* Optional Parents

[Sue036]

Does anyone know a way to create a tree to link to DNA results on Ancestry that caters for uncertainty about a parental relationship? As in, mother's family fully known but father's family could be one of two alternatives? I have asked Ancestry and they said no. I have tried all of the options I can find in FH, but always one father becomes the default. I want to get DNA results that link to either potential father - to be able to judge the most likely biological father - but also I want to know the history of both men. Surely I am not alone in this? Anyone know how best to proceed? TIA for any advice.

[Jane]

There are several ways to handle this you can set up two sets of parents which I suspect is what you have done so far.

Personally I have a custom event which I use with Possible Parents to link in parents I am not sure about so neither is shown as the definitive. You can still research and record both possible Fathers with out one appearing to be the "correct" answer.

Depending on how you do your DNA matching on Ancestry, the Fathers would not be shown if you uploaded the file as it does not support Witnesses.

[Gowermick]

Is there anything to stop you having two trees on Ancestry, one for each potential father? If one tree gets more matches than the other, it will help identify correct father.

[Sue036]

Thanks for your replies, Jane & Mike.

Yes, I have the tree set up at present with the same person having two sets of parents, but I am unsure how Ancestry might handle this? I guess I can just upload it and see what happens, but thought I'd ask here first in case anyone knew the 'best' way to proceed.

It doesn't sound as though a custom event will help if Ancestry won't recognise that?

My first idea was to have two trees, however you can only link DNA results to one tree on Ancestry (specifically to the one individual in a tree whose DNA it is). Also, you cannot have more than one set of DNA results per person.