rae Stauffer (Lethbridge , 2020-07-26)

#402

Please do not delete any matches, all matches could be valuable clues! Also, wouldn't your proposed deletion hinder usage by law enforcement? Have you seen some of the captures made via DNA? Leave it alone!

Lisa Lichtenberg (Temple Terrace, 2020-07-26)

#407

I find 6 - 8 cM matches very often can be connected to my tree. Please don't remove them.

Angelo Coniglio (Buffalo, 2020-07-26)

#408

I find the small matches the key to breaking down "brick walls"

Steve Medley (Brisbane, 2020-07-26)

#410

The information afforded by the low 6-8 cM range has been extremely useful to me, even if time consuming to check out.

Jann Gallen (Bathurst, 2020-07-26)

#411

I want to keep all matches on all the DNA kits I manage regardless of how “low” they are! I have several brick walls and have not been able to knock them down!!

Jimmie Wiesel (Moore, 2020-07-26)

#412

EVERYONE has a right to know their genetic makeup and sometimes even the smallest thread is all it takes.

Anna Brown (Newark, 2020-07-26)

#414

I have few close relatives

Meri-francis Collins (Bolivar, TN , 2020-07-26)

#416

I am not able to work everyday of every month on my family tree. I am way behind and feel I will loose information I need. Please do not delete this information. Thank you

Muriel Kloth (Spring Green, 2020-07-26)

#417

As an African American woman who is a descendant of so many enslaved members of society (not considered back then) this helps me make many useful connections. I urge you not to let this happen. So much of my history will forever be lost when the majority of it is what I'm already trying to seek through Ancestry.

Nicole Thomas (New London, 2020-07-26)

#419

I use all the small DNA matches!@!!!!

Robbintina Harrison (Tellico Plains, 2020-07-26)

#420

I have many confirmed matches in the 6-8cM range that I don't want to lose. These matches confirm my most distant relatives. I don't want to lose the ability to confirm other similarly distant relations.

Don Goebel (Tucson, 2020-07-26)

#422

These distant matches are sometimes invaluable when researching. For Ancestry to remove these is wrong. We are paying for this service.

Janice Remmers (Spencer, 2020-07-26)

#423

I'm signing because I finding all the cm measures useful. I found a handful of connections through knowing people who were at 6 cm and 7 cm. I would like to have access to all people who were 1 cm and up. Please do not make this change, and make all cm measures above 1 cm available. Let us decide what is useful

Robert Williams (Bloomfield, 2020-07-26)

#424

I want to retain that option!

Jerrold Bernard (Prineville , 2020-07-26)

#425

I have not finished contacting distant connections. With the ones I have connected with I have met some face to face and others I have talked with on the phone. I enjoy the connection I haves made and look forward to more in the future. They have helped with my research.

Susan Eschbach (Amenia, 2020-07-26)

#427

I do not want Ancestry to delete the matches who share fewer than 8cM's and want them to continue to display them for all users so that we can decide if they are useful matches or not.

Kimberly Fairchild (Harwood, 2020-07-26)

#428

So I can continue to connect with my African relatives across seas.

Ezell Mays (Oxford , 2020-07-26)

#429

being able to search our DNA further with the more acient matches.

Ginger Lute (Russellville, 2020-07-27)

#430

My brick walls, Hamilton and Parks - One day a distant relative may solve the mysteries.

Ruth Karcher (Brandon, 2020-07-27)

#432

No matter how low or small cM is....some people consider it important.

Alexander Low (Pocatello, 2020-07-27)

#437

Low matches are necessary for me to find my Ancestor’s slavery information.

Linda Dailing (Sierra Vista, 2020-07-27)

#438

I have over 26 identified family that were found due to small matches between 6 cM - 7.9 cM and I just found 3 more last week.

Thomas Sexton (Port Orchard , 2020-07-27)

#439

I just started my search and have read about small matches being helpful!

Tabi Corona (Arlington , 2020-07-27)

#442

Because every match is a hint to and on your family tree. Please keep all the matches, I wouldn’t have a lot of my information if it wasn’t for the matches that didn’t have enough numbers. I found Cousin’s and found so much information that they had in pictures. Please bring them back

Jaime Smith (Riverton, Wyoming , 2020-07-27)

#445

We need a more robust search system, like GEDMatch, rather than to remove small cm results.

Mercedes Lafavers (Science Hill, 2020-07-27)

#450

This information may be valuable to some, and should be retained!

Robert Hand (Pleasant View, 2020-07-27)

#451

For the Native and African American communities.

Sally Burkett (Houston, 2020-07-27)

#452

I want all of my family members.

Amy CHAPMAN (CINCINNATI, 2020-07-27)

#457

I want to meet anyone I can that we have the same DNA, that includes The small CM as well.

Angel Garner (Dickinson, 2020-07-27)

#458

I have used the small cm matches to help find my ancestors in the UK prior to 1700's

LEWIS BUTTERY (LOCKPORT, 2020-07-27)

#461

Us oldies already struggle. Please don’t change

Ina Smail (Brisbane, 2020-07-27)

#467

As an African American; it is very difficult to trace our family tree due to slavery. Our ancestors are mixed with many races.

Janices Brown (McCalla, AL, 2020-07-27)

#468

I’m signing because I don’t want the small dna matches removed. Sometimes they are rhe only dna match that helps in a particular line

Doreen Bloomer (Brick, 2020-07-27)

#473

We need all the DNA help we can get, large numbers or small to find our ancestors. Also, what kind of company eliminates an important aspect of what they are offering their customers? Do you want is to report you to the Better Business Bureau? Don’t you have enough issues?

Carol Welsch (Chesterfield, 2020-07-27)

#474

I have important matches, and common ancestors in my matches with less than 8cMs. Many of them have been very helpful to me. It will be devastating to our research and further use of our DNA test to cease giving us matches of less than 8cMs. Please, please, please reconsider!

Suzanne Ainsworth (Rockford, 2020-07-27)

#475

Many times I have had success from under 8 matches, and in scrapping these, valuable contacts will be lost.

James Gillbanks (Maghull, Liverpool, 2020-07-27)

#477

Find another way! This is important, especially for tracing ancestry of people enslaved in our history and families.

TJ Roberts (Vancouver , 2020-07-27)

#478

I am signing because we want to keep our small Dna as they are very important to us.

Charles Gallegos (Missouri, 2020-07-27)

#489

This is how we find relatives even through small dna match. Please don’t do away with it! It won’t be the same or as beneficial.

Jacqueline Mendez (Apopka, Florida, 2020-07-28)

#491

This information should be available to all Ancestry users.

Carlos Rivera (Alva, 2020-07-28)

#494

Every single small match counts and help!

Felipe González de Otoya (Bogota, 2020-07-28)

#496

I have found that the small matches really work for me. I specifically joined Ancestry to find those people who went to the Americas or staying in the UK after mine came to Australia!!!! As a genealogist of many decades, I already knew my closest matches.

Gail Vincent (Batemans Bay, 2020-07-29)

#498

I have found 6 - 8 cM matches to be very helpful in my research into my American colonial and European ancestors.

Donald Powers (Pittsford, NY, 2020-07-29)

#499

I am having a terrible struggle trying to find my great-grandfather, and am worried that all of the matches you will be deleting may have given me even the slightest clue to follow. I don't understand~~if so many people prior to this time paid the same amount we did, then why did they get to keep theirs as long as they needed, and we are now being cut off? Certainly doesn't seem right~~If you had given us a year or two (warned us that long ago) I would certainly understand, but it truly doesn't seem like a proper thing for you to do to us. Will new people that take the test 2 months from now get only the matches above 6 or 8 cM? If so, won't you lose business if people realize that and need or want a company that will give them matches for the smaller amounts? Just wondering....Thanks!!!

Mary Dykstra (Aurora, 2020-07-29)

#502

Most of my matches are below 8cm.

Pamela Smith (Coventry , 2020-07-29)

#506

I’m so
Tired of ancestry and deleting matches is crazy they should let people opt in

Diane Kopke (Manasquan , 2020-07-29)

#507

I have connected with 6-8 cousins. Some have shed light on some of my enslaved ancestors. Without that connection I may have never known anything but what I've been told. Inwhich some stories were just that, stories. Even if it takes years to connect with some of my distant DNA cousins...it's worth the wait.

Audrey Brown (Holly Hill, 2020-07-29)

#508

I am losing many small but valuable dna matches.

Margaret Kipp (Toronto, 2020-07-29)

#509

We've entrusted Ancestry with valuable genetic data. Ancestry should respect this trust by preserving our DNA connections. Ancestry should look at other ways to address their data storage problems.

Jason Lee (Anytown, 2020-07-29)

#510

I am Afro-descended and these matches are my BEST opportunity for identifying my African communities of origin and potential relatives. My ancestry is not recent enough to be found in the 8+ cM range you are proposing. This is NOT consistent with your stated support of Black Lives Matter! This is yet another form of PAPER GENOCIDE!

Margo Williams (Silver Spring, MD, 2020-07-29)

#511

I will lose many of several hundred of my common ancestral matches and possible the opportunity to find additional older ancestral matches. It is terrible that ancestry would do this to their faithful customers under the guise of improving their ability ability to do research.

Johnny Lee Williams (Attalla, 2020-07-29)

#512

These small matches are helpful for my brick wall on my maternal line.

Tracy Sunseri (Caucasian/White, 2020-07-29)

#513

I have quite a few 6 & 7 matches that are 1st cousin. 3x removed or higher matches and those are just the family members I know. This does not give me confidence that there are not a lot more waiting to be discovered

Carol Strohmeier (Walnut Creek, 2020-07-29)

#516

I need the small cm matches to connect to my distant past. Black people don't get a green leaf that identifies African ancestors.

Beatrice DuPont (New York, 2020-07-30)

#517

To assist African Americans with the very difficult task of tracing ancestors.

Linnith Arnold (Yorba Linda, 2020-07-30)

#521

Please don't take away our small matches! For African Americans having these small matches are key to researching ancestors born in slavery! Any one serious, might as well cancel if you do that!

Vera Moore (Elk City, 2020-07-30)

#523

Having small-sized genetic matches and using the autoclustering tool from Genetic Affairs was the ONLY way I was able to break through the brick wall of finding my Lithuanian ancestors.

Maria Rickert Hong (Westport, 2020-07-30)

#526

i need those small matches to help me find parts of my family that didn't have surnames. i have already found several dna cousins thru these small amounts of shared dna. thank you.

Leslie Rubinson (vista, 2020-07-30)

#527

Please do not delete small cM matches!

Patricia Ruble (NAPLES, 2020-07-30)

#528

Most of my close family isn't on Ancestry, small segments matter

Rolf Holte (Sandefjord, 2020-07-30)

#530

Because I want people like me to be able to trace their African DNA.

Wendy Cooper (London, 2020-07-30)

#534

I'm signing because my husband has Pierto rician ancestry which includes Sopanish Native American and African American, these matches are necessary to follow his line back in time,

Margie Rosario (Rapid City, 2020-07-30)

#537

This is not fair, Ancestry. We've paid for this product and the match results. If any company can afford storage data space it's a mega company like Ancestry that has already bought up most all of its competition.

Rebecca Foreman (ADELPHI, 2020-07-30)

#538

I just recently learned of two ancestor families through very small matches by comparing all the people who had matching surnames. I need to keep my small matches.

Carolyn Smotherman (College Grove, TN, 2020-07-30)

#539

I use my small matches to help confirm or deny my distant ancestry. These are not useless! Give us an option to opt in to matches of this size. Most people don't care, that is true, but I do. Also show us shared matches below 20cM. 20cM is too high a set point. Ideally, you should be able to set a point at which you want to show shared matches.

Linda Chickering (Waukesha, 2020-07-30)

#540

I use those small matches sometimes and have found new information from those trees.

Sherry Marshall (Beallsville, 2020-07-30)

#541

These lower matches have been very beneficial to me. Please do not remove them!!!

Jennifer Whifeford (Lincoln Park, 2020-07-30)

#542

Alll of my lines go back to pre-Revolutionary War and pre-1700 so I need all my tiny segments.

Donna Parten (Sacramento, 2020-07-30)

#543

I wish to retain all my DNA matches no matter how small - I am willing to pay a premium to do so if required. AncestryDNA is preventing us from being able to identify all these matches by not providing a tool to export in bulk a csv file of all our matches.

Veronica Williams (Round Corner, 2020-07-30)

#544

Ancestry should continue in its work of providing people of whose ancestors were trafficked in the trans-Atlantic slave trade with the clues we need to have some kind of an understanding of where we came from. Most of our African DNA connections fall between 6-8cm. The validity of these matches as IBD (as opposed to IBS/IBP) may not be 100% reliable, but I’ve had several matches in that range show up above 10cm on family members’ profiles. You may think you’re increasing scientific reliability with such a flat approach, but you are simply reintroducing hopelessness into our genealogical research. Please reconsider.

William Serrano-Franklin (San Antonio , 2020-07-30)

#546

I use these small matcges, which I have paid for. There is no way I can put them all in groups even with an extra month.

Kathryn Schultz (Germantown, TN, 2020-07-31)

#547

DNA is complex to understand how to thoroughly mine the data and get past those brick walls. I am just now learning so many things - and want to put them into practice with small matches, to get past those 5 generation walls. Please leave me as many clues as possible!

Ruth Anne Nelson (Fort Smith, 2020-07-31)

#548

Some of those small DNA matches have been vital to filling in blanks farther back in my family tree. Those who don't want to see small matches don't have to scroll down.

Auriette Lindsey (Pensacola, 2020-07-31)

#550

Please do NOT purge our smaller matches. I have been a member of Ancestry for 10 years, and have not yet had the time to review my smaller matches. As you know, genealogy can be an arduous task and can take years to make meaningful connections to our ancestors. These past 10 years, I have worked primarily on my direct line ancestors but if you delete all my smaller matches, I may miss many important connections to ancestors further back in time. Please do not do this! Thank you for your consideration.

Linda Lutz (Colorado Springs, 2020-07-31)

#551

I have brick walls and these small cMS have already been valuable to me. However, I make this plea on behalf of everyone. We need these retained and maintained. Thank you.

Betty Jackson (North East, 2020-07-31)

#554

I have valuable matches @ 8 cMs or less and so does my family.
We should at least have been notified by email. Ancestry did the same thing to me a few years ago with the mtdna test that I took and then ancestry removed all the matches . This is uncceptable and unfair.

Therese O'Keefe (errick NY, 2020-07-31)

#556

I'm a long term Ancestry user.

Douglas Holt (Lexington, 2020-07-31)

#559

This matters to those who have fewer opportunities to find their families via traditional Genealogy.

Florence Barnick (Falmouth, 2020-08-01)

#562

I work with African Americans who are desperate to search their roots. Distant matches are an important part of that process. In addition, white Americans whose forebears were slaveholders are likewise eager to help the victims of their ancestors' actions. And FINALLY, if we ever get to the point in the US that we have reparations for descendants of enslaved people, DNA will be key to the effort.

Candyce Carter (Cupertino, 2020-08-01)

#563

These small amounts of distant DNA are the most helpful links available in tracing genetic links which go beyond paper documentation for Native American, Africa American , and Immigrant Ancestry

El Jones (Manning, SC , 2020-08-01)

#565

I am signing because so few resources are available for people whose ancestors were listed as property. There is absolutely no reason to cut African American people out of the family tree. Ancestry should be ashamed for even considering this action.

Carrie Journell (Portland, 2020-08-01)

#571

I don’t want to lose these valuable matches

Rozanne Bingle (Rogart , 2020-08-01)

#573

we paid for this service, you have no valid reason to remove it.

michele barnes (gloucestershire , 2020-08-01)

#577

I support the descendants of slaves in their effort to find and honor their ancestors.

Shannon Kupfer-Trausch (Galena, Ohio, 2020-08-01)

#578

I am the daughter of an adoptee. Low cM matches have helped to trace the natural family of my adopted parent.

J Elliott (Maryborough VIC, 2020-08-01)

#582

It is this level that many people are seeking to extend their family trees from ancestors where they marry out of the area etc, or records falter

Angela Watts (Glastonbury, 2020-08-01)

#583

without these lower matches I would never have confirmed my tree, they helped match to other larger matches that linked with me too.

Hilary Stanton (Melksham, 2020-08-01)

#586

I don't want to see the small matches disappear. That is where I find most of my dna matches.

John Hardman (Winnipeg, 2020-08-01)

#587

I think those people with fewer than 8 cMs should be displayed because the goal should be to assist them regardless when that event(s) took place. In addition, it should be a personal decision.

Penny Kay (Branford, 2020-08-01)

#588

A 7cM match was a game changer for a brick wall! That match was the common link to two other who descended from our unknown common ancestor! We had a paper trail for our line and they had good paper trail for theirs the 7cM match tied us together!
Please keep the lower matches!

Debra Monsive (Cottage Grove , 2020-08-01)

#591

My 6 to 8 cm matches are important to me. Some of them have trees that their closer relatives don't have.

Ashlee Amenti (Barrington, 2020-08-01)

#592

These matches are so important for Americans with African ancestry. Searching for their roots is made hard enough by the lack of records, don’t make it harder by taking away this important tool.

Christine Pittsley (Cheshire, 2020-08-01)

#600

I've only just ordered my DNA test which , I wouldn't have done if I knew you were going to reduce the matches!

Kivi Hughes (Glasgow, 2020-08-01)