The New Ancestry DNA Update Gave Me New Numbers and a New Region

From Ancestry:

"Thanks to our growing and increasingly diverse DNA reference panel, we’ve added eight new regions from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Although you may not see these new regions in your personal results, you could see changes in your ethnicity estimate as part of this update."

 "This update adds the following eight regions to AncestryDNA • Indigenous Americas—Panama & Costa Rica • Indigenous Americas—Ecuador • Indigenous Americas—Chile • Aegean Islands • Arabian Peninsula • Egypt • Levant • Bengal

"Your DNA itself doesn’t change, but the technology and methods we use to analyze it are constantly evolving. As we continue to advance the science, you will see even more updates in the future. We’re bringing you our most precise ethnicity estimate to date using a combination of scientific expertise, the world’s largest online consumer DNA database, and millions of family trees linked to DNA results."

My numbers have shifted around a little, and I now have Wales! All of 1%, but I've now got a little of the whole British Isles.

To Give you an idea, here is my previous numbers: England 36%, Ireland 35%, Scotland 19%, Germanic Europe 6%, Norway 4%.

For my updated DNA results I'm going to include my range in parentheses.  "You range comes from making multiple comparisons of your DNA to our reference panel. It includes other possible, but less likely, percentages."

My updated results: Ireland 41% (13-41%), England & North Europe 39% (33-58%), Scotland 13% (0-32%), Norway 4% (0-8%), Germanic Europe 2% (0-12%), Wales 1% (0-12%).

Since I've done my whole family, including grandparents and an aunt, plus I know the results of another grandparent, a cousin, and a great-uncle (my maternal grandmother's brother, which is interesting to compare), it's interesting looking through all the numbers and recognizing patterns. 

It's interesting going through all the information.  My Dad use to have Wales, but no longer does, though I did trace one of his lines on Family Tree (not reliable information) to the Welsh monarchy several centuries back.  My Dad is now 44% English and 43% Scottish, but only 2% German despite our last name being of Americanized German origin.  My maternal grandmother now has Irish, though she wasn't showing it before, and we had a few paper trails back to Ireland on that side, so that's finally showing up.  My Great-Uncle still has 3% French, which my Grandmother didn't inherit, so none of us down this branch of the tree inherited it, but it's nice to see it's still there, though he lost his 1% Spain.

And it's fun comparing myself with my siblings and seeing all our different numbers.  Robbie and my percentages are really close.  Michael is evenly balanced between Ireland, Scotland, and England all within the low 30%.  Steven is 55% English and only 5% Scottish, though he and Robbie are both 4% Wales (my Mom is 6% Wales).  Also, my Mom is 100% British Isles.  She's the only one out of my whole tested family who has nothing in continental Europe.

Fun stuff.  It's all very fascinating.  Sure enough as more data is collected and algorithms improve the numbers will continue to change.

It's cool my Irish numbers have increased to my dominate region, though Scotland went down because of it.  I'm still primarily Celtic!!  :D

 Sarah