2025 Ancestry DNA Update Coming Soon

Users have been eagerly awaiting the 2025 DNA update on Ancestry. Based on the post "2025 Ancestral Origins Update Coming Soon" we may not have to wait too much longer!

This will be an interesting update. It sounds like there's been quite a lot of work going on behind the scenes. They've expanded their reference panel significantly by utilizing both genetic and genealogical data. This should, in theory, translate to more precise locations - but there could be a caveat. If they're using data gleaned from user trees as the basis for the "genealogical data", there's always the possibility the same inaccuracies we already see in numerous trees and Thru Lines® will be represented in the regions. There's no real explanation on where the genealogical data is coming from. Hopefully, they've taken care in the data they'll present to us. 

Also rolling out will be Macro-Regions. Think of theses as "umbrella" regions, These will be broader regions with less change over time. In the post, they use "Nordic" as an example. Below this umbrella region will be specific sub-regions (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, etc). As always, the percentages shown for the sub-regions will likely change as reference panels grow and more people test. Ancestry says these sub-regions will be "super-specific". From the graphics in the post, it's hard to tell just how true this will be. I'll be far more impressed if the sub-regions have "sub-sub-regions" with cities or towns. So if a Macro-Region were to be shown as Great Britain (as an example), just having sub-regions England, Scotland and Wales isn't really super-specific in my mind. But if England had more specific regions nested under it, such as Wiltshire, or even Little Somerford, Wiltshire - we might genuinely find this change tremendously helpful in pointing to new research avenues. 

I'm always excited to see how my results change with each update. If the new and expanded regions are truly "super-specific" it may well position us at our brick walls with a sledgehammer in our hands. On the other hand, to use a phrase one of my friends once said - we may only find we truly are "Heinzer's"....made up of 57 varieties, or in this case, 57 countries. And if the state of Thru Lines® recently (a hot mess, changing from day to day, with long proven ancestors simply disappearing while their spouses and ancestors remain, and predicted DNA relationships of matches changing willy-nilly) is any indication - this update could be a huge fail. I'm going to try and stay positive. If nothing else, seeing the changes is always interesting for a couple days.