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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Lisa in California on Saturday 25 November 17 05:36 GMT (UK)
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After reading some posts, I am beginning to understand a bit about DNA testing. I finally took a DNA test and received my results this week.
Three of the "ethnicity estimates" were:
Ireland/Scotland/Wales 33%
Great Britain 27%
Europe West 13%
The indented bubble under Ireland/Scotland/Wales was
Scotland, with the following explanations
- "Ethnicity Estimate - You probably have relatives who lived in this region in the past few hundred years. Your connection to this region is likely through your ancestry from:
Ireland/Scotland/Wales
Great Britain
Europe West"
- "Places in This Region - Specific places in this region where your family might have lived - Central Scotland & Ulster, Ireland"
To me, "You probably..." sounds like a guess and to my inexperienced mind, seems like a "filler" to my results. Is there a reason why those statements would have been included?
I looked at my brother's results from earlier this year (knowing that there are reasons why they are different from my results) ;) -- two of his results included Ireland (not Ireland/Scotland/Wales) and Great Britain. Could his test only identify Irish DNA and my test was DNA from Irish and/or Scottish and/or Welsh ancestors?
I apologize for my confusing post. I can't come up with a clearer way of stating my results and asking questions that are clear. Thank you in advance for any assistance. Lisa
PS I am delighted that I took the test as it confirmed that a suspected 3rd cousin is truly related to me. :)
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Not long ago Ancestry had an Irish category and no Scottish category, and if you live in Chicago and the highlight of your year is March 17th that's just fine. Scottish was lumped in with Irish. Your brother may have tested when it was just called "Irish"
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Not long ago Ancestry had an Irish category and no Scottish category, and if you live in Chicago and the highlight of your year is March 17th that's just fine. Scottish was lumped in with Irish. Your brother may have tested when it was just called "Irish"
This is a big problem.
I read on a Genealogy blog a few years ago somewhere saying that these companies were forced to alter their geographical 'categories' when they came under pressure from testers in the USA who wanted to see a result showing their 'Irish' or 'Scottish' 'ethnicity'. The companies caved in and created these separate categories. But these categories were unrealistic, because there isn't really much difference in the 'ethnicity' of all the people of north western European heritage.
That is, that English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh 'ethnicity', and other parts of north west Europe, are in reality too similar to be separated, but that is not what some tester want to see!
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Ancestry has renamed the category. It's not called Irish anymore, so people with Scottish, Welsh and Cornish ancestry won't feel left out.
Often, but not always, the distribution of language is association with the distribution of genes. Douglas Hyde learned Gaelic in Ireland and was intrigued to meet people from Scotland that he could converse with in Gaelic. The similar languages suggest similar origins.
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Ancestry has renamed the category. It's not called Irish anymore, so people with Scottish, Welsh and Cornish ancestry won't feel left out.
Often, but not always, the distribution of language is association with the distribution of genes. Douglas Hyde learned Gaelic in Ireland and was intrigued to meet people from Scotland that he could converse with in Gaelic. The similar languages suggest similar origins.
Interesting that they have been grouped together, what is this category called at the moment?
Commercial companies compare customers tests to a very small 'sample' population, as small as less than a dozen 'samples' in some cases but it is only their idea of what makes someone of a certain 'ethnicity'. Also obviously have a vested interest in getting the 'right' result for their 'customers', the one they think their customers will want to see
On the other hand, these quotes, from the link below, are from the largest scientific DNA study ever undertaken and it found there was no 'unique' link between these regions mentioned
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31905764
'A DNA study of Britons has shown that genetically there is not a unique Celtic group of people in the UK.
According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups.'
...groups in Cornwall, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland had such different genetic patterns.
"I had assumed at the very early stages of the project that there was going to be this uniform Celtic fringe extending from Cornwall through to Wales into Scotland. And this has very definitely not been the case," he told BBC News.
The researchers did see distinct genetic groups within those regions but those groups were quite different from each other, according to Prof Donnelly.
"Although people from Cornwall have a Celtic heritage, genetically they are much, much more similar to the people elsewhere in England than they are to the Welsh for example," said Prof Donnelly.
"People in South Wales are also quite different genetically to people in north Wales, who are both different in turn to the Scots. We did not find a single genetic group corresponding to the Celtic traditions in the western fringes of Britain."
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Thank you all very much for your replies; they all make sense. My brother took the test in May, so the category could have changed during the past 6 months. After reading some of the posts in this forum during the past year (and learning a bit about the tests), it still was interesting to receive the results. My research has gone back several generations so taking the test was more out of curiosity and to see if I could find matches with a couple of my favourite surnames, rather than wanting to know my ethnicity. ;)
My son also submitted his DNA sample (when I did) and the interesting thing is I have 179 4th cousins or closer and he has 444 4th cousins or closer! I would guess there is such a difference because I'm Canadian and my husband and son are American (I would guess fewer Canadians have submitted their samples). I would guess it would also depend upon how many of our ancestors' children survived childhood and had their own children.
All of your replies were very interesting; thank you for taking the time to explain. :)
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I took the Ancestry DNA test last May. Originally, they split my Irish from my British Isles ethnicity. I noticed lately that they are all combined now.
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Hi Lweston:
Welcome to RootsChat. I suppose like others have mentioned, they change things as the public wants different results. Am I understanding it correctly - they've combined your Irish and British Isles; or, they now just have one one category for people who are taking the test now? Thank you for letting us know of the latest "trend". :) Lisa
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Actually - I double checked - it used to be Ireland 22%, Britain 7%. Now, it is Ireland/Scotland/Wales 22%, Britain 7%. I didn’t notice exactly when the change happened.
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Hi Lweston: Thank you for clarifying. That sounds like what happened to my brother's results and mine. I hope you are able to find matches with the results (I've now found three from one branch, which is really exciting).
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Ireland is part of the British Isles but not part of Britain, there are some Irish folk who claim to be British but were not born there & were in fact born in Ireland. Something called the UK comes in here, things might change. ;D
Skoosh.
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Here is a link to a summary of the latest and most detailed research on British/UK (in the widest and most encompassing sense!) gene types. The original paper in PLOS1 is a bit mind numbing, but the diagrams are good.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5312697/DNA-map-Britain-Ireland-reveals-Viking-genes.html
Of particular interest is the fact that three migration events can be detected; the Viking influence, the Tudor plantations influx and the Scottish/Irish interchanges.
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Thank you Sallyyorks!
This certainly fits with my DNA showing 41% Scandinavian.
I have only begun looking at my European ancestors in the past few months. On my mother’s side, I can trace back to the Virginia and Maryland colonies. I have a fair amount of confidence in my tree because of the DNA matches I have. So far over 1000 matches to 4th cousin or closer - I have been able to fill out those branches pretty well.
On my father’s side, it looks like both branches immigrated in the mid 1840’s from Ireland, England and Scotland. So, before census data is available.
I have DNA matches to common ancestors on this side of the Atlantic, but none on the European side so it is slower going.
My boyfriend, whose mother’s family migrated from Germany in the early 1900’s, lucked out and had a DNA match with a double cousin in Germany who speaks English. He has helped tremendously with the German records.
I will say that both of us have had wonderful email “conversations” with relatives met through DNA matches. I hope to be as helpful one day.