This article covers ancestral regions and their insights about your family’s origins from 1,000+ years ago. For more recent insights about your family’s history (the past 300 years), check out Ancestral journeys.
Ancestral regions show where your ancestors likely lived 1,000+ years ago and what percentage of your DNA looks most similar to DNA from people with long histories in those regions.
To find your ancestral regions and calculate their percentages, we compare your DNA to the DNA of people with known origins from around the world (called a reference panel). Based on that comparison, we connect your DNA to different regions and then show how much of your DNA is linked to each one with a percentage range.
Ancestral journeys show where your relatives may have lived in the recent past (~300 years), down to specific counties or towns, and how they moved around the world. Don’t see ancestral journeys?
Compare shows which ancestral regions you share with others and which are unique. Since everyone’s DNA is different, even among close relatives, comparing results can help you see shared regions or discover new regions, revealing more areas to explore your family history.
How we develop ancestral regions
We develop ancestral regions by discovering patterns in DNA that can distinguish one population from another. We start by looking for people with deep family roots in a specific geographic area or cultural group. We mainly use data from the millions of members in our database who have taken a DNA test and built a family tree, as well as people from past scientific studies. These people make up our reference panel for ancestral regions.
Next, we analyze the DNA of our reference panel members to find small patterns that set geographic and cultural regions apart. Combining these patterns with a sophisticated algorithm, we can calculate how much of your DNA looks like people from specific regions.
We regularly update our reference panel to improve the precision of our members’ results and add new regions. As more people from different parts of the world take AncestryDNA tests, we can better identify the slight DNA differences that can distinguish regional groups.
How we name ancestral regions
Most regions are named after modern-day places where our reference panel members’ families have lived for generations or the groups they’re part of. For example:
Nepal & the Himalayan Foothills
Cornwall
New Zealand Maori
Finding and calculating your ancestral regions
To find your ancestral regions and calculate their percentages, we compare 1,001 segments of your DNA to the DNA of people with known origins from around the world (called a reference panel). Then, we see which population in our reference panel each segment of your DNA looks most similar to and add up the results to get your percentages. Since this science is cutting edge, your results also show a likely range your actual percentage for a region could fall within. This range could change based on new data and scientific advancements.
Still curious to understand more?
Cool--we're glad you're as interested in genetics as we are. Check out our ancestral regions white paper to learn more.
Where can I find more FAQs about ancestral regions? To find more answers to common questions, check out our AncestryDNA® Regions and Journeys FAQ page.
