Hello Andrea
I am responding to this question as the creator of this category, even though I am a project member of the Categorisation project too.
This category was created as part of some work I was doing on the DNA confirmation help page. As you are no doubt aware testing at AncestryDNA gives matches but no chromosome information. It has recently started to give some info on the size of the match which is useful, but still nothing can be 'confirmed' without access to the raw data somewhere like gedmatch.
I created this category in an attempt to try and help AncestryDNA 'testers' who had been given 'new ancestors' by AncestryDNA. It was to encourage them to add their new 'AncestryDNA ancestor' to Wikitree and to have a place where any other DNA 'testers' also identified as part of the circle, could link their profiles and see if Wikitree could help them find a connection.
For those who may not be familiar with AncestryDNA Circles, these are created by AncestryDNA where they identify (how, we are not exactly certain but it must be from chromosome data of some sort and tester/tree comparisons) that certain testers may have an ancestor in common BUT where that ancestor DOES NOT appear in the DNA testers ancestral tree on Ancestry. If the DNA tester and another AncestryDNA match have a common ancestor in both their trees, they give you a 'shaky leaf'.
When I set up the categories I wrote some instruction for how they were to be set up in the categories themselves, but it appears there are some inconsistencies appearing as you have identified. I will need to review them.
The intent was to have two main categories:-
1. 'AncestryDNA Circles' - intended to be the overarching category for all 'AncestryDNA ancestors' to be housed. Linked to DNA Projects as the upper category. The use of the naming convention styled in the same way as AncestryDNA marketing and spelling conventions throughout WIkitree Help pages.
2. 'AncestryDNA ancestors'. The intent here was to identify each ancestor in the same way as they appear of AncestryDNA Circles. This was to enable an easy transition between the two sites, particularly when creating the categories. So the naming convention for this category name would have three parts:-
i. AncestryDNA Circle (proprietry name). It was thought necessary to include this to be clear it was connected to AncestryDNA and to make sure they did not get confused with other categories or free space pages set up with an ancestors name;
ii. Ancestor Name - as it appears on AncestryDNA. By having the name next as they populate in the category they should be in alphabetical order and easily seen if they already exist at the creation point;
iii. DOB-DOD - again as it appears on AncestryDNA. This is to ensure we don't mix up ancestors AND by having them in date order if we have two ancestors of the same name, they should then appear in the category list in date order.
So the steps to follow would be -
1. AncestryDNA identifies new ancestor for a specific AncestryDNA tester;
2. If they haven't already done so, the AncestryDNA tester should create themselves a Wikitree profile, add their DNA test information to their profile and be awarded a DNA tester badge. Load their results to gedmatch and add their gedmatch ID to the profile;
3. Look for the ancestor on Wikitree. Does an AncestryDNA Circle exist for them already?
i. If yes, add the 'DNA testers' profile to the appropriate 'AncestryDNA Ancestors' category. If it has been created it should already appear on the ancestors profile;
ii If no, create the AncestryDNA Ancestor Category using the naming conventions above, linking it up to the overarching category 'AncestryDNA Circles'. Then, add the 'ancestor' and the 'DNA tester' profiles to the newly created category.
4. The last step is to link the ancestor category back to the actual AncestryDNA circle on ancestry.com. A link should be added to the 'AncestryDNA Ancestor' category, which is a direct link back to ancestry.com and shows all the members of that circle - see the 'Larkin Tally DNA Circle' link inside the 'AncestryDNA Circle: Larkin Tally' category as an example. Clicking on this link would only be visible to AncestryDNA Circle members. Only registered members would be able to create it too, as only they would have access to that page on ancestry.com.
I suspect that the other convention that has been created might be a misinterpretation of my instructions. I see from how it has been set up the DNA testers all have 'DNA Ancestor categories' on them. Setting them up in this way makes the DNA testers profile look more complicated than it needs to be and the Circle/Ancestor categories don't have an alignment to AncestryDNA which would make them difficult to work with over time.
If anyone has any comments on my methodology I'm happy to take feedback. If the 'AncestryDNA Circle: [Name] (DoB - DoD)' is considered preferred then I will happily work with others to get the existing categories into a consistent format and add more instruction material to the category pages.
Also happy to help others create categories and links along these lines if they need assistance.
Veronica
