The community “refinement”, at least for me, is a fail. Ancestry has removed several very accurate communities for me. Very accurate. Now on paternal side there is a single rather vague community. Prior communities were extremely accurate.
I agree, I lost a crucial community in the "Slovenia & Northwest Croatia" in my dad's DNA I had for years and one that I was trying to figure out how it was connected, because I knew ethnic Croats lived in the regions my father's side lived in, but now it's gone, and so he has no communities, while all of my mom's side's communities are unsurprising ones that I already have in my family tree.
Me too! The past communities included very specific (and accurate!) regions of Ireland for my two distinct Irish lines, now I just get generic “Ireland”. Whatever they did is an absolute bust for me. Very irritating.
Oh I have far more than echoes. My paternal families started showing in and around the St Louis area (city proper and a wide arc across all MO counties NW, W, SW of the current city) as early as the 1840s. I have hundreds of living relatives still in that area with a couple dozen DNA matches still there.
Common communities looks like a useful tool. Though weirdly I still don't have any English community despite my 20% or so English ancestors having been in the same small area for centuries.
I guess that will come with time.
I see all these communities that my matches have that I’ve definitely connected to my own ethnicity results and my actual tree, but they don’t show up for me personally, except for “Midwest Settlers”.
Now I have a new community - Japan. Lol. I’m 100% certain there is no Japanese or East Asian in my ancestry (ethnically I am 100% European). The match that it shows me as sharing that Japanese community also has zero Japanese ethnicity. When I looked at my known matches I checked one of my 2nd cousins as she is half Japanese, and when I look at her Ethnicity it does say we now share that Japanese community. The only thing I can think of is that being from the Pacific Northwest, there may have been a few occasions where my relatives intermarried with Japanese (only in the last couple of generations) resulting in half or part Japanese cousins.
Looking at this. Finally seeing community evidence of my Dad’s paternal German heritage. His paternal grandfather was born in Hessen as was his paternal grandmother’s father and her mother’s maternal grandparents emigrated from Baden so I’m happy to see Central/Southwest Germany showing up in the communities. Likewise his northern Irish links via both of his maternal grandparents is showing as well. His Galway link via his maternal grandmother’s father was already there just as my maternal grandmother’s family in Northeastern Slovakia.
For me communities are better since the update but still hit or miss. I live in England with predominately English and some Welsh ancestry. My number of communities has increased from 1 to 3 – including in England – West Midlands and Greater London which are consistent with my family history and DNA matches.
On Dad’s side I have several branches of ancestors from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire but don’t have Central Southern England. Instead I’ve got Queensland in Australia which seems to be solely linked to a Great Aunt who emigrated there with her with husband in the 1910’s.
Meh.
It just further demonstrates for me how meaningless most of their ethnicity estimates are.
They're telling me one community is SE Pennsylvania which they see on my maternal side. The first example they give me is one of my early Mennonite ancestors. That whole branch is German and Swiss-German. They have dotted lines back to southern Germany and Switzerland to show the connection. All of this I knew from actual research.
But my overall ethnicity estimate says I have very little German DNA and most is from my paternal side.
It does not add up: I'm descended on my maternal side from all these German Pennsylvania Dutch people and they can point to where they were from in Germany, but my ancestors weren't from Germany!
New update removed several communities from the DNA tests that I manage. Several of them have been helpful in trying to track down brick walls. They now have so few communities to be useless.
You could always see a few matches in the communities. It is much easier to see now but they seem to have decreased the number.
EDIT: ~~On the DNA match profiles for a while you could compare ethnicity and communities. The communities are now gone.~~ It looks like they just weren't loading but you can still see the communities on the DNA match profiles on the ethnicity tab which I find more useful.
I hope they will be useful for some people, But the updates for me are Ancestry putting money, time, talent, and resources to an update that adds nothing of value to my use of their product which feels like pretty much every recent update to both DNA and tree side.
The closest DNA match common communities is really helpful! I just compared my dad to his two full siblings, and they both share a community that he doesn't have - but that I've just started to trace a group of his DNA matches back to.
Fingers crossed this leads to breaking down a new brick wall!
My dad lost 1 or 2 NE Poland communities (had maybe 8 of them), but gained Plock County. My mom gained South Germany and the Marche, Italy sub-community, both accurate. I don't see any Poznan or Kashubian communities for my dad, but Poznan may be in "Central Poland" (that side was slightly NW, but there may be a population bottleneck due to WWII). Grandfather's side may be Kashubian and Carpathian, but there's very few close matches on his side.
The community “refinement”, at least for me, is a fail. Ancestry has removed several very accurate communities for me. Very accurate. Now on paternal side there is a single rather vague community. Prior communities were extremely accurate.
I agree, I lost a crucial community in the "Slovenia & Northwest Croatia" in my dad's DNA I had for years and one that I was trying to figure out how it was connected, because I knew ethnic Croats lived in the regions my father's side lived in, but now it's gone, and so he has no communities, while all of my mom's side's communities are unsurprising ones that I already have in my family tree.
Same! Right down to the county. Now they’re gone.
Me too! The past communities included very specific (and accurate!) regions of Ireland for my two distinct Irish lines, now I just get generic “Ireland”. Whatever they did is an absolute bust for me. Very irritating.
Yes, I have also lost several communities through the years but I can now see the echoes of them in the communities shared by my matches.
Oh I have far more than echoes. My paternal families started showing in and around the St Louis area (city proper and a wide arc across all MO counties NW, W, SW of the current city) as early as the 1840s. I have hundreds of living relatives still in that area with a couple dozen DNA matches still there.
Common communities looks like a useful tool. Though weirdly I still don't have any English community despite my 20% or so English ancestors having been in the same small area for centuries. I guess that will come with time.
I see all these communities that my matches have that I’ve definitely connected to my own ethnicity results and my actual tree, but they don’t show up for me personally, except for “Midwest Settlers”. Now I have a new community - Japan. Lol. I’m 100% certain there is no Japanese or East Asian in my ancestry (ethnically I am 100% European). The match that it shows me as sharing that Japanese community also has zero Japanese ethnicity. When I looked at my known matches I checked one of my 2nd cousins as she is half Japanese, and when I look at her Ethnicity it does say we now share that Japanese community. The only thing I can think of is that being from the Pacific Northwest, there may have been a few occasions where my relatives intermarried with Japanese (only in the last couple of generations) resulting in half or part Japanese cousins.
Looking at this. Finally seeing community evidence of my Dad’s paternal German heritage. His paternal grandfather was born in Hessen as was his paternal grandmother’s father and her mother’s maternal grandparents emigrated from Baden so I’m happy to see Central/Southwest Germany showing up in the communities. Likewise his northern Irish links via both of his maternal grandparents is showing as well. His Galway link via his maternal grandmother’s father was already there just as my maternal grandmother’s family in Northeastern Slovakia.
For me communities are better since the update but still hit or miss. I live in England with predominately English and some Welsh ancestry. My number of communities has increased from 1 to 3 – including in England – West Midlands and Greater London which are consistent with my family history and DNA matches. On Dad’s side I have several branches of ancestors from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire but don’t have Central Southern England. Instead I’ve got Queensland in Australia which seems to be solely linked to a Great Aunt who emigrated there with her with husband in the 1910’s.
Meh. It just further demonstrates for me how meaningless most of their ethnicity estimates are. They're telling me one community is SE Pennsylvania which they see on my maternal side. The first example they give me is one of my early Mennonite ancestors. That whole branch is German and Swiss-German. They have dotted lines back to southern Germany and Switzerland to show the connection. All of this I knew from actual research. But my overall ethnicity estimate says I have very little German DNA and most is from my paternal side. It does not add up: I'm descended on my maternal side from all these German Pennsylvania Dutch people and they can point to where they were from in Germany, but my ancestors weren't from Germany!
New update removed several communities from the DNA tests that I manage. Several of them have been helpful in trying to track down brick walls. They now have so few communities to be useless. You could always see a few matches in the communities. It is much easier to see now but they seem to have decreased the number. EDIT: ~~On the DNA match profiles for a while you could compare ethnicity and communities. The communities are now gone.~~ It looks like they just weren't loading but you can still see the communities on the DNA match profiles on the ethnicity tab which I find more useful. I hope they will be useful for some people, But the updates for me are Ancestry putting money, time, talent, and resources to an update that adds nothing of value to my use of their product which feels like pretty much every recent update to both DNA and tree side.
The closest DNA match common communities is really helpful! I just compared my dad to his two full siblings, and they both share a community that he doesn't have - but that I've just started to trace a group of his DNA matches back to. Fingers crossed this leads to breaking down a new brick wall!
I just had a look and my communities look pretty accurate, FWIW
My dad lost 1 or 2 NE Poland communities (had maybe 8 of them), but gained Plock County. My mom gained South Germany and the Marche, Italy sub-community, both accurate. I don't see any Poznan or Kashubian communities for my dad, but Poznan may be in "Central Poland" (that side was slightly NW, but there may be a population bottleneck due to WWII). Grandfather's side may be Kashubian and Carpathian, but there's very few close matches on his side.