New ethnicity splits on Ancestry

[Ruskie]

Mine's not changed yet. I feel deprived (not).

I really don't like this focus on ethnicity.

It seems to be their main focus in their ads, so probably has attracted people who are interested in this aspect. We see a lot of questions on rootschat with people looking to find where that mystery (often tiny) percentage of X ethnicity fits into their family tree. Presumably Ancestry get millions of queries about this, so are trying to clarify. 

I have not tested with Ancestry (yet anyway) but I know almost everyone else has. Apart from the higher possibility of more matches, I am not sure it has much going for it judging by the general dissatisfaction of many rootschatters. 

[brigidmac]

A lot of people also.take tests to find out about their birth parents or ancestors true parentage

These are the kind of case where ethnicity can be important ..and the people arent necessarily interested in exploring beyond the mystery person

[Jill Eaton]

Mine was updated today as well as my husband and my daughters accounts which I manage. My 39% Irish has now been split into 9% Scottish and 30% Irish.
My 2% Swedish has now gone up to 8%.

This is the third time since I took the Ancestry test that my ethnicity estimates have changed. I don't mind that "My DNA doesn't change but our science does" but anyone who believes they can use the ethnicity estimates to calculate or find ancestors will be very disappointed since the results are not contant.

[Flemming]

Thanks for the tip-off. It's also my 3rd iteration and this time I've gone from 74% to 61% Eng/NW Europe (with no % for the regions within this), and from 24% to 35% Ireland/Scotland, split 27% and 8% respectively. I've lost my 2% Germanic Europe and gained 4% Norway (which I used to have in the first iteration).

The Ireland/Scotland split is interesting because most of the Scottish lot started off in Ireland, or went back and forth between the two during the Plantation era. Losing the Germanic Europe % is also a head-scratcher because there goes my 4x great grandfather from Dusseldorf. Lord knows where the Norway connection comes in. Perhaps he came to the UK via Oslo. And whilst the England/NW Europe slug still splits into two UK geographic regions, there's still no reference to the multiple French Huguenot lines in my tree.

As their banner says, they've made it 'even more precise'. 

[Gadget]

Goodness gracious, they have change it - I was Eng and Wales 50%; Scot & Ireland 47%; Norway 2%

I'm now

75% Welsh
12% Scottish
11% Irish
2% England and NW Europe (NW England and Midlands)

That  fits with my tree much more clearly.

I demand independence from England 

(I wonder what I'll be next time - also the 3rd change since I did the test)

[dragonT]

That's better!

I was 54% Scotland and Ireland, 46% England, Wales and North-western Europe (I think).
I'm now 87% Wales, 7% Scotland, 6% Ireland, 0% England. This makes much more sense.

I'm finding matches with 0% Wales who, I hope, will help me identify the 7% Scotland, 6% Ireland

[Sinann]

My sister and I were 100% Ireland and Scotland
I'm now 89% Ireland 11% Scotland
my sister 87% Ireland 13% Scotland.
Which fits fairly well with the surnames I've found.
We know one surname has it's origins in northern France and it's interesting to see the area highlighted on the map even though it doesn't feature in the percentages.

[davidft]

I am not convinced they know what they are doing. 

I was

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe 90%
Ireland & Scotland 5%
Norway 5%

I am now

England & Northwestern Europe 64%
Scotland 22%
Sweden 6%
Norway 4%
Ireland 4%

Now although it says Scotland 22% when i click on the figure it says

"Your ethnicity estimate is 22%, but it can range from 0—27%"

Or in other words they haven't got a clue

[Gadget]

What ethnicities does you tree suggest, David?