My paternal grandmother's results have updated - and just adjusted the spread between the three ethnic groups they previously listed. Removed some of the "trace" ethnicities, of course. So my grandmother's results have thus narrowed to three groups - England/Wales & Northwestern Europe, 64% (no Wales on this particular line, but that fits); an even 25% of European Jewish (amusing considering it is one of her grandparents who is Jewish) and 11% Ireland & Scotland (also completely fits).
Found a new cousin on my Ancestry DNA results for my grandmother, and as a result I have been adding a number of new people to my tree... and in some ways confronting the reality of having European Jewish cousins... i.e. a large number of deaths in a short period of time and constantly repeating places of death, mainly Auschwitz and Sobibor.
Ancestry say part of the change is down to a better, larger reference database, which makes sense, but they also mention advances in analysis. If the way they analyse and match DNA has changed, should we expect to see differences in the DNA matches? I haven't had time to trawl through those since the updated results arrived.
I think the update means that they are able to give you more specific and realistic results, due to the advances in the ways they compare the DNA, to how many samples they use to compare. Even if you're not a DNA expert, the idea that they've changed the comparison from 3,000 samples to 16,000 samples, should mean that your results are more accurate than they have been previously. For each of the DNA results I have, the ethnicity results only give 2-3 areas, all of which are correct to what I know about my family tree, as are the more specific regions given. The only strange results I have at the moment is Ancestry's insistence that both my brothers (but neither of my parents) seemingly have some Swedish ethnicity... doesn't make sense when Ancestry as already suggested we're all closely related!
If to further help, this is the different between the 3,000 and 16,000 sample updates:
My first ethnicity result gave me (3000 samples):
Great Britain 66%
Scandinavia 18% (? perhaps only from Norse invasions of England???)
European Jewish 9%
Ireland/Scotland/Wales 3%
European East 2% (sure, from the Jewish?)
European South 1% (??)
and Finland/Northwest Russia 1% (?? again from the Jewish?)
Most of which while it seemed reasonable, but a little strange. My results now give me (16000 samples):
England, Wales & Northwestern Europe 79% (with particular emphasis on Wales and the West Midlands - completely correct)
Ireland & Scotland 14% (with particular emphasis on Scotland: Central Scotland & Ulster Ireland - completely correct)
and European Jewish 7% (again, completely correct.)
