Interest in family history is not relegated simply to a maternal line which in many cases the female can only contribute DNA but spans across and between lines of many family trees.  

For example, the 1900 census listed a paternal grandfather, Jeff, in a household with his parents, Martha and Kenneth Thatcher, but Martha was listed as having only 2 daughters.  A review of the research led to 2 possible theories:  that grandfather, Jeff, was either from a previous marriage of Martha’s or perhaps that he was actually a sibling of Martha’s.  Which theory was right?  As a result of great collaboration and some reverse genealogy, researcher Jane identified a male to represent Martha’s father.  Since Jane does not carry the Y chromosome representative of the paternal line, she needed to solicit another male relative’s help.  The brother in this family case was willing to provide the DNA representative of grandfather Jeff and thus, his father.  If the DNA profiles matched, Jane could substantiate that Jeff was actually a son of Kenneth.  Jane made arrangements to pay for the testing so she could verify the family lines.

Many of the Ancestry.com DNA groups are administered by females.  Males and females alike regularly sponsor testing for another individual.  Previously, the process to view results for persons whom testing was purchased was, well…cumbersome.  Since last week’s update to the Ancestry.com DNA site, sponsors like researcher Jane are now able to view not only their own results from a single login, but also ALL results for each individual for whom they have purchased testing.  No longer is a user required to logout of the site from his personal identity and re-login using another user’s credentials.  A drop down box on the Results Status page below “My Participants” allows a user to easily switch between him/herself and another sponsored participant to view results, matches or ancient ancestry information. 

Since the Y-DNA profiles in Jane’s grandfather Jeff’s scenario described above did not match, the “My Participants” new feature will enable Jane to do match comparisons and quickly and easily search the database for clues as to the real paternal line to which belongs.