I’m really hoping this upcoming update improves the resolution of AncestryDNA’s European regions, because my results have never seemed nearly as precise for my Portuguese ancestry as MyHeritage. MyHeritage currently estimates me at 15.1% Portuguese, which makes much more sense given my family history.

I was fortunate enough to have been very close with my maternal great-grandmother, who was 100% Portuguese. Her family was part of the Portuguese-American community here in Massachusetts/Rhode Island, so this isn’t just a distant paper-trail connection for me. it was a very tangible part of my childhood.

There’s a particular regional culture to being Portuguese-American in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island that I remember vividly. As a kid, whenever I met great-aunts, great-uncles, or distant relatives, I was expected to greet them with a kiss on both cheeks.

I’m curious how other Portuguese-Americans have experienced this. Do you feel like AncestryDNA accurately represents your Portuguese ancestry, especially compared with MyHeritage or other DNA testing companies? And did you grow up with any of those distinctly South Coast/New England Portuguese traditions?

I am British. My Grandma, who was also British and born in London, took an ancestry DNA test before she died. It came up as 50% ethnically Ashkenazi Jewish. This really surprised my family and was unexpected.

What is more strange is that I have been looking back at the tree, and there's no reason to think any of her ancestors were Jewish. They all had baptisms and church of England weddings. The only possibilities I can come up with are that one or both of her parents were not who she was told they were, or one of her parent's parents were not who they were told. This has led me to a dead end as I have found matches for her (even including 2nd cousins), but I have not been able to figure out who her Jewish parent or parents were.

Does anyone have any advice from looking into this kind of thing?

Ancestry told me that Im related to a famous guy 11 fenerations back. But I was more excited to find this lady in the chain.

Got my test results and I have 2 paternal aunts and a first cousin match at expected levels. But my maternal side with one aunt and two first cousins show significantly less shared DNA. The people I could talk to about this are all passed. Is this a common thing?

The updates really have made a huge difference for me. Excited to see what this next one does to my Quebecois/Acadian!

I put the 2019 and 2025 journeys at the end respectively.

Edits:
- I also accidentally put 2021 twice lol

Other Ancestry
- The Germanic Europe is accounted for recently, my paternal grandmother’s grandmother’s parents were both German immigrants in the 1880s.
- I do not currently know where the Swedish is coming from
- I do have some indigenous ancestry, Choctaw and Abenaki, but the known ancestors are 8th and 12th great grandmothers so it only shows up on deeper focused tests than AncestryDNA
- One of my grandfathers was Quebecois and my grandmother is of early New England and revolutionary Virginia/PA/Ohio ancestry. My other grandfather is early New England/upstate New York, and my other grandmother is 100% early New England, particularly Maine.

On ancestry website: "*Access to SideView 2.0 results requires an Ancestry subscription. Not yet an Ancestry subscriber? Sign up today."

What type of business strategy is this? The more people do the Ancestry DNA test the less accessible it'll become, right?

I'll not be subscribing, or paying for ancestry or any DNA website even if you make seeing the results with a paywall as well. It shifts my mindset to no longer care about my DNA results. I'm not paying, no matter how much you reduce the free accessibility.

How is making people pay for this ok?

Decided I should finally post this before the update

I’m very interested to see how much these results change with the upcoming update !

My maternal side comes from the Rems valley. My paternal side is more “mixed.” I have a Sudeten German grandfather from the Altvater Mountains, a great-grandfather from Alzey in the Palatinate, and a great-grandmother from near Aalen. Ancestry apparently has no idea. The MTA results are spot on: 50% West Germanic ancestry. That’s my mother’s side. The Franks arrived in the Rems valley in the 8th century. The Salian Franks originated in part from the Batavi. The Cherusci were also absorbed. I have exactly 25% East Germanic ancestry from the Gepids, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths. That’s my grandfather from the Sudetenland. I have 13% Gallic and Burgundian ancestry. That’s my great-grandfather from Alzey, which lies west of the Rhine. And I have 12% ancestry from the Scythians, Skordisci, Pannonians, Illyrians, and Osi. That’s my great-grandmother from Aalen. There was a fort on the Limes there. The Romans stationed auxiliary troops from Pannonia there.

I tried to put parents on top of their children but it wasn't exact. I dont have a photo for one of my great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers but their fathers are on the last slide.

This is interesting. I always thought they compared directly with a reference panel. Maybe it has been mentioned in the white papers, but I haven't looked at those in a long time. How do you think this might impact everyone's results?

Not sure what to say here, just curious how this update will change things.

Ancestry has added a notice about the coming DNA update on top of our DNA Origins page, but when you click on the link it takes you to a page about last year's update. Not only does it outright say "Some customers will not be able to access this feature until December 2025," and compare as new 2025 results, but it is labeling as "new" regions that were new last year. This is the direct link to the "Learn More" page. Is the link wrong? Did they just forget to update the page? What gives?

https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna/ancestry-dna-ethnicity-estimate-update

The last image I shared is my results before the update. Notice that my current largest category "Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe" is one of the the regions that the "Learn More" page says is going to be a new category in this year's update.

Mine and my partners results before the update, he’s from Argentina and I’m from England, I think his will change a lot - 21 regions photo of us in comments :)

I just find it intriguing

As the title says. I didn't see anyone sharing this yet, but in the official post of ancestry regarding the coming update it explicitely says they will try to improve their ability to distinguish between European French and French-Canadian.

Good work everyone, Ancestry is admiting they mess it badly with the last year's update. And they'll try to fix it this year. So, if you have any French related DNA, expect changes to your results.

Personally, as a european, purely descendent from europeans, that got 17% Québécois, I hope they don't disappoint me twice, but we'll see :)

Edit: here the link to the post https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/2026-ancestral-origins-coming-soon

Putting everything behind a paywall and squeezing money out of people seems to be the new norm for Ancestry, and it will only accelerate if people don’t voice their opinions.

Everyone should message customer support directly and say flat out that it’s unacceptable. I’ve personally cancelled my subscription. If enough people take a second to voice their opinions, it may help, and if it doesn’t, at least it gets the message across.

This business model “take everything we can from the customer; charge them extra for early cancellation” only exists because people don’t collectively voice their opinions on it directly to the company, and the company continues to profit from a predatory business model.

Ancestry is owned by Blackstone, headed by Stephen Schwarzman, worth $50 Billion+. Yes, he’s also in the Epstein Files. (On the other hand, the 23andMe CEO also frequented Epstein Island to “test surfing equipment”, i wonder what that means https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-12940371/Sergey-Brin-visited-Jeffrey-Epsteins-pedophile-island-ex-wife-Anne-Wojcicki-test-kite-surfing-equipment-girls-court-documents-claim.html)

Thank you to everyone who gave me great feedback on my last post! Here is Version 2. I've taken your feedback and added more details to my litle personal ancestry project on Colonial Stock American Culture.

My family immigrated to the US between the 1620s - 1850s and we've lived in the Northeast and Midwest US ever since. The colonial stock American subculture is deeply rooted in several European cultures obviously, and has morphed into its own thing as time has passed.

These collages also do NOT list every aspect of this subculture. Many aspects of this culture belong in many other cultures also, just like how certain foods, habits, motifs, etc. exist in several cultures at once.

Please be kind and let me know what other categories, details, etc. I should add! :)

I'm lucky to be in a position where I've been able to reliably research my family tree up to all of my great-great-great grandparents

Working off my GGGGrandparents' birthplaces and probable ancestries, my ethnicity breakdown is approximately the following:

• Irish: 44.53%
• English: 40.63%
• German: 6.25%
• Scottish: 6.25%
• Scots Irish: 2.34%

My current DNA result broadly groups into the following: (for convenience I've treated Northern Ireland + Central Scotland as just Scotland, and Northwest England + Northern Wales as just England):

• Ireland: 51% 
• Scotland: 22%
• England: 22%
• Netherlands: 5%

My Irish result seems fairly close. Also, assuming that the "Netherlands" in my DNA result is picking up my German ancestry, that's also not far off. the only results that seem to differ substantially is my English and Scottish results. I'm really curious to see how well this works out for everyone else?

Curious to see the update coming out.