Were your ethnicity estimates a surprise?

[LizzieL]

I was hoping for something exotic to turn up, but sadly mine were rather boring and nothing out of the ordinary considering my tree.

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe (predominantly Southern England) 77%
Ireland and Scotland 16%
Germanic Europe 5%
Norway 2%

A bit more Irish / Scottish than expected.

Ovals of mixed colours on dotted lines mean both maternal and paternal lines for as many generations as I could find, some back to mid 1600s

[bearkat]

Something exotic (Melanesian) came up in my initial results but it has disappeared with recent updates.

I'm also more Irish than i expected.

[Ruskie]

I'm about as expected.
Estimates differ slightly on FTDNA and My Heritage. I have a vague "33% British Isles" on FTDNA and a quite similar "26.2% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh" on My Heritage. I think they lump those in together because to my knowledge I have no Scottish or Welsh ancestry.
Other percentages are European.
I don't really have any desire for anything "exotic" and I fully expect my percentages to change as more people from different countries take tests. 

[Romilly]

The whole point of my taking a DNA test was to try to get some pointers with tracking down my elusive Grandfather...

My results sadly don't help me at all with this:-(

Romilly.

[Mart 'n' Al]

Firstly, specifically, Romilly, you should tell more about your grandfather. There are people in this forum and might be able to help you.
 
More generally,
My parents both came from the same town. Their parents, ie my four grandparents, all came from that same town as well. When I started my research I was sure that I had solid ancestry in that one area. Once I started going further back I found that none of my earlier ancestors came from that town and in fact not even from that part of the country. It just depends how far you go back.  In the same way that I referred to towns and counties, the same applies to countries, or even continents. I am still a little bit confused about my 8% Greek. Or Albanian as another company reported.

Martin

[Romilly]

Martin,

 - I've been asking about my Paternal Grandfather, William James Wilson (1860 - 1937) ever since I joined Rootschat in 2005!! I'm embarrassed to ask about him any further, - as it would take me aeons to 'gather all the previous threads together' :-)

I suspect that most of us who've taken DNA tests have been a little surprised by some of the Ethnicities we seem to have garnered... (!)

I've just finished reading: 'Who We Are and How We Got Here' by David Reich, Pub by OUP. It's not surprising really, considering how our small group of Islands has been settled and colonised over time, that many of us have bits of DNA from all over the place...

Romilly

[Gadget]

Martin

I think Romilly will tell you* that she has been searching for this Wilson grandfather ever since I remember and has many threads. I recall many late night searches over the years

Re ethnicity. The Ancestry estimates correspond to my paper trails - 55% Eng, Wales, NW Europe and 45% Ireland and Scotland.


Gadget

* Just seen that Romilly has replied. I still have a look for him, Romilly, every so often 

[Romilly]

Gadget
Just seen that Romilly has replied. I still have a look for him, Romilly, every so often 

Awwwww, - that's sweet of you Gadget! 

I strongly suspect a name change...

Romilly.

[Mart 'n' Al]

I will try and do better at keeping up. I think it's only 3 years since I started here so I'm still a novice.

I don't know why people are so surprised about having odd little scraps of DNA from far-flung places. Every European nation with the exception possibly of Switzerland had overseas colonies.  Explorers had to do something on their day off...

Martin