We've renamed the "Jewish Peoples of Europe" region to "Jewish" and its journeys to "Ashkenazi Jews in ..." to better represent the different populations they include.
This change doesn't alter your DNA results. Your region percentages and journey assignments remain the same. Only names have changed.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Ancestry rename this region and its journeys?
We renamed this region and its journeys because we believe the name “Jewish” better reflects the populations these results represent.
Does this change my ancestral regions or journeys?
No. Renaming this region doesn’t impact the regions or journeys you’re assigned to. Only the names have changed. For example, if you’d been assigned to “Jews in Central & Eastern Europe” or “Jews in Northeastern Europe,” you’d still be assigned to these journeys. However, these journeys now show their new names, “Ashkenazi Jews in Central & Eastern Europe” and “Ashkenazi Jews in Northeastern Europe,” respectively.
What journeys are included in this name change?
The renamed journeys are:
- Ashkenazi Jews in Northeastern Europe
- Ashkenazi Jews in Southwest Latvia, Lithuania, and Northwest Belarus
- Ashkenazi Jews in Southwest Latvia and Lithuania
- Ashkenazi Jews in Southwestern Lithuania
- Ashkenazi Jews in Belarus and Ukraine
- Ashkenazi Jews in Belarus and Northern Ukraine
- Ashkenazi Jews in Central & Eastern Europe
- Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe
- Ashkenazi Jews in Poland & Moldavia
- Ashkenazi Jews in Central Europe
- Ashkenazi Jews in Northwestern Europe
- Ashkenazi Jews in Bohemia
Does this impact the Sephardic journey?
No. These name changes don’t impact our Sephardic journey or any underlying data used to create the journey or its boundaries.
What data or resources did Ancestry use to pick a new name?
We name our ancestral regions and journeys based on the data we used to create them. Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews typically have some percentage of the Jewish region in their results. When we identify a journey, we use data from the family trees of its members to create journey names and stories that reflect general trends. You can read more about that here and here.
Why is the Jewish region centered in Europe when it's a worldwide religion?
Our regions' boundaries depend on the information we currently have. To draw the borders for each region, we use the results of people with long family histories in an area. From their results, we can see where each region is primarily seen geographically. However, these borders could change as more people participate in AncestryDNA, and we gather more information. The “Jewish” region also has a hand-drawn piece that shows a smaller group of people who aren’t defined by geography.