Hi WikiTreers,
Today we released a round of improvements to the Connection Finder, our tool for exploring the connections between the 20+ million people on WikiTree who are all connected to each other through family relationships.
As some of you know, last month we made the Connection Finder significantly more powerful by utilizing code that Ales Trtnik initially developed on his WikiTree+ service. Now we have imported some of the additional special features created by Ales.
Most significantly:
- You can now use the Connection Finder to explore blood relationships, i.e. common ancestors.
- You can exclude anyone from a connection path, thereby enabling you to explore alternative connections.
#1 means that the Connection Finder essentially functions like our Relationship Finder, but it has more flexibility and some special abilities. In addition to just finding the first common ancestor, you can limit the search to direct-line paternal or maternal ancestors. This is something that was long-requested by our DNA project members because they're the inheritance paths of Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA. You can also search for a shared descendant, rather than a shared ancestor, and you can combine #1 and #2 to explore different relationships.
The help page has some additional information but you'll probably just want to start exploring: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Connection
Please post here if you spot any problems, have questions, or want to suggest future improvements. Thanks!
Onward and upward,
Chris