The Curious Case of the Disappearing Hints

 

No, it's not magic! And no, I haven't worked through thousands of hints recently. The algorithms at Ancestry have been doing their thing and the number of hints on my All Hints page have been fluctuating wildly over the last few months. At one point, I had over 12,000. A few weeks ago, I was down in the 6000's. Today, I have about 8,500. It can be disconcerting to see the numbers change so drastically, but it's important to realize it's temporary! Ancestry hints come and go, an ebb and flow, as the algorithms search tirelessly for new hints and suggestions.

I've had readers ask, "How do you manage all those hints?" The truth is, I don't! I know many people completely ignore the All Hints page, preferring to focus solely on one person (or branch) at a time. Being a little neurospicy, I tend to like variety. I usually alternate working on a single person, then follow up by hopping around like the Easter Bunny on Easter morning. Finishing a person (even if it's just until more hints show up) is a very rewarding feeling. But hopping gives me a sense of satisfaction no branch is being ignored. There's no right or wrong, you have to determine the strategy best suited for you and your research goals.

Over the past several months, I've noticed the oldest hints (those over 90 days old) seem to be disappearing at a pretty good clip. I shouldn't really say disappearing. They're simply being removed from the current view. Unless a record collection is actually removed, hints are still there waiting to be discovered. Not only have I seen my All Hints fluctuating, but the number of hints on a specific person may go from 20 to 2, or even 0, overnight. Typically, focusing research on a person will regenerate many hints with the click of a refresh button. Adding several new people to a branch is like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. As hints are generated for these new additions, there's a cascading effect. You might add one person and you're rewarded with 10 hints for them. And then you notice you sudenly have nany new hints for someone (or several someones) in the same branch, even if you've not researched them recently.

I've seen a few posts in the forums lately where people are alarmed as hints disappear. They're afraid they'll never know if any really good hints are suddenly gone. Some go so far as to take screenshots or copy all the links as soon as they see them, just in case. I totally understand! I've felt the same way. If I find a really good hint I'm not ready to work on just yet, I do copy and save it. (Trying to relocate an elusive hint you just know yow saw in the past can be absolutely maddening!)  But saving every link can quickly become overwhelming. The longer I research, the more I realize, trust in the algorithms, they will provide. It's like nurturing a garden. Put in the effort and you will be rewarded. Even if the hint numbers dwindle for a time, be it All Hints or on a person profile, they will eventually repopulate. If they don't show up fast enough, you always have the option to go search yourself rather than relying on the algorithms. 

I actually consider disappearing and reappearing hints a good thing! It keeps things fresh. Regardless of whether you're a hopper or prefer focus, so long as you're researching, you're going to have ups and downs as the algorithms do their magic. And remember, the algorithms aren't going to present you with every possible hint. Hints are generally from the most utilized collections or those others have saved in their trees. If you're not making time to do at least a few cursory searches of your own, you may be missing out on valuable and insteresting information. 

Finally, please be sure to evaluate every hint for yourself. Just because the algoritm serves it up doesn't make it true. Just because someone else saved it doesn't make it right. Just because the name matches doesn't make it the person in your tree. And just because the OCR or AI thinks it found a name in a newspaper article does not make it so. OCR and AI are both imperfect technology (helpful, and useful, but imperfect none the less). Humans are fallible. No matter how hard we try, trees will sometimes contain accidental errors. Hints are nothing more than suggestions. Careful evaluation of each hint can save hours of time trying to unwind mistakes down the road.

Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay