NEW! Ancestry DNA Beta Profiles!

Ancestry has enabled a new profile page that is currently in BETA. You may as well turn it on and get used to it because it WILL be the new profile page format. This format is already active as a standard page in the UK.

Watch the Video, Turn it on and understand the quirks that it still has and how to get around them.

[hummingbirdlvr]

Hi Larry, I didn't know about that down arrow! Thanks for pointing that out.

[phoenixsong]

There are a couple of major issues that you did not mention! It used to be that when I checked to see if someone in my drop down list matches with a person (from their profile page), I would get a choice to "View the Match, " and I could immediately see the DNA match's family tree, and then I could check shared matches. There is no way to do either now! When I come across a family tree that seems to be related to me, I always click on the owner of the tree and then check to see if anyone in my family or I match with them. If any of us match, I immediately want to see who that person's ancestors are, and who the shared matches are. Also, when you did the video, you could still go to the non-Beta profile page and do all of that. So I've stayed away from the Beta. But as of yesterday, I can no longer check DNA from the non-Beta profile page. This change is REALLY, REALLY upsetting to me. I will have to take so many more steps to try to find that person in my or my family member's match list, which is often extremely difficult considering how many surnames are common. Being able to access the match from the profile page was so awesome when they first provided that. And now they've totally screwed it up.

[Downeastwaves]

Thanks so much! I glad I'm not the only one who is bugged by that!

[AllBrightColors]

I turned it on tonight on one profile and now the button to turn it off has disappeared. I don't appreciate that I can no longer click on a matches name and drop down and check them as a match to all the other people's kits that I manage. Actually, when I click on the matches name once viewing our comparison page, I keep GETTING AN ERROR PAGE, A BLANK PAGE FROM ANCESTRY. It's driving me nuts. I literally have to go back to the DNA home page and click on each relatives DNA results separately and search their matches for that person. I'd rather have a practical for the purpose I need it function than a pretty display of their regions and such. I need to know who in my family they match easily. People can be maternal matches for me, but my maternal matches not show in the shared matches for us, but that person shows as a match to some relatives once I switch to them as admins of their kits.

[tsehscm]

The beta off is not available on my profile screen?

[phoenixsong]

Actually, there is still a serious flaw with the problem I mentioned before. I have access to the DNA match list of several family members, including several 4th cousins who are working with me on genealogy. In anyone's match list, when I see a new match that is interesting, I click on the match's user name, which takes me to their profile page. On the new profile page, I can run through my list of family members to see who matches with the person. (And by the way, those names are no longer in alphabetical order, which is a big pain!) And, I was right the first time--- I shouldn't have corrected myself. When I see a match with a person, IF the person has shared matches, I can click on "View All Shared Matches" to see a list of more matches. But this is NOT actually the full match page. I can ONLY see the list of matches, NOT the tree, and NOT the space to make notes. In the past, we could click back and forth between the match list and the tree. And now this is not possible. And, if there are no shared matches with the person, all I can see is the profile page. No tree, no page to make notes. This is a very serious flaw. I'd have to search for the person in each person's match list, with no guarantee to even find them, since none of Ancestry's search features work well.

[tsehscm]

Is there any way I can access the beta feature?

[ldyjane]

WHERE & HOW do you switch on Beta? You flew over that.

[robyncook]

Australia must be one of the last profiles in Beta. Some of the things you show aren’t coming up the same way here. It’s really frustrating that only some get the new features.

[susieoneil]

I am not a fan of this new profile either.
1. There is no option to only have public trees showing. Now private trees are showing unless you go in to each tree and make it unsearchable, which limits their usefulness. Also they are listed in alphabetical order, so I had to rename a few of them to have my main tree on the screen before the random private trees.
2. I have not tested my own DNA so I don't have a DNA summary or a drop down arrow. This means no-one can see how they match the tests I admin.
3. Links now appear to be more aimed at you as a person, rather than listing favourite sites and they are hidden beneath a link icon. Research interests are also no longer front and centre and must be expanded to see them, rather than just scrolling.

[staceycoates]

I think my biggest pet peeve with the new profile pages is that they have taken out the sex (and age) of the person. I have used that many times to figure out the gender of a match, especially if they have a picture of a cat and their user name is 'lastname'12. For another they put their age and I was able to figure out that they were the grandson of the person already in my tree. So that are things I am going to miss. Not everyone had that information but most of the ones where I was trying to figure out gender did.

[MsCybervamp]

You get a thumbs up. Ancestry gets a thumbs down. I’m not resistant to change if I can see some benefit to it, but, so far, this has none.

[LTristram]

I just had to click the Beta button just like you but I am on .co.uk