Ethnicity inheritance

[Lisa in California]

...The Wikipedia definition of ethnicity is, I think, a good one:

Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language, dialect, religion, mythology, folklore, ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, or physical appearance. Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with many groups having mixed genetic ancestry.

I agree; very well written.  Thank you for sharing it.

[brigidmac]

i attended a talk about dna by turi king
she mentioned a group of people with small amounts of african dna  from yorkshire and explained the origin
its fascinating

* im not sure you understood about location

if you search your dna matches by location ie africa
it will calibrate according to the people on their tree who have that birth place or residence
its usual for finding the group of people with 1 very distant ghanain  (..or whatever).
I used that as example because i have the privelege of managing my friends dna ,his grandfather was african .and his matches are from or in ghana specifically + descendents of people from sierra leone and africa unknown

its also useful for pinpointing groups from a small place
for example one of my ancestors came from Bugbrook Northampts england
by using that specific location I was able to find distant matches with ancestors from there and we collaberated to confirm our connection back to 1700s siblings
having several dna matches descended from an ancestor confirms that the paper trail is correct + weve not got confused by other people with similar or same surname GARDNER/GARDENER

[Lisa in California]

Hi brigidmac,

I’ve actually tried searching by location (using Anc*try’s map feature) in the past without much success.  My ancestors arrived in Canada between c1820-1870.  I believe there were less than 5 DNA matches with folks in Canada.  There were perhaps 15 DNA matches with folks in the UK, several in Australia and 70+ matches just with folks in New England (America).  (I don’t remember the total amount of American DNA matches [by location] but it could have been close to 150 matches.)  I gave up searching by location as I couldn’t find any reason why I had so many American matches.

Since that time, I’ve discovered a possible reason for high American matches.  I have numerous matches with people who have Mumfords in their trees - their Mumfords left England and settled in Rhode Island and Virginia during the 1600s.  I have not found proof, but I believe my Mumford ancestors were related to the “American” Mumfords.  Of course, having Mumfords in the trees could just be a coincidence and I could be related through entirely different lines.

I spent a bit of time tonight searching matches by location.  While I didn’t find anything for me or my brother (yet) I was successful finding a distant relative for my mum’s paternal side (in Ireland).  I know how we are related as my mum’s second cousin is also a match with this person.  So, I have had success after only looking for a couple of hours.

Thank you for mentioning searching by location. 

Note: when I can’t sleep, I tend to search for DNA matches for surname and birthplace.  Tonight, I used Anc*try’s map search feature.  That is how I found my mum’s match.

We’ve had a busy week or so trying to create garden paths with concrete and forms; I suppose I should stop for tonight as we still have more to do tomorrow.  Good night for now.  Lisa