New Genetic Communities Results

Ancestry's new Genetic Communities has been released today.  Here is my take on my own results.

Firstly it's important to note that initially there are a finite number of communities included.  Todd Godfrey from Ancestry explained that these will be increasing over time.  Listen to my interview with him here.

From this initial group I have been placed into three communities.

There is a map that shows where these communities are located:

I can drill down on each of them in turn.  First, I looked at "English in the South West Peninsula".

So far so good. It's certainly south-west England. Looks like it covers Cornwall and Devon. I don't have any known Devon ancestry, but I have a g-g-grandfather from Cornwall.  But on the left hand side it gives information on the history of the area and emigration from that area, and it is all about London! Last time I looked, London wasn't in Devon or Cornwall.

I could also click on a "Connections" link to see further information

I can then click on the "View all Matches" for the people who matched me in this Genetic Community.

What about my other communities?  Here is the Munster Irish community.

Hmm. That's Munster AND Leinster.

If I look at the Stories/History section and click on one of the time frames you will see migration routes OUT of the area of the community at a certain time.  As an example I'm showing the migration in the time "1825-1850: Poverty Amidst Plenty".

Looks reasonable, but the earlier time frame "1775-1825: Home of Outlaws and Rebels" and it only shows migration to the US.  Yet during this period there were a large number of convicts sent to Australia. And rebels (from the 1798 rebellion). No mention of them though. Perhaps they'll fix this over time.

Now, what about the Scots Community?

I was pleased to see that included in my connections in this community was someone whom I know I am related to. We share a g-g-grandmother who came from Wigtownshire in Scotland. It doesn't have the new person or her brothers who match myself and my cousin above and whose ancestor has the same surname as ours and comes from the same part of the country. Maybe that's because they are more distant relatives?  Maybe there is a maximum number that is showing up at the moment? Maybe the connection to my 3rd cousin and I is not through that family? I don't know yet.

As I've said, this is a growing site. More communities will be coming on over time.  I can see it potentially being useful for narrowing down where a connection might have occurred.  But I'd like to see some of the problems being resolved. It's certainly a bit of fun, and is available to anyone who has tested with Ancestry without additional payment.