Why didn't Relationship Finder give me the direct line Bohun-7 to Norwood-613

Question

Is there a glitch in the Relationship Finder software?

These two profiles in the Magna Carta project have a direct line between them.  Relationship finder gives that direct if you enter Bohun-7 and the son of Norwood-613, Norwood-800.  But if you enter Bohun-7 and Norwood-613 *in either order* RF gives an indirect relationship, second cousins twelve times removed.

I've confirmed that it is not just me.  I asked another member of the Magna Carta project to check and he got the same problematic result.

Answer 1

The relationship finder cannot find anything more than 25 generations and your line is most likely more than 25 generations back.

So look for one person in between you and Bohuns, and get the relationship to them and then a second line from them to the Bohun person.

Comments

Robynne - I was not trying to connect me with Bohun-7, but the Gateway Ancestor Norwood-613.  They are only 13 generations apart.

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In that case I apologise. Sorry.

Answer 2

Actually the distance is less than 25 generatiosn.  RF goes from Henry Norwood (Norwood-613) through his father's line which is indirect.  If you go to Bohun through his mother you find that the line is direct to Bohun,  For some reason  RF is going through the longer indirect line instead of the shorter direct line.  At least that is what happened when I compared both routes.  

Comments

Here is the trail from Henry Norwood (Norwood-13) to the surety baron Henry Bohun,  Note that RF goes through his father which is indirect.  (15 steps)

Henry Norwood and Henry (Bohun) de Bohun are both descendants of Maud (Huntingdon) of Scotland.

1. Henry is the son of William Norwood [confident] 
2. William is the son of Katherine (Throckmorton) Norwood [confident] 
3. Katherine is the daughter of Muriel (Berkeley) Throckmorton [unknown confidence] 
4. Muriel is the daughter of Eleanor (Constable) Berkeley [unknown confidence] 
5. Eleanor is the daughter of Marmaduke Constable [confident] 
6. Marmaduke is the son of Agnes (Wentworth) Constable [unknown confidence] 
7. Agnes is the daughter of Roger Wentworth [unknown confidence] 
8. Roger is the son of John Wentworth [unknown confidence] 
9. John is the son of Jane (Tyas) Wentworth [unknown confidence] 
10. Jane is the daughter of Alice (Tankersley) Tyas [unknown confidence] 
11. Alice is the daughter of Sarah (Thornhill) de Tankersley [unknown confidence] 
12. Sarah is the daughter of John (Thornhill) de Thornhill [unknown confidence] 
13. John is the son of Alice (Senlis) de Thornhill [unknown confidence] 
14. Alice is the daughter of Simon (Senlis) de St Liz [unknown confidence] 
15. Simon II is the son of Maud (Huntingdon) of Scotland [unknown confidence] 

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However if you plot a trail through Henry's mother the trail to Bohun is direct and involves less steps. So the question is why is RF going through the father's indirect line to Bohun instead of the mother's direct line which requires less steps ?

 

1. Elizabeth is the daughter of William (Lygon) Ligon Esq. [confident] 
2. William is the son of Richard Lygon II [unknown confidence] 
3. Richard is the son of Anne (Beauchamp) Lygon [confident] 
4. Anne is the daughter of Richard Beauchamp [confident] 
5. Richard is the son of John Beauchamp [confident] 
6. John is the son of William Beauchamp [confident] 
7. William is the son of John (Beauchamp) de Beauchamp [confident] 
8. John is the son of Giles (Beauchamp) de Beauchamp [confident] 
9. Giles is the son of Alice (Toeni) Beauchamp [confident] 
10. Alice is the daughter of Alice (Bohun) de Tony [confident] 
11. Alice is the daughter of Humphrey (Bohun) de Bohun Knt [confident] 
12. Humphrey is the son of Henry (Bohun) de Bohun [confident] 

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A moderator may need to add other appropriate tags to this question which has a technical aspect.

Answer 3

I have a good guess but I can't know for certain.

If I were writing the code to search I would be looking back through generations until I found either a common ancestor or the other person. In both cases the link would be 13 generations back. Either through Bohun-7 or through Huntington-28. Since it finds a match, the program stops once it sees Huntington-28. There does not seem to be any priority for match type built in.

Comments

Greg I think in this case the direct line is actually a generation or two shorter which would seem to be the logical selection.  But it does seem that there is no particular priority in search order but since I do not know how RF actually chooses a target then I'm unable to pose a guess at why the longer trail was returned.