Ancestry DNA

[Guy Etchells]

  I noticed that the ethnicity estimates have been altered, not sure when, and I appear to have acquired 3% of Welsh, where from I can't imagine. And I know we don't have to take it too seriously!

 However, they have also divided the DNA between parents, which has left me really baffled. The bit of Scottish has come from one parent, my father, which I understand, but the similar amount of Irish and the little bit of Welsh are from the other parent, and that makes no sense to me at all. There is a known bit of Irish in father's ancestry, and a missing line through illegitimacy, but mother is solidly Kent on one side and Essex/Suffolk on the other.

   Any ideas on this please?

Possible the best way of looking at it is the British Isles is a melting pot for not only each individual country of the UK but most other countries in the world.
There is no such person as a pure bred English person or a pure bred Scottish person etc. as through out history there have been interaction between UK nationalities and also nationalities from the rest of the world. To believe anything else is, I am afraid naive.
Cheers
Guy

[Gadget]

T of H and Hillhurst

It might be tedious but you could go through your close matches (4C or closer) and check their ethnicities but, as Guy says

as through out history there have been interaction between UK nationalities and also nationalities from the rest of the world.

My approach to DNA is to work with my matches and link them to my known ancestors and, incidentally, geographical locations.


Gadget

[melba_schmelba]

Just a thought - have you got any ancestors in the English/Welsh borders or SW Scotland?

Nope. My maternal Scottish ancestor is from Edinburgh. Also, SideView has given me about 12% Irish.
I never had any Irish before in my AncestryDNA results. So that's a mystery, too. I have no paternal Irish ancestry either, as far as I'm aware.

Edinburgh Scots probably have a significant Anglo-Saxon component to their ancestry as the Anglo-Saxon province of Bernicia reached up to Edinburgh, and Scots, which is basically an Anglo-Saxon language was spoken in that area (in fact most of the area outside the remote Highlands and Isles).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X5zX3yVoiQ

[coombs]

It is the same as there is no such thing as "pure Irish" or "pure Scottish". Ireland is a mixture of DNA from Vikings, Normans, Welsh, Iberian, Celtic and Brits. Scotland is a mixture of Vikings, Normans, Brits etc. Scotland and Ireland, like almost all countries, were founded by a first group of inhabitants who settled there. Only one country can be be the cradle of humanity - Africa.

[RJP75]

Not impressed with this new feature at the moment. Previously i have been 100% British Isles and percentages have varied each time there has been a previous tweak, which is fine. I have now all of a sudden acquired 2% Norway and it is also saying that one of my parents has 0% England which simply is not true. Early days though.

[melba_schmelba]

Not impressed with this new feature at the moment. Previously i have been 100% British Isles and percentages have varied each time there has been a previous tweak, which is fine. I have now all of a sudden acquired 2% Norway and it is also saying that one of my parents has 0% England which simply is not true. Early days though.

I think Norway or Sweden is picking up ancestry from areas of the British Isles that had high Viking settlement, like the coasts of Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, to a lesser extent inland, and very high in a place like Orkney.

[Biggles50]

Give it a few months and the Estimates will probably change.

Since we had our DNA test both my Wife’s and my own Ethnicity Estimates bear little relationship to what they were.

If fact they have also dramatically changed in the last few months.

Now, my parent 1 results bears no resemblance to either of my parents despite there being proven and linked DNA matches via both my parents.

[DianaCanada]

OH’s mother, who was half Danish and half Swedish (born in Denmark) now has some North African ancestry! I suppose possible, but unlikely.  His father is all British Isles, which is matches the paper trail.
I spent the morning trying to figure out how I can be 26% Scottish (bro is 18), when that is highly unlikely.  We might have a few percentage points from an Irving ancestor but that’s it, and brother has a tiny bit of Irish, which does match the paper trail.
On my mother’s side we are Sussex and a bit of Kent - no Scots there re research and DNA matches.
My father is Lancashire, Yorkshire, a little Cheshire, with a bit of Cumberland.

[TonyV]

There seems to be some confusion because Ancestry released revised ethnicity estimates at the same time as SideView was introduced. SideView did not create the new estimates; it simply divided them up between parents. As Guy says, we all have DNA in us from all over the place and we should not get hung up that small parts of our estimate appear to come from a part of the world that hasn't figured in our more recent ancestry.

It is said that many of us have Neanderthal DNA genes in us but Ancestry has no current way to show that. Likewise we all descend from original ancestors in Africa so minute parts of our make up probably come from Somalia or close by. 

The recent ethnicity estimate alteration certainly seems far closer to the truth than the previous one for me. I doubt that any of my ancestors had ever visited Scotland on holiday in the past 300 years let alone had children with someone from that country and yet the previous estimate had me as 51% Scottish. I am pleased to say that since the new estimate came out I no longer feel obliged to buy a kilt.