Which test should mum have to determine "ethnicity", please?

[JustinL]

Hi Lisa,

I'll state from the onset that I am hugely sceptical about BioGeographical Analysis (BGA) derived from autosomal DNA tests. The science is simply insufficiently advanced, and the reference databases with which your DNA will be compared are too small.

You can determine your own ethnicity by calculating the contribution of each ancestor at the end of each ancestral line, e.g. if one of your eight great-grandparents was 100% Irish, then you are about 6% Irish.

How many generations ago does the purely Norwegian ancestor appear? If it's more than 5 generations back, i.e. your 3rd great-grandparents, the quantity of inherited DNA may well be negligible.

I really think your money and time would be better spent in researching the non-American lines that you know about.

Justin "The sceptical Engineer" 

[Lisa in California]

Kim, thank you for letting me know about the sample differences.  I will be sure to ask my mum if she would rather just have the swab test done.

Ruskie, I can picture the reaction when declaring the package.   

Hi Justin:
Thank you very much for your feedback.  I, too, was skeptical when a friend had her DNA tested a few(?) years ago. I am still not a real believer, but I think now might be the time for my family to try, just to satisfy our curiosity.  With my mum's health declining, this is a bit of a time-sensitive topic.

I started researching my ancestors right after I finished a college history course.  Through the years, I stopped and started researching, as time allowed.  It wasn't until we purchased our first computer that genealogy finally became more than just a hobby; it was a way to find out about the relatives and ancestors whom I never met and to learn more about where they lived and what life was like during those time periods.

We have a copy of a letter that was written in 1932, written by a family member stating her ancestor was Israeli-French and was a silk merchant (I think that was the phrasing).  No relatives to whom I spoke truly believed this statement.  With the amazing help and research by RootsChatters, we tracked down my previously-"known" English-born ancestor to his real birthplace in the Netherlands. We found out that he was from a Jewish family; not a Church of England family.  This sparked my interest in finding out what other surprises I might find.

Going back 5 generations, we believe that all but one were English or Irish (with possibly one ancestor born in France).  I don't know when our Ibbotsons left Norway, to settle in England.   

After reading everyone's interesting points today, we will determine if mum should take a DNA test and if so, which one would be best for our needs (in this case, possibly learning about our very distant past - even if it is to read that we only have 2% of this or 5% of that).  When I first found out that my English-born ancestor Mr. DeJongh was not born in England, it wasn't that I didn't believe it -- I was almost disappointed.  If possible, I would like to find out what minute traces might be in my mum's DNA prior to discovering a "foreign" birthplace on my own or with the help of others.     Of course, with mum's new interest in having her DNA tested, it could be interesting for her to see results (knowing that they may not be entirely correct).

Thank you all for your interest and guidance.   

[JustinL]

Hi Lisa,

I can understand your desire to have your ailing mum tested. Good luck!

Have none of the expert rootschatters been able trace your roots back to the primordial pool?

You wrote,'If possible, I would like to find out what minute traces might be in my mum's DNA prior to discovering a "foreign" birthplace on my own.'

Surely, unless you happen to be of the 'First Nation', your DNA will be purely European. As Ruskie mentioned, no autosomal test will be able to distinguish between the countries of the British Isles. Moreover, British DNA is probably very similar to Dutch DNA and the DNA from other northern European countries.

[hurworth]

It probably doesn't matter much which company you use, but if you choose Ancestry or FamilyTreeDNA you can upload to Gedmatch (free) and play around with the admixture tools on their site.  Admixture estimates will improve over time.  The important thing is to capture that sample.

The thing with Europe or anywhere is that there are no distinct genetic boundaries.....there's a continuum of DNA clusters/groupings across Europe and the same in Asia and in Africa.

However, if the test shows some Ashkenzi Diaspora or West Africa I'd really sit up and take notice.

[Ruskie]

However, if the test shows some Ashkenzi Diaspora or West Africa I'd really sit up and take notice.

May I ask why?

[hurworth]

However, if the test shows some Ashkenzi Diaspora or West Africa I'd really sit up and take notice.

May I ask why?

Because there would be no explanation for that in our tree, and they are also quite distinct, whereas I'm not certain that there really is such a distinction between British Isles and Scandinavian for example.

I use it as an example because a relative received FtDNA results back for two of her relatives and one has some Ashkenazi Diaspora and the other has some Western African, both of which aren't common in our part of the world.

[Ruskie]

Oh thanks hurworth. 

It's just that I have some Ashkenazi and I thought you might be implying that I'm special in some way. 

I believe I know who mine comes from.

I apologise for my lack of knowledge, but I think that sometimes small amounts of certain ethnicities  can be errors - there is a term for it I believe, but I don't recall what it is.

[Lisa in California]

Thank you again to all who have posted and for raising very interesting points.  Perhaps at this time, I should see if I can look at my friend's report again, to determine what it was in his results that made me want to have our family tested.

Thank you all for your help and guidance.   

[Lisa in California]

As time was ticking on and we had not made a decision which test to have done, we settled on the less-expensive one offered by Ancestry (just to get it done).

While the test came back with somewhat expected results - perhaps I don't know enough about how results are determined - I was surprised with the percentages.  I was expecting a (much) higher percentage for Great Britain.

Ireland - 68%
Europe West and Scandinavia - totaled 21%
Great Britain - 7%
and traces from Iberian Peninsula and Europe East
(with less than 1% Africa)

I'm pleased that we had the test done.  Now I'm on a mission to find out more about her 4 English ancestors.

Thank you for your guidance with the tests.  I hope to eventually talk my brother into having one done as well.   

PS  The results did show one 1st-2nd cousin match, a few 3rd-4th cousin matches and a number of other matches.  We already knew about the 2nd cousin.  I found a 3rd-4th cousin match; I didn't realize our ancestor's brother's family ended up in the states (we are Canadian).  It will be interesting to find out if we can find other distant relatives.