AncestryDNA Update

Upon logging into Ancestry.com today, I noticed an update in my regional profile. It actually became less diverse, which is slightly disappointing, but ultimately exciting. To see more precision as more samples are collected and DNA analysis improves means that I'm closer to seeing specific regions where my ancestors lived. I really appreciate how there are updates, and I continually get links to my relatives as they take the tests. Thanks, AncestryDNA!

My former results read:
47% Great Britain
28% Europe West
10% Ireland
10% Iberian Peninsula
4% Scandinavia
 <1% Europe East

With the changes, my results now show:

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe 74%

Increased by 27% 

Ireland and Scotland 24%

Increased by 14% 

Sweden 2%

Refined from:

Scandinavia 4%

No Longer in Estimate 

Europe West 28% 

Iberian Peninsula 10% 

Europe East <1% 

Europe South <1%

So...now I'm definitely 100% European descendent. 

My updated DNA regional estimates

My out-of-date DNA regional estimates

On Ancestry.com, they did a pretty good job with the Frequently Asked Questions

More Regions

"With advancements in DNA science and more data, we’re able to divide the world into more regions. With more regions to work with, we can typically make a more nuanced estimate.

Larger Sample Sizes

"We determine your ethnicity estimate by comparing your DNA to samples of DNA from people who have a long history in a region. As we get more samples, our picture of what DNA from a region or group 'looks like' gets better. We’ve added more than 13,000 new samples to the original 3,000 in our reference database to give us our clearest picture yet for each region.

Improved Ways to Analyze Your Data

"DNA is made up of strings of four different letters: A, C, G, and T. Our old algorithm looked at one letter at a time, and based on where that letter appeared in your DNA, it decided where that bit of DNA came from. Without getting too technical, our new algorithm reads longer stretches of your DNA at once, making it easier to identify regions of the world where you ancestor once roamed."

Cassie's Maternity Photoshoot

My sister, Cassie, asked if I could take some maternity pictures of her. We met up about a month before her due date, and thought about taking more pictures, but we only ended up doing one photoshoot. I like how most of them turned out, and Cassie has the perfect maternity figure. I do wish I would have gotten a few more with her face, but we were talking as sisters do. Cute, cute!

Her baby arrived and is just as adorable as her cute parents as babies. Congratulations, Cassie and Nate!

From the front and back, it's hard to tell she's even pregnant at 8 months along, and then BOOM! BABY!

1000 Books to Lagoon

At the Logan Library, I heard about the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program. They had a giant paper train on the wall, with an engine and nine cars. They gave out stickers for every 100 books read to place on the train. They would also give away a rubber duck type toy at every one books. We all got pretty excited at each milestone. At 1000 books, they would take your picture to put up on the final train car on the wall. 

We moved from Logan to Salt Lake before reaching our final goal, so we tried the Salt Lake County Libraries. They are amazing, and one of my absolute favorite parts of living in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, they didn't celebrate 1000 Books as much as Logan at each milestone. I decided to reward the kids by letting them pick something from the dollar store for 700 and 800. At 900 we went to the specialty candy shoppe in the mall. Miss V had picked at the very beginning to go to Lagoon when we reached 1000, and Zak and I thought that would be reasonable, as the kids hadn't gone yet.

I used the app to track our progress, and when the kids had both reached 1000, we went to our local county library. They gave the kids certificate, and hand stamp, and let them pick a book to take home. The kids appreciated the recognition. Then we went to Lagoon.

We all had fun. I was impressed with all of the little kid rides, especially the ones that could hold adults, too. They may have been there for decades, but one doesn't always learn these things until one has kids.

Daddy brought his JetBoil, and we cooked mac and cheese, as well as some dehydrated meals in the park. Mr C made it very clear when he was too tired to handle any more rides and fun. Miss V rode the bumper cars one last time and had a ball.

Zak and Nicole A H Porter