Ancestor Explorer - ancestors with related parents

+37 votes
2.3k views

 I just uploaded a new version Ancestor Explorer that allows you to see a list of all parents of ancestors of the Descendant who were related to each other, how closely they were related, who their most recent common ancestors were, and how many duplicate ancestors in the Descendant's tree that relationship was responsible for.

The feature is accessible as a link that appears as a link above the list of all ancestors. The link will only appear if (1) the list option/criteria selected is "All - All ancestors", (2) the Descendant has duplicate ancestors with the selected number of generations and (3) either the "Include generation and ahnentafel number column" display option or the "Show number of lines to same ancestor" display option is selected.

The app is located at: https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/ashley1950/ancestorexplorer/ and is also listed on your Family Tree & Tools page.

The new version is labelled as (ver 8p.13.Sep.2022) to the right of the Download List button. If you see an earlier version, do a hard refresh. On a Mac, that is done by holding down Command and Shift while pressing R. On a Windows/Linux computer, that is done by holding down Ctrl and pressing F5. 

in The Tree House by Chase Ashley G2G6 Pilot (312k points)

13 Answers

+17 votes
 
Best answer
It's tremendous fun plus now I know that I am having a family reunion when I have a sandwich by myself at my desk (grin),
by Roger Stong G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
selected by Lisa Acord
It looks like you received a double dose of recessive genes for a great sense of humor!

Funny indeed! laugh

+17 votes
Wow - just wow, Chase!  That is amazing.  I tried it on my own profile, to 10 generations.  Many of those duplicates I knew and recognized from my work with my ancestors and various apps - but - some were a surprise - and the # of duplicates - that is very cool to know definitively, and also surprising!

I really liked that you put together a whole FAQ page just for this feature - it explains it very well and clearly - it is certainly an interesting feature / phenomenon to get your head around.

Great work!
by Greg Clarke G2G6 Pilot (110k points)
+10 votes
I was using this before, and knew of endogamy of some that were my gr.parents 8 times.  Now I'm seeing some that are my gr.parents, as many as 13 times in just 12 generations.  Holy Moly!  thank you!!
by Arora Anonymous G2G6 Pilot (164k points)
+11 votes

Within 10 generations, I have:

  • 3 marriages between second cousins
  • 1 marriage between second cousins, once removed
  • 3 marriages between third cousins
I had always thought that royals and aristocrats had a lot of intermarriage between relatives, but checking Henry II of England, the closest relationship between parents of his ancestors are 4 marriages between third cousins once removed.
by Chase Ashley G2G6 Pilot (312k points)
+12 votes
Could we get Ahnentafel numbers on the output of that list? I like the degrees of separation, but without dates or the Ahnentafel it's harder to wrap my head around where they are in the tree.

Loving that I can look back 25 generations now!
by Jonathan Crawford G2G6 Pilot (279k points)
I don't think there is enough space to add dates or ahnentafel numbers, but I could probably add little info balloons with a person's date info in them that pop up when your cursor hovers over their name -- per what WikiTree profile pages do when you hover over a link to another person.
that'd be great, thanks!
Just uploaded a version that has popup info windows for both the "lines of descent" page and the new "ancestors with related parents" page.
That's great Chase, thank you!
+9 votes
I have 718 unique ancestors and 101 duplicate ancestors in 10 generations.  WOW!  Thanks for the effort to create this.
by Roger Barnes G2G6 (9.2k points)

Within 25 generations, I have 8612 unique ancestors and 7004 duplicate ancestors

+11 votes
Very interesting indeed.

Thanks Chase.
by Brad Cunningham G2G6 Pilot (190k points)
+10 votes
This is great! Thank you!
by Suzanne McClendon G2G6 Mach 3 (32.5k points)
+10 votes
Advertised in Weekly email just in time to create a Family Wreath for Christmas.  (My family "tree" turns into a wreath in several places.)
by John Witz G2G2 (2.5k points)
+7 votes
I'm highly surprised to only see one duplicate ancestor in 15 generations of ancestors. Effectively no inbreeding that I can find with the last 400 years.
by Steven Greenwood G2G6 Pilot (120k points)
+7 votes
Question: What is the difference between the lines colored purple vs. those colored blue?  It's not maternal/paternal.   It's not marking those with duplicate lines.  Any clues?  Just playing with it for the first time and see there is a lot to learn.
by Rick Morley G2G6 Pilot (166k points)
If you map a list and the parent-child lines option is turned as (as it is be default), a red line connects the mother to the child and a blue line connects a father to the child.
Sorry Chase, not on the map.  On the list of people, some are highlighted purple and some blue.  I guess I wasn't clear on my question.
Oh. Haha. The purple just means you have already clicked on that link.
+6 votes
Just ran the list from my own profile...lots of duplicates; some as many as six times duplicated such as Gilbert Kennedy and Thomas Boyd.

Maher-1078
by William Maher G2G6 Pilot (566k points)
+4 votes

Chase, many thanks for your efforts. Taking a quick look, I was surprised to see how many "duplicate ancestors" I had in successive generations. This should not be surprising considering the Ancestor Paradox, and yet it still was, at least to me. Back 25 generations (about 800-900 years ago) I have 8,254 unique ancestors and 12,265 duplicate ancestors. Below is a summary of my ancestors by generation number, according to your Ancestor Explorer app,:

1: 2 unique (0 duplicates)
2: 6 (0)
3: 14 (0)
4: 30 (0)
5: 60 (2) - parents are 3rd cousins
6: 115 (8)
7: 200 (20)
8: 311 (33)
9: 457 (53)
10: 631 (71) - mid-late 1600's
15: 1,682 (143)
20: 3,365 (727)
25: 8,254 unique (12,265 duplicates)

by Bill Vincent G2G6 Pilot (173k points)
edited by Bill Vincent
Wow, that's alot of duplicates!  I believe you are the first to comment with more duplicates than unique, which answers what would have been my next question, if one total included the other- this shows the answer is "no".

Wonder how many there would be if we had all your 33.5 Million ancestors (to the 25th generation) in WT???

My count was something like 6500 unique, 4500 duplications...

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