MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Ancestry.com has just "improved" their a...

Ancestry.com has just "improved" their algorithm and wiped out my English ancestry.

posted 4 years ago by Quasimodo (16388)
23 replies | jump to latest

Granted by my research it was only about 10% of the total but according to Ancestry it's gone. Now they say I'm a little over 50% Irish and a little less than 50% Scottish with a dash of Norwegian to round it out.

By my calculations doing it via genealogical research of historical records I figured I was roughly 65% Irish 25% Scottish and 10% English. Also Ancestry locates my Irish genes as having come from North Eastern and South Eastern Ireland when from the research I did about half of it at least comes from South Western Ireland.

And they still haven't picked up on my 1% Native American ancestry. So Ancestry still has a way to go to refine their data and analysis if my latest "improved" results from them are anything to go by.

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 4 years ago

I've always wondered how accurate those ancestry sites really were.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

The basic test can only go back so far. (I think just a few generations.) It's not going to be able to tell you that you are related to Cleopatra or William the Conqueror.

[–] mikethemartian (6719) 4 years ago

Supposedly there are alot of people today descended from Genghis Khan due to the number of women he raped.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 4 years ago

It's hard to pin it down really. I watched their little "explanatory" video about the new results but as usual it contained no technical information and so didn't explain anything. For instance if they are using a newer genetic analysis that goes deeper in time so to speak then it may be that my 10% English ancestry came mostly from people who were originally from Scotland so that would explain it. Then again there are those who say that there is very little difference genetically between the English, Irish and Scottish anyway.

Also my Native American ancestry not being picked up isn't their fault as Native Americans like many Indigenous people are reluctant to have DNA tests done, generally speaking, so Ancestry just doesn't have much raw data to work with there.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

I logged in and sure enough it says my info is updated:

European Jewish 50%
Germanic Europe 28%
England and Northwestern Europe 14%
Scotland 5%
Sweden 3%

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 4 years ago

Any surprises or notable changes ?

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

Scotland and Sweden are new. Also, IIRC, under Northwestern Europe they indicated Belgium as one of the areas. Now they don't indicate any specific area.

I have a Danish great-grandmother, the closest connection to Sweden that I know of.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 4 years ago

Hmm it just seems a little odd. Some sort of explanation about how this new algorithm works would be nice.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

I don't know about algorithm but they do try and give a few reasons...links on your origins page and in the faq. For example they have data from more regions. But still the whole thing was something of a disappointment...it's all pretty vague, for some reason when I signed up (and paid) I thought it would be a bit more specific and precise.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 4 years ago

I joined up after I had run into a few brick walls and gone down a few blind alleys with my own genealogical research. Ancestry was a big help to me there mostly from getting hits from other people's family trees that connected to mine. I would probably never have picked up the Canadian connection otherwise for example.

But I know what you mean about feeling a little disappointed. I thought I would have been contacted by Canadian Ancestry users after I filled in the blank about what happened to my Great Great Grandmother who left Canada and went first to the Orkney Islands and then emigrated to Australia. But after five years I have been messaged once by a Canadian fourth cousin who invited me to download a headstone image that if he had bothered checking he would have seen I already had. I asked him about a shared Canadian ancestor and he didn't bother replying.

Still I don't regret signing up because I definitely got my money's worth from them.

[–] Stratego (30510) 4 years ago

I don't believe you're Belgian. Impossible!

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

No Belgian ancestry at all that I know of.

[–] Stratego (30510) 4 years ago

Phew!

[–] TimMC (9143) 4 years ago

LOL.

They(the DNA industry) have been caught doing some crazy shenanigans over the years.

I don't trust them one FFFFFFFFFFn bit.

[–] davodikum (6197) 4 years ago

They are building a database for nefarious purposes.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

Westworld!

[–] davodikum (6197) 4 years ago

I haven't seen Westworld yet. I saw the first episode though when it first came out, never got around to watching the rest.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 4 years ago

No loss. The later seasons were basically random.

[–] PaladinNJ (21510) 4 years ago

I'm really starting to wonder about the accuracy myself. My mother is 100% Italian. Ancestry originally said I was 48%. I can see that happening. Last year they adjusted and said 32%. Someone told me it was probably due to mixing in the old country with other nations. The newest calculation has me at 41%.

I know for a fact that my wife has as much German in her as Irish. The latest Ancestry calculation has her at 68% Irish and 0% German. Not possible.

[–] Graumanfan (2) 4 years ago

Mine changed substantially too. I had a good amount of Ireland and England/NW Europe (Northern France) and most of that became Scotland 48%, 2% Ireland and 0% England/NW Europe.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

When I click on NW Europe it includes Belgium, The Netherlands, and NE France, but not NW France (Brittany and Western Normandy)

[–] Moonglum9 (11275) 4 years ago

I'm not convinced about their analysis of my ancestry. There's no way that I'm 40% pygmy bushman, 40% Sumerian, 30% crawdad, and 30% Martian.

[–] nyctc7 (43609) 4 years ago

I saw one of those when I was a kid in the 1960s at a Ringling Bros. sideshow.