NotebookLM and Ancestry DNA Estimates

You’ve tested your DNA with Ancestry.com and you’re trying to interpret your ancestral estimates mean. Multiple world regions, different percentages, what do they mean?

Understanding your DNA ethnicity results can be challenging. Ancestry has scientific papers explaining the background, but these are long and complex.

But what if you could upload your results to a free AI tool that creates personalized audio and video explainers? Google’s Notebook LM lets you do exactly that.

This article is a step-by-step tutorial. If you’d prefer a visual walkthrough, watch this video:

Table of Contents

Why You Can Trust NotebookLM

AI tools like ChatGPT are notorious for hallucinating and making stuff up. But NotebookLM is different. It is designed to only use the information you provide.

You feed it specific documents like PDFs, web pages, Google Docs, or YouTube videos, and it becomes an expert on just that material.

For DNA analysis, you can upload Ancestry’s official white papers about their testing methodology. The tool will reference only those scientific papers when discussing your results.

Setting Up a Balanced Documentary

Ancestry DNA estimates change from year to year. Some people finding them perfectly accurate and others questioning their reliability.

Using only Ancestry’s papers creates a one-sided view. Our goal is to have one AI expert represent Ancestry’s methodology and another act as an independent genetic genealogist who isn’t afraid to point out limitations.

This creates a balanced discussion rather than just promotional material. By careful prompting, I’ll show you how to get a 40-minute podcast where two experts explain how ancestry estimates work using your actual results as examples. They will also highlight potential inaccuracies and when results can be misleading.

The process also generates a 9-minute video explainer that displays your results on screen. Rather than showing generic examples, the entire presentation focuses on your specific ethnicity breakdown.

Getting Started with Notebook LM

Follow this link to go to NotebookLM. As a Google tool, you’ll log straight in if you have a free Google account.

Click “Create New” to start a new notebook. The interface has three panels:

the left panel for uploaded sources
a middle chat panel that we can ignore
a right panel where you’ll create the audio podcast and video explainer.

You’ll start in the left panel. Click “Add Source” to begin providing materials.

Give PDF Links to Notebook LM

Section 1 in the figure below shows where you can provide links to the white papers.

Paste these links into the website box (don’t include the bullet points):

Paste Source Text Into Notebook LM

There is one more document that is only available when you’re logged into Ancestry.com. This means that NotebookLM can’t access it as a URL.

Go to this link: https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna-learning-hub/reading-your-ethnicity-estimate

Open the page in your browser, select all the content (avoiding footer elements), copy it, then go back to NotebookLM. The figure above marks section 2 as where to copy the text from this web page. Give this source a descriptive title like “Article on Ancestry.com”.

Adding Your Personal DNA Results

The key step is submitting your own ancestry DNA estimates as a source. It should be a three- column table with the percentage, region and optional sub-region laid out like this:

45%, Ireland, Ulster & Northern Ireland
40%, Nilotic Peoples
10%, Spain
5%, Germanic Europe

Your ethnicity estimates in Ancestry.com are found under the Origins menu.

Rather than typing everything manually, you can use ChatGPT to extract the information from a screenshot with these instructions:

Use an image capture tool, e.g. the snipping tool on Windows, to capture an image of your results,
Copy and paste the image into free ChatGPT.
Use the prompt below.

This image is my ethnicity percentages by region from an Ancestry DNA test. Please extract the list of percentages, regions, and subregions.

Display as a bullet point list.

ChatGPT will format it cleanly, which you can then copy.

Back in Notebook LM, click “Add Source” and select “Paste Text.”

Paste your bullet-pointed regions and give it a clear title like “My ethnicity estimates from an ancestry DNA test,” then click insert.

Now you have six sources loaded: four scientific white papers, one technical article, and your personal results.

Customize and Generate the Audio Podcast

Once sources are uploaded, options appear in the right-hand panel for creating content.

Let’s start with the Audio Podcast.

The crucial step is not to click “Generate” immediately. Instead, click the pencil icon and choose “Customize.”

This is where you provide specific instructions that focus the discussion on your breakdown rather than generic examples.

First, select “Longer” for the audio length option, which produces approximately 40 minutes of content instead of the default 10 minutes.

Now you can enter my recommended custom prompt.

One of you is an expert genetic genealogist employed by Ancestry.com.

One of you is an independent expert genetic genealogist who is somewhat sceptical of ethnicity estimates.

Here is an overview of how Ancestry calculates my regions and percentages:

Now, paste in your list of regions and percentages from ChatGPT.

Continue the prompt as follows:

Take my highest percentage region and go into depth into the research and methodology.

For each of the next regions, discuss the percentage and give some background from a genetic genealogy point of view.

For the lowest percentage region, discuss the implications of the low percentages and what can be inferred.

After clicking “Generate” for the audio, expect to wait 20 to 30 minutes for processing. The audio length may vary from 41 to 66 minutes. When the podcast is ready, you’ll see a play button and a download option to save it as an MP3.

NotebookLM also offers an interactive mode where you can join the conversation with the AI hosts. This is like calling into a radio show.

Create the Video Explainer

Go to “Video Overview,” click the pencil for customization, and paste the identical prompt. The video doesn’t offer a length option and typically runs 9 to 10 minutes.

The completed video can be played in the browser or downloaded as an MP4 file to your computer. The video displays your results on screen while AI voices explain the science, discuss specific regions, and address questions about precision and reliability.

While not as immersive as the 40-60 minute podcast, the video provides visual learners with graphics and on-screen information.