Ancestry DNA Update 2025

[FortuneFaded]

Anyone else not impressed with the Ancestry DNA test 2025 update and the UK regions?

I look after several DNA accounts, and many have lost significant DNA percentages to now be more English. One has gone from 27% Germanic Europe to 0%, and another has lost Denmark and Scandinavia to be more Cornish.
It doesn’t feel useful at all.

I'm not impressed either. They've renamed Yorkshire as the East Midlands; quite a blooper!

Oof! That is a blooper.

Mine used to be 74% Scottish with strong links to the Central Belt and Orkney, and 26% Irish with no specific regions identified.

It’s now 87% Scottish and Northern Irish with strong links to the Central Belt but Orkney is gone, and 13% Donegal specifically. Not sure what to make of it.

Has anyone used any companies other than ancestry? I think 23andme regions are slightly different and the two don’t always align.

I don't understand how I've gone from 33% Scottish to not at all.

Not impressed at all and doubting the data tbh

I'm pleased with mine. They've finally sorted out the Irish thing and I've no longer got oodles of Scottish (none in fact) and the areas it says are where the paper trail are. DH not so much as he has East Midlands and the paper trail doesn't lead there.

Have you looked at the map in conjunction with the East Midlands thing? It's just wrong.

I had 19% german and also various % of French , and Portuguese which didn't align at all . Lost all of those and that has now been added to my English which makes more sense to boring old me .

• Central Scotland & Northern Ireland60%
• Leinster, IrelandNew18%
• Hebrides & Western Highlands, ScotlandNew10%
• Donegal, IrelandNew4%
• Connacht, IrelandNew3%
• North East ScotlandNew2%
• England
• I used to be 80% Scottish, 17% Irish and 3% from Denmark. I don't like the way they have lumped Central Scotland and N Ireland together. I know there was significant Irish immigration (My own GGGP came here during the Potato Famine) but there are differences too.
• I've lost my Orkney roots, I'm surprised at how low NE Scotland is since I know a significant number originated there.

I’m surprised Orkney was taken away as I have evidence of a great grandparent coming from the very North East. There’s not a trace of it now in my results.

My research also indicates a significant a number of Irish ancestors on both sides but I’ve found Irish records quite difficult to obtain and Scottish records simply state Ireland as the place of birth. Perhaps Donegal is the missing link but I’m not sure I trust of the accuracy of this update. I also don’t like that Scotland and Northern Ireland are lumped together.

There has been lots of chat about this in many genealogy groups I am in. Mine is total mince. My paternal roots are Northumbria and Scottish borders - this has all be listed as "NE England" which is not accurate in any way, it previously said something like SE Scotland and Northumbria which at least gave a novice researcher a bit of a clue as to where to start researching.

The Ancestry zone for central Scotland goes from the border, right up to Inverness. Again, nonsense. I have picked up random smatterings of regions where I have no documented ancestors from at all - Hebrides, Munster, Donegal.

Origins/ethnicity estimates have always been a bit of a joke but this update is just awful.

I’ve gone from being almost 100% English to a large proportion of German 😕. I’m also from the county that no longer exists per the posts above so I’ll have another look and see if Yorkshire has disappeared on mine.

This has prompted me to have a look as well.

I also have the figures from the one that was two versions ago and it looks like (at least for my family) that things have gone back more to how they were.

For example, when the last update came out, for my mum, Wales went down from 9% to zero. Now, in this latest update, South Wales has appeared with 6%.

Likewise, in 2024 Germanic Europe suddenly appeared with 4% and that has now reverted back to zero.

The same sort of thing happened with my dad. In the last update he went from 20% Welsh to 9% and that has now gone back up to 14% South Wales.

Also, last time he went from zero to 11% Germanic Europe and this has now gone back to zero.
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But, just to show that you should take this with a pinch of salt, especially the smaller percentages, this is what happened to my DNA regions.

I went from zero Germanic Europe to 13% last time and then this time it is down to 3%.

Wales went from 15% down to zero and now is up to 2% for Souuthern Wales

I have 5% Central Scotland & NI after previously being zero but neither of my parents have this region at all.

All of a sudden I have 2% each of Sweden and Norway where previously it was zero. Neither of my parents show these regions.
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Then just a tiny moan about the maps. The regions say that I am mostly West Midlands and Devon & Somerset.

When you have a look at the maps there is a small sliver, centred on Bristol, that is not covered by region. It runs from Bridgwater in the south up to Painswick and Stroud, just south of Gloucester. Also across to Bath and Cirencester in the east.

So, have they just totally missed out this part of Somerset and Gloucestershire? According to their map this area is not in Devon & Somerset, nor is it in the West Midlands, Southern Wales or Southeastern England which is where the rest of Gloucestershire is split between.

Does anyone have a region that covers Bristol on the map?

A lot of people are unhappy with this update but for me it's more credible than the last one. They've finally established that my mother is half-English which was absent before. The 'Northern Irish and Central Scotland' thing is really confusing folk. I think they've not wanted to create what could be a contentious 'Ulster Irish' region, so anyone from the North of Ireland whose heritage is not Ulster Scots (ie Scottish planter roots) has been redefined as 'Donegal/Connaught/Leinster Irish'. But I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.

I have known strong links to Bristol and the Chew Valley for generations. This update says “West Midlands”, where I have no known connection.

Thanks everyone for the replies, it is interesting that this isn’t as popular an update as it was billed. How did they either get ther Germanic Europe links so badly wrong, to then I to regions of England in percentages that imply it’s no Anglo Saxon remnants.

DH has lost his Germanic link. His great great grandfather was supposedly from there.
He has gained DNA from Munster in Ireland that wasn’t there before.
Most odd.

It seems crazy how it changes so wildly from one update to the other. I’ve lost a big chunk of Scottishness and become more English.

Anyone else gained some random Breton heritage??

Yes! Also Basque. Friend has gone from 38% Germanic Europe, which didn’t match her known ancestry, to 0%. How can the last update have matched with the science so much to now be worth nothing.
DH has 15 areas he is from. Very weird.

I’ve seen my mum’s now. Previous update she gained something silly like 30% German. Now it’s 15% northwestern Germany. I’m assuming that’s Saxon origins (she’s very much from south east England/ east anglia). Though why that’s not clear more than 1,000 years after they migrated I’m not sure! And I’ve got 0 German.

It shows how rubbish the whole thing is.

Yes- suddenly gained lots of northern France - nothing there before.

I’m not impressed with mine. They’ve left out my parents country and our ancestry is from there. It’s skipped it, but said I had DNA from the surrounding countries. Complete and utter rubbish.
I apparently have a half brother and a cousin in the US.

Mine is classing Manchester as ‘West Midlands’. It’s also relocated a huge percentage from the south of Ireland (which is correct) to North-West Ireland (entirely wrong), and I’ve suddenly got 29% from ‘Southeastern England and Northwestern Europe’, which isn’t accurate in the slightest.

Is the half brother new?

i thought they’d just updated the regions.

I think the geographic part of the DNA results has always given a false illusion of precision, especially when it comes to Britain & Ireland.

To appeal to Ancestry's largely American customer base Britain and Ireland get broken down into much smaller regions than the rest of the world, but it's questionable whether you can ever be that geographically precise based just on DNA.

The Central Scotland and Northern Ireland together has annoyed me. How have they split the rest of the UK into smaller chunks but squashed these together.

Yes, I understand about the Ulster Scots etc and I don't doubt I have Irish ancestry but it makes no sense. Especially since its the whole of Ni and not just Ulster

I've been on there for years and my detailed origins endlessly change. I'm sure it is just to try and boost membership sales!

I broadly come from the UK, Ireland and a huge tranche of North and Eastern Europe and they chop and change the bits with each update in weird ways. I have some factual family heritage details and it loosely aligns, although with each "update" some bits of the genuine heritage come and go. My DD is on there too and her origins should reflect mine with maybe other bits from her father, but the updates often remove bits of hers that seem bizarre, given we are so closely related.