AncestryDNA ethnicity

[MJMW]

Hi guys,

I'm pretty new to this, so I apologize if this is something simple. I have tested on FTDNA and thought I'd test on ancestry too to see the differences and utilize the different databases.

It says 40% ireland/scotland/Wales, but when broken down, it gives me the northern England and Midlands region. The England percentage is 7% and gives me the same region but actually lists it as a subregion. (attached screenshots for clarity)

Does this mean that I mainly have Celtic ancestry, but too far away to vague to give me a clear indication as to the regions involved, so chose an overlapping region to compensate? Or am I getting this wrong? Because surely, if that was not the case, my Great Britain percentage should be the highest as the main host of that particular sub-region?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[DRNewcomb]

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

It means that you should not be overly concerned about DNA ethnicity models.

[hfp43]

DNA Ethnicity Estimates

DNA ethnicity estimates have been a hugely successful marketing tool for the various testing companies, especially AncestryDNA. Unfortunately,they are not reliable below the continental level. For example, they cannot accurately discriminate among the various northern European populations. They may never be up to that task, since there has been so much recent intermixing of those populations.

[DRNewcomb]

To be a bit more specific, see if you can open the attached webinar and skip down to "Ethnicity Results".

https://familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=721

[KATM]

To be a bit more specific, see if you can open the attached webinar and skip down to "Ethnicity Results".
https://familytreewebinars.com/downl...webinar_id=721

I could be wrong, but I think you need to be signed in (IOW, be subscribed) to select/skip to any part of the "playlist" of Legacy's webinars. I'm sure this whole webinar would be worth viewing! Even if you're not able to select a portion, you can still view this particular webinar until May 23. Blaine Bettinger gives some very good presentations, always interesting and informative.

Another good webinar by Blaine that has a portion of the beginning available to view for non-subscribers (for a taste) is "Formulating a DNA Testing Plan," which I have viewed and enjoyed. There are many webinars available to view for free at Legacy Family Tree, and new webinars that aren't free are usually available to view for free for a period of time after the initial broadcast.

[dna]

@MJMW

It is very important to remember that one's DNA does not reflect all the ancestors.

We do not evenly inherit autosomal DNA from our ancestors. That is the reason some of our ancestry might not be reflected at all in our autosomal DNA. And complementary, some of our ancestry might be grossly over-represented.

You can see unevenness of autosomal DNA inheritance with the Family Finder matches (and it would be exactly the same with any other similar product). Some FF matches listed as the 2nd-4th cousin are beyond being the 4th cousins, and some known 4th cousins do not appear as matches.


Autosomal DNA statistics

https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics

(some of the blogs referenced there have detailed explanations)


Mr. W.

[prairielad]

I will use my Families FTDNA myOrigins results of the variations in ethnicity reports.
Paternal Grandfather - Half Scottish, Half Irish
Paternal Grandmother - Born in Romania with German paternal Grandfather
Maternal Grandfather - Half Norwegian, Half Swedish
Maternal Grandmother - English

Have not tested with Ancestry so not sure how they would break it down, but British Isles has both Scandinavian and western Europe influence.
Eastern Europe will also have western Europe influence.

The Gedmatch website has admixture calculators that use various different reference groups which can also be looked at. Their Oracle4's give you best fits based on a single population up to 4 populations.

Link to Attachment on onedrive

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al27wnXopRKxi0u8DjjEKnpou0Ca

[dna]

Thank you prairielad !

I will use my Families FTDNA myOrigins results of the variations in ethnicity reports.
Paternal Grandfather - Half Scottish, Half Irish
Paternal Grandmother - Born in Romania with German paternal Grandfather
Maternal Grandfather - Half Norwegian, Half Swedish
Maternal Grandmother - English

Have not tested with Ancestry so not sure how they would break it down, but British Isles has both Scandinavian and western Europe influence.
Eastern Europe will also have western Europe influence.

The Gedmatch website has admixture calculators that use various different reference groups which can also be looked at. Their Oracle4's give you best fits based on a single population up to 4 populations.

Link to Attachment on onedrive

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al27wnXopRKxi0u8DjjEKnpou0Ca

A masterpiece!


Mr. W.

[MJMW]

Ahh thank you all for your replies! It's very hard for me to build a family tree as most of my family are not interested and have no idea where their family originated from. I guess I can only persevere. I have tested with GEDmatch too and received this results with Oracle-4:

Using 1 population approximation:
1 Irish @ 3.835346
2 West_Scottish @ 4.772946
3 Orcadian @ 4.950813
4 Southwest_English @ 5.470314
5 North_Dutch @ 5.504129
6 Danish @ 6.157364
7 Southeast_English @ 6.268382
8 North_German @ 7.112477
9 Norwegian @ 7.474046
10 South_Dutch @ 9.666162
11 Swedish @ 10.010996
12 West_German @ 10.805137
13 French @ 15.577253
14 Austrian @ 16.795361
15 North_Swedish @ 17.025190
16 East_German @ 17.322346
17 Hungarian @ 22.137205
18 Spanish_Cataluna @ 23.414459
19 Southwest_French @ 24.402802
20 Spanish_Castilla_Y_Leon @ 24.756174

Using 2 populations approximation:
1 50% Irish +50% Irish @ 3.835346


Using 3 populations approximation:
1 50% Irish +25% Irish +25% West_German @ 3.687395


Using 4 populations approximation:

1 Irish + Irish + Irish + West_German @ 3.687395
2 Irish + Irish + Irish + South_Dutch @ 3.702133
3 Irish + Irish + North_German + Southwest_English @ 3.770817
4 Irish + Irish + Irish + North_German @ 3.774203
5 Irish + Irish + West_German + West_Scottish @ 3.790518
6 Irish + Irish + Irish + Irish @ 3.835346
7 Irish + Irish + South_Dutch + West_Scottish @ 3.860940
8 Irish + Irish + North_German + West_Scottish @ 3.872438
9 Irish + North_German + Southwest_English + West_Scottish @ 3.900676
10 Irish + West_German + West_Scottish + West_Scottish @ 3.946609
11 Irish + Irish + Irish + Southwest_English @ 3.953377
12 Irish + Irish + Irish + North_Dutch @ 3.987717
13 Irish + North_German + West_Scottish + West_Scottish @ 4.009904
14 Irish + North_German + Southwest_English + Southwest_English @ 4.010166
15 Irish + Irish + Irish + Orcadian @ 4.018508
16 Irish + Irish + North_Dutch + Southwest_English @ 4.024604
17 Irish + Irish + Irish + West_Scottish @ 4.032803
18 Irish + South_Dutch + West_Scottish + West_Scottish @ 4.039541
19 Danish + Irish + Irish + Irish @ 4.045385
20 Irish + Irish + Irish + Southeast_English @ 4.046984

My mothers side of the family have said as far as they know they came over from Ireland, and her father's father possibly lived in Scotland. My fathers side is harder as his g-grandfather was an orphan and we have no way of finding out further back. My grandfather said his mother was supposedly a traveler, but was unsure Romanian or Irish. Guess I should probably accept the largely Irish heritage from what GEDmatch says?

Also sorry for my delayed reply, exam period just finished!