RootsChat.Com
General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: jeanharris on Wednesday 02 January 19 04:07 GMT (UK)
-
My DNA results tell be I have 2% European Jew!
I just wanted to know how far back would this be?
I have been told by a very distant cousin that it was way back a family that came to England from Germany.
Thankyou Jean.
-
Jean, It is impossible to say. Ethnicity results at present are unreliable, though they are heavily plugged by the vendors.
If ethnicity estimates are relied upon at all, they appear to indicate roots thousands rather than hundreds of years ago.
In your situation I would take note of what this distant cousin has said, ask him/her what their sources are, and try to verify the information through a documented paper trail.
Regards Margaret
-
Thankyou Margaret.
I will get in touch with her again.
The famly were the Smitherman’s my Greatgrandmother was the daughter of Richard Hunt and Mary Ann Hunt nee Smitherman.
-
You don't say which company you tested your DNA with. If you test with different companies, or do a free upload of your results onto another DNA database, e.g. MyHeritage, you will probably find as I did that your results vary quite substantially.
My original autosomal DNA test with Family Tree DNA showed I was 63% British Isles, 32% Western and Central Europe and 5% Finland and Northern Siberia.
Then they changed their minds and gave all their customers new readings - I now became British Isles 52%, Scandinavia 33%, Iberia 11%, Jewish Diaspora - Sephardic 3%, and a trace element of West Middle East.
OK, great, but then a genealogist distant cousin offered to upload my results onto MyHeritage, and they made me Irish/Scottish/Welsh 60.2%, Scandinavian 19.3%, Finnish 4.9%, Iberian 6.8%, Italian 2.1%, Baltic 4.7%, West Africa 1% and Nigerian 1%. Well, I've always regarded myself as a citizen of the world, and now I have the proof!
I think the moral is, don't take this ethnicity stuff too seriously, especially the little bits and pieces of DNA like 2%.
Harry
-
Thankyou Harry.
It was Ancestry Australia. I understand what you are saying.
When I first received my results I had 45% Irish which I would expect as my Grandmother and family were from Near Belfast and only 1% European Jew then they update the test and then only 5% Irish and 2% Jew!