General Chat

Ancestry have made another update to their ethnicity estimates and it looks like another big change.
My English (& NW Europe) component has dropped from 77% to 55%, Scottish and Irish was 21% but is now 34% Scottish and 9% Irish. The other 2% is from Norway.

I can account for 6% of the Irish, but the rest of my tree only has English people on it. :-S

This is my 3rd ethnicity estimate since having my DNA test

1st Estimate: 63% English, Welsh & N.W. Europe; 37% Scottish &Irish
2nd Estimate: 72% English, Welsh & N.W.Europe; 28% Scottish & Irish

NOW....
England & N.W.Europe: 44%
Wales: 36%
Ireland: 15%
Germanic Europe: 3%
Scotland: 2%

It's good to see the Home Nations being split up more. And from some of the surnames on my matches it doesn't surprise me that they have found some Germanic DNA ..... but where was it hiding before? :-S ;-)

I took a quick look, Kense, and I find I now have a very small percentage of Norway in there too. It's still massively British though.

OH's has changed quite a lot compared with mine.

Thank you Kensie, I think.

I've known about paternal grandmothers two separate Irish ancestors BUT how have they made me as much SCOTTISH? :-S :-S :-S :-S :-S And nearly as much Welsh.

They can't even give me Northern France to cover my very strong Channel Islands ancestry. I think it may be lumped in with southern England.

They've also suddenly given the OH a lost of Scots. :-S :-S

Why is it that when Ancestry tell you you are a certain percentage of an ethnic background and you click on it it then says "no connection"? :-S

It tells me I have links to 2 possible regions of South East England (Kent and Surrey &Sussex) when you click on it again it says no connection.

My maternal Grandmother was Kentish on ALL sides back to at least the early 1600s. and I have DNA matches that prove this.

Same with my 3% Germanic Europe. Click on it and it says "no connection"

I'm beginning to think it's a swizz :-| :-|

EDITED...

SAME WITH MY15% IRISH ..... No connections to anywhere!!!!
or my 2% Scottish!

It seems to have sorted itself out now.... must have been a glitch :-0

Hi Jemima

Are you saying that you are given matches in those areas? I get some featured matches in my main region but not in any of the others.

Hi nameslessone :-)

If you mean matches to people sharing DNA with me then I get them from all over the world. The reason I know I have matches from certain areas, like Kent for instance, is that I have identified the people from my Family Tree. Sometimes they add where they are from too.

The problem I had was a glitch cos now it's working.


If you look at the photo of my DNA ethnicity estimate that I have uploaded to my Keepsafe (link) you will understand the problem I had.

https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/keepsafe/asset/details/133294757

When I was clicking on the sections where it said they matched my DNA to it was coming up "no connection". But now it's actually giving me a lot of information when I click on the same thing including the ancestors on my tree from those areas.

My first DNA ethinicity showed a strong German and Scandinavian connection which reflected my dads paternal side.
His father was German

His mum always said she had welsh connections but never found that

The family were predominantly south east London for many generations

Then ancestry did a dna revision and the German side was lost and English more predominant which could be mums side

Now the German side is back again with the latest predictions


Makes you wonder how they are calculating ?

Makes you wonder ---- doesn't it just!

Jemima - fancy being told you may not be Welsh after all your hard work!

If, for instance, I click on Ireland all I get is history no match suggestions. I just get 'featured' names if I click on Southern England.

If I go to my DNA matches and click on Map then I get a few matches who have recorded where they live.

Both OH and I know of some Irish ancestry but we both suddenly have a lot of added Scots whilst our Irish figures have stayed about the same. I actually did a chart showing the various results. My Norway, France & Jewishness has more or less stayed the same but my Englishness is all over the place.

I previously downloaded results to My Heritage and acquired Iberia and did a new one with Living DNA who say I am 100% English, Irish & Welsh (???). No Scots, no Northern Ireland and no Europe!!

Confusing!

Names

I like the fact they they have now split Irish & Scottish rather than lumping them both altogether.

Although in saying that if you add my Irish & Scottish together it now comes to more than when lumped together and my English has reduced.

So now I have 28% Irish, 24% Scottish (before Irish & Scottish was 44%), 28% English & North Western Europe.
Also Norway has increased to 5%. France has increased to 13%. Germanic Europe has reduced to 2%.

I too had a LivingDNA test done and that now says 41.5% Irish but only 1.4% Southwest Scotland and Northern Island, the rest is broken down to England with no mention of France, Norway or Germany!

I suppose really, the larger the database you have to measure the DNA against the more able you are to refine the results.
Certainly I prefer Ancestry because it is showing my French connection which I was expecting. :-)

I've just come across this 'conversation' on another forum :
https://www.whowhenwheregenealogy.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=184

This forum has taken the place of the old WDYTYA one.

There are a couple of links mentioned which are also worth a look.

That was interesting, nameslessone, and agree with the person who says most DNA is "typical figures for English people with no recent immigrant ancestry"

I had my DNA tested at 'My Heritage', and am quite happy with knowing I'm 40 something % Celtic, 40 something % Northern European, and 9.3% Iberian!
I've traced my dad's line through his mum (Cornish - ie Celtic) back to a death in 1088, and know there's some Norman there, I mean, I wonder where Oliver de Dinan, who came over with William the Conquerer originated!
The Normans were Northern European.
My mum's line, though living in Hampshire for years, is mainly Suffolk - Vikings, therefore Northern European, though I have found a Doutch in Gloucester - but Doutch's were originally from Holland in the 16th century - Northern European again.
The Iberian bit - well, Cornwall, knights, crusades, sailors etc - and we don't know for sure who my dad's dad was!

Your Oliver de Dinan was presumable from Dinan, which is just inland from St Malo, so maybe just into Brittany from Normandy. Nice wee place.

Yes, he was, grannyfanny.
The name was slowly anglicised to Dinham.
I've actually managed to trace a few others to villages along a road in Brittany, by their names.

...then there's my Cornish Landeryou's.
There's a place in Brittany called Landerneau.
I'm still rummaging around about that one!

Mine are called Deacon, and came from Acquigny, near Louviers, south of Rouen, so D'Acquigny.

Did they end up in Cornwall?

I've just dug out my original Living dna map which actually shows I'm about 12.6% Spanish and Scandinavian.. (6.7 & 5.9)

MH says I am 38.4% English, 18.3% North & West Europe, 14.4 Scandi, and only 3.2% Irish Scots/Welsh The last two being a huge surprise. Then I'm 22.5 % Iberian.
Now one of my 6th gr grandfathers came from a Cornish family (traced back to early 1500's) - so that possibly gives me a trace of iberian but why so much. Have they made my 25% ish Channel Islands Iberian.

All these differing results just add to confusion. I like the Living DNA results as they break it down almost to counties. Apart from a 'rogue' result from East Anglia I can follow the results down to the Cornish ancestors and after that they must just be faint traces.

I find the breaking down of DNA to specific countries, let alone counties, confusing.

How do they determine the DNA so precisely?

My Samuel Doutch died in Southampton in 1886. Absolutely no Hampshire in him.
He was born in 1825 in Somerset.
Will he have Somerset DNA? Possibly, but it would be fairly recent.
The name 'Doutch' was an "ethnic" surname given in the first instance to immigrant weavers from the Netherlands during the 14th and 15th Centuries, so an immigrant family - bearing North European DNA.

His parents married in Somerset.
Samuel's mother, Mary's surname was Hallett.
According to 'Ancestrey': Hallett - English (mainly Somerset and Devon): from the Norman personal name Hallet or Aylett, pet forms of Aylard (see Allard).
So, Norman origin - Northern European.

I am a descendant of Samuel and a widow, maiden name Elborough.
Apparently, according to Family History sites, Elborough is a deviation of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, however there is a village called Elborough just outside Weston-Super-Mare.
If 'Elborough' is a derivation of 'Aldeburgh' - then it's North European - Suffolk was a Viking settlement.
If it's after the village, which came first, the surname, or the village?

I ask this question because, on my Cornish side, some families' surnames are the name of the place they lived/owned.
I have de Hornicotes on the Cornish side. When Robert de Hornicote 'acquired' Tintagel, he changed his name to 'de Tyntagel'. His son kept the surname 'de Tyntagel' until he sold the place to the Earl of Conwall, then he reverted back to 'de Hornicote'.
I have Respryn's who lived in Respryn, but both families were probably Norman.

There are a few 'truly' Cornish names in my tree - Carminowe - but the name has now disappeared, Trewynnard, Trenoweth, Jory, Polkinghorne and Truran, but these are all mixed with Norman DNA.
Then I have my 7 x grandmother (Surname Jory) marrying a 'Messer' - who was born in Cornwall.
Origin of 'Messer'? The Jewish name is from German Messer 'knife' or Yiddish meser.

My mum's mother's side came from Suffolk for generations - G granny only moved South because she had a child out of wedlock.
Having said that, my GG grandfather's name was Baggott - I can trace them back generations in Suffolk - but 'Baggott' is considered a name predominately from the Midlands - however, it is a Norman name!.

Mum's dad's side, appear to be Hampshire/Isle of Wight - but I've been stumped by the name Scraggleford, and variations thereof - 'Scragelford', Scraggle', Scragle etc.

They seem to appear in Romsey/North Baddesley in the mid/ late 17th Century, with my 7 x grandfather, William Scraggle, whose son William Scragelford was born in 1693, - so not likely to be an 'ancient English or Hampshire family'!
The Scragglefords stayed in the Romsey/North Baddesley area, apart from one, who went to Twyford, Berkshire, where he ran a pub. The name has now died out.

That's why I think DNA by county (for me) is too convoluted! :-D

...sorry, didn't realise that was so long :-S

Omg. I have just looked at my living dna on line again. Well, they have completely reorganised the precedence of the counties Making my ‘rogue’ east anglia the most relevant!
Now I am completely lost. Unless all three of my brick walls are in East Anglia :-S

With the new matches on there I am matched with my first cousin x1 removed then it drops to distant cousins at about 29 and 25 cms. Not much help as I have no idea where any of them fit.

Time for a complete rethink.