RootsChat.Com

Thanks for everone's thoughts. I signed up here to get people's thoughts and I am grateful to everyone who has replied. I understand what you mean by Donkeys as we share 80% of the DNA of tapeworms and 60% of a banana (this may be apocryphal but it tells a tale). Also 18% of African Americans are related to Edward III and (this is the most common reply face-to-face) we are all related to Ghengis Khan. I get it, but these things also apply to reply to non-helical DNA and to the vast inside part that lies between my father's Y chromosone and my mothers mtDNA. What Genetic Ancestor claims, for instance, is that over 5% of my mtDNA matches that of the mtDNA of 2 people whose DNA was collected in Denmark and that there is a 1% match with one person the Iranian tribes I mention. This only proves that we share a mother within the last 10,000, but the strength of the match imply that this could be much more recent. Regarding the Ashkenazi connection a huge amount of work, as you might has expect, as been done on the  mtDNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jewish_origins (huge health warning). Genetic Ancestor would, in theory, be able to draw a more definite link to fewer and more positively identified maternal ancestors, hence being able to say Belarus Ashkenazi, instead of simply Belarus.

I don't honestly care if I am British, Danish, Jewish, Roma, Iranian, or whatever, only that I may have a long range link with different peoples and whatever this may turn out to be. At nine years old, ignorant of the controversial aspects of my extended family, I stood up in class and gave an account of the broad movements and partition of humanity in Eurasia since the fall of the Roman Empire. I find the specifics of History quite interesting but not nearly as the undercurrents of humanity that lay below.

I do know that my maternal grandmother and her sister, went under an assumed name, probably because they had escaped from a nomadic community that would harm them if found.

@ Guy Etchells - I agree that on reading this passage the claims seem extreme, but rather than being firstly ethnic, most results are geographic in nature in relation to a supposed database giving it an ethnic dimension. This database may not exist or not be as reliable or complete as proclaimed, but I am convinced that there is no sinister desire to divide by fictional ersatz racial categories. A guilty verdict seems likely, but the jury is still out. I will encourage Genetic Ancestor Ltd to post here so that they can defend themselves or be justly taken apart

I know there are holes in Oppenheimer's research but there seems to be evidence of distinct geographic distribution of genetic material. I understand that a majority of people in Britain and Ireland fall into a similar group distinct from continental Europe. I am interested what people think of this.

@ Ruskie - Proud of diverse ancestry? Why not? I believe we are all equal but also different, and I find difference interesting. If my mt results were valid, I would find it fascinating that I had better matches in a database collected in Russia than in my birth place in the UK. I would find it interesting that I had heritage in Northern Iran and Balouchistan and in the Faroes. My Genetic Ancestor mt map would suggest perhaps a nomadic ancestry which I find inherently more interesting. Many of us feel detached from our cultural milieu and are searching for something more (ask people of African Caribbean origin in England for instance). This makes us easy prey, but I have learnt and I am already moving on.

Something which is impossible to verify and therefore strictly speaking invalid is a spatial correlation  between geographical spikes in interest in my artwork as delivered by google analytics and some of Genetic Ancestor's geographical loci. Unverifiable and vague, but there is a hint of a hint of something. Maybe.

@ dgibbins - thank you for the encouragement. A number of my relatives have been engaged in the paper trail, but there is nothing beyond my grandparent's generation. Maybe I am descended from aliens

I am no more anxious to be an Ashkenazi than to be related to an untouchable in India, but I am fascinated by the great Ashkenazi civilisation of the Russian pale: Minsk, Pinsk, Kaunas, Kishinev, etc. weakened first by the Russian Empire and then completely obliterated by the Nazis.

I am also powerfully drawn to Sephardic music. Probably means nothing. *shrugs*
   

No worries, I only desire as accurate information as can be reliable and your warnings are welcome. I do understand the limitations of the 'pseudo-science', but exhaustive searches cannot even locate the births of any of my grandparents all of whom were supposedly born in the UK. My family history is shrouded in mystery, many family units producing a 'nordic' looking children with 'South Asian' (very rough indications) looking children over and over again - too often to be explained by marital infidelity. Only expected broad indications from the Y and mt tests knowing also that the vast middle of the family tree would remain hidden. I, too was surprised at the accuracy and very pleased. The matches seemed to coincide with hearsay evidence about Sephardic and Roma ancestry, although the Sephardic part turned out to be, in theory, Ashkenazi from the Jewish pale in the old Russian Empire.

The company is Roots for real or Genetic Ancestor Ltd, who say they have worked with the BBC. They do offer explanations for the accuracy of some of their matches in their database, for instance genetic research into the valleys of North-East Iran just prior to the Bam earthquake.

I welcome your opinions and knowledge and will put them to the company.

I think it's great to have a varied tree. Scottish and Irish links don't surprise me. A quarter of Irish people have strong English ancestry and 1 in 7 and the English have at least one Irish grand parent. The most common name in Scotland is Smith and the second most common in my High School was MacDonald. On top of this the British and Irish are the same people who pre-date the celts, the thing distinguishing the English being a Germanic tongue with only a minor genetic ancenstry with Angles, Saxon, etc..

I was surprised that I had no Irish or Scottish down my mt or Y lines, although I know they exist in the middle of the y-mt 'V' which no test can pick up.

I'm also pretty sure of Roma (Gypsies) in my ancestry, despite my North European appearance (whatever that is). No trace turned up in my mt or Y DNA results. However, my mt tests include 40 mtDNA locations from India, through 6 Iranian tribes, Libya, masses of Southern, Eastern and Western European. This could only be caused by a nomad group leaving and acquiring mtDNA on their journey.