Puzzling DNA results..

[patval]

We have just received the DNA test results for my Husband... Very puzzling as Ian's paternal line is very Scottish with Forbes, Gordon, and Macdonald Ancestors, his mother was from English/Irish parentage . yet he is apparently only 1.0% Scottish, Irish and Welsh..

He is 75.7% English, 16.5% scandinavian, 6.8% Italian and just the 1.0% Scottish, Irish & Welsh
 
His surname is Valentine ... there is a family tale of two Italian boys being shipwrecked off the east coast of Scotland in the 1600's and settling in Stonehaven (unproven) which may give credence to Italian heritage...

Our son is very sceptical, he thinks they took one look at the name, threw the sample away and said Valentino, defo Italiano...

Ians Scottish family history has been well researched not only by myself but other members of our family, and much has been passed down through family. But I'm new to DNA researching so I may have some interesting finds, looking forward to hearing from any DNA matches.

Puzzled Pat

[Craclyn]

Focus on his matches and don't worry too much about the ethnicity estimates. They are just estimates based on reference populations and will continue to be refined. You can also reassure your son that no part of the DNA result (either ethnicity or match list) is derived from the name. You could test with an alias and get exactly the same result.

[patval]

Thanks Craclyn,

At the moment Ian has one good match which is his 1st cousin who encouraged Ian to take the test, the rest appear to be 3rd-5th and distant cousins but its early days yet and I'm looking forwards to finding out more. Thanks for the advice..

Pat
x

[snooziflooze]

So, Ian has inherited more English DNA from his mother, than the Scottish members of his family.  I've always thought doing a DNA test wouldn't reveal much more than I already know about my tree (being boring English on both sides of the family), so I've never gone ahead with it.  But it would reveal which genes I had inherited from my parents/grandparents.  If a sibling underwent the same test, presumably it would reveal a different set of genes.

[Craclyn]

Yes, a sibling’s results would be different to your own snooiflooze. You both get 50% from each parent, but not the same 50%. The most interesting part of the result is the match list which can provide evidence to support or disprove your paper trail research.

[avm228]

Different sites interpret ethnicity very differently. I uploaded my AncestryDNA results into MyHeritage, and here are the respective ethnicity estimates derived from that single kit:

AncestryDNA:

England, Wales, NW Europe 98% - particularly strongly matched to East Anglia and West Yorkshire (true!)
Ireland & Scotland 2%

MyHeritage:

Scandinavian 56.4%
Irish, Scottish & Welsh 43.6%
English 0%


My traced heritage is almost entirely English save for one 2x great-grandmother whose background was Scottish and Scots-Irish.

[melba_schmelba]

We have just received the DNA test results for my Husband... Very puzzling as Ian's paternal line is very Scottish with Forbes, Gordon, and Macdonald Ancestors, his mother was from English/Irish parentage . yet he is apparently only 1.0% Scottish, Irish and Welsh..

He is 75.7% English, 16.5% scandinavian, 6.8% Italian and just the 1.0% Scottish, Irish & Welsh
 
His surname is Valentine ... there is a family tale of two Italian boys being shipwrecked off the east coast of Scotland in the 1600's and settling in Stonehaven (unproven) which may give credence to Italian heritage...

Our son is very sceptical, he thinks they took one look at the name, threw the sample away and said Valentino, defo Italiano...

Ians Scottish family history has been well researched not only by myself but other members of our family, and much has been passed down through family. But I'm new to DNA researching so I may have some interesting finds, looking forward to hearing from any DNA matches.

Puzzled Pat

I assume this was MyHeritage given the lumping together of Scotland, Ireland and Wales (wrongly as they are quite different genetically). What part of Scotland does your husband's ancestors come from? Lowlanders will be much more Anglo-Saxon than highlanders and islanders. The 6.8% Italian indicates a probable Italian great or great great grandparent, not very uncommon for Scots as there was a lot of Italian immigration to the big cities, especially Glasgow from WWI onwards.

[Gadget]

My ethnicity results are very similar to avm's . I think maybe My Heritage interprets much of the Scottish grouping as  Scandinavia or English.

I've not looked at them for a while as I think they are still very iffy. I prefer to rely on DNA matches and paper trails.

My paper trail shows me as Welsh/English/Scottish/Irish, in that order! One line is supposedly Norman.

Gadget

[Liviani]

I also have ancestors with the surname Valentine from Kincardineshire/Stonehaven areas. I don't believe this could point to the Italian estimate though. Valentine is quite an old name from the area. According to George F. Black's "The surnames of Scotland"

The Valentines of Fettercairn are said to be descended from Valentine of Thornton who in the Reign of Robert I had lands of Thorntoun

Robert I is Robert the Bruce so it's been in the area for centuries. I suppose the Italian link is elsewhere, although estimates are just that.. estimates. It is worth investigating though. I would consider trying a test with Living DNA, they are very British Ancestry centric.

As for the "English" results. There were some Anglo Saxon's and Britons in Strathclyde and Lothian. Northumbria also extended into Edinburgh and the Lothians. So could the "English" actually be southern Scots?

EDIT: Even with my Valentine ancestors (my 2x great grandmother was a Valentine) I have 0% Italian Ancestry through Living DNA. I am 98% British/Irish with the highest being Southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland followed by Aberdeenshire.

EDIT2: I'm actually curious if your husband and I would match. My kit number is on my profile and I'm on GEDmatch (I've recently sent a sample to Ancestry so don't have those yet, only Living DNA). Just in case we match on the Valentines. Possibly not, but worth asking.