Ancestry have done a big communities update for the UK (England/Wales/Scotland). Think Ireland is the same as was already granular.
Interestingly they have also changed the top level communities as well as the second level. For example, Devon and Cornwall has gone (maybe why it disappeared when they did the parental split) and we now have Cornwall on its own, and Devon, Dorset and Somerset
Looking at the number is the member groups, they have clearly cut back some of the existing top level communities:
Central Southern England - Feb 24 492,282, Mar 24 442,806
East of England - Feb 24 419,450, Mar 24 377,013
South East England - Feb 24 369,879, Mar 24 353,569 (Now named Eastern South East England
Wales - Feb 24 284,795, Mar 24 252,841
The new Devon, Dorset and Somerset community has 240,191
Some of the names could be improved: Northeastern South West England and Northwestern South East England is a bit of a mouthful (I would call it Wessex)
Posts: 36
Threads: 8
Joined: Feb 2024
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: East Anglian
Nationality: English
Y-DNA (P): L (M20)>M317>SK1414>FGC51036
mtDNA (M): H6a1a8
Ugh, quotes not working for me. Loderingo, its not such a bad thing to have a thread looking at the accuracy and value of UK genetic communities. I get:
East Anglia
Norfolk, North Suffolk, and NE Cambs
Central and Eastern Norfolk
Which isn't at all inaccurate about my er.. pedigree folded Norfolk ancestry. Bloody spot on. My ancestors passed the Roman shore fort of Burgh Castle (immigration control) in a long boat sticking up their dark age fingers.
Not a big change for me. They've detached the Northern Isles from the Eastern Lowlands of Scotland, which probably makes sense historically. Other than that it's really just my previous regions with new names and more overlap with other communities.
East & Central Scottish Lowlands
Moray, Aberdeenshire & Angus
Aberdeenshire & Surrounding Area
Central Lowlands
03-21-2024, 06:40 PM (This post was last modified: 03-21-2024, 06:42 PM by PaulH01.)
I only had two communities, and they've taken away my East Anglian one.
Not sure why, must have changed the criteria for qualifying (on paper I'm about 15%). At least I can see it without becoming a member, I suppose.
It's why I always record past results from all the places I'm registered with; I'm not always finding updates actually improve the accuracy of my results.
Living DNA was a case in point.
Interesting , slight change for me, more specific.
They have me in the 'Eastern South East England' community, and in the Kent & Southeast London and Kent & East Sussex communities more specifically.
This makes sense as probably the largest single chunks of ancestry are from Kent, Sussex, Hampshire (and secondarily East Anglia - which is not included here). Mostly from north and central Kent so it figures.
There's also a 'community inheritance' tool to see which side you inherited what from. It correctly finds that as being on my mothers side.
Very accurate although a bit focused on what is just 1/4 of overall ancestry, it's probably picking up the biggest single signal.
(03-20-2024, 09:02 PM)Loderingo Wrote: Ancestry have done a big communities update for the UK (England/Wales/Scotland). Think Ireland is the same as was already granular.
Interestingly they have also changed the top level communities as well as the second level. For example, Devon and Cornwall has gone (maybe why it disappeared when they did the parental split) and we now have Cornwall on its own, and Devon, Dorset and Somerset
For anyone not aware, you can compare communities and ethnicity results with all your DNA matches via your DNA page (scroll down to the bottom, now for members only).
