Ancestry and Ethnicity Results

[lullaby]

My major brickwall relates to my 3xgt g/father who was born on Tortola (now part of British Virgin Islands) in c 1799 and was of mixed race - known through family legend, not dna!   This was probably the main reason I have had my dna tested: the hope that I might find someone to help take my ancestry on that family side further back.   Notwithstanding that, I fully accept that our results are to be taken lightly.

Over the past months I have been trawling through my cousins, sorting them out by way of shared matches into colour-coded family groups.   At 17cM I discovered a cousin of mainly African ethnicity and since then I have been also checking that section.   So far I have nearly 40 cousins of mainly African descent.

I am still very much a dna novice and as such highly apprehensive of getting too excited - especially as I have noticed a surprisingly large number of my cousins have traces of African ethnicity.   My question is this - is it commonplace for people with (shall we say) European ethnicity to accumulate cousins of African heritage from their relatives over the centuries?

My results show no African ethnicity but some known living cousins show a trace.

I hope this makes sense.

[avm228]

Do you know where the 40 cousins of mainly African descent now live? Can you link them with each other, and with known cousins in the relevant section of your tree?

I think you’ll need to do quite a bit more detective work to be satisfied that they, or any of them, are evidence of your own African ancestry.

[brigidmac]

I totally believe in the ethnicity function
My mother had a Jewish Russian grandfather
Her dna is 24percent, European jewish mine is 12 percent

She doesn't have any cousins related to him but a few second cousins ....who are mostly 100 percent European jewish..

Third and 4 th cousin matches and once twice removed among younger generations
 have led us to a mutual great (great)grandfather b1850
& potential links to her Russian great grandmother and to a generation beyond

You can contact your matches and ask how they relate to each other
Also if you have any living family members from an older generation its very helpful if they test too

My mothers half cousin tested hes 30 years younger than her but same generation as far as DNA is concerned .

From our results I expect that you will find a lot of your relatives with African descent will come from your 3x ggfather or his siblings ...others will be because another ancestor married an African
Sorting into groups definitely helps.
 

[lullaby]

Thanks for your comments and advice.  I still have a long way to go as I jumped from 11cM down to 7cM to try and preserve some of the connections which will shortly be lost.

So far only a handful of these cousins have largish trees and they are all in the USA.  Also this particular ancestry is a rather sensitive subject which many people would prefer not to discuss.

Do you know why some of the ethnicity estimates are incomplete?   I have noticed several which only cover about 50% or so.

Again, thanks

[brigidmac]

Is it an option that you can opt out of being public ,?

[lullaby]

I did wonder about that but it seemed odd to have some results but not others.  I looked for a faq section on site quickly but without success.

[Galium]

If you go to your DNA test settings (link top right on your DNA page that has 'Ethnicity' - 'DNA matches' -'Thrulines' links) you will see in the 'Privacy' section that there are two options for displaying ethnicity to your matches. 

So if your match has chosen 'Your DNA matches can only see the portion of your ethnic regions and Genetic Communities™ they have in common with you.', you won't see all of their ethnicity estimate, if it has components that you don't also have.

[lullaby]

Galium - many thanks for pointing this out.   Much appreciated.

Lesley

[brigidmac]

Very interesting my cousin has just tested and has 2percent Cameroon Congo western Bantu
Normally I would ignore that level but he had a message from a match in texas who has traced one side of her family back to a slave lady and slave owners
The research seems to have been thorough and cousin does have another match with16 percent from that region