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My out-of-date DNA regional estimates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."