Author Topic: DNA test  (Read 930 times)

Offline cathieee

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DNA test
« on: Wednesday 07 November 18 18:24 GMT (UK) »
hi all

i ve just had my DNA results and it states that im 59%irish but it has highlighted in brackets (munster) , 36% english (southern ) in brackets highlighted and 5% french

even though i have pointers for other places in uk and ireland they re not down on my actual list, the reason im confused by this is because basically thats all my nan on my mums side tree, basically my great grand parents on my mums maternal line

but i thought you had half each from each parent ??, my dads side are lancashire/liverpool and most before that ireland, but much further up north not munster

my nans mum was from cork and all her family before her and cork is munster, my nans dad though born in ireland was only half irish, his mum full irish and from cork and way back, but his dad was originally from kent and i have a massive famtree of all the kent line on ancestry, branching out to 1400 s for sure, then further back to the norman invasion, tenuious  though it is, but that will be the 5% french

so as you see it all fits in with my nan s line, but not with any other, just to recap, i ve copied this next bit

reland and Scotland59%
Munster, Ireland *
England, Wales & Northwestern Europe36%
Southern England*
France5%

has anyone got any ideas on this, thanks in advance, ps, no other line in my tree has any other connections with southern england

Offline davidft

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 07 November 18 18:46 GMT (UK) »
Despite their claims these autosomal tests do not tell you your ethnic origins. If they could tell you your ethnic origins properly then you would get the same results from whichever company you tested with, and most people don't.

What these tests tell you is what you have in common with the companies control samples. As different companies have different control samples and interpret things in different ways you end up with differing results, sometimes remarkedly different.

This type of questions comes up on here frequently and the consensus amongst most is these results are just a bit of fun and not to lose any sleep if they do not fit in with your preconceived views or research. Have a look at some of the other threads and you ill see what I mean and what others have said
James Stott c1775-1850. James was born in Yorkshire but where? He was a stonemason and married Elizabeth Archer (nee Nicholson) in 1794 at Ripon. They lived thereafter in Masham. If anyone has any suggestions or leads as to his birthplace I would be interested to know. I have searched for it for years without success. Thank you.

Offline Mart 'n' Al

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 07 November 18 19:12 GMT (UK) »
There have been many discussions on rootschat about this, and it is generally accepted by everybody except the testing companies that ethnicity estimates are little more than a barrel of laughs. They don't tell you how far back they go, so you might have two or three generations of people who were born in Birmingham, but 100 years ago they might have all come from Dublin and 100 years before that from Scotland. They really are meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. I'm still trying to work out a miscellaneous 5% Greek in my heritage which just doesn't fit with anything. However another company analysed my data and said the Greek was actually Albanian.

Martin

Offline cathieee

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 07 November 18 20:38 GMT (UK) »
hi, well it did give a time scale on the ancestry one, it has ethnicity the 1775,1800,1825,1850 etc, i know also that though there s lots of generations in the lancashire, liverpool area in my tree, out of 8 strains, 6 came from ireland, so although theres markers for them in the 1800 s nearly all of them were just visitors so to speak

but its the fact that the munster ireland 59%, southern england kent 36% and france 5% is basically my mums mums lineage and nothing to do with any other grandparents line ??


Offline Sinann

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 07 November 18 20:40 GMT (UK) »
All the Irish results are either Munster, Connacht or Ulster. Leinster most likely gives a England/Wales result.

They give me Munster and Connacht, I have no known connection with either but they are the two region with the most emigration so the area most who have tested originate from.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the region stuff or the whole result for that matter.



Offline cathieee

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 08 November 18 22:04 GMT (UK) »
did nt realize people had such a downer on DNA testing lol, oh well some goods came out of mine because i ve found a 1 st cousin once removed through ancestry who knew my mum and dad when they were first married, they divorced when i was 5 and had had a bad 2 years before that so i have no memories of them as a couple, my dad died when i was 12 too, my mums gone to now, so to hear what they looked and acted like together was just magical to me so there :P

Offline Ruskie

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Re: DNA test
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 08 November 18 22:46 GMT (UK) »
David, Martin and Sinann's replies explain it all well.

No one has a downer on DNA testing (many of us have taken DNA tests). It is just the ethnicity results that you should not take too much notice of - the matches are the plus point of the tests.

Finding matches is generally the reason those of us who have built our family trees take the test. (I also think it is the reason that when we contact our matches many don't reply - they have only taken the test to get ethnicity results and don't have a tree and know nothing about their family history).

I think the Ancestry ads are at fault for giving people the wrong impression - yes, you will get ethnicity results which is the main thing they push with the ads, but they don't tell you they often don't tally with your paper trail. Nor do they tell you how complex it can be to work out your connections with your matches as this likely to be off-putting.

Have you uploaded your raw data to other companies? I suggest you do this so you get an idea about how varied the estimates can be. On December 1 My Heritage are changing their upload policy (removing some of the currently free features I believe), so I suggest you sign up before then: https://www.myheritage.com/dna/upload

The good news is that the ethnicity results do change as more people take the tests and adjustments are made so don't get too worried just yet. :)