When I was at RootsTech, an executive from Ancestry showed a tantalizing video during an opening session about the “genetic communities” that Ancestry DNA customers would see in their profile. It’s a big step beyond the ethnicity estimates they previously offered.
Yesterday, Ancestry announced that the genetic communities are starting to be rolled out. They also provided a help page with more information on genetic communities. Here’s the accompanying video:
You can bet that I rushed over to my Ancestry DNA results to see if I’d been placed in any genetic communities. I was delighted to see that I had one genetic community listed in my profile (so far). It is the Settlers of Southern Appalachians community and reflects my father’s mother’s side of the family (the Rascos) who were Alabama settlers.
The whole thing is a bit mysterious to me (but that’s true of DNA in general) and I’m anxious to learn about this new feature and whether I might eventually be connected with more communities. So I signed up for a free webinar from Legacy Family Tree called Exploring AncestryDNA’s New Genetic Communities, presented by renowned genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger. It’s tomorrow, March 30, at 1 pm Central time. I’m not available at that time but I was thrilled to read that the recording will be available free of charge for seven days.
I’ve been ignoring my DNA results for at least a year now, but I sense that might be ending, since yesterday I purchased the Getting Started with DNA and Genealogy Boot Camp from Hack Genealogy. It’s $25.95 for three hours of recorded webinars and 10 pages of handouts, available for a year. I used the coupon code GETDNA to get $6 off that price. (That code expires March 31.)
I don’t want to get too distracted from the single family line I’m exploring in 2017, but I am looking forward to learning more about how DNA can help me in my research. AncestryDNA’s Genetic Communities might be really helpful!
Your Maternal Grandfather had many from what was western Virginia now West Virginia – had come down fro Pennsylvania and Maryland
I was hoping to see communities that reflect my maternal heritage, but so far those haven’t appeared. I need to watch that webinar to get an understanding of how that works!
I have two Genetic communities and am anxious to figure out what it all means. I was going to tell you about the webinar but I saw you already had the info. I will be listening too!
I appreciate your thinking of me! I wasn’t able to watch the webinar live but will definitely be checking it out this week. I hope you found it valuable!
It really doesn’t say anything online yet. Don’t know what it’s supposed to show but then again it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Write another post when you view it!
Delia, are you talking about the webinar or something else?