At the end of 2023, Ancestry released their "pro-tools" in the UK. This is an additional set of tools for family history, and for more advanced DNA research, than are available through their normal subscriptions. But it does require both a current subscription, and additional payments. Although I was 'tempted' when it was first released, I left it for a while because that was a busy period and I knew I wouldn't have time for research. But I was then disappointed to discover, when I returned to it later, that the monthly cost had already increased from £4.99 to £7.99.
That put paid to that!
However, a recent post on FB alerted me to the fact there was an offer on (until 20th January), and I have now been able to take out a cheaper option for six months. I'll see how I get on with it, and how useful it proves to be, as to whether I continue to subscribe, or not.
Of course, the additional tools and information should be of help - for example, it is now possible for me to see how much DNA is shared, and the suggested relationship, between one of my matches and the matches we share. The thresholds at which the shared matches are shown is also less restricted than it is with the standard tools.
This will be very useful in cases where several members of a family have tested but perhaps only one or two of them share 20cM or more with me, so the more distant ones didn't previously feature in the shared match list. This should make it easier for grouping matches and allocating some of the more distant ones to potential ancestral lines.
My main hesitation is how to get to grips with recording all of the additional detail. So my next step will be to read up on some of the blog posts by other researchers, to find out how they are managing the data.
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