Ancestry’s ThruLines – Part 3 – Asa Ellis Roberts

In previous articles, I’ve considered Ancestry’s new ThruLines^tm feature. In Part 1, I looked atThruLines^tm in a general manner. In Part 2, I developed a process and decided on some caveats I would use with it.  Here in Part 3, I proof my process/procedure by using it and verify the process holds true in use.  Briefly, the process is:

1. Confirm the shared DNA amount matches expectations for the relationship.
2. Confirm the cousin’s descendants from the common ancestor and a known child of the common ancestor.
3. Analyze the remaining path to the cousin, assuring things make sense.

I used the process focusing on my 2nd great-grandfather’s (Asa Ellis Robert) descendants.

All of the descendants of Asa are 3^rd cousins. Asa was married twice, so descendants of Asa and Patience Anna Marshall should be 3^rd cousins. Descendants of Asa and Cynthia Minerva Toney would be half third cousins to me. DNA Painter’s Shared cM Project 3.0 tool v4 indicates that a 3^rd cousin should share between 0 and 217 cM of DNA and half 3^rd cousins should share between 0 and 178 cM of DNA.

ThruLines^tm indicates I have 18 Cousins that have tested with AncestryDNA.

1. In all cases, the DNA amount matched matches expectations as suggested in DNAPainter.
2. In all cases, the individuals are descended from individuals that I had independently identified as children of Asa.
3. In all cases, the individuals have a pedigree chart that makes sense.

Thanks to ThruLines^tm I added 37 new cousins to my chart all descended from Asa Ellis Roberts.

1. 17 new cousins descended from Rosa Della Roberts.
2. 2 New cousins descended from Charles W. Roberts.
3. 10 New half-cousins descended from Sarah A. Roberts.
4. 8 New half-cousins descended from William T. Roberts.

The process is much faster than any methods I ever used before to verify a person’s relationship to my tree. I’m happy with the process and feel confident that I’m adding valuable information to my tree to better the likelihood of connecting ancestors. ThruLines^tm is great for widening your tree to include individuals that are descendants of a known family unit.

If you are a descendant of Asa Ellis Roberts, consider testing with Ancestry DNA; it is a great genealogical resource and can help you broaden your tree too.