My DNA Experience as a Newbie

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Just marking this page for reference

xin

[dowdstree]

Thank you for your blog Paul. I have found it very informative and it has answered a number of questions I have about doing a DNA test.

What I found most interesting was your results which gave your ethenticity breakdown as 86% British and then broke this down  further to Southern England, Scotland etc.

This is exactly what I would be looking for. My paternal line were originally from Ireland with 1 Scottish gg grandfather (all proven by records and other family members) My late mother's family were all from Scotland (again proven as above) except for her father who I believe may have been from England. This is the area I would like to prove/disprove.

May I assume that the Ancestry DNA Test could possibly give me the breakdown I am looking for ? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Dorrie

P.S. I am going to be away now until Friday

 

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I am getting impatient waiting...


xin

[davidft]

May I assume that the Ancestry DNA Test could possibly give me the breakdown I am looking for ? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

No it will not. In truth autosomal DNA tests do not tell you your ethnic inheritance. Don't believe me do the same test with several different companies and you will get several different results.

The way the tests work is to take your DNA and compare them with sample populations they have. There are a number of problems with this, first some of the samples are very small, second different companies use different sample populations and third no one can unequivocally say any of the sample populations are correct.

In truth the DNA companies rely on peoples ignorance of the subject when taking the tests. Whilst what you get may amuse you it should be treated as no more than a bit of fun. It is certainly not scientific fact. This has been covered in many of the threads on here before as well as on other sites should you want to search them out

[dowdstree]

Thank you for your reply davidft it has given me food for thought and maybe what I am actually looking for from a DNA test is impossible - a breakdown of my British/Irish ethenticity.
 
Dorrie

[Mart 'n' Al]

Does the 86% perhaps suggest that your Irish and Italian heritage comes from British people who established themselves in those countries further back?

Martin

[Maiden Stone]

Does the 86% perhaps suggest that your Irish and Italian heritage comes from British people who established themselves in those countries further back?

Martin

My mother was under the impression that her maternal grandmother's people were Irish. Through documented evidence I found out that they were settled in Lancashire, England since 16thC and probably well before. However legend has it that the area was settled by Vikings/Norsemen expelled from Ireland by High King Brian Boru (died 1014 at Battle of Clontarf, fighting Vikings). So my mother was wrong and possibly right as well about her grandmother's people coming from Ireland. She thought there was a military link; she imagined smart army uniforms rather than horned helmets and battle-axes. (OK the horned helmets might be another myth.)    Some of her father's people were also in that part of Lancashire in 1500s. If I did a DNA test I would expect to find some Scandinavian input. Given that my mother's ancestors married various degrees of cousins for several hundred years I'd be interested to know whether that would concentrate or dilute the suspected Scandinavian content. 

[hurworth]

What I found most interesting was your results which gave your ethenticity breakdown as 86% British and then broke this down  further to Southern England, Scotland etc.

This is exactly what I would be looking for. My paternal line were originally from Ireland with 1 Scottish gg grandfather (all proven by records and other family members) My late mother's family were all from Scotland (again proven as above) except for her father who I believe may have been from England. This is the area I would like to prove/disprove.

May I assume that the Ancestry DNA Test could possibly give me the breakdown I am looking for ? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Dorrie

P.S. I am going to be away now until Friday

I have access to kits at Ancestry that don't break it down into such specific regions at all.  They're probably too mixed to be able to separate it out.

If that's what you're after LivingDNA might suit you better, or you could choose parents from the same part of Britain so you're not very diverse.

Someone whose been looking at DNA for a while would be better placed to answer your questions.

[panda40]

Tagged your post so I can follow your journey. I hope to get a DNA kit this coming weekend if my relatives took my hint about a suitable present. Fingers crossed.
Panda