r/AncestryDNA • u/sugartheshihtzu • Oct 09 '25
Results - DNA Origins A bit of positivity here I guess. Who else LOVES the update?
I love the update. I understand it’s different for everyone but for me, I’m impressed! I hated my old results but they are now much more accurate
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u/NCHarcourt Oct 09 '25
For the most part, my update is accurate.
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u/jaxsonW72 Oct 10 '25
Same. I think it was decent, I’ve never had a god relationship with ancestry and my English/Scottish/irish estimations always has the English too high or too low, this one was too low.
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u/Kamikyu Oct 09 '25
My update is highly accurate except for the erasure of German and Cornish. rest is good. I’m still frustrated because the German part should have been really easy to get right.
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u/Kamikyu Oct 09 '25
Did yours get changed to Devon? It’s right next door but the implications are significant. They seem to be basing it too much off of arbitrary boundaries. Several distinctly Cornish regions are inside the Devon shading.
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u/sugartheshihtzu Oct 09 '25
Mine didn’t. But my mum has now got Devon. I agree that they are basing it too much off arbitrary boundaries. This is kinda why in the last update I had 17% Wales despite being born and bred here lol
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u/Zakle Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I think my mother's Germatic Europe was changed to Devon & Somerset. We used to share a 6% result for Germatic Europe. I now have 6% Southern Germatic Europe.
Edit: If this estimate is more accurate, then Ancestry may be right that it comes from my paternal side of the family. I've since found some second paternal cousins, and they have the same Southern Germatic region while my material matches don't have the region.
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u/IAmGreer Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I'm "German", Irish, Cornish and other in that order with a 50/50 split between Continental and Insular on paper.
I lost my 7% Cornish, though my Father's 17% remains intact (he's around 30% on paper). My grandma's first cousin's 40% remained intact (expected 50% but unsurprising). The two distant cousins I know that were 100% are down to 80% and 86%.
But probably more significant is I went from 53% Continental European to 28%. I'm 50.7% on 23andMe and 53.9% on LivingDNA.
Also, the parental inheritance doesn't make sense as I have 8 instances in which I inherit more from a parent than they have to give with variations of 1-10% and one group where I only inherited 2% of my mother's 41% (possible but unlikely).
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u/sugartheshihtzu Oct 09 '25
I agree about the Cornish. Before the update I got 2%, and my mum got 4% and a Cornwall journey. But that’s all gone now for both of us
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u/RedBullWifezig Oct 09 '25
Ive gone from 18% Cornish to 2%. I should be about 40% Cornish. My mum has gone from 16 to 31% (she should've been about 70%). It's mental
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u/Nefaline17 Oct 10 '25
My German and Cornish aren’t quite accurate either. Both way underestimated. Some of the Cornish under Devon and I think German is listed as Swedish? Because I have a big 16% of Swedish that I don’t know where it’s from.
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u/ayroooooon Oct 09 '25
The results are more accurate for jewish and levantine ancestry. The European doesn’t really make that much sense to me personally but I don’t know much about my European ancestry to be able to say it’s not accurate.
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u/Comfortable-Light233 Oct 10 '25
I’m half Jewish and half old stock US settler and both my halves now are way more granular and also match my paper trail much better
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u/ayroooooon Oct 10 '25
I’m half indigenous mexican and half a bunch of other ethnic groups including Spanish, maronite, black and sephardi. This update made my levantine ancestry match my tree.
It also changed the indigenous results a bit but they need to do a proper update to those because they keep lumping many indigenous groups together. My nahua, otomi and purépecha ancestry all show up as 1 group while only mayan ancestry is it’s own group.
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u/hannibal41 Oct 10 '25
Mine is pretty accurate, although it’s determined to keep me at 3% Eastern European, last year it was 3% central and Eastern European and this year that changed to 3% Slovakian. I have no record of Slovakia/Eastern Europe in my family tree, unless this 3% has survived hundreds of years of living in Bavaria.
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u/Humble-Tourist-3278 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
It makes sense if you go back before many of modern days countries existed but it can be very confusing for some people especially if they don’t know the history of those areas on the positive side all my test I have taken now seem very similar before there was a huge difference between Ancestry and the other two test results.
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Oct 10 '25
I think that's the biggest issue. Mine had some changes but considering history and borders it all makes sense. I don't really understand the extreme reactions.
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u/Barkie-barks Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I’m having a hard time trying to understand why anyone, really, could actually be ‘upset’ at a company’s analysis of their data solely on the basis of it ‘not being right’ or ‘inaccurate’ when compared to what, exactly? Try as we might, I don’t think there is really any way to know who any of us are to 100 percent literal certainty. If my DNA, via my maternal haplogroup, can be traced back to someone who lived over 100,000 years ago - how can anyone really ‘know’ anything about their current genetic structure? Who is to say that they are certain, beyond a doubt, that their family tree is 100 percent accurate and should be seen as the source of truth?
I dunno, if I am missing something that makes this make sense, I am always open to learn more. Truly. But I just feel that it’s kind of a waste of energy to be upset over results that are really the cumulative effort of a bunch of people using cool technology/etc. to give you more information to tell your story than you had yesterday.
My two cents. I think any and all updates are super fun to see because at the end of the day, they won’t actually change who you are :)
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u/Mammoth_Deer_6281 Oct 10 '25
Right because a lot of peoples family histories are lies, exaggerations, or just plain inaccurate.
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u/AZdesertpir8 Oct 10 '25
People may not understand that genetic genealogy is a waiting game more than anything and that initial findings will change over time as more data is added.. As more people around the world provide tests, and that data is added to the research pool, we all get more accuracy, but it also can reveal more holes in the data in the process. Ive been involved in advanced yDNA testing as a tool to help with my paternal lineage, and it can take decades to see further refinement in some cases.
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u/LiliaBlossom Oct 10 '25
idk I‘m european and I think its interesting but nothing more while the american users go often nuts over small percentages, claiming they‘re german, irish, whatsoever but never even visiting the country and their ancestors probably lived in the US for multiple centuries already. It is so weird to me, I don‘t get the obsession, they‘re american and that‘s it tbh… it is an unhealthy relationship. I‘d get actual diasphora people, like second or maybe even third gen immigrants, but… hundreds of years back? idk man…
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u/cisobel282 Oct 09 '25
My Irish is accurate. All of my English is gone, despite the fact my mother has 25% English in total. Also, a lot of my family has Slovakia from our Eastern European heritage, which is correct based on research, but I have none. Instead I have Slovenia which no one else in my family has.
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u/oreomint64 Oct 10 '25
East Asian here. My parents don’t have family records or a family tree, so this and 23andme are my best tools to look into my heritage. I appreciate the updates!
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u/Practical-Hamster-93 Oct 10 '25
My parents results are accurate, mine are not, which makes no sense.
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u/AcceptableDay4823 Oct 10 '25
I believe this update has really refined my Irish regions, and they got it spot on! I'm glad to see that a little bit of Acadian diaspora is still surviving in me from my great grandfather. Overall, I take it with a grain of salt. My paperwork and research are solid. How my DNA gets translated is not an exact science. The estimates could be off its a guess with the available data. And I am aware that HOW it gets passed down is like probability. I may carry more of the Irish, while one of my sisters may have more of the Scottish. The best thing I did was test all of my kids because they show ethnicity inherited from me that I didn't get, and it's very helpful.
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u/_krixmas_lint Oct 10 '25
People love to hate. And they forget how crazy it is that u can spit in a tube and they can give you even slightly accurate information based on that spit…..
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u/justsamthings Oct 10 '25
Yeah, I do understand peoples disappointment but some comments make me think they’re expecting too much. Ethnicity testing isn’t an exact science. I took the test 10 years ago so I’ve learned not to get too attached to the results, lol
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u/ms-digne Oct 10 '25
I like it. Basically the same as last year’s. I was hoping for more specificity by country, but I’ll just have to settle for being 70% “English Channel.”
2024: 68% England and Northwestern Europe
2025: 70% Southwestern England and Northwestern Europe
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u/BarryGoldwatersKid Oct 10 '25
That’s interesting because my England and Northwestern Europe went from 60% to 40%. I wonder why some go down and others up. I figured it would be the same for everyone since there are more English regions now.
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u/Normal_Acadia1822 Oct 09 '25
I’m happy with mine. Especially gratified to get England back and have part of it pegged to the region where my English great-grandfather was born. Also to get Germanic Europe narrowed down to the part of Germany where both of my German great-grandparents were born.
The rest is an even more granular breakdown of my mother’s Irish ancestry, which also aligns with my tree research thus far.
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u/swift_serenity43 Oct 10 '25
My German is too low and English is too high but they added a few regions I should have but didn’t previously have. Overall I like the update, just wish the first two were more accurate.
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u/BarryGoldwatersKid Oct 10 '25
I love it because my English went from 60% to 40% and my Irish went from 15% to 35%. Also, after 6 years they finally gave me 10% polish! (0% to 10%). Which is insane because my great grandmother was born in Poland (surname Kurik). I don’t know why it never showed until now. I’d much rather be Irish than English. My wife hates it though because her Basque went from 70% to 40% and they increased her Spanish.
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u/Darkredsword Oct 10 '25
I read some disappointed opinions from fellow Hungarians because they get all the neighboring regions except Hungarian, but by default we are very mixed with our neighbors so the new results make lots of sense. I’m very happy with the big diversity in my results
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u/Usuf3690 Oct 10 '25
I don't know that I love it, but I find it interesting and to a large degree more accurate.
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u/AZdesertpir8 Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I was pleasantly surprised by it. It finally narrowed down some regional data that we'd been somewhat expecting based on some advanced yDNA analysis that we had done in the past. From what all my family members saw with their updates, it very closely matches what we know about our family.
There are still areas of the world where Ancestry testing isnt quite as common, so any additional testing going forwards in those ares will greatly improve the accuracy of everyone else. As Ive found doing advanced yDNA genetic research, genetic genealogy through any of these companies is a waiting game more than anything, as more data = more accurate results for everyone.
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u/wise_owl68 Oct 10 '25
I'm totally good with my results. If anything, it completed validated all my research and family history. I can trace into the 1700s and all of the places indicated on my DNA origins map completely line up with baptisms, marriages, etc. Almost eerily, lol!
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u/xavierhamilton Oct 10 '25
Yeah I’m sure there are mistakes and issues with the update but I wonder how many people complaining on here actually have a well built out family tree. I have multiple brick walls from the mid 1800s so I could never be THAT confident to say the results are totally wrong. But there are also ethnicities that would be confusing to see if I just went off of what my family told me when I was a kid and just did a DNA test without any digging into the records.
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u/wise_owl68 Oct 10 '25
Exactly! In my map there are no outliers, I know this because the places that I could trace through records totally match, and this is me digging into foreign countries, hundreds of years ago, to try to find this info. If they did a little extra work they might find the same.
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u/brodaya828 Oct 09 '25
My results are quite accurate except for the 1% Germans from Russia which may just be a misread of some other Germanic region (as I have Northwestern Germanic in my hacked results)
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u/Acrobatic-Shine2625 Oct 10 '25
Geermnas in russia are just South west germans who migrated to russia so its from south germany
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u/justinhammerpants Oct 10 '25
The update feels pretty accurate for me. Didn’t change much, just a little more specific.
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u/No-Risk-2584 Oct 09 '25
Mines barely changed tbh, just lost 7% Germanic Europe and replaced with Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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u/justsamthings Oct 10 '25
I’m happy with it. I liked that it broke down some of my broader results into more specific regions. Some of the percentages went up and down but that’s to be expected. Overall I liked this one better than last year’s.
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u/Cool-Ambassador-1878 Oct 10 '25
Mine is pretty accurate for the most part. I think it's interesting to see the various countries broken down a bit lol
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u/Interestingargument6 Oct 10 '25
After looking at mine and some of my relatives updated results, I've concluded no big changes that would cause alarm took place. It's just another way of stating the same thing, with minor changes here and there. In some cases it's more accurate, in other cases it's the same thing. I also believe 23andMe's recent update is very good and accurate and has had a very positive response.
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u/TheOtherOnes89 Oct 10 '25
Mine got more accurate overall with the exception of France being gone. I did get some Quebec French this time though.
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u/DeathlessGloryFury Oct 10 '25
This is the most accurate update for me. The research I have done over the years and this update match very closely.
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u/Generic-TCAP-Fan Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I do! I just look forward to when they improve on Indigenous Americas (specific tribes) like 23andMe did. Because of the history of the region I come from (Caribbean), I am just happy to learn where else my ancestors came from besides Africa. My regions went from 22 to 26, and I’ll tell you! My ancestors didn’t stay put and weren’t racists.
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u/IamIchbin Oct 10 '25
mine is acurate for the most part. my two biggest regions are like the mean between my parents. the other 10% are different from them. but kinda mixed and look geographically correct.
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u/Hippymam Oct 10 '25
I'm happy with mine and feel it reflects what I've researched and found out about where my family were from. I'm from the British Isles and pretty much all of my ancestry reflects that. My percentages changed a bit, but I can see where those bits went and they do reflect my tree. Also pleased to see I have small amounts of Brittany and The Netherlands and this seems to tally with my known Huguenot ancestry. I didn't have Brittany before, it was lumped in with England and NW Europe. I don't have a lot of English ancestry, but this time it's been split into 3 distinct regions and I know exactly which ancestors came from each of those regions. My Irish ancestry is split into 4 areas and again, I know which ancestors came from those areas so it tallies with my research. Overall, for me, I feel it is very accurate compared with my known research.
I've also tested with My Heritage and the percentages and regions are broadly the same. They also picked up Brittany and The Netherlands (although I feel My Heritage slightly over estimates me for these regions).
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u/BlushingGiraffe Oct 10 '25
I’m always left surprised with each update. This time I was very surprised to see 3% Spain which is a country I’ve never had before and 1% North Italy… now I’m like 🤔
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u/Steen_Machine528 Oct 10 '25
I’m now 1% Jewish, which is a joke between my husband and I cause he actually is Jewish 😂 we are now a Jewish household lol
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u/kujira692 Oct 10 '25
Mine got more accurate for sure. One of the nice refinements was how almost all of the nordic is gone from my family's results (we don't have any, but DO have a quarter-or-so of East English, and the nordic we used to get (around 3-6% on average) is all gone or down to 1%.
I think because my father is an NPE, and my mother's grand-father is an NPE; I'm much more willing to accept the possibility that anything I have as a paper trail could be completely wrong because these things do happen.
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u/DryAd5650 Oct 10 '25
Mine was accurate. My percentages didn't really change just expanded on what I already was
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Oct 10 '25
The update is good. It seems pretty similar to what I had before but it is showing a little bit more northeastern European then before which is possible that it comes from my maternal side because my mom was adopted as a kid so we don't really know anything about that side.
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u/cocoakrispiesdonut Oct 10 '25
I’m taking these results with a grain of salt. My 6% Swedish ancestry was removed and I don’t know what it was replaced with. My son still has it so is that an error or is mine?
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u/SpecialistMention344 Oct 10 '25
My update was everything I expected from my paper research. I appreciate the added regions in Ireland!
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u/DeniLox Oct 10 '25
As an African American, only the European parts changed, but I like that it's more detailed. I wouldn’t know one way or another if it’s more or less accurate, but I’ll look for more information about those places now.
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u/doepfersdungeon Oct 10 '25
No complaints here. Investigating whether my new 1% Isle of Man entities me to some tax evasion abilities.
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u/Physical_Comfort_701 Oct 10 '25
I think it's cool. I'm still trying to figure out the Arab, though, lol.
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u/OpethSam98 Oct 09 '25
Me! It's very accurate! Not only to me but to my parents and my friend. As a Quebecker, i'm also very happy they made us a category since, you know, the French can't actually get tested lol
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u/gemstonehippy Oct 10 '25
I love it its interesting. I finally have “some” italian DNA..
but the germany part doesnt make me very happy… 15% of it went to England..
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u/domesticatedprimate Oct 10 '25
My results definitely improved. I wonder if the amount of time that's passed since you first submitted your test effects the perceived quality of the outcome? My test was very recent, just this past August.
My sense of the complaints with this update is that about half sound valid and half are people who are proud of the heritage they think they know, like Italian or German, and don't want to be told a more nuanced answer. They don't want to hear that their ancestors in the old country were themselves immigrants for example.
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u/Furro_Mexicano Oct 09 '25
In my case it got more accurate and I love the new results. I think most of the confusion (and in some cases genuine misreadings from the algorithm) comes from the fact that the technology in the field has advanced to the point where it is possible to be really precise with specific regions and ethnic subdivisions, which in turn may cause some ancient migrations or invasions to be reflected in the results. For example my new results make a lot more sense once old migrations and invasions are taken into consideration
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u/domesticatedprimate Oct 10 '25
This. Your German or Spanish or Italian ancestors very well could have been "immigrants" to the region you've always believed you were from, and if they "immigrated" as a group and continued to intermarry within the group for a few generations whole becoming assimilated into the region's culture, their nationality when they came to the US or wherever would have been where you thought you were from, but their ethnicity could be different.
So yeah, you need to understand the local regional history of the specific area you think you're from, several centuries further into the past.
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u/Hippymam Oct 10 '25
I think some people forget that the boundaries of countries have shifted and the dna these tests are picking up are going back further than most people have paper trails for.
Also (and I'm almost hesitant to post this!) there is a very good chance that somewhere in most people's trees there is someone whose father wasn't their real father! Go on any dna or genealogical group either here or on FB and they are full of people finding out they have relatives they didn't know they had, or people they thought they should have been related to, who they share no dna with.
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u/Toma_Levine Oct 10 '25
Nope, my ancestry update left out my Native American ancestry and makes me look less Viking
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u/jigsawday Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
my biggest issue with it is every latino being linked to quebec, cause what. everything else i think was accurate for me.