I'm having a hard time determining mates that hold a component in relationship to the origin of the assembly.

I don't believe the path to ground symbol is working properly, and has not i noticed it in 2014. I'm still seeing the issue in 2017.

In regards to this mate symbol

Solidworks help describes it as:

The icon indicates mates that are in the path to ground. These mates hold the part in position relative to the origin of the assembly.

2017 SOLIDWORKS Help - Mate Icons in the FeatureManager Design Tree

also see earlier description:

2015 SOLIDWORKS Help - View Mates Window

I have an example (attached) in which the mates on 3 out of 4 Nuts in an assy are clearly not mated to the origin of the assembly, yet they show this symbol.

Is this a broken feature? Or am I not understanding it correctly?

In the attached example, the first nut is fixed to the origin. This one shows correctly.

Each of the following nuts are not tied to the origin at all, only each other. And all mates show as path to ground. Why?

The example was saved with Solidworks 2014.