Ancestry Blog
blogs.ancestry.com · Company blog · on HN since 2015
Ancestry's company blog covers genealogy, historical records, DNA-based migration maps and engineering topics like Node.js.
What HN saysHN commenters link it for surname and name statistics, the popularity of genealogy as a hobby, and how Ancestry transcribed census records.
15HN people shared it
10linked it in comments
5stories submitted
50story points
3 years agolast shared
2015people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Ancestry to Retire Family Tree Maker Software2 people · 4 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 2MapMigration c.jpg2 people · first shared 2017
- 3A map of America’s migrations using genetic data from 770K saliva samples1 people · 42 points · first shared 2017 · 50 comments on HN
- 4Ancestry Mexico Launches with 220M Searchable Mexican Historical Records1 people · 3 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 5Scaling Node.js in the Enterprise1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 6Genealogy second most popular hobby us1 people · first shared 2018
- 7Smith a short history of americas most popular surname1 people · first shared 2019
- 8Calling james smith 10 most common first and surname combinations1 people · first shared 2017
- 910 of the most disgusting jobs in history1 people · first shared 2023
- 10Circle1 people · first shared 2020
- 11Buttons vs anchors1 people · first shared 2016
- 12Setting the record straight ancestry and your dna1 people · first shared 2017
- 13A genetic census of america1 people · first shared 2016
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ocdtrekkie · 2019-07-25
It may not be so much a great guess as a statistical likelihood! In 2000, there were over 2.3 million Smiths in the United States: https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/smith-a-short-history-of-americas-most-p… (This number has likely grown roughly alongside our population, so let's use 2000 numbers for this.) In 2000, we had 281 million people in the US, which means 0.8% of Americans have the last name Smith.
If we assume every possible SSN could be handed out, a trailing six digit entry could have anywhere up to 999 possible SSNs, so you're firing out a shotgun with a pretty big number of potential targets each time you guess an SSN.
rlupi · 2023-07-14
IMHO We'll develop learning paths to speed up adoption of new tools, so new junior people will have the skills from school.
Or, we won't need people doing those jobs anymore and they will do something else. There are tons of jobs in history that have been superseded, I sure don't miss some of them https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/10-of-the-most-disgusting-jobs-in-histor…
ilamont · 2020-03-27
10+ years ago, Ancestry.com hired people in Asia to transcribe U.S. census returns and vital records. They also used volunteers: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=2321
Not sure how it's done now, but I suspect it's very hard to automate owing to inconsistent handwriting styles, unusual names for people and places, footnotes and abbreviations, etc.
hathawsh · 2018-03-29
I'm think the hobby you're referring to is genealogy. It's actually a very common and useful hobby. :-)
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/genealogy-second-most-popular-hobby-us/
mox1 · 2017-10-30
Too add a data point, here is a list of the 10 most common <FirstName, LastName> pairs in the United States.
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/calling-james-smith-10-most-common-first…
I hesitate to guess ethnicity based on names, but I see mostly Caucasian and Latin names (Smith is represented heavily).
jlgaddis · 2017-05-22
Ancestry.com, today, issued a response which refutes some of the claims in this article: "Setting the Record Straight: Ancestry and Your DNA" [0].
[0]: https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2017/05/21/setting-the-record-stra…
jay-saint · 2017-03-28
Open the actual image in a new tab it is much larger and actually readable.
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2017/02/MapMigration_c.jpg
Jaruzel · 2017-03-28
Direct link to the full-size map for the lazy right-clickers:
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2017/02/MapMigration_c.jpg
Moeancurly · 2016-07-12
I agree with your sentiment, but a minor nitpick: [Stop using anchors as buttons!][1]
An anchor would be good here if the clicking the icons also triggered a URL change, but as it stands a button would be semantically most appropriate
[1]: (http://blogs.ancestry.com/techroots/buttons-vs-anchors/)
clarkm · 2016-02-08
This is really evident when you look at the genetic data from places like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. The states with highest percentage British/Irish are all in the South:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929714004765#fig…
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/04/04/a-genetic-census-of-amer…
http://blog.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Bryc_ASHG2014_textb…