The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results

[JaneyCanuck]

There you are DevonCruwys! I was going to put out a call if you hadn't been seen in this thread by tomorrow.

If anybody has even a semi-serious interest but is daunted, this is a person to ask. She is extremely knowledgeable.

Yes, this thread is chock full of misunderstanding. And of course, we have Ancestry to blame for a not insignificant bit of it. In my old not so humble opinion.

My long tale of wonder and woe back a few pages is precisely about how a match with an emigrant to the USA took a sledgehammer to my English wall. I'm nowhere near through it yet, but at least I have a way better idea of where the crack is. (I think you'll recognize the tale, DC.)

In my case it was by providing me with an actual surname for my searching, but there are lots of ways that finding emigrant relations could help. Elusive paternal lines of all sorts. Finding a Y-DNA match could point to a candidate for somebody's unknown daddy -- whether he was in the military and spent time in England from overseas during WWII, or his great-great-grandfather's brother sailed away 200 years earlier but his descendants in Sydney or San Francisco have tested and there's your  family.

That's the mixed blessing of Y-DNA: it's only good for the paternal line, but it's the paternal line that is more often the unknown. Of course it only helps if there are male descendants. But for a woman whose parent or grandparent or some way farther back is unknown, autosomal (Family Finder) testing, while it might be complex, could strike it lucky.

It's natural not to "get" it. I was one of the ones who thought: have him spit on the stick, mail it off, and cousins will come out of the woodwork and mysteries will be solved. Well, no. If nobody you would match with tests - or if there is simply no one to match with (as it seems in my paternal line) - that won't happen. But there really are lots and lots of people who are more than willing to point you to resources and hold your hand through the maze.

And as I said ... it's fun. If you like family history, and history, chances are not bad that your curious mind will get hooked on some aspect of genealogical DNA or another.

Now I have to go check out the 25-marker matches that came this week, one for each parent's line ... knowing that they'll amount to nothing ... 87% chance of a common ancestor 24 generations back, oh well. When it ain't at least 37 markers, there's no rush.

[davidft]

This thread has spurred me on to revisit my FTDNA "Family Finder" results and look again at my matches.

I have only ever contacted one of my matches - the one with the highest shared cM. Through googling I discovered that they had lived in the USA but unfortunately had recently died, but I was hoping that someone may be checking their emails - as they were elderly I presumed someone probably organized for them to take the test and may have access to their DNA results. I've had no reply. So for anyone who has taken tests it might be wise to organize for a relative to have access to your details.

I have a renewed enthusiasm and intend to contact others I have matches with. (and hope they can understand English.    )

All my not be lost. A facilitty that ftDNA  now offer is for people to name a person who "inherits" their DNA results when they die. Even if your match did not do this it may be worth contacting ftDNA to see if they can put you in touch with one of his "family". Good luck.

[jojotou]

My ancestry ethnicity results are a little curious to say the least.  I am, according to my paper trail - 100% British but my ancestry results beg to differ.  Out of my great grandparents I have 6 born in England, one in Wales and one in Scotland. Out of my 2 x GG I have 12 in England, one in Wales and three in Scotland.  From my 3 x GG 24 England, 2 Wales & 6 Scotland... So, I was surprised to learn that according to Ancestry.com my genetic ethnicity is as follows:

46% Irish
37% West Europe
11% Scandinavian
3% Great Britain - ONLY 3% really???
2% Italian/Greek
<1% Iberian Peninsula

On 23andMe I come in at a more respectable:

63.1% British & Irish
8.1% French & German
4.5% Scandinavian
20.2% Broadly Northwestern European
2.3% Broadly Southern European
1.8% Broadly European

So, is my extensive paper trail wrong?  Is my Danish 'uncle' really my mother's father?  It's a mystery that's for sure!

~ Jo

[Ruskie]

This thread has spurred me on to revisit my FTDNA "Family Finder" results and look again at my matches.

I have only ever contacted one of my matches - the one with the highest shared cM. Through googling I discovered that they had lived in the USA but unfortunately had recently died, but I was hoping that someone may be checking their emails - as they were elderly I presumed someone probably organized for them to take the test and may have access to their DNA results. I've had no reply. So for anyone who has taken tests it might be wise to organize for a relative to have access to your details.

I have a renewed enthusiasm and intend to contact others I have matches with. (and hope they can understand English.    )

All my not be lost. A facilitty that ftDNA  now offer is for people to name a person who "inherits" their DNA results when they die. Even if your match did not do this it may be worth contacting ftDNA to see if they can put you in touch with one of his "family". Good luck.

Thank you David. I will do that.  That particular match shares 62.89 cM (longest block 22.99) which, unless I have this completely wrong, I believe may be worth chasing up. 

[davidft]

Thank you David. I will do that.  That particular match shares 62.89 cM (longest block 22.99) which, unless I have this completely wrong, I believe may be worth chasing up. 

Yes I think that is definitely worth chasing up. The one match i chased up (or rather who chased me up!) we shared 25.66 cM in common and established we were 4th cousins one removed and we have now verified this with the paper trail. So purely as a guess I would say your contact could turn out to be a second or third cousin. Good luck with the search.

[seemex]

I did the Ancestry DNA just before Christmas and got the results back in January. As did some others, I had it done because another family member had done it and gotten results that were not expected, that being a 4-5% East Asian. Our basic ancestry is British. We are all descendant from three siblings who all had the same father, from Manchester, who's line we can trace, but the mother is another story. The three siblings were all born in China, late 1800s and it was rumored that their mother had been either full or half Chinese. These siblings are all deceased.
The three living descendants, of which I am one, are each from one of the aforementioned siblings, one from each.
All three of us have taken the Ancestry.com DNA test. I have a public tree on Ancestry, one other has a private tree on Ancestry, and the third subject has no tree on Ancestry.
We were all sent a quite lengthy list of possible 3rd and 4th cousin matches.
We all showed up on each other's lists.
We were the only ones with a noticeable Asian percentage.
The results lead me to at least believe that the comparisons were done with a reasonable amount of authenticity.
The only way the three of us connect really, is by the DNA samples.

In addition, I downloaded the Zip file of RAW data, which  was offered, although at the time I didn't see any use for it. I figured I may as well have it since I'd paid for it anyway. I then uploaded that zipped file to gedmatch.com
I also uploaded my .ged file there and that produced quite another array of possible matches with chromosome breakdowns and matches on both Y and X. I'm new at it, so still sorting my way through it.
I have as yet, NOT done the ftDNA

I am interested in finding out more about the identity of our Asian branch.

[Ruskie]

Thank you David. I will do that.  That particular match shares 62.89 cM (longest block 22.99) which, unless I have this completely wrong, I believe may be worth chasing up. 

Yes I think that is definitely worth chasing up. The one match i chased up (or rather who chased me up!) we shared 25.66 cM in common and established we were 4th cousins one removed and we have now verified this with the paper trail. So purely as a guess I would say your contact could turn out to be a second or third cousin. Good luck with the search.

Thanks David.  I contacted two other matches earlier - one sharing 57.58 and the other 50.69, so I am quite hopeful. 

Looking at my FamilyFinder results as compared to my father and husbands YDNA results, I find mine a lot more useful at this point, and there is at least some hope of a connection and the challenge of trying to find the common ancestor.

[PhilMil]

Happy to participate and to have name shared.  Interesting records which have proven links for my family (which has not strayed far from where I am in North Devon!) to relatives in America who are descended from the sister ship 'The Supply' to the Mayflower in 1630 as well as the fabled Roanoak Project in 1587!  The names were Richard Melton and Henry Mylton respectively.  The poet John Milton is ostensibly a relative in the American checks are correct in relation to that element.

Further back - the Romany areas of Eastern Europe are involved - 10000 years apparently.

All good wishes

Philip J Milton

[kaperc]

Well, I did read the entire thread and must say I was so happy to see DevonCruwys and JaneyCanuck post with information I know to be accurate and enthusiastic. Now I can just add to their comments.

First, I became interested in DNA testing when my late brother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. 23andme.com are involved in research projects and as they were associated with a rather large PD foundation, offered free tests to those diagnosed to aid in research. They have offered the same with regard to other diseases. So, he tested and I managed his account for the genealogy benefits. That was the beginning.

Our family has deep British, Welsh, and Ulster Irish roots. The paternal lines have been in the US starting with the Mayflower in the 1600s, but my mother's Irish ancestry was unknown - her family - by the name of McElrea - arrived in 1902 and left no paper records or oral history.

Through DNA testing, we have connected many family lines to our McElrea One Name study - and so far, we are all related. In addition, we discovered very early roots not to Ireland or to Scotland as we expected - but to the Isle of Man. We continue researching to see if we can learn even more about this interesting family.

My husband always thought of himself as 100% English - he was born in Yorkshire. We expected some bits of Norse or Viking, maybe French - but not much. While I don't put a lot of faith in the ethnicity results, they can point one in a different direction at times. Regardless of percentages, he has many, many matches in Ireland and I have yet to find the source. Also, the fact that his YDNA matches are all to a different surname proved that his gggf had taken his mother's name, not his father's. So there is that mystery confirmed and I can stop searching for someone who does not exist!

I did test my own mtDNA, thinking it might help me down the line because my mother's mother was a Fulton, as was her mother, and her husband's mother. I'll let you think about that one.

Suffice to say there are lots of reasons to test and many problems that can be solved. Besides that, I enjoy the dickens out of it, it keeps my brain working, and I've been the moderator for my local genealogical society's DNA interest group for two years, which gives me somewhere to go on a Thursday evening. Testing does not have to be expensive, as there are at least yearly sales from two of the companies - my favorite being FTDNA. I have also shared costs with cousins and just budgeted when I needed to.

I am 68 years old, have no children, and don't give a hoot what is done with my DNA. Hopefully, it might help someone, as I think my brother's did.

Cheers all