Finding Unknown relationships in Ancestry family trees

Question

In my Ancestry.com.au family tree there are an unknown number of Unknown relationships that should be Biological relationships.

I often spot them when I am on a profile page like below:

These are errors and I do not know how they were introduced into my tree. They are easily fixed using the Edit > Edit Relationships button to turn them to Biological but they mess up other Ancestry functionality like ThruLines.

Is there any way to search for Unknown relationships in an Ancestry tree?

I am hoping for an Ancestry.com solution, but I also have Family Tree Maker 2017.

Answer 1

I had the same question today, and figured out an answer. It involves the raw GEDCOM file, but it is possible.

• Step 1: Export your raw GEDCOM file from Ancestry.
  • Tree Settings
  • Tree Info Page
  • Manage your Tree section
  • Export Tree
  • (When ready) download
• Step 2: Open the GEDCOM in a text editor like Notepad++
• Step 3: Search for "REL UNKNOWN". Here is an example from my GEDCOM:
  • The text below stands for Family 15 with with husband 56 and wife 75 has a Child 77 who has a natural relationship with the Father and an unknown Relationship with the mother

0 @F15@ FAM 
1 HUSB @P56@
1 WIFE @P75@
1 CHIL @P77@
2 _FREL Natural
2 _MREL Unknown

• Step 4: Search for the child: @P77@
  • You will find multiple places where @P77@ exists, but you are looking for the individual record.

0 @P77@ INDI 

• Step 5: Scroll down from the individual record until you find their name

1 NAME John John Johnson

• Step 6: Go back to this person in Ancestry.com and fix the relationship

Answer 2

just get family tree maker, sync your tree from ancestry, relationship report, go through the unknowns and sync back to ancestry - really easy