Last updated: October 30, 2024

AncestryDNA ancestral journeys are growing again! Read about why we’re ESPECIALLY excited to see these new journeys for the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Western Asia and Eastern Africa.

Editor’s note: In October 2024, AncestryDNA changed some of the terms they use to describe your results.  “Genetic communities” or “communities,” are now referred to as “ancestral journeys,” and “ethnicity estimate” is now known as “ancestral regions.” We’ve updated this blog post to reflect the changes. You can read more about current ancestral journeys here.

AncestryDNA has released new ancestral journeys! These ones are especially key for crucial crossroads in world migration history.

AncestryDNA’s ancestral journeys are groups of AncestryDNA testers who likely descend from a group of people who lived in the same place and/or traveled along specific migration paths together. Identifying your genetic affiliation with a journey gives you clues about your ancestors’ stories (and sometimes helps you trace them).

New and expanded AncestryDNA ancestral journeys

It’s been fascinating to watch the growth of AncestryDNA’s ancestral journeys since they first debuted in 2019 (initially called genetic communities). The newest additions, announced on May 26, 2021, feature new and expanded ancestral journeys in the Mediterranean, Western Asia, the Balkans, and Africa.

Our resident ethnicity guru, Jayne Ekins, got excited when she saw the new journeys described below. Why? It’s the idea of “‘where occidental meets oriental,’” she says.

View of Khor Virap, an Armenian monastery located in the Ararat plain with the Mount Ararat in the background. By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52439216.

“I worked with a collaborating scientist from China 15 years ago who had great interest in this idea because it’s a region of the world that typically gets sampled last,” Jayne writes. “Geneticists start by characterizing populations that are really polar opposites, and strongly diverged from one another– think Northern Europeans vs East Asians vs Aboriginal Australians vs Sub-Saharan Africans. They get strong signals on genetic diversity from these populations.”

“Places like Western Asia and The Balkans are more of a historical crossroads,” Jayne continues. “Genetic techniques hadn’t been developed yet to sort out signal that was more nuanced in these ‘middle places.”

“Ancestry is doing just that with the new [ancestral journey] offerings. And that’s an exciting landmark that holds promise not just for people that have ancestry in one of these newly represented [journeys], but for everyone. The technology is here that can resolve detailed genetic community relationships for people all over the world.”

NEW: East Africa ancestral journey

Previously, no ancestral journey had been defined specific to Eastern Africa. The new East Africa ancestral journey encompasses a broad area covering many modern-day nations from the mouth of the Red Sea south along the Indian Ocean and inland.

Mediterranean ancestral journey

BEFORE: The Mediterranean area had 2 ancestral journeys.

NOW: The Mediterranean area now has 30 ancestral journeys!

The 30 Mediterranean journeys now include:

• Sephardic Jews
• South Greece (subdivided into West Peloponnese; Southwest Peloponnese; South Peloponnese; Peloponnese; Southeast Peloponnese; Central Greece; and Ionian Islands)
• West Anatolia & Aegean Islands (subdivided into Dodecanese Islands; East Central Aegean Islands; West Central Aegean Islands; Crete; and North Aegean Islands)
• North Anatolia
• Western Levant (subdivided into Southern Lebanon & Damascus; Northern Lebanon & Northwest Syria; Israel, Beruit & Damascus; and Lebanon)
• Northern Lebanon & Mount Lebanon (subdivided into Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon)
• Eastern Mediterranean & Egypt (subdivided into Egypt North & Sudan; Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia; Lebanon and Syria; and Lebanon)
• Cyprus

Western Asia ancestral journeys

BEFORE: Western Asia was a single ancestral journey.

NOW: Western Asia now has 15 ancestral journeys!

Western Asian ancestral journeys now include:

• Iran
• Eastern Anataloia/Armenia (subdivided into East Turkey and Armenia; Armenia; Turkey and Syria border and Armenia; and Turkey and Armenia)
• Iraq
• Iraq & Iran
• Northern Iraq & Iran
• Eastern Armenia & Iran
• Eastern Anatolia

NEW: Balkans ancestral journeys

There weren’t any ancestral journeys in the Balkans before this recent update. Now there are 10:

• Albania, Northern Greece & North Macedonia (subdivided into Greece Northeast; Albania South; Albania Central; and Macedonia West)
• Bulgaria
• Southern Romania
• Northern Romania
• Western Balkans
• Eastern European Roma

More ancestral journeys coming

Since launching ancestral journeys in 2019, Ancestry has updated them at least twice a year. (They announced updates twice in 2019 after the initial launch; twice in 2020; and this is already the second time in 2021.) See our full description of AncestryDNA’s ancestral journeys (we try to keep these updated!).

So we expect more and more new ancestral journeys to be forthcoming—and more detailed resolution of existing journeys. “Don’t worry if yours isn’t here yet,” Jayne assures us. “Just buckle your seat belt and hold on. It’s coming!”

More on DNA ethnicity and migratory journeys

We get so many questions on DNA ethnicity, we’ve created a detailed list of FAQs and a free downloadable guide. They’re yours for the enjoying!

Read the Ethnicity FAQs - Get the Free Guide