Your results are based on the data we have and the methods we use to compare your results to that data. Because we're always collecting more data and our methods are constantly improving, your results may change over time.

Your percentages for a region could change. Some new regions could appear. Some old regions, especially low-percentage regions, could disappear. Or you might not see much change at all.

You could see new regions.

When AncestryDNA launched in 2012, we compared your DNA against 22 possible regions. We now have 146.

You could see old regions become new ones.

For example, when we retired our Middle East region, results for this area of the world became reflected in one or more of three new regions—Arabian Peninsula, Levant, and Egypt—or other neighboring regions. In our latest update, we’ve replaced our England & Northwestern Europe region with 6 new regions that cover the same area but offer much greater precision and specificity. 

You could see new percentages—higher or lower.

Updates to our reference panel enable AncestryDNA to identify new regions and improve our ability to determine how likely it is that your DNA is associated with a region. These improvements mean that your percentages for a region could go up or down.

You could see regions drop off your results.

Because what AncestryDNA knows about the relationships between regions and DNA has improved, some regions may disappear from your results. This may be particularly true of regions with a low percentage on your earlier results.

To calculate your ancestral regions results, we compare your DNA to a reference panel. The reference panel is made up of DNA samples from people with long family histories in a single region or group. We first divide up your DNA into smaller pieces. If you think of your DNA as a string of over 3 billion letters, these pieces are much smaller strings of a few hundred letters each. Then, we assign each piece of your DNA to the population in the reference panel it looks most similar to. For example, if a section of your DNA looks most similar to DNA in the reference panel from people from Mali, we assign that piece to Mali, and so on. Eventually we add together all those pieces to give you your percentages and pie chart.

Our reference panel now has over 185,000 samples, and we can divide the world into 146 regions. That means each piece of your DNA gets compared against our reference panel, and could get assigned to any of the 146 regions.

With more samples, we can divide the world into more regions than ever, and we can get a more precise picture of what the DNA “fingerprint” from each region looks like.

More samples provide a clearer “fingerprint.”

The DNA of people from closely related regions can be very similar, making it harder to tell them apart. Our reference panel provides a genetic “fingerprint” we use to identify a region and assign it a percentage. As we get more samples, those fingerprints come into clearer focus, and we’re better able to tell them apart. That can mean more precision and changes to your results. Keep in mind, though, that some regions and populations have been so mixed for so long that there may never be a single fingerprint for them.

Reading those “fingerprints.”

An “algorithm” is what we call the steps and science we use to compare your DNA to the 146 different populations in our reference panel and calculate your ancestral regions. We’ve updated these steps a number of times since we launched AncestryDNA. This process can also lead to updates and more precision in your results.

Don't worry, your DNA hasn't changed. What has changed is how much we know about DNA, the amount of available data, and how we can look at it for clues to your past. You're still you.

Your inheritance results come from your DNA. Using our proprietary SideView technology, we can distinguish the DNA you inherited from each of your biological parents and then analyze the ancestral origins on each set of DNA separately. Because this update expands the number and diversity of populations we compare your DNA to during this process, your inheritance results might also change. You may see new regions or changes in percentages with this update.

Your ancestral origins include results based on two different scientific processes: the ancestral region reference panel and Genetic Communities™ technology.

The ancestral region reference panel is made up of people whose families have long-standing, documented roots in a specific area. We compare your DNA to this reference panel to determine your possible ancestry from hundreds up to a thousand years ago.

Our Genetic Communities™ technology identifies ancestral journeys, which are groups of AncestryDNA members who likely share fairly recent ancestors from the same region or culture. These journeys show where your relatives may have lived and moved more recently.

DNA analysis is a cutting-edge science. Your results could change further as scientific methods advance, and we get more data.

The process of developing and adding new regions in each update is iterative. Our goal is to represent every person's ancestral origins as fairly and precisely as possible. To do that, we review our existing regions and look for areas that may be underrepresented or less specific than we’d like. 

Next, we explore the data available from our more than 28 million members. By studying patterns in their DNA and their families' origins, we can identify opportunities to divide existing regions that may be too broad or to add entirely new regions in areas with limited representation. 

For some parts of the world, we may not yet have enough samples to build new, reliable, and precise regions. In these cases, it can take time for enough people from those places to participate so we can develop new regions. We also use publicly available data sets and private partnerships to include additional samples from people around the world. These additional samples also help us develop new regions and continue improving regions over time.

Before releasing a new reference panel, we thoroughly test it to make sure it produces precise and reliable results. During development, we run our algorithm on many DNA samples,  including some that were left out of the reference panel to use as "test" and "validation" sets. We also check how well the model performs using a select set of members’ samples whose high-quality family trees point back to one region of origin. These samples help us see how results will change with the new update and whether those changes make sense given what we know about their family history. If our model doesn’t perform as expected, we make adjustments to our reference panel and to the model itself to help correct this.

Even with this extensive testing, some patterns aren’t clear until the update is available to everyone. Your feedback helps us identify patterns, collect new insights, and continue improving our regions in future updates.

If you’re interested in more details about how we develop and test our reference panels, you can read more in our white paper.

Regions and journeys are based on different scientific processes and have different requirements for developing reliable assignment methods. We tend to think of regions as  "source populations" that combine to form journeys. Journeys may have formed in the same place as the source populations, but they can also form later as the result of populations moving and merging together. Depending on the composition of populations that formed the Journey, and how long ago it formed, Journeys may also be suitable for eventually developing into regions.

Because of the differences in how they’re built and the separate technologies used to create them, we can sometimes make regions more specific than journeys in a given area. Region results can also be more sensitive to low amounts of genetic data, giving you clues  where a journey may not. We like to think of regions and journeys as complementary tools that work together to give you a fuller picture of your DNA origins, rather than as competing results.

You can find the date your ancestral regions were last updated below your list of regions. Here's how:

1. Go to Origins.
2. Below your regions, look for the "Updated . . . " date. That's when your ancestral regions were last updated. 

Note: Other features, such as ancestral journeys, traits, and matches, might be updated more often and may have changed since that date.

You can access and download the previous version of your origins results using the "View previous results and FAQs" link under your results for 90 days. Older results are not available. (Read more about Updates to AncestryDNA Regions.)

It’s one thing to see your results for a region change by a few percentage points, but if you’re reading this, you probably saw a change of 10-20% or even more. That can be unsettling. Here are a few of the reasons behind these big changes.

Better resolution of closely related regions

The DNA of people from closely related regions can be very similar, making it more challenging to tell them apart. With more samples in our reference panel, we can better identify differences in DNA of closely related regions. For example, in this update, adjustments to our reference panel and our assignment algorithm allowed us to better distinguish our Southern Italy region from other Italian regions or neighboring Mediterranean regions, like Anatolia & the Caucasus. As a result, individuals from outside of Southern Italy may see their Origins change substantially, possibly adding one of the 4 new regions in Italy, or seeing that assignment shift to another region in the Mediterranean or North Africa that better reflects their family story. 

A region you had has been split into smaller regions.

In this case, you will have lost one region and gained others. For example, in this update we disaggregated our old region Germanic Europe into Southern Germanic Europe and Northwestern Germany. Similarly our previous Central & Eastern Europe region has been separated into 6 new regions covering Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Ukrainian, offering a more granular view.

Here are some reasons why a region you think you should have might be missing from your results:

It could be the genetic influence of neighboring populations.

Some populations look very similar to others. For example, the genetic profiles of many European countries that share borders can look very similar because people from those countries have intermingled so much over time. West Africa is another area where we find lots of overlap between countries.

It could be that the result is on the edges of our predicted range.

You may not share enough DNA with the members of our reference panel for us to see this region in your DNA.

It could be the way genetic inheritance works.

Each person gets 50% of their DNA from Mom and 50% from Dad. But that means 50% of each parent’s DNA gets left behind. Also, what gets passed down and left behind is completely random. So you may not have inherited enough of the genetic markers that are more common to a particular region—though that doesn't mean that region isn't part of your past. (Read more about genetic inheritance.)

It could be because science is still a work in progress.

Identifying ancestral origins using your DNA is based on data that’s still being collected and cutting-edge science that’s still developing. You can expect changes and improvements as our scientists gather more data and develop new ways of analyzing your DNA.

It could be because regions do not follow modern political boundaries.

Changes in country boundaries and historical movements of people often leads to regions not fitting exact modern country borders. For example, people from Austria may have more Central & Eastern Europe  than Germanic Europe because of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And some of our regions, like Southern Bantu Peoples, don’t follow country boundaries at all.

Because DNA inheritance is random, your results won't match a family member's exactly. (Read more about inheritance patterns.)

Your “Regions by Parent” results are based on our analysis of your DNA using SideView technology. This technology separates your DNA into the two halves you inherited—one from each parent. Then, our ancestral regions algorithm analyzes each half separately to identify which regions came from which parent. Because your DNA is analyzed independently from your parents’ DNA, your results may look different from theirs. 

There are a few reasons why this can happen:

• Detectable regions: You may have inherited small amounts of DNA from each parent for a region that wasn’t detectable in either of their results, but when those small amounts were combined in your DNA, they reached a detectable level that shows up in your results.
• DNA inheritance patterns: You inherit half of each parent’s DNA, but not necessarily half of each of their regions. Your parents may have regions they didn’t pass down to you, or they may have much higher percentages of certain regions than you do.
• Similar neighboring regions: Some neighboring regions share very similar DNA patterns, which can make them hard to tell apart. Because your DNA and your parents’ DNA are analyzed separately, regions with similar DNA patterns can be identified differently in each person’s results. This happens because each person has a unique DNA mix, and our algorithm determines the pattern of region assignments that best fits their DNA profile.
• Percentage ranges: Each region in your results includes a percentage that represents the most likely amount of your DNA from that region. To determine that amount, we compare your DNA to the DNA of people in our reference panel and test many possible combinations of regions to see which ones best fit your overall DNA makeup. The percentages you see in your results reflect the combination of regions with the highest likelihood of being correct. However, because other combinations could also fit your DNA reasonably well, we include the results from these other combinations as a range of possible percentages for each region.
  For example, your results might show 10% for a region, but the range could be 5–10%. The 10% reflects the most likely estimate within that range.
• Range overlaps: Sometimes percentages in your results can look surprising or unlikely when compared to parents’ results, but when you compare the ranges, they may still overlap. For example, your results might show 10% for a region, while your dad’s show 0% and your mom’s show 5%. Because you can only inherit what your parents have, a difference like this can be confusing, and you might wonder, “How could mine be higher than theirs combined?” Often, the explanation lies within the ranges. If both you and your mom have a range of 5–10% for that region, it’s likely your mom’s percentage is actually closer to 10% and yours is closer to 5%. This would make you and your parents’ results consistent with how DNA is passed down.

There are a few reasons why you may have regions in your results that your parents don't.

• Detectable regions: You may have inherited small amounts of DNA from each parent for a region that wasn’t detectable in either of their results, but when those small amounts were combined in your DNA, they reached a detectable level that shows up in your results.
• Similar neighboring regions: Some neighboring regions share very similar DNA patterns, which can make them hard to tell apart. Because your DNA and your parents’ DNA are analyzed separately, regions with similar DNA patterns can be identified differently in each person’s results. This happens because each person has a unique DNA mix, and our algorithm determines the pattern of region assignments that best fits their DNA profile.
• Percentage ranges: Each region in your results includes a percentage that represents the most likely amount of your DNA from that region. To determine that amount, we compare your DNA to the DNA of people in our reference panel and test many possible combinations of regions to see which ones best fit your overall DNA makeup. The percentages you see in your results reflect the combination of regions with the highest likelihood of being correct. However, because other combinations could also fit your DNA reasonably well, we include the results from these other combinations as a range of possible percentages for each region. If your percentage for a region is low, check the range to see if it includes 0%. If it does, you may not have a genetic connection to that region.

In general, low-percentage regions (below about 5%) are more likely to reflect difficult-to-assign pieces of DNA. Unless you have other evidence to support a connection to that region, regions below 5% assignment are more likely to be "noise" (i.e., miss-assigned segments of DNA), and less likely to be a true "signal."

Here are some things to consider if your results don’t match what you know about your family tree:

You may not have inherited the DNA that we associate with a region.

Parents pass half of their DNA down to their children, but which DNA gets passed down and which doesn’t is completely random. That’s why even siblings can have different origins results. So even if you have a Swedish ancestor somewhere in your family tree, whether or not you get “Swedish” DNA passed down to you is partly a matter of chance. (Understanding Inheritance.)

Your family tree includes lots of people your genetic tree doesn’t.

With each generation, your odds of inheriting DNA from any individual in your family tree decrease. So, your family tree is actually full of people who might not show up in your DNA test results—but they’re still family. This is especially true the farther back you go in the tree!

Neighbors can look a lot alike.

We create part of your origins results by comparing your DNA to people in our ancestral regions reference panel, which divides the world into 107 overlapping regions. Those comparisons are based on statistical probabilities—no single perfect representative of French, Korean, or Egyptian DNA exists. Because these are probabilities, and because regions overlap, sometimes your DNA might look like a closer match to a nearby region in our reference panel than the one where your direct ancestors lived.

Genes don’t follow modern political boundaries.

The map of Europe looked very different prior to World War I—and even more different 200 hundred years ago. So even though relatives may be from a given country, their genes may be more similar to people from neighboring regions. For example, the Frisians live in the Netherlands and northern Germany, but they have ties to the Anglo-Saxons in England. And it shouldn’t be a surprise if someone from northern Italy had DNA that looked like it came from France.

Grandma may have been less French than you realized.

We often think of our ancestors as having come from one place. However, like many people today, many of our ancestors had mixed backgrounds. So, if a great-grandparent who was born and raised in France was only 50% French, they had much less “French” DNA to pass down.

Some places are complicated.

Some places, like Nigeria, are home to many different peoples and populations. Others, like parts of Europe, have had fairly porous borders, and people have married with people from surrounding regions. Both situations can make identifying populations or telling one group apart from another difficult. That’s why identifying ancestral origins is an ongoing challenge—a challenge AncestryDNA scientists are meeting by gathering more data and spending more hours in the lab.

The ancestral regions in AncestryDNA are based on available data. So what happens when we don't have much data about a region? You’ll likely get results from one or several neighboring regions. For example, we don't have enough data right now to identify separate regions for Laos, Cambodia, or Thailand. Until we get more data, people from those countries will typically see some mix of Mainland Southeast Asia, Dai, Vietnam, and Southern China in their results.

Two more things to keep in mind. First, some populations do not differ enough at a genetic level to emerge as separate groups. Second, countries change over time, and boundaries on a map today do not necessarily represent genetic boundaries, so there may be population groups or countries that never fall into a single region.

In this update we’ve also added a new nesting hierarchy for ancestral regions. With the addition of so many new regions, and the possibility that you’ll miss seeing those lower-percentage regions, we’ve grouped our new more specific regions under larger, more stable "macro-regions" defined by geography or population (e.g., "West Africa" or "Celtic & Gaelic"). This structure aims to enhance clarity, comprehension, and stability of results year-over-year. Nesting your regions under macro-regions makes them easier to scan and more relatable, while preserving core identities.

The macro-regions are designed to group your results in order to enhance clarity, comprehension, and relatability. The macro-regions are not a by-product of our analysis of your DNA and do not have an associated reference panel. For that reason, we haven’t assigned them a percentage. Instead, you can see what percent of your DNA we assigned to each of your more specific ancestral regions that are represented in our reference panel.

Your chromosome painter results are generated by our ancestral regions algorithm, which analyzes your DNA in small pieces to determine which population each piece is most likely related to. To do this, we divide your DNA into 1,001 small pieces and compare each one to our reference panel to identify which population it’s most similar to. That population helps us determine the region your DNA most likely comes from. 

Sometimes, an entire chromosome may appear as a single region instead of a mix. This can happen because of how our assignment algorithm balances precision and consistency as it analyzes each chromosome. Here are a few reasons why you might see this pattern: 

• How the algorithm works: As it analyzes each chromosome, the algorithm compares each piece of DNA to our reference panel and identifies the population it’s most likely related to. Sometimes the top two regions share many overlapping genetic patterns, making them very similar in likelihood. When that happens, because the difference between the most likely and second-most-likely populations is usually very small, the algorithm tends to keep the same region label assigned to the previous piece rather than switching to a new one.
  
  For example, if one piece of DNA is labeled “French”, and the next piece is equally likely to be “French” or “Spanish”, the algorithm is likely to pick “French” to avoid unnecessary switching. This helps keep your results smooth and consistent across chromosomes.
  
  
• Why we smooth: This smoothing behavior reduces frequent or random switching between similar regions, which could otherwise make your results look patchy or inconsistent. Even if one piece could fit another region almost as well, the algorithm may keep the same region label across nearby sections to show a clearer overall pattern. Without this smoothing, your results might show dozens of tiny, back-and-forth switches, making the chromosome painter view look fragmented, “noisy,” and harder to interpret.
  
  
• What that means for your results: In some cases, if a piece of DNA is labeled with the wrong region (for example, when the second-most-likely region is actually correct), the algorithm may continue labeling the following pieces the same way until stronger evidence suggests a switch. While this can sometimes extend a region too far, this behavior helps improve overall precision by avoiding small, unnecessary switches between very similar regions. 
  
  

Overall,  this process leads to more precise results. It reduces random variations ("noise") and  highlights the strongest, most consistent ancestral patterns ("signal") in your DNA.

Chromosome painter is currently in "beta," and we’ll continue refining our methods to make your results even more precise in future updates.

If you don't have a strong genetic link to a journey, or if we haven't identified one yet that links to your family’s past, it won't appear among your results.

Ancestral journeys are based on your matches with other members in the AncestryDNA database. If family members have different journeys, it’s because everyone has their own distinct set of matches. Family members will have different sets of matches because of the way DNA is passed from parent to child. Since you inherit half of your DNA from each of your parents, and which DNA you inherit is random, members of the same family will not have identical sets of matches. Similarly, because siblings inherit different DNA from their parents, they may also have different journeys.

Instead of comparing and then assigning sections of your DNA to a particular region, we look at your DNA matches to determine which ancestral journeys you have strong DNA ties to. DNA matches vary a lot in how much DNA they share. Some share a lot, some very little. However, it’s the interrelationship of lots of matches that make you part of a journey.

The result is an assignment that doesn’t tell you how much of your DNA comes from a particular journey but can provide much greater detail in other ways, such as geography and time.

The 2025 update brings significant changes to ancestral regions across Europe. The update includes 68 new and updated European ancestral regions. Your family doesn’t just have to be from Europe to see these changes. French and British Canadians, African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans, Central and South Americans—just to name some examples—are all likely to see the impact of these changes too.

Additionally, in this update we’ve added a new nesting hierarchy for ancestral regions, grouping more specific regions under larger, more stable "macro-regions" defined by geography or population. We know that big changes to your results can be a little disorienting at first, especially when they involve areas core to our identity. The new macro-region structure aims to enhance clarity and comprehension of your results. The new display will make your results easier to scan while preserving core identities. 

The 2025 update brings significant changes to regions within England, Ireland, and Scotland. We’ve added 6 new regions in England, breaking down our previous England & Northwestern Europe region into more localized results. Similarly, our previous Ireland region has been separated into 4 new regions—covering the 4 provinces of Ireland—and our previous Scotland region has been dissolved into 3 new regions covering Scotland, the Scottish Isles, and part of Northern Ireland.

Over the region’s long history, there were many interactions between people living in what is now modern Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales. In fact, there were enough interactions that it has been difficult to tell if some DNA is more similar to the English, Scottish, or Welsh—or Irish or Scottish for folks in northern Ireland and southwestern Scotland.

AncestryDNA can now more easily tell people from closely related regions like these apart. This allows us to split the United Kingdom and Ireland into four regions.: Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England & Northwestern Europe.

People from England or the northern counties of Ireland may be getting more Scotland than they might expect given their family history—and sometimes vice versa. This is a natural consequence of trying to distinguish several closely related peoples apart at just the DNA level.

In this update, we separated the previous Germanic Europe into more specific regions like Southern Germanic Europe and Northwestern Germany. As a result of narrowing the scope of these German regions, people with roots to more western parts of Germany may see their results shift to neighboring regions, such as the Netherlands or Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe, a region which also includes parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France, and western Germany.

In this update, we made significant changes to our regions in Scotland and Ireland, adding greater levels of granularity and narrowing the scope of these regions. At the same time, the shared histories of these nations means that we regularly see some amount both Irish and Scottish descent showing up in both populations. By strengthening our reference panels for both of these populations, you may see your results shift, better capturing your Irish or Scottish heritage.

The 2025 update divided our Ireland region into five separate regions. The DNA of people from these areas is very similar, and we are pushing the limits of science to provide this level of detail to you. Because neighboring Irish regions share many genetic patterns, you may see assignments to some nearby regions that don’t perfectly match what you expect based on your family tree. 

This highlights how complex it is to update our reference panel, since any change must be carefully balanced to keep results precise for people from both that region and nearby regions. 

If your percentage for a region is low, check the range to see if it includes 0%. If it does, you may not have a genetic connection to that region. It’s also possible that the deep origins shown in your DNA point to a mix of DNA from ancestors you haven’t discovered yet. 

The previously general Germanic Europe region has been separated into more specific regions like Southern Germanic Europe and Northwestern Germany. People with roots to Central, Southern, and Western Germany will predominantly see the new Southern Germanic Europe show up in their results. Those with roots in Northern Germany will see mainly the Northwestern Germany region, as well as the Netherlands. Individuals with roots to Eastern Germany will see their results most significantly shifted, with North Central Europe becoming a more prominent region in their results. This reflects the mixed German-Polish population that lived in the former eastern territories of Germany, and which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union following World War II.  With new advances in the technology behind the ancestral regions, our estimates are becoming more precise, especially for people of an admixed origin. Many customers will notice a significant update to their Western European results as a result of this advancement in technology, often including an increase of assignment to Germany. 

Ancestry is continually working to expand the diversity of our products to provide more precise results to our members. Building new regions requires having enough data to identify a genetic profile specific to a population or area. At this moment, we have not been able to develop an independent region for Hungary.  In cases like this, your results will reflect neighboring regions, like Slovakia or Northwestern Balkans. If you click in to the region details, you will see that these regions encompass parts of Hungary as well. Importantly, countries change over time, and borders on a map today don’t necessarily reflect historical boundaries that may have shaped the genetics of these people over centuries. For example, the modern nations of Hungary and Slovakia were both previously a part of Austria-Hungary. So there may be countries that are covered by ancestral regions different from modern political boundaries.

In 2025, updates to our reference panel and the addition of many new regions in the Mediterranean area (e.g., Sicily, Crete, Aegean Islands, and Ionian Islands) mean that our Southern Italy ancestral region has become much more focused and specific to Italy. In 2024, we saw assignment to our Southern Italy region go up in many historically connected areas around the Mediterranean, including Greece, Crete, and Turkey. Now, many of these areas have their own ancestral regions, reducing the prominence of Southern Italy in members’ results.

In the 2025 update, we expanded Italy from two regions to five. The DNA of people from these regions is very similar, and we are pushing the limits of science to provide this level of detail  to you. Because neighboring Italian regions share many genetic patterns, you may see assignments to some nearby regions that don’t perfectly match what you expect based on your family tree. 

This highlights how complex it is to update our reference panel, since any change must be carefully balanced to keep results precise for people from both that region and nearby regions. 

If your percentage for a region is low, check the range to see if it includes 0%. If it does, you may not have a genetic connection to that region. It’s also possible that the deep origins shown in your DNA point to a mix of DNA from ancestors you haven’t discovered yet.

The DNA of people from nearby and historically and culturally connected regions can be very similar, which makes it harder to tell them apart. As we add more samples to our reference panel, we can better identify differences in the DNA of closely related regions. 

For example, in this update, changes to our reference panel and assignment algorithm helped us better separate the Southern Italy region from other Italian regions and from nearby Mediterranean regions, like Anatolia & the Caucasus. At the same time, these adjustments may have slightly increased the detection of Italian regions, which can affect results for people from nearby Mediterranean and Iberian areas. 

This highlights how complex it is to update our reference panel, since any change must be carefully balanced to keep results precise for people from both that region and nearby regions.

The 2025 update added multiple new English, Scottish, and Irish regions to our reference panel. This makes our algorithm more sensitive to detecting even small amounts of these origins in people’s DNA. 

However, because of Europe’s long and complex history of migration and interaction between neighboring populations over the last 500 years, it’s normal to see low amounts of English, Scottish, or Irish regions in the results of people from other parts of Europe. For example, it’s common to see some Scandinavia regions in the results of people from England, or some English and Irish regions in the results of people from northern France or western Germany. 

As we continue improving our reference panels, we aim to bring our regions’ results into a more recent genealogical timeframe. Over time, this should reduce the amount and frequency of these small, cross-regional assignments.

The addition of many new regions in the Mediterranean area—Sicily, Crete, Aegean Islands, and Ionian Islands—means that our Southern Italy ancestral region has become much more focused and specific to Italy. In 2024, we saw assignment to our Southern Italy region go up in many historically connected areas around the Mediterranean, including Turkey. In our 2025 update, we’ve been able to correct this and return assignment to our Anatolia & the Caucasus region for those with roots in Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean.

In 2025, updates to our reference panel helped us to add many new regions in the Mediterranean area including Sicily, Crete, Aegean Islands, and Ionian Islands. These updates have made these regions more focused and specific. A subsequent effect of these new regions is that people with roots to neighboring North African and Middle Eastern areas have seen these Mediterranean regions drop out of their results, and seen their assignment to regions in North Africa or the Middle East increase.

In 2025, updates to our reference panel allowed us to add new regions in Northwest Germany and Southern England & Northwestern Europe, creating more specific and precise assignments while balancing the results for Western Europe. As a result, individuals with roots back to the Netherlands are likely to see more assignment to the Netherlands ancestral region and less assignment to any of these neighboring regions. 

In this year’s update we’ve added 2 new regions representing people from French-speaking Canada: Acadia and Quebec. Many people in the US and Canada with family roots to early French American settlers will see these French Canadian regions appear more prominently in their results, replacing our previous France region. Additionally, with the development of multiple new regions in England and Western Europe, those with roots to European France may see an increase in their assignment to the regions Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe, Southern Germanic Europe, and Spain. 

The latest update replaced the 2 broad regions Central & Eastern European and Baltics  with 8 new regions: Estonia & Latvia, Lithuania, Northeastern Poland, North Central Europe, Southern Poland, Slovakia, Western Ukraine, and Eastern Czechia. These new regions greatly improved our regional specificity. As a knock-on effect, they reduced the assignment of our Russia region for people with roots to many of these neighboring countries.

In previous updates, we’ve seen an over-assignment of regions including Denmark and Sweden to people with roots to southern England. This pattern reflects the historical connection between these people. This year, with the update of 7 regions in England and the new Northwestern Germany region, we were able to lower the assignment of Denmark for people with roots to many of the surrounding regions. Overall, this represents an improved experience, and one that better reflects the true genealogical origins of these individuals.

By updating our reference panel with more samples, we were able to split our previous Southeast Asia region, which covered parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Papua New Guinea. We split this region into separate Mainland Southeast Asia (which covers much of Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia) and Maritime Southeast Asia (which covers Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Papua New Guinea). These new regions provide more precise results for people from these areas of southeast Asia.

Individuals with roots in Malaysia may see their results split between our new Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia regions. This is due to the geographic proximity and shared history of the population with both mainland and island populations.

By updating our reference panel with more samples, we were able to split our previous Southeast Asia region, which covered parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Papua New Guinea. We split this region into separate Mainland Southeast Asia (which covers much of Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia) and Maritime Southeast Asia (which covers Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Papua New Guinea). These new regions provide more precise results for people from these areas.

Updates to our reference panel have impacted results for many people of native Hawaiian descent. To learn more about the impact of these updates, read this article from one of our scientists.

Updates to our reference panel have impacted results for many people of New Zealand Maori descent. To learn more about the impact of these updates, read this article from one of our scientists.

In our 2024 update we added 8 new regions in Africa, and 6 of those are in and around Nigeria. We were able to develop these ancestral regions by making concerted efforts to increase the representation of these groups in our reference panel. As a result, many people with roots in areas like Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, and/or Côte d’Ivoire saw new top regions or new regions entirely. This update especially impacted individuals of African American, Black Canadian, and Black Briton descent.

In our 2024 update, we were able to separate our Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples region into a distinct Cameroon region and a Western Bantu Peoples region. You may still see some combination of these two regions in your results. Over time, as our reference panel continues to grow, we are often able to make clearer distinctions between neighboring regions that have shared genetic histories.

In our 2024 update, we added 6 new regions in India, splitting up both Northern and Southern India and the surrounding areas. We were able to develop these ancestral regions by making concerted efforts to increase the representation of these groups in our reference panel by using our large database of Ancestry customers. As a result, most people of Indian descent will see a new breakdown, pointing them to one or more of these regions in India.  

As we developed our reference panel, we were able to separate our Sweden & Denmark region into a distinct Sweden region and a Denmark region. You may still see some combination of these two regions in your results. Over time, as our reference panel continues to grow, we can often  make clearer distinctions between neighboring regions with shared genetic histories.

We've noticed this trend too. One possible reason is that some of the European DNA in people with Latin American or Hispanic origins comes from early European colonizers and settlers. Over time, these "older" pieces of European DNA have drifted in their similarity to modern European DNA patterns found in our reference panel. 

Because these pieces of DNA are no longer as similar to modern European DNA patterns, and because they often appear bordering Indigenous pieces of DNA, our algorithm is more likely to classify them as Indigenous. We are continuing to study this pattern through research and development, and we are looking at ways to address it in future updates.

Some people who previously had results linked to France, Spain, or Portugal are now seeing French Canadian regions in their results. The addition of our new French Canadian regions, Quebec and Acadia, along with new regions in England and Western Europe, has increased the likelihood of these French Canadian assignments. 

One possible explanation is that the “older” European DNA in French-Canadians shares a closer genetic pattern with the “older” European origins found in Latin American and Caribbean people than either does with modern European DNA patterns found in our reference panel. This similarity can cause our region assignment algorithm to assign some of this DNA to French-Canadian regions more than expected in these groups. Adjusting these regions is part of our ongoing effort to deliver even more precise results for all members.

In recent updates, we’ve focused on bringing our regions into a more recent genealogical time period to make them more useful for family history research. As part of that effort, we added two new regions representing people from French-speaking Canada: Acadia and Quebec. 

Many people in the United States of America and Canada with family roots to early French settlers may now see these French Canadian regions appear more prominently in their results, replacing the broader France region. 

We hope this guides you to the places and records that best support your family history research.

In this year’s update, we divided our previous Sephardic Jewish region into two new regions: Sephardic Jews in Northern African and Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean. Further developing our reference panel has made our analysis more sensitive to DNA patterns linked to these groups and better able to distinguish them from those of other Iberian populations. 

As a result, some people may now see small amounts of DNA assigned to one of these regions. You can check your range for this region to better understand how strong your connection to this region might be. 

Importantly, having this region in your Origins results does not prove or disprove a personal or cultural connection to this ethnic group.

Like many of our other regions, the reference panel we use for our Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish regions were built using samples from Ancestry members. Specifically, these members’ DNA results and family tree information linked them to these geographically and ethnically specific communities.

Our Sephardic Jewish region does not represent the shared history of all Sephardic groups. Instead, it represents Sephardic people who live or have historically lived in specific areas around the Mediterranean including Spain, Turkey, and Greece. Importantly, having this region in your results does not prove or disprove whether you belong to this ethnic group. Identifying with or being a member of an ethnic or cultural group involves much more than genetics.

What it means to be Jewish is a complex issue, and being Jewish can mean different things to different people. It can be a matter of religion. Being Jewish can also be a matter of heritage and culture. The AncestryDNA test explores less than 1% of DNA that varies among humans to estimate the populations your ancestors came from. 

In our 2025 update, we divided the Ashkenazi Jewish region into two new regions: one representing people with roots in Central & Southeastern Europe (including Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria), and another representing those with roots in Eastern Europe & Russia (including Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia). 

Because of the long history of endogamy (people having children with others in the same group) and migration across these areas, the DNA of Ashkenazi Jewish populations from these regions is very similar. Even though these two regions have different names, there’s still a lot of overlap in the areas they cover, especially in places like western Poland and Ukraine. 

As a result, people with origins from these parts of Europe may see one or both of these regions in their results. These assignments reflect shared DNA patterns, not necessarily a personal, cultural, or religious connection.

How did you develop your Eastern European Roma region?
 
Like many of our other ancestral regions, the reference panel we use for Eastern European Roma was built using samples from Ancestry members. Specifically, these members’ DNA results and family tree information linked them to the Romani people and this Eastern European area.

Our Eastern European Roma region does not represent the shared history of all Romani groups. Instead, it represents Romani people who live or have historically lived in areas of Eastern Europe. At the same time, because the global Romani community does have a common origin, Romani people not from Eastern Europe may still see some assignment to this region. Importantly, having this region in your results does not prove or disprove that you belong to this group. Identifying with or being a member of a cultural group involves much more than genetics.

Where did you get your Romani DNA samples?
 
Like many of our other regions, the reference panel we use for Eastern European Roma  was built from Ancestry member samples. Specifically, these members’ DNA results and family tree information linked them to the Romani people and this Eastern European region. You can read our white paper to learn more about how we build our reference panels.

My old results seemed more detailed. Why did they change to Eastern European Roma?

Before we added our Eastern European Roma region, some people with Romani roots going back to Eastern Europe would get a mix of results that might include Northern India, Anatolia & the Caucasus, Greece & Albania, the Balkans, and other regions in the area between India and Greece.

A mix of results across this area is consistent with both early Roma history and how our science works

But, while that mixture of regions may reflect the  population’s complex ancient history, it’s not very useful for understanding a person’s individual family history. The mixture of regions makes it more difficult to trace where family members may have lived or moved to.

Our goal at Ancestry is to empower members to make discoveries about their family history; with this update, we aimed to provide greater precision in members’ results by adding our new Eastern European Roma region. Adding this new region could make interpreting your own results easier and will allow us to identify lower amounts of this origin in your DNA.

I do/don’t have the Eastern European Roma region in my results. Does that mean I am/am not Roma?
 
Origins results don’t prove or disprove that you belong to a particular group. Identifying with or being a member of a cultural group involves much more than genetics or family ties. It can also be a matter of choices, upbringing, family history, tradition, law, and many other factors.

If you are seeing more or less of the Eastern European Roma region in your results than you expect, this could be for several reasons:

First, a child only inherits half of each parent’s DNA. That means if your Romani ancestor is many generations removed from you, you may inherit less of that region in your results.

Second, DNA inheritance is random. Each parent passes down half their DNA to you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they pass down half of each of their regions. (See Understanding Inheritance)

Third, a population’s history and interaction with neighboring groups can also influence DNA results. This could mean your percentages for our Eastern European Roma region could be different than expected and may appear alongside results from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, or Anatolia & the Caucuses.

Fourth, predicting inheritance is not an exact science. The percentages for regions in your results are the most likely, but they're not the only possible results. Other possibilities may be nearly as likely. These other possible percentages make up the range in your results.

Even though we’re looking at people rather than places, most regions are named after a modern-day country or region where people in our reference panel have family going back generations.

Representing the people of the world fairly is a priority at AncestryDNA. We work with a diverse network of outside scholars and experts to develop and review how our regions are named. We go through several steps to name our regions.

We start with maps showing us the average DNA results for people who have lived a long time in a single area. We also consider who will typically get a region in their results to make sure a name is broad or narrow enough to be a good fit. That gives us a starting point.

From there we sometimes test various names with people local to an area or ask them for suggestions. Finally, we have a panel of outside subject-matter experts with local and scholarly expertise who can review our names for accuracy and cultural sensitivity.

The maps were created by determining the average results of people whose families have lived in the region for a long time. The brighter the shading, the higher the percentage for this region we see in their results of these people. The maps are approximate, and people outside the highlighted shape may still have that region in their results. Similarly, only some people living within the highlighted area will have the region in their origins results. For some regions—Khoisan, Aka & Mbuti Peoples, Twa, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, and Russian Germans—we also used historical population data to augment and refine the maps.

Ancestral journeys are based on technology that identifies groups of AncestryDNA members who are most likely connected because they share fairly recent ancestors (going back no more than 325 years) who lived in the same place or culture at the same time.

Once we identify an ancestral journey, we look for patterns in ancestral regions and data from family trees linked to AncestryDNA test results, including ancestral birth locations, to see where their ancestors lived and moved to. You don’t have to have a tree to get a journey, but trees that are connected to test results help us identify the story that explains a journey’s trajectory.

Historical researchers use that time and place data to look for the overarching story that binds those who share a journey together. While the timeline material in your results may not tell your ancestor's story exactly, it can give you insights into their daily lives and the events they lived through.

Journeys are based on AncestryDNA matches who most likely had relatives who lived at the same place and time in the past. However, not all journeys trace their roots back to the same point in time. Some are more recent, while others can go back to the 1700s.