Thursday, July 7, 2016
Question about hints
There has been some speculation as to whether the family tree hints are getting better? What do you all think? Have you noticed an improvement in the quality of hints Ancestry is able to generate? Have you noticed anything else interesting about hints? Please share in the comments.
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My observation would be that the quality of the hints is somewhat dependent on the quality of information in the tree. One of the first things I do when I start a new soldier is to choose the version of the name that appears to be most prevalent, then I add approximations for dates, etc. that are not in the MIL Info based on what what I can discern from what is there. This helps narrow the field and seems to help generate hints better.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel the quality of the hints has changed. I would say the hints are always less reliable for women than men. Whatever algorithm Ancestry's hint system uses fails to adjust for maiden names. For example, you can receive a hint for 1940 where the spouse has her last name rather than the other way round or she is listed as a widow with her maiden name which doesn't make much sense, something a programmer could easily identify and fix. Many times you can see an indication there is a hint available, a leaf, but when you click, nothing is there. I do agree with Barbara the more information you specify for each individual the more feedback you receive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rachelle that when I have a green leaf and it says there are 5 hints, for example, when I click on it, I'm lucky if one hint shows up. That's happened a lot recently.
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