For those with Pomeranian ancestry, rejoice! Ancestry has finally whittled down their matching estimates to more specific regions. What’s exciting about this update is the addition of Baltic States. It seems that Eastern European ancestry has been split apart into two separate groups that better define a person’s heritage.

What’s changed? Users can opt to see their previous results or their newest update. I would highly recommend switching to the newest. 13,000 additional historical samples were used to provide context from people who were known to come from their specific region. This ensures more accurate testing and consequently better estimates because of it.

Current Ancestry and MyHeritage Comparison

I am often asked about which DNA testing company to use. Honestly, I’m alright with any of them except for 23andMe, specifically because of their “designer baby” patent. But that’s another story. While FamilyTreeDNA is great for X and Y chromosome testing, it really boils down to MyHeritage or Ancestry. For some time now, the estimate for my relative seemed to be more specific on Ancestry. Yet, MyHeritage’s percentages were nowhere close to my Ancestry match. This latest update more finely tunes ethnicity matching and aligns similarly with the MyHeritage estimate. (It should be noted, this was an Ancestry test ported over to MyHeritage with raw DNA.) To view the previous estimates and learn more about the DNA testing services available, please see the article “Is DNA Testing Right for Me?”

On the other hand, MyHeritage seems to be garnering more attention from our overseas relatives in Europe. If your goal is matching with other living people, be sure to cover all your bases.

Christopher DeWuske

I founded this website to help others make connections with their genealogy. I've been at my own family history since 2014 and have made significant progress since then. My hope is to one day determine where my family name came from. In the years since I started my genealogy, I've become something of an expert on the resources and history of Pomerania. I'd like to share what I've learned with you to help you on your own journey to discover your heritage. With the right information and enough patience, I believe researchers like us can break down the barriers to our family histories and make more freely available so others can trace their families as well. Let's work together to rebuild the stories of our ancestors!