I think I may have found a limitation/error in either the Relationship calculator and or Advanced search. I use advance search to create a group of all the ancestors of the match then all the descendants of the common ancestor. The Relationship Chart works with the MOST RECENT common ancestor, but when there is more than one relationship it gives the most direct path through the MRCA, which is not what I want. My process when working with DNA matches is to first use the Relationship calculator to determine if I am related to a match more than one way. Then I use the Relationship Chart to determine the path from the most recent common ancestor to both myself and the match. When dealing with the given common ancestor which is not the most recent. I use the intersection of the group of ancestors and descendant to create a list of people, noting those which are covered by the path from the MRCA to match. The remaining people should be on the path from the more distance common ancestor to the match . Some times the only person left is the parent of the MRCA. Is the Relationship calculator giving me bad results or is the advanced search missing people that should have been filtered in to one of the ancestor or descendants groups.
Relationship Calculator will let you select which common ancestor you want to use for the Relationship Chart. If you open the Relationship Chart by itself you will get the first relationship it sees, same with Set Relationships and DNA Matches.
What I see when I select a common ancestor which is not the most recent one given by the relationship calculator is the most direct path through the MRCA. I don’t think this is a valid path. I want to identify a unique path different from the one given through the MRCA. The workaround I gave above works mostly, but not always, some times giving the same path through the MRCA.
Well different tools are going to provide different results - that is expected (maybe not exactly what you expect).
Relationship chart vs calculator are going to provide different results when there are multiple paths. Same could be true using group critreria and adv search. That can be confusing..
The relationship calculator is not providing incorrect results per say unless of course you have not set the parent(s) correctly. It simply finds most paths up to a max distance – if there are 5 paths it will find and display them.
the Relationship Caculator shows multiple relationships-- RM 11
What it doesn’t show anymore ( since RM 9 ) is multiple relationships to the same common ancestor–RM 9
The RELATIONSHIP CHART does only show the MOST Common DIRECT relationship and so yes that can be a problem when you have multiple ways 2 people may connect…
As for Advanced Search, it very powerful BUT if the criteria isn’t quite right, then yes it could be missing people…
FYI on RM 11, you can see I ran a mother/ son relationship-- what it brought up was the mother and the father in the mother line --it has NOT done this in any other RM version before RM 11 and in my opinion @rzamor1 that should NOT happen
so it seems to be working as designed – a different version would require an enhancement request
On the calculator – I do not have good way to test RM9 vs R11 – I have added about 10K people since then
I am related to my daughter 12 ways with diff common ancestors in RM 11
Not sure why seeing the father’s name with the mother is an issue on the Relationship Calculator? If you print the Relationship Chart it will give both parents name in RM9 and RM11.
on a side note nearly all software I have used works the same way for the Relationship chart as RM. (only closest no multiple) – Kinships and relationships list work differently – some have a max distance or max # depending on software . That said – you could have a parent child relationship set wrong or missing that is reason for unexpected relationship – I was try the kinship report in RM and also Charting Companion 8 for comparison (if you use)
I have more information about the error I have identifed in the
“Relationship Calculator” tool. I am using it to determine the
relationships between myself and a DNA match. Two children of my
5th great grandparents are my direct ancestors. This is causing the
Relationship Calculator to report an extra relationship with
my 5th great grandparents when the only true relationship is with
one of these 4th great grandparents ancestors.
Also the “Set Relationship” tool incorrecly indicates that the older
of these direct ancestor children is a 4th great grandaunt. I have
verified there is no relationship thru the older child.
Perhaps the errors in these two tools are related?
Unless you have wrong parents set on someone I would say its reporting 99%+ correct – just not what you expect – example – I am related to my daughter 11 extra ways because of multiple truth paths – it can be surprising to learn about cousin marriages etc that cause much of these
As for the path(s) you believe are wrong click for more details and it will show you the complete path and you can determine if you have set something wrong wrong – also sometimes it may report a “Shorter path” first because of the way the distance is calculated.
Where is this more details please??? on the Relationship CALCULATOR???
