One Reason to Do Cluster Research

Our work on the Avery side has revealed that my 3rd great grandfather, John Warren Avery, had numerous siblings, including Sarah Avery who married Joshua Whitehead.  I'm a Facebook friend with a cousin who is a direct descendant of Sarah and Joshua, which is so cool considering I'd never known anything about the Averys until about 2010!

My mom and I have both done our DNA on Ancestry, and we each have our own tree.  My tree is ridiculously large (55,437 people as of today), since it includes all of our cluster research, while Mom's tree only includes her direct ancestors.  The smaller tree with just direct ancestors is easier to download, and it helps focus attention ON the direct ancestors (and not on interesting collateral relatives LOL).

The decision to include, or leave out, non-direct ancestors can definitely affect how Ancestry displays its AncestryDNA Insights:

Mom's "New Ancestor Discoveries" recently began displaying Joshua White and Sarah Avery.  Ancestry categorizes them as "potential new ancestors or relatives who are not already in your family tree".  Since Mom's tree only has direct ancestors the program doesn't know exactly where to place Sarah in relation to Mom, only that descendants of Joshua and Sarah share DNA with her.

My "DNA Circles" includes Joshua Whitehead and Sarah Avery, and correctly gives their relation to me.  Notice Samuel Avery and Mary Thornton, parents of Sarah Avery, on this page as well.

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