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I just noticed yesterday, when I logged into my Ancestry account, they rolled out a new feature called, Ethnicity inheritance, where they try and show you which ethnicity came from which parent and their percentages. While I do have both my parents tested on Ancestry, this new feature uses information that came from my results, not from testing my parents.
Here's how Ancestry explains how they are able to do this:
How we identify your ethnicity inheritance
Quote:
Your matches tell the tale. Your maternal relatives share some DNA segments—as do your paternal relatives. By piecing together the DNA your matches share with you and each other, SideView™ technology groups your DNA by the parent it came from.
Once that’s done, we test the ethnicities of the DNA in both groups. This shows us which regions you inherited from each parent.
The size of our DNA database is what makes this work. With a network of over 20 million people, Ancestry can provide these results without testing your parents.
I used ancestry off and on for years. Many of the census, military, birth, marriage, etc. records were very helpful, but the family trees contributed by people need to be vetted before just copying the data, which many people do.
Additionally the cost of a subscription is in many cases simply too expensive. Although I have used Ancestry (at times they had a sale), I did not use their DNA, rather used 23andme. The last time I used it, I did not find any useful information.
Thanks. As far as I can tell, that hasn't shown up yet in my account. I've never been particularly impressed by their ethnicity estimates, so I'm not sure I expect much from this effort, but it should be interesting to see what they come up with.
I was just looking at this a few days ago. My husbands dna report really changed drastically. From being about 94% English, he changed to Scottish, Irish and English. I’ve done the genealogy, and there is a couple of Irish ancestors and zero trace of Scotland.
I assume the English ancestors we know about had ancestors from Scotland and Ireland and now new information shows a migration to England.
I just looked at my Ethnicity Inheritance. The breakdown for my father makes sense. The breakdown for my mother doesn’t. Most of her ancestors left Germany in the 1780s to settle in what is now Poland or the Ukraine. Others followed about 20-40 years later. In Eastern Europe her ancestors kept their German language and culture, until migrating to Canada in 1892 and 1911.
Ancestry classifies almost all of her German heritage as “Eastern Europe and Russia.” I have established enough links to distant DNA relatives to rule out “hanky-panky” in my Ancestry tree so I know the her ethnicity breakdown is incorrect.
I just noticed yesterday, when I logged into my Ancestry account, they rolled out a new feature called, Ethnicity inheritance, where they try and show you which ethnicity came from which parent and their percentages. While I do have both my parents tested on Ancestry, this new feature uses information that came from my results, not from testing my parents.
Here's how Ancestry explains how they are able to do this:
How we identify your ethnicity inheritance
In my opionion, those tests are just are cash cow for them and not useful or accurate at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellwood
Additionally the cost of a subscription is in many cases simply too expensive. Although I have used Ancestry (at times they had a sale), I did not use their DNA, rather used 23andme. The last time I used it, I did not find any useful information.
22 Dollars per month is really expensive, I agree. And it's only 22 if you pay upfront for 6 months. And everything you add through ancestry.com to your tree disappears when the subscription ends ( not a big deal, sicne you can enter it manually yourself, but still). I have ended a 2 week free trial period yesterday and they were really helpful and I found lots of new and great information, but the price is just too high in my opinion.
If you go to the U.K. website of ancestry.com, they offer you "Everything on Ancestry - Worldwide membership includes access to UK, Ireland & all International records on Ancestry" for 22 Euros (Yes, it gives me the prices in Euro - currently 23 Dollars) per month. The U.S. equivalent "World Explorer - Access all U.S. and international records on ancestry" costs 40 Dollars. The German site offers World Explorer for 10 bucks per months if you prepay.
In my opinion, those tests are just a cash cow for them and not useful or accurate at all.
I feel (also in my opinion!) that the ethnicity estimates, no matter which testing company they come from, are a polarizing feature, people tend to either love them or hate them.
I don't take it too seriously, but I do like seeing how my ethnicity estimates have changed on Ancestry since I first tested back in October 2018. I might be the exception, but the ethnicity estimates for myself and my 2 parents are pretty accurate (at least with the latest update), from what I know about my family tree.
I have built my family tree by individually searching and reviewing each and every record and yes, I do chuckle when I see people just copy everything and anything from other people's trees, even if it's totally wrong!
What I do like about Ancestry, are the "DNA communities" that I'm attached to, because, at least for me and my parents, they are dead actuate from where my ancestors came from going back to the 1800s and even the 1700s.
As for Ancestry memberships, I usually gift myself a 6-month membership at the end of every November when the prices are at their lowest (holiday/Black Friday sales) and you can the All Access Membership (the most expense one) for $100/6 months, which comes out to $16.67 a month, which I feel is a steal, others might disagree.
So I really only work on my family tree, on and off, for 6 months out the year, usually during the winter, while I have other hobbies to pursue the rest of the year!
The Ethnicity Inheritance seems the most accurate of all previous DNA estimates and gives me guidance as to where ancestors on each side of the family may have came from. My mother and uncle (Father's brother) both have their DNA on Ancestry and I use my uncles DNA as guidance in place of my dad's.
It also made me realize that I will never be able to further my family tree beyond this point without accurate records or a legitimate tip on the direction to go. I think I reached that point on my mother's side.
I have it and it seems to work very well. Even in a pretty mixed up mostly NW Euro like myself, this feature seems to be able to ID which side of my family has the unique elements. It was even more insightful for my dad and uncles. They all score roughly "one great great-grandparent" worth of Scandinavian elements (5-8%) and we could never be sure why. Now, it is clear they inherited it from their mother's side, and she indeed had a great-grandfather who immigrated from Hamburg. He was German by self-ID, but for it would seem his DNA trace on ancestry.com is interpreted as Danish/Swedish not Germanic Europe.
I just looked but it really didn't help, except to get me more confused!
Now one side of my family is 2% Welsh. (I love Welsh music so that made me happy!)
On that same side is 10% Scottish so probably that side is my paternal since there was a Dixon/Dick's Son and there's a clan for that.
Both sides are 3% Irish (north or south???) And the rest is from England, about equal on both sides. I don't know what happened to my Vikings; nary a mention this time. I'm more British than most Brits, nothing exotic here.
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