How could my tree expand by hundreds of years overnight on its own?

Question

When i checked my tree this morning, it had expanded down several lines by hundreds of years on its own. I noticed that someone with a common ancester took a DNA test. Also, I received a request to merge that ancester two days ago and did so. Could it have been one of those things.

Comments

Now that you have connected to the World Wide Tree you will find lot's of cousins, like me.  We are 17th cousins once removed

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Welcome Lisa , we are 19 th cousins twice removed. We have thousands of common cousins.

Answer 1

Hi Lisa.... nice to meet you!

It was almost certainly those things... and clearly shows some of the power of WikiTree.

In this case the Edward Carter profile you made and the one for his wife Elizabeth were already represented here on wikitree.  When the ones for Elizabeth were merged you were able to conntect to all of her ancestors and branches.  The two profiles for Edward should also be merged.

Since we all work together on one world-wide tree you will find you have many common ancestors who are constantly improved by others and your branches will expand.  Check out the information to see if you have any sources to add and investigate what is posted to be sure.

Thank you for spreading the good news here... have a great day!

Answer 2

Welcome to the possibilities of a shared tree! I would guess that it was the merge request that connected you to a few additional ancestors.

I would probably still check the sources of the new additions, though.

Comments

But apparently we now have in this very line the first case of a Questionable Gateway Ancestor who is Confirmed With DNA.

This makes it difficult to check the evidence.

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RJ which anscestor?

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[http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thornton-1102 William Thornton III]