Odd Connacht Ireland result from Ancestry DNA

[alan o]

I just had my DNA results back and most of them match my known family trees (overwhelmingly welsh with trees back to C16th century for 3 grandparents).  My paternal grandfather family tree was Isle of Portland Dorset going back to 1600s and his ancestors all came from the Isle. This Dorset connection is neither in mine nor my mother's DNA. His mothers side were Devon/ Cornwall which shows up.

Now here's the odd bit.  I have a spurious Connacht Ireland result on my maternal side according to Ancestry.  Only 2%.  My mother does not have it at all.

My cousin on my father's side is 99% South Wales as expected.  However he also has 1% Connacht Ireland.

Weird because there is no blood link to my maternal side.

Is it safe to assume that Ancestry's attribution to my maternal side is an error and it should be to my paternal side (which my cousin sits on)?  or is the whole thing totally spurious for us both?  There is no Irish connection in the family tree going back to the 1800s although the family were from Mathry in West Wales so a short boat trip to Dublin (no where near Connact though)

Thoughts?

[Zaphod99]

Alan, Errors in DNA testing would have immense impact.  They would cast doubt on the entire concept.  Those percentages are very small, close to negligible.  Remember that you only need one ancestral discretion, or an unknown marriage, perhaps in the early 1800s, to account or it.  Keep researching your tree.  1-2% of births are suggested to be connected to an undocumented father.  Remember how quickly you get back to 128 direct line ancestors.

Zaph

[alan o]

Zaph,

Assuming the DNA attribution to that area of West Ireland is correct, then what I am struggling with is how it can be on my mother's line when she does not show it but my father's brother's son also has a 1% DNA match for the same remote area of Ireland?

I can only assume that it falls in the the small % of error that Ancestry has in its disclaimer and there is an Irish ancestor in the early 1800s or just before that I don't know about.


Alan

[alan o]

As a picture paints a 1000 words:

Left Col is mine. 2 % Irish on my maternal line according to Ancestry.

Middle Col is my mother.  No Irish but not necessarily a show stopper.

Right Col is my cousin on my father's line.  Again 2% Irish and from the same area.

So I have a huge coincidence or the 2% is not maternal.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Ancestry used to display an upper  and lower amount with the claimed amount being at or close to the middle of the range. When my results first came back they settled on 55% Irish but after some digging I learned that could have been as low as 30% or as high as 75%.

I dropped to 25% after one update and climbed to 80 after another, the last update with regions is 27% Munster, 7% Connacht & 5% Central Scotland/NI.  I don't think a range is shown now but over the updates my amounts have varied to such a degree I don't put much faith in them.

 

[alan o]

Thank you.  I shall await the next update.

Perhaps my Portland line will turn up as so far there are no Dorset attributions at all yet I know my grandfathers' family come from the Isle all the way back into the 1600s.  I have my grandfathers and great grandfathers birth certs and they confirm they were not adopted.

All very odd.

[Millmoor]

The ranges are still there on this latest update. They are just not so obviously found! To locate click on the arrow beside the ancestral region. On the next screen there is an information sign beside the name. Click on that and the range is shown ( as is a useful link explaining the use of these ranges). For example in the recent update I have 1% Donegal. The range is from 0% to 3%.

These ranges are well worth looking at.

William

[alan o]

William

Thanks.  Mine too is 0 to 3 so could be totally spurious if it is 0. 

Alan

[Biggles50]

I have 1% Wales and zero evidence of any Welsh blood in my family for over 225 years.

Do take low %ages with a bottle of Saxa.