How many British members?

[Matt62]

Does anyone know the average number of Brits I might reasonably expect to find on FTDNA when I receive my DNA test results? I've heard that DNA testing companies in general (for instance 23andMe) have an overwhelming preponderance of Americans.

While I am perfectly happy to find US matches (any matches will do!), can I expect to find at least a few useful British ones as well?

I do know that many of my Irish ancestors in particular had close relatives who immigrated to the USA and Australia, so I am quietly confident that a few of their descendants will show up. One of those ancestors was my great-great grandfather, a handful of whose siblings relocated to the USA in the late 19th century. I would hope, therefore, to be able to track down some fourth cousin matches who share third great grandparents with me.

Nevertheless, I really would like to find some native Brits

I also have a German line...might I have any luck in this area as well? (Provided it shows up at all in my genes...)

[LynCra]

No idea how many, but there are some of us, myself included

[andbro]

Im a Brit.

[andreastill.gen]

I have no idea how many members there are from Germany either but you'll likely end up with a good number of matches descended from Germans now living elsewhere in the world. As long as you inherited enough DNA to match people on your German line you'll get those matches. My family is almost exclusively German (there is a bit of Austrian in the mix too) and both my grandmothers plus a first cousin to one of them get good numbers of matches from other Germans and those descended from Germans. Not unexpected.

[Matt62]

Thank you for the replies Lyn and Andbro It is good to know there are some Brits around.

andreastill - interesting information about your own German ancestry and matches on FTDNA. I'm uncertain if I will have inherited any DNA from the German side of things, since it is my great-great-great grandfather who was born in Germany (in 1857). That is 5 generations away from me. While it is possible - since one would expect some DNA to come from an ancestor 5 generations back - it is also possible, I think, that I might have received zilch! But I am hopeful that I have received something from Johann Christian Ludwig Maass, since it appears from your post that the German diaspora might be rather fruitful for matches. I do believe that his father, my g-g-g-g grandfather Johann Christian Friedrich Maass, died in Australia - so if I've got anything from him six generations back their might be some Aussies out there waiting for me to find 'em

[andreastill.gen]

You never know what you're going to see in terms of matches because you just don't know what bits you inherited. My maternal grandmother is the one with 25% Austrian background. Half her documented lines come from near the Dutch border and the rest from east of Paderborn. I had to go through a number of matches to see a potential surname match. I'm waiting for confirmation of a connection. If our two families come from that same original family the connection would be through my grandmother's g-g-g-g-g-grandmother (5 greats).

That grandmother gets a really interesting mix of matches from Ukraine, the Baltic states, all the way through to the British Isles. A couple of cousins documented the family and we have no known connections to such distant locations that we know of. She also seems to have a sizable number of Jewish matches and we have no documented Jewish connection. Very interesting.

My paternal grandmother and her 1st cousin (half through their grandmother's two marriages) have fewer matches each and I haven't found a good lead to break through the brick wall that is their grandmother. Who knows whether DNA will assist in breaking through that wall but as we're out of other options I'm hoping the right person will eventually test and we'll get a match we can verify.

[MoberlyDrake]

My mother has about a dozen matches who live in the UK, although all her ancestors who came from the UK were in America by 1700 as far as I know.

[Matt62]

You never know what you're going to see in terms of matches because you just don't know what bits you inherited. My maternal grandmother is the one with 25% Austrian background. Half her documented lines come from near the Dutch border and the rest from east of Paderborn. I had to go through a number of matches to see a potential surname match. I'm waiting for confirmation of a connection. If our two families come from that same original family the connection would be through my grandmother's g-g-g-g-g-grandmother (5 greats).

That grandmother gets a really interesting mix of matches from Ukraine, the Baltic states, all the way through to the British Isles. A couple of cousins documented the family and we have no known connections to such distant locations that we know of. She also seems to have a sizable number of Jewish matches and we have no documented Jewish connection. Very interesting.

My paternal grandmother and her 1st cousin (half through their grandmother's two marriages) have fewer matches each and I haven't found a good lead to break through the brick wall that is their grandmother. Who knows whether DNA will assist in breaking through that wall but as we're out of other options I'm hoping the right person will eventually test and we'll get a match we can verify.

How fascinating (and tantalizing) that the DNA "trail" appears to be indicating ancestral origins not unearthed by your paper trail, thus far.

The Jewish matches in particular intrigue me, since my late great grandmother (the granddaughter of my German ancestor) was always adamant that she had Jewish ancestry, such that when I started to investigate my roots through her I expected to find Ashkenaz. Sadly, I did not find any trace of a Jewish link at all. On the Maass line at least, there was a straight trail of Pommeranian Lutherans stretching back to the early 1700s. My g-g-g-g-g-g grandfather on this line turned out to be a 'statthalter' (local governor) though, so the interesting occupation lifted my spirits a bit

It would be lovely if my g-grandmother's conviction that she was in fact a Hebrew princess did turn out to be more than a garbled family myth. I live in hope

[rivergirl]

Ive tested 8 family members, none are American.
All are from Australia or UK.
Our ancestry is from UK and some French and Scandanavian.
Apart from the US matches we have many matches with other Aussies, Kiwis, English, Irish and Canadaians. I also get matches with Danes, Swedes and Norwegians.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Matt, I am British.

FTDNA customers are mostly from the USA.

Cheers, Ade.

[suttonwho]

Hi Matt, I have a fair number of native UK and Irish matches. I also have a few native Germans (I too have a Pomeranian line). It seems like native Scandinavians are especially well represented, and my oldest son's matches came in last night with a shocking number of native Finns.

[Seth_Rogoff]

Hi from another Brit!

Hi, also British here

Although I have no British Ancestry, my lines all come from (Jewish) Ukrain, Poland and Russia! I have paper trails of family migrating to USA, Isreal, France, South Africa and Belgium (that I know of!!)

I'm still waiting for my FF results (still 1-2 weeks apparently ) But I'm hoping to have quite a few 'matches'

[EastAnglian]

I'm English, if you have German lines you might find that there is some confusion as to what is a German match and what is related to your English ancestry. I have a number of German and Norwegian matches but no recent ancestry from those countries.

I think Family Finder picks up on older ancestry beyond genealogical records. FTDNA is very skewed towards the USA, most of my matches are from there.

[Matt62]

I'm English, if you have German lines you might find that there is some confusion as to what is a German match and what is related to your English ancestry. I have a number of German and Norwegian matches but no recent ancestry from those countries.

I think Family Finder picks up on older ancestry beyond genealogical records. FTDNA is very skewed towards the USA, most of my matches are from there.

Hi

I've only got one English line that I know of and it is quite distant. I am a Scot with basically an even mixture of Scottish, Irish and Scots-Irish (Ulster) ancestry - with one English and one German line.

My g-g-g-g grandfather Thomas, on my mother's paternal side, was born in London - his mother coming from a well-to-do Yorkshire family and his father hailing from Clerkenwell. His son Henry was born in Edinburgh because Thomas had moved up with his father Michael around the year 1848, after the death of my g-g-g-g-g grandmother Isabella from a cholera outbreak in Leeds where they lived. Michael moved to Scotland to become an excise officer.

So my English line is fairly distant - six generations away from me, beginning with my fourth great grandfather. Who knows if I even have any DNA from England.

[Matt62]

Hi Matt, I have a fair number of native UK and Irish matches. I also have a few native Germans (I too have a Pomeranian line). It seems like native Scandinavians are especially well represented, and my oldest son's matches came in last night with a shocking number of native Finns.

Yes, I noticed the great number of Scandinavians and matches thereof.

Were you aware of any Finns on your paper trail, may I ask?