Mam's Welsh back into the 1600s. Ancestry says I'm 55% Irish?

[Bates51]

I know this post is old, but remember it's genetics, and they don't know country borders. The Irish genetically, are pretty much the same as the Welsh and those from the Scottish Highlands

[davidft]

The Ancestry Academy has a number of short films that explain DNA and ethnicity. You can see the titles here

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/academy/course/ancestry-dna-101


The Ancestry Academy is found under the Extras tab at the top of the Ancestry home page

[Renatha]

I'm Australian - grandparents Welsh, English on one side - g.grandparents English, English, Irish, German on other side - all of them going WAY back in their various countries. I had a similar question as my DNA results were 53% Irish, 20% Scandinavian, 10% Europe East & 5% Great Britain??

[Spike H]

Using the same method I used to make sense of my own results
your Welsh grandparent = approx 25% Irish (Celtic)
your Irish great grandparent = 12.5% Irish
That's 37.5% of your 53%.
Add in anyone with Cornish Ancestry.

[argyllshiregirl]

Not sure if this helps, but back in 2014, it was discovered that all blue-eyed people in the world were descended from 1 man who had a genetic mutation. Only 8% of the world has blue eyes. More than 50% of people in the UK have blue eyes. This revelation came about after a well preserved skeleton of a 7,000 year old man was found in a cave in Spain. His DNA showed that he had blue eyes, which was unexpected. It has been found that the original blue eyed ancestor was likely a man from the area around the Black Sea. Could our ancestors have moved slowly west from that area, through Europe and the Iberian Peninsula before arriving in Britain?

I am interested to see what I get from my autosomal test from FTDNA. I was born in Scotland and 100% of my known ancestors are also Scottish. My father did Y DNA and got Irish origins, which he expected being an Argyll Scot. I also have some Lowlanders (Dumfries, Lanarks, Ayrs) in my tree and some Inverness and Skye which might point to Viking connections. My mother is very blue-eyed so maybe I will have Iberian too? We shall see!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/revealed-first-ol-blue-eyes-is-7000-years-old-and-lived-in-a-cave-9086310.html

[Renatha]

Not sure if this helps, but back in 2014, it was discovered that all blue-eyed people in the world were descended from 1 man who had a genetic mutation. Only 8% of the world has blue eyes. More than 50% of people in the UK have blue eyes. This revelation came about after a well preserved skeleton of a 7,000 year old man was found in a cave in Spain. His DNA showed that he had blue eyes, which was unexpected. It has been found that the original blue eyed ancestor was likely a man from the area around the Black Sea. Could our ancestors have moved slowly west from that area, through Europe and the Iberian Peninsula before arriving in Britain?

I am interested to see what I get from my autosomal test from FTDNA.

I'm sure you'll be fascinated with the results. I was interested in what you quoted above. I have blue eyes and am tall and fair, when I was young I used to think I was adopted as my mother was much shorter with dark hair and green eyes, as were most of her family. My father had blue eyes and was fair, but not all that tall. So when an aunt gave me a portrait of great-grandparents, it was clear my German g-grandfather was lanky and fair, so I expected DNA results to have a high % Scandanavian/Western European. Not so. Irish 53% then Scandanavian 20% and Eastern European 10%! My g-grandmother who married the German g-grandfather was Irish, but that's the only Irish, but as someone pointed out Welsh can add to that, and my grandfather was Welsh. No Cornish but long line from Somerset - is that close enough? I guess it's all random anyway. And fun to speculate. All the best with yours

[argyllshiregirl]

I think I heard in high school science that there is something like 16,000 possible gene combinations with any 2 parents. That means you could, in theory, have 16,000 children without ever having 2 the same, barring identical twins. My husband and I have 5 children. He and I are both brown-haired and so is just about everyone in both our known families. Our second son had white blond hair among 4 brunets. It must have come from somewhere back in the family tree ... and not the mail man as many people have suggested! You should see my 5 foot 6 husband standing beside our middle son who is 6 foot 2. My father and brother are that height, but it looks odd to see my husband and son together.

I would also add that anyone getting DNA testing done should be prepared for surprises. Our known ancestry from oral tradition and paper documents is not always ironclad proof of anything. My father does family tree research with another man of the same family line and surname. A few years ago, Dad, that man and some cousins of the man all did Y DNA together. Everybody got the close DNA matches they were expecting except the research partner who was not even in the ballpark! Apparently, somewhere in the last 100 years, there was what I call a paternity event. It could be as simple as an adoption which were not regulated, documented or even ever mentioned to the child in question. It could be an extramarital affair. It could be a baby of an unwed girl raised by her parents as her sibling. His expected Scottish roots turned out to be more Germanic in origin. I may get a surprise too! I will have to wait and see now.

[diplodicus]

Surprises indeed. My cousin discovered that his father was born out of wedlock and had been "given" to a maiden aunt of his natural mother. He went "down the pit" at fourteen and she took all his wages. If he wanted any spending money, he had to work Saturday overtime and those earnings were his to keep.

She didn't want him to get married so on the morning of his wedding, he found she had cut up all his shirts, cuffs and collars!

The good old days?

[sunny51]

I had a quick flip through the replys to your original post and didn't notice this. So here is a thought.
Your mams DNA was inherited from her mother who inherited it from her mother who got it from her mother and so on back some 60,000 years ago and it is passed down without much change from mother to daughter.
 Your recent documented welsh history does not show far enough back for the DNA results you have.
So if you are 55% Irish it is from more ancient DNA.
Somewhere you will have an Irish grandmother who came to Wales. She will have ancestors who wintered over in the Iberian regions during the last ice age.

Your haplogroup should be a good indication of where your mother line came from.