My Experience with Ancestry. com

I’ve always understood my ethnicity to be 100% Eastern European Jew (EEJ). All eight great grand-parents were born and raised in EE countries. At the grandparent level, however, only one, my maternal grandmother, was born abroad, coming to the U.S. as a toddler. It was said she came from an EE country that kept changing between being under Poland and Russia. To confirm my EEJ heritage, in late December 2014 I joined Ancestry.com and submitted a DNA (saliva) test. In mid-January 2015, I received my results and I was quite surprised. I was “only” 93% EEJ, with the remaining 7% being 2% Italian/Greek, 1% British, 1% Scandinavian, 2% Middle Eastern, and 1% Caucasusian. The EEJ countries shown were Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Hungary. Of the 7% non-EEJ countries, the only listed ethnicity I felt a relationship with was the Italian/Greek, in that I do love pizza and pasta, and have several Italian by marriage relatives! In 2018, I received a communication from Ancestry.com that they refined their testing and research resulting in an updated ethnicity update for me. 

The new ethnicity update had me as 100% EEJ, with the EEJ countries showing as Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. That seemed to be more in line with my understanding of having sole EEJ ethnicity. I bid farewell to my non-EEJ heritage! Then, 2021 came and so did another communication from Ancestry.com. This time, I was told that due to further refinement of their testing and research, there was a new ethnicity update for me. I was 99% EEJ, with the EEJ countries showing as only Lithuania, Latvia, and Belarus. I was also 1 % Levant, which encompasses Israel, but also a slew of Arab Muslim countries. One has no choice but to accept their results, so accept I do. I assume the changes over the years are legit, as Ancestry makes no money from me from updated results. I do wonder, however, if I’ll yet get another update and what it will show. Some Asian, African, or South American heritage would be interesting!