Given the differences I see between my test and my sisters, she is 32% North East England, I am 49%. I would say any number's below 5% (or maybe more) should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I have been thinking about this. I think what we need is to see 2 or more siblings plus the parents estimates. Theoretically the parent(s) estimate for the region should be equal or higher than for each of the siblings.
For instance parent 1 has 30% Irish, parent 2 has 0% Irish. Child one has 25% and child 2 has 15% Irish.
But it might be complicated more than that if an ancestor from the Netherlands moved to England and The Netherlands/Belgium/Germanic shows up for the parent and the English location shows up for the child.
It is hit and miss and I don't think it's worth doing a DNA test just to find out regions, but it is interesting and I do wonder if I do have ancestors from those places,
I did manage to find one ancestor with surname Norton (Suffolk) whose father's name was Norden. Norden is Netherlands spelling of the same name and may have contributed 1% of the Netherlands/Belgian/Germanic that shows up in my DNA, but as the original immigrant must have arrived 1600s or earlier it can't account for the 15% or so that Ancestry is showing for those regions and none of the other surnames seem like they might be from Europe even taking into account that some immigrants Anglicised their surnames after settling here.
