General Chat

MY grand children sent off an application, and it transpires that.
I am
97% european( paternal g/gd (from antwerp)
86% English..
10% I/S/Welsh(my maternal g/d)
2.9% West African??? (probably the Antwerp guys lot)
0.8% Nigerian...which I blame onto my new next door neighbour....LOL

Ancestry are currently revising their ethnicity estimates which makes a considerable difference to the results. I am eagerly waiting for my revised figures.

For details see:
https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/midjun18news.htm#Ethnicity

I suppose, with the matchings, it depends on which of your relations have also had their DNA tested.
I've only received matches from 5th or 6th cousins - mostly from America.

OH and I had ours tested with My Heritage, as there was an offer on.

My results showed me to be 98.9% Western Europe, of which some 14% is Scottish/Welsh/Irish - I do have some Scottish ancestry. The rest of Europe is from France/Germany/Holland, and I do have distant Norman ancestry.

However I have no English at all. I have traced back my tree about 5 generations, and apart from the Scots and the Norman line, the rest came from North West England.

And the remaining 1.1%? West African, probably Nigeria........

OH has a bit more Nigerian than me, a bit of Iberian, but mostly English. His mother is descended entirely from Scottish families who came to Yorkshire about 3 generations ago and intermarried there. But OH has no Scottish/Welsh/irish, despite another line coming from Wales.

One thing they did get right is that they predicted that my parents were related, which they were.

I've uploaded my data to 2 other sites but find it all a bit heavy going. There are lots of matches 2nd - 4th cousins, none of them have names I recognise, most matches are from abroad. The only one I can identify is a descendent of the sister of my ggrandfather, she emigrated to Australia in 1857, and I had previously 'found' him.

lots to think about before a test is taken then,i think he will still go for one though.

thanks for sharing your experience about this

We tried ancestry first - and i have to admit when the results came back - I thought they ahd mixed them up as mine was more European than my husband. However with the matches it proved the sames were for the right person.

It was certainly an eye opener and has got a lot better and offer's more info.

We were lucky in getting a discount for Living DNA - so did that too - which gave slightly different info. It did break down the UK one into counties which we both found very accurate. they are promising matches soon too We both paid for a book with living DNA - its not worth money as apart from the first few pages it says the same for both of us - as its very general after its told you your results.

I do think it was worth it as it gave us a good talking point with relatives.

All the companies that test autosomal DNA use different alogrithams to determine results,which is the reason tthe results vary,as has been pointed out they are "estimates" and need taking with a "pinch of salt"

Ancestry claim to have the largest database for matching and ther results can be downloaded to Gedmatch My Heritage and FTDNA.all free, to give a larger coverage for matches, but Ancestry do not allow transfers to their site.

Question....

How much detail would it show for someone of mixed race Afro-Caribbean ?

Would it show just 'Africa '....It's a big place !

My Ancestry DNA profile has changed at least twice in the past three months. The science is evolving all the time, but isn't as accurate as the websites would have you believe. One the latest update Ancestry said they had increased the number of markers they look at from 3000 to 16000, and thats in just a month. I am told it 'should' get better as the number of test increases.

Andy

I and hubby did the Ancestry one. Hubby has Thalassaemia trait. His doctor jokingly told him he must have a sardine fisherman in his ancestry! The trait means you have smaller red blood cells and is a genetic mutation that makes it difficult for malaria to infect. The DNA test picked up his mediterranean ancestry.

hi Andrew,
this is what I find puzzling, how can the same sample be so very different, how do you know which one is right ?

whow how amazing, such detail

The results are only estimates at best. You can load the same sample twice and get different results. If you have an Ancestry test you can load the results to Gedmatch and MyHeritage for free. You can't do it the other way round.

Example

Ancestry I'm 50% England/Wales 50% Ireland/Scotland

My Heritage (same sample) 60% Irish/Scottish/Welsh 20% Scandinavian 15% English 3% Baltic

Andy

My nephew - his dad's Irish - has 2.5% Roman! :-S
Obviously from his dad's side, and not ours :-D :-D

thanks Maggie, you would think you all would have the same percentage of Iberian dna,just shows although we are brothers and sisters things are different.

Hi Sue,
I had mine done at 'My Heritage'.
I'm the youngest of 4, had black hair olive skin - much darker than my siblings..
The elder of my 2 brothers had blond hair.
My sister and her son also got their DNA tested.
The site managed to link us as related, even though my nephew obviously has his father's DNA too, so that's a plus point :-D

My sister had blue eyes and brown hair that faded to blonde in the sun.

I am: 47.1% North and West European, 43.4% Scottish/Irish/Welsh (we call that Celtic as one side is Cornish :-D), and 9.5% Iberian. No 'English'!
My sister is only 1.6% Iberian, she has more European DNA than me - which may explain my being so much darker.

I'm sure others can let you know about 'Ancestry' DNA testing :-D :-D

thanks for that Shirley I will let him know.

I did my ancstry DNA and it picked up my German grandads ethnicity
His wife's maiden name didn't seem German more scandanavian and it did pick that up too

I thought it was very accurate and it did also pick up matches to others

One was for a female ancestor born in the early 1800,s she was a widow who married my grt x several grandads in 1852

The contact was from her first marriage !! So it does work

tried looking to see if I could find a thread on this but my brain is not working very well,
what I would like to know is what sort of info do you get off the ancestry dna or is there a better one to use,my husband would like to know if there is any mediteranian dna in his family,it has always be thought that is as they are all olive skinned even our children are olived skinned.

thanks sue