General Chat

THANKS WE LIVE IN HOPE

JoyL - I’m on my iPad at the moment so it is. Memory here too.
Ancestry gives me central southern England as my strongest area. It doesn’t highlight anywhere else, unlike my OH who has 4or5 highlighted areas.
I know I have two Irish lines and am happy with that %. But I am told to ignore the very low %’s as these are more likely to be very faint traces from way, way back.
The other companies also give central south as my strongest area.

Are you aware that the CI’s have fantastic records going back up to 500 years.

I,ve seen programmes on TV which imply that the DNA testing can take you back to a specific place - I still waiting!

You had me wondering, names, so I looked at my results again as I was relying much on memory for the last update - and I ought not to have done so for, as you will see, I related the Channel Isles percentage the same as Sweden! Sorry.

83% England, Wales and NW Europe - primarily located in Belgium, Channel Isles, England and Wales. It goes on to break this English figure into regions but states specifically Cheshire, Merseyside, South Lancashire and the Isle of Man.

15% Ireland and Scotland - includes Isle of Man (again), Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

2%. Sweden.

The Channel Isles and Sweden have me flummoxed but not the other regions.

Even my Isle of Man connection I knew about as there is a study of surnames (male only) originating in the Isle of Man and one of my direct ancestors (about fourth great gran) has one of the surnames being studied - passed from her father, clearly.

I have no idea whether the sequence of countries/regions mentioned - first mentioned to last mentioned denotes a high to low percentage but someone on here may know.

All or some of this could change if my results are checked using newer methods, of course.

I find it fascinating and it makes me want to delve deeper into family history.

A few years ago AnnCardiff stayed up into the wee small hours checking my ancestry and she got back several more centuries than I had managed - all kosher using official records. I am still working on it all.

Ancestry state that they will update the ethnicity estimate periodically. The first update was August 2018 and the second August 2019. So maybe the next will be in a couple of months.

They do indicate the possible errors with each percentage. Thus they say mine is 77% English but could be anywhere between 73% and 99%. In any case the ethnicity should not be taken too seriously.

One advantage of the Ancestry tests is that you can upload the results to other matching programs but it is not usually possible to do the reverse.

I have to say, I was quite surprised how specific the second (last) update was, names.

I was also surprised how my DNA seemed to lack that variety others have from around the world.

It will be interesting to see whether there'll be a third update.

Hi JoyLouise
I am fascinated that Ancestry have shown your CI ancestry..

My current results are 83% (prev 76%)England, Wales NWest Europe with the emphasis on Central Southern England (this used to be the South East) with 12% Irish & Scottish,2% Norway (prev 5%). 2% European Jewish and 2 % Germanic Europe.

As your results show the CI I have looked at the ethnicity of close and distant relatives and NONE of them have been given a % for the Channel Islands. I should be around 25% give or take.
I'm also on My Heritage & Living DNA and none of them give the CI as an area. I would say they all lump it in with central southern England.

Curious - or favouritism! ;-)

Not so sure you're right, names, although I appreciate the regional aspect you mention because initially my DNA was defined more regionally.

However, my results seem to have been refined gradually through two updates.

For example, my first results included 6% Europe West ( Belgium, France, Gernany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Lux'bg, L'stein), a smaller percentage from the Iberian Peninsula, Europe South and an even smaller percentage (2%) from Europe East.

The last (second) update whittled this down to 2% Channel Islands and no mention of any other part of Europe (written above).

Similarly with the current result of 2% Swedish DNA.

Initially, the results showed 8% Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway and Denmark).

The first update showed 2% Norway and 2% Sweden.

The second (last) update showed only 2% Sweden.

I realise that these results are only a drop in the ocean of the 3 billion+ years of our ancestors and that, regionally, we ladies will find ourselves in Africa but for the time being my results stand - until, and if, I get a third update. I await with bated breath for that third update!

Joylouise
I think they are referring to the area covered by that region, rather than telling you you have connections to places like the Channel Islands. With a strong connection myself I find that it doesn’t really show up strongly.

Christine, no doubt there'll be surprises in store for you.

I had mine done through Ancestry and it has been updated twice.

The last update refined the first two tests which were a little ambiguous, eg Scandinavia rather than country/countries.

It was a surprise to find I was 98% British (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales with Channel Islands and Isle of Man included in that). I knew about all of those connections apart from the Channel Islands.

The other 2% was pinned down to Sweden.

The results also indicated that I had a fair amount from south Lancashire/north Cheshire - borne out by my research, but tendrils crept in from most parts of England, all of which I was already aware.

I am not at all sure whether I will ever get another update because those results seem already fairly refined to me - but I am not a genetic scientist, so it's very much 'wait and see'.

Good luck!

OH and I had ours done with My Heritage, on a Black Friday offer.
He isn't that interested so I administer his results.
We've both had matches, some I knew of through normal tree matching, others were new and interesting. I found quite a lot more lines to our trees.

The ethnicity estimate is interesting, not always what you expect.
I have no English DNA at all, despite most of my ancestors coming from the NW of England. My DNA is mainly western European, ie Netherlands, Germany, France.

OH has a lot of English DNA, but no Scottish, despite his Mum's descent from 2 Scottish families.

Whether you have a test or not depends on what you want to find out. However it's not a substitute for family tree matching.

Hi All Thanks again, No I'm not put off. I'm always a little wary
:-)

OH and I have both had our DNA done. While he can't compare his with a sibling, my siblings have not had theirs done. They have not shown a great deal of interest in family history but two of their sons have been curious with one of them asking whether he could have copies of stuff I had.

What has been fascinating is finding out some of the things that run in both sides of my family, like O neg blood for instance - siblings and cousins on both Mum's and Dad's side.

Names is right about looking for an offer. OH bought kits for both of us when they were on special offer.

Just bear in mind that you don’t necessarily get 50% of your dna from each parent and, therefore don’t get 25% from your grandparent.
I found it fascinating to record the different amount of cms my brother and I had against close relatives. In some cases the difference was quite large.

I now match with a relative on ancestry and living dna and the two companies give a different amount of matching cms.

Edit. I hope we haven’t put you off. Look for an offer and take the plunge

Do the test, Christine, because half of your genetic material comes from Dad and there will be markers on the other 22 chromosomes which will enable tracing back through your paternal grandfather's line.

I have had hits from all of my paternal and maternal lines.

Edit: you will have inherited 23 pairs of chromosomes is what I should have mentioned when I wrote 'the other 22' above.

Your brother could do a Y chromosome test with FTDNA as this is the male line only. Ancestry does an Autosomal test which follows both male and female lines. They don’t tell you which line you match comes from.
With an ancestry test it would be useful to have an English cousin test as well then you would have an idea of matches from your fathers side.
My brother also has tested with Ancestry and not all our matches are the same!

You will still have lots of DNA from your father but your brothers will be a better bet if it's directly down the male line, father to son.

Look up about mitochondrial DNA and patrilineal DNA to see how the female and male lines are passed on, mother to daughter and father to son.

Thank you for all info I wanted mostly to find the Swedish side on my Dads side, would I be better if 1 of my brothers did a test ?? . Christine

The reason that the DNA lab do not trace the Y chromosome of females is because they don't carry it.

Females have two female sex chromosomes XX

Males have one male and one female sex chromosome Y and X


at conception either an X or a Y comes from the man to attach to the woman's X so that decides which sex the child is.

Thanks for your replies,it does seem very strange so will have to wait to see if her brother's results match up - from what you say Maggie they should be very similar.

Susie, as me, my sister and sister's son had it done, we could compare.

Sister and I were very similar, 40 odd% Celtic (that'll be the Cornish), 40 odd% Scandinavian and a small amount of Iberian'. Mine was something like 9.6% Iberian my sister about 3.9% (explains my very black hair, and being 3 shades darker than my siblings!) and she was 6% ish more Scandinavian than me.
Nephew obviously had his father's DNA too.
Well, his dad was a 'Murphy'. He had Celtic and Scandinavian - and Roman!
All in fairly equal amounts - oh and about 1% Iberian.