How many of you woke up recently to discover things were a bit different at Ancestry?
Ancestry has renamed their DNA tools, updated some of them, and essentially rearranged the furniture in the room.
It appears that the updates are rolling out to different users at different times, so if you don’t have these updates yet, you will soon.
A lot looks different and can be confusing until you figure out where things are.
Let’s start at the beginning – the first DNA option you see – the DNA Summary.
DNA Summary
Ancestry has rearranged the furniture with a new user interface and is in the process of updating some features, including ethnicity.
Your summary now looks like this.
New Terminology
Ancestry has changed their terminology too. No, I have no idea why.
What was previously called “Ethnicity” is now called “Ancestral Regions.”
What was previously called “Communities” is now called “Ancestral Journeys” and “Origins,” which is a very unfortunate choice because FamilyTreeDNA’s ethnicity feature is called myOrigins.
Nothing confusing here, right?
Where Are My Tests
Additionally, the location to find other DNA tests you have access to has changed as well. It’s not present on all pages, and it’s in a different location on some pages.
When in doubt or if you get lost, just go back to the main summary page.
On the main DNA Summary page, on the left, you’ll see your name with a down arrow. Click on the down arrow to display the names of others whose tests you have access to. In my case, I took the original Ancestry test and, later, the V2 test, which is why you see my name twice on the list, above, of DNA tests that I have access to.
Updated Regions
Ancestry has updated the regions and subregions that they report in their ethnicity, now “Ancestral Regions,” results.
Everyone is always excited to see their new results, but keep in mind that the smaller the size of reported regions becomes, the more like comparing ancestors from Indiana to ancestors from Illinois or Ohio and hoping to find enough genetic differences in order to separate them.
I wrote the article, Ethnicity is Just an Estimate – Yes, Really, a few years ago, and it’s just as true today as it was when I wrote it. That said, ethnicity is interesting and can be useful – just understand what you’re looking at and how it works.
The good news for genealogists is that updated ethnicity, at Ancestry or any other vendor, re-engages people and rekindles interest.
People not quite as interested in genealogy as we are might sign in to see “what’s new” and discover new matches or other interesting information. Genealogy, and genetic genealogy, are team sports so the more active players, the better. Whether you are happy or unhappy with your updated results, know that they serve as “bait” for the majority of testers.
Ancestral Regions
Ancestral Regions, previously known as ethnicity at Ancestry, are geographic locations where part of your DNA matches the DNA of people whose ancestors have, in theory, been there “forever.” People with known heritage in that region, and ostensibly no other regions, are called a “reference population,” and that group of people is who others, including you, are compared to.
Ancestry and other vendors tweak their results as new people and new populations are added. Sometimes, that tweaking improves things, and other times, not so much.
You’ll hear some people complaining loudly and others singing their praises with every update, regardless of which vendor.
My Native American DNA comes and goes at Ancestry. It’s back now.
This screenshot from February 2024 shows my V1 Ancestry test compared to my V2 test. One shows my Native heritage, and the other does not.
Unfortunately, without segment location information, there’s little more you can do with your ethnicity information unless there’s a high percentage of divergent regions. For example, European versus Native American versus African versus Asian. Continental differences are easy to discern from each other, and you can compare regions with your matches.
Another revelation might be a high percentage of a really surprising region that you weren’t expecting, which might suggest a grandparent or relatively close ancestor might have a different genealogy than you thought. Ireland versus Scotland isn’t surprising, given their location and migration heritage. However, Sweden versus Italy would be an unexpected finding if you thought you had a Swedish grandparent, for example, and instead you have 25% Italian.
Ancestral Journeys
In my own experience, Ancestral Journeys is much more useful than ethnicity (Ancestral Regions), but that isn’t universal, as we’ll see in a minute.
- Ancestral Journeys reflects where your ancestors lived within roughly 50-300 years, while Ancestral Regions (ethnicity) generally reaches back further in time.
- Ancestral Journeys regions are determined by common surnames of your DNA matches and where your matches’ ancestors lived, plus those same surnames and locations in your tree.
I find this information to be mostly accurate for my own tests, as far as it goes, but that’s not universal. Several regions are identified where my ancestors originated or lived in the US, but not in Europe, where 75% of my mother’s heritage was from prior to the 1880s.
Conversely, looking at the map, my mother had no Southern Louisiana French Settlers, but her Acadian cousins settled there, so that region makes perfect sense.
Divided By Parent
Ancestry encourages you to identify your ethnicity by parent, if possible, which allows them to divide (some of) your matches.
I wrote about how to accomplish this in the article, Ancestry’s SideView – Dividing Your Ethnicity in Two.
Alternatively, if you can’t identify which parent is which by ethnicity, if you can identify matches from either parental side, you can divide your matches that way as well.
This allows Ancestry to divide your results by parent, or at least try. They offer your Ancestral Regions (ethnicity), Ancestral Journeys (formerly Communities), and Chromosome Painter by parent.
Chromosome Painter
Ancestry paints your ethnicity regions on your chromosomes. You can view both your maternal and paternal chromosomes, or one at a time.
Ancestry’s Chromosome Painter shows an image, but doesn’t provide any additional useful information such as segment addresses.
In other words, I can see that Ancestry has assigned three separate segments of my DNA as Native American on my mother’s side, but they don’t provide that location so that I can compare it with other people to identify either a common segment that can be attributed to a specific ancestor, or common ethnicity.
However, you can upload your Ancestry DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA who provides chromosome painting PLUS ethnicity segment information, so you can determine which ancestor contributed that specific segment.
Additionally, DNAPainter allows you to paint your ethnicity and matching segments with others. Neither of those features is possible at Ancestry – so don’t get confused.
Origins By Parent
Ancestry divides, or attempts to divide, your Ancestral Regions (ethnicity) by parent.
In some cases, both parents may contribute DNA from some of the same world regions, as with mine, above. However, other regions are attributed to one parent and not the other.
Sometimes, you might notice that you have a small amount of DNA from a region that neither of your parents has. This is known as “noise” and happens when the DNA of your two parents combines in you to look like a different region. You can read more about how Ancestry does this division, here.
Journeys By Parent
You can view your Ancestral Journeys by parent as well.
My maternal journeys include the Acadian homeland in maritime Canada and another region that spans Pennsylvania, the Northern Blue Ridge, and on into Ohio.
Within that second orange grouping is a darker subgroup that includes Dayton, Ohio, shown with the green arrows, where Mom’s Brethren ancestors settled after migrating from Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Clicking on the region provides additional information, including a description and timeline of settlement in that region.
Ancestry connected the dots between this specific region and some ancestors shown in my tree, although these are just a few of my known ancestors who lived in Acadia.
Ancestry only shows a total of 7, but don’t limit your thinking to just what’s shown. I have more than 60 documented Acadian ancestors in my tree. In other words, don’t assume that Ancestry is showing you every ancestor you have that might fall into a region or category. Ancestry may be displaying only select ancestors.
Ancestry then shows selected matches by either Region or Journey.
Matches by Region and Journey
I need to say this in bright red before we review matches by Region and Journey, because it’s fundamentally important.
Just because you and another individual share a specific Ancestral Region or Ancestral Journey does NOT mean that your DNA and their DNA from that common Region or Journey is from a common ancestor that you share!
The DNA that you share may be from a completely different ancestor that lived in a region that neither of you show.
This is where genealogy research is required. Don’t be lulled into complacency and assume that because you share either a Region (ethnicity) or Journey (location settlement group) that your common ancestor is connected to either.
DNA Compare
That said, let’s take a look at these matching comparison features by scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on “DNA Compare.”
- The first person shown is always you.
- The second person is my other test at Ancestry.
- The third person, Michael, is my first cousin, with whom I share 11% of my DNA and the same amount of Acadian heritage. We are both about 6.25% Acadian through our grandmother’s father’s paternal line.
- Paul, a more distant cousin, and I share only our Acadian heritage.
- This view shows both parents, so the fifth match is cousin Gregory, with whom I share known Danish ancestors. However, I have less than 1% Danish heritage, not the 16% that Ancestry has attributed. That’s a big difference and is unquestionably inaccurate.
Look at the results when we compare Ancestral Journeys for the same people I’m related to through my French Acadian heritage.
My two cousins who share Acadian DNA from Nova Scotia with me aren’t shown to be in the Canadian Maritimes Acadians Ancestral Journey. They clearly have numerous Acadian ancestors, and in Paul’s case, this is the only genealogical connection we share.
Michael and I share the same Acadian great-great-grandfather, Antoine Lore. Both of us would have inherited approximately 6.25% of his DNA, although not necessarily the same DNA. Antoine only had Acadian and Native American DNA to pass on to us, so any DNA descending from Antoine has to be one or the other.
Paul is 50% Acadian, and was assigned 49% French DNA, so he absolutely should have the Acadian Ancestral Journey. If you’re wondering if Michael and Paul are actually Acadian, they are, as proven by matches and shared matches.
While our Ancestral Regions both display some amount of “French,” neither Michael nor Paul are assigned the Acadian Journey. One might argue that Michael’s 5% French wasn’t sufficient to generate the Acadian Journey – but my 3% did – plus Michael and I share several Acadian matches and all of our Acadian ancestors.
Paul is another matter entirely. Regardless of our shared matches, with unquestionable 50% Acadian heritage, meaning his entire paternal line – there’s no reason Paul shouldn’t have been assigned an Acadian Journey.
So, what’s the moral of this story?
Don’t Get Too Attached
Don’t fall in love with ethnicity, now called Ancestral Origins, because it will change from time to time. So will your Ancestral Journeys.
For better or worse.
Maintain your genealogy skepticism and work to prove or disprove ethnicity and ethnicity-related information just as you would any other hint.
Evaluate your ethnicity percentages and locations based on known and proven genealogy. I wrote the article, Ancestral DNA Percentages – How Much of Them is in You?, where I explain how to determine, on average, what percent of each of your ancestors you would expect to inherit. Remember that recombination doesn’t give you that exact percentage, though. You could have inherited more or less.
Evaluate Ancestral Origins, Ancestral Journeys, and other relationship information, such as shared matches, logically. Does anything conflict? Does anything not make sense? Did anything click? Was there an “aha” moment?
Are there surprises that you wouldn’t have expected, and can you identify other forms of corroborating evidence? Build a case, and be sure to include genealogical information in the mix as well.
Essentially, treat everything as a hint to be proven or disproven.
Furthermore, be gentle with yourself as you learn your way around the rearranged furniture in the room. You might trip over the coffee table, but you can’t break it, so scroll around and click on everything to gather as much information as possible.
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