19 June 2019
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DNA Communities from Ancestry
Ancestry has today launched an update to AncestryDNA, adding county-level detail to UK ethnicity results and bringing the total number of UK communities to 73.
Ancestry has today launched an update to AncestryDNA, adding county-level detail to UK ethnicity results and bringing the total number of UK communities to 73.
Ancestry explain that the initiative will allow people to 'take your DNA story one step further, connecting you to the places and people that have shaped your personal family history'.
The new updated UK communities are part of a wider global update to AncestryDNA, which from today (19 June 2019) now offers over 225 communities to help its members who have ties to France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
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County level DNA results
AncestryDNA ethnicity results are based on 1,000 years of migration within a user’s DNA and are broken down into regions across the world. Ancestry’s Genetic Communities™ technology is based on macro-international analysis, used to discover specific groups of people that a user is genetically connected to, the places that those ancestors called home and the migration paths they followed. These communities use 'rich data' from the past 300 years, and in the UK, offers detailed county level results.
Communities are particularly valuable for family historians as they can be cross referenced with Ancestry’s historical records to provide even more detail, such as:
- ancestral home addresses
- schools their ancestors attended
- their place of work
These would help paint a full picture of the connection a user may have to that specific county and community.
How do I access DNA Communities?
The 55 new UK communities will automatically be added to the results of existing AncestryDNA customers. These will not change the ethnicity results of users. To see your results in Communities, follow the below steps:
- Log into your Ancestry account as usual
- Go to the DNA tab on the top left bar
- Click on 'ethnicity estimates'. You'll see your ethnicity results as usual and should then see a pop up message telling you that a new community has been added to your story
- You can then explore stories from that community and browse the timeline, which will have the movements of your ancestors plotted on it
- You'll also be given a list of Featured Matches who have taken an Ancestry DNA test and who Ancestry think might be related to you
The advancements have been made possible by the combination of Ancestry’s industry-leading 15 million DNA users, new analysis techniques developed by Ancestry’s DNA team and the world’s largest online collection of family history records and trees at Ancestry.
Russell James, family historian and DNA expert at Ancestry, said: “Communities are an incredibly valuable tool for those wanting to discover more about their DNA and family history. The new communities launching today will allow people whose lineage stems from Great Britain to see the county where their family lived and discover evidence and detail of this in historical records. Blending DNA with traditional records in this way is an important step forward for genealogists and we will continue working to offer more detailed results and helping our customers make meaningful discoveries about the people that came before them and the places they lived.”
Start exploring on the Ancestry DNA website.
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