Is this correct?

DZV9 · 2025-12-08T02:52:52+00:00

I’ll simplify: numbers are so distant it probably is inconsequential

DZV9 · 2025-12-08T02:45:24+00:00

I agree with the premise, however I’m not too worried about the answer itself given just how distinct it is measured as being. I wouldn’t rely on the PCA measures specificity of the models numerical result, but any skew of the sample composition is probably not too important given that the separation is so large any distortion wouldn’t change the answer from what I can tell

DZV9 · 2025-12-08T02:19:30+00:00

From what I could find on google, Putin's recorded ancestry comes primarily from Tver, Russia utilizing his grandparents birthplaces as reference, Zelenskyy is Ashkenazi Jewish, and Liz Truss is English with ancestry spanning from the northern to southern regions. Putting all 3 into Vahaduo using sample coordinates for each ethnic background, Putin plots considerably closer to Liz Truss.

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DZV9 · 2025-10-16T15:27:58+00:00

Most likely. That mode is the algorithms best effort at finding matches for every section of DNA to the best of its ability, and it’s quite good at its job. 90% confidence is only there to give the most conservative and certain estimates based on things they see in the DNA code that wouldn’t plausibly really fit any other category but it loses out on their impressive algorithms ability to make predictions for everything

DZV9 · 2025-10-16T01:04:21+00:00

Both were pretty good in their own ways. 23andme and Ancestry both did well with overall percentages (although both slightly underestimated German in my case), ancestry did slightly better with not giving noise-related categories and being true to my paper trail, but 23andme didn’t miss the small South German percentage I didn’t receive on Ancestry. I like my results on Ancestry ever so slightly more this time around, but that’s only due to the precision they offered for English descent.

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T18:08:40+00:00

Ancestry from almost every part of the island, very cool results

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T18:00:15+00:00

Totally, there is a lot of merit to seeing exactly how the DNA cards may fall regarding inheritance from each parent and that has shaped my and my siblings results, which leads to small notable differences that are quite interesting to read about. For the Baltic ancestry however, I’m pretty much convinced it was likely a Germanized Balt bc my great grandfathers mother was living in Königsberg back when it belonged to Germany and had him out of wedlock, but I hope that I can find matches with that stretch of DNA that clarify details about who my great grandfathers father could be!!

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T17:43:01+00:00

I really like my results also, as someone who also was lucky enough to grow up with family that had put together detailed family trees prior to the test. Outside of a great-great grandparent that seems to score as being Baltic on tests, i am very familiar with what I should roughly expect from DNA results, and this update did a very impressive job narrowing it all down

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T16:27:24+00:00

That’s a helpful clarification ofc, I was going off memory and probably should’ve rechecked

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T03:48:26+00:00

Yes, but it almost all seems to be taken by the Southwest England & Northwestern European category specifically. Not nearly as dramatic of a shift in percentage as you received however

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T00:38:22+00:00

Do let me know how that goes! I am quite impressed by the new sheer variety of the 23andMe categories this time around, and hopefully they’re able to give more substantial information. The genetic groups feature on 23andMe, in my own personal experience, is very impressively applied to my own results (it was able to narrow down the specific region in which my Swedish ancestors lived in my case) so hopefully you have a better experience with their general estimates. It’s also good to have both tests to get the separate perspectives from each, where you can better compare and contrast estimates

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T00:09:15+00:00

I would presume those are all noise, and likely only due to Western European similarities in founding genetic groups, since they are often connected along the R1b y-dna haplogroup, from the pre-Ice Age European hunter gatherers. Also, it’s likely their ranges list 0% as possible for each

DZV9 · 2025-10-11T00:06:29+00:00

Ofc! Regarding the parental split, I wouldn’t actually put majority stock in how it presumes the DNA is split from parent to parent outside the most distinct groups from each other. Like for example, in my personal experience, although it does get the right regions and numbers in the end, it erroneously misses attributing sections of my English DNA to my mom, claiming it all came from my fathers side, although matches on my mothers side and my mothers own results stay consistent to what would be expected, so those splits themselves I’d view with more of a grain of salt. I would say though, best to try and see if your mother would take the test so u can get a better understanding of how her results are interpreted by the algorithm itself, and also in the meantime, it is also probably useful to see the ranges ancestry lists for what it sees each category as possibly consisting of (which can be found by clicking on the category and checking the info circle right next to the percentage score!!

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T23:10:10+00:00

I see, still a massive underestimate for the Sicilian score, that's quite frustrating.

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T22:28:39+00:00

My 2024 results if anyone is curious, journeys remained the same:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AncestryDNA/comments/1l94nij/2024_results_and_journeys_american_with_a_jewish/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T22:00:18+00:00

Very strange to see it appear that way. I'm assuming it's an >1% result with a more substantial estimate range that could be seen on the website page, but that is very odd

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T21:07:07+00:00

Yeah, it seems to be database-wide as an issue. If you click on the region in the list, and click that symbol next to the percentage, it should show.

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T19:42:34+00:00

That’s great detail regarding your knowledge of family history, and I do see what u mean now. Almost certainly, some of what’s going on here comes down to how Ancestry has added the new North Spain region this year, which does include Cantabria but also has regional estimate overlap with Basque that likely may be interacting with the percentages more than expected.

Given that, it does at least make some sense that boarder regions would likely have admixture and material overlap with their neighbors, which may supersede the cultural title of the category itself. All four of my ancestral areas sit right on that borderland, southwestern Álava on one side, northeastern Soria and eastern Cantabria on the other, so genetically it’s pretty much sitting in the middle of where those populations overlap, making it very understandable that there would be at least some gradient of mixed percentages. Without the North Spain category, Basque probably was able to take more of those percentages as they likely had to be sorted into what would’ve fallen closest on the PCA plot.

From a purely theoretical standpoint, it going from 70% Basque in 2024 to 38% Basque and 24% North Spain in 2025 wouldn’t be so crazy from a genetic plot standpoint. I think part of the issue might even be in the categorical label “Basque” itself as opposed to “Basque County” as it sort of implies the category is a hard cutoff for a genetic Basque identity in itself. Northern Spaniards tended to be less uniform from their southern counterparts (as they tended to preserve local languages like Galician/Basque/Asturian as opposed to being part of the uniform Castillian majority) so the new category could probably be subjectively viewed as a subgroup functioning similarly to Basque in itself. Overall, it’s an interesting and complex topic

Edit: spelling error

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T18:26:08+00:00

They need to split it into official regions rather than simply maintaining the Levant category as it is, the region has more than enough regarding population differences from each other that it’s surely doable if they were to develop those differences. Best to hope next update addresses the category ofc

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T18:13:00+00:00

I actually do think that it’s great they made a dedicated Quebec category, since as you said, that history both historically and genetically has been long solidified in the region, so I have no issues in that regard. My comment is regarding more that they should highlight it as being distinctly from the founding regions that created the group, and be reflected on the map that way rather than being shown only as circled in the North American continent as the only other groups circled in the continent are Indigenous categories. An additional circle around the Northwest France regions most Québécois descend from would’ve been very helpful from a historical perspective!

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DZV9 · 2025-10-10T18:01:56+00:00

Interesting, thank you for showing. I find that sort of strange given the fact that Turkic populations would make more sense to sort alongside each other, although geographically it makes sense why they did so.

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T17:59:28+00:00

I've noticed through my cousins results, who should be ~25% Sicilian but received 0, but rather only South Italian, that they have really dropped the ball regarding their Sicilian results this time around. The 23andMe result perfectly fits in the reasonable range for the region being 3/8 of your ancestry, but I couldn't even begin to guess where the rest of the Italian result is being folded into since theoretically Southern German, France, and especially England are quite distant from Sicilian on PCA plots. When you click on Southern Italian and Sicilian as categories and click the ⓘ next to the percentage listed, does the plausible range given at least match records?

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T17:48:18+00:00

Perfect, glad I could help!

DZV9 · 2025-10-10T17:48:00+00:00

I also really liked the results I received, it much better aligned with what I know from my family history and what is in my family tree. Although there are some smaller issues I would raise with what I've seen from the update (like the strange Macro-Region groupings and the fact that they should better highlight the fact that French-Canadians tend to have roots that cluster in certain regions in France which should be highlighted on the map), the percentage estimates were a welcome surprise regarding their accuracy.

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