Ethnicity Sideview
To those of you familiar with Ancestry DNA, you will recognize the above as my ethnicity estimate. It has always intrigues me because a fair share of my ancestry is unknown to me. I have traced a fair amount of my family to England and Germany but most of my branches end in the early 1800's or late 1700's somewhere in the original 13 colonies. I have never traced someone back to Norway though some of that could be the Viking influence on England. I know of one person in my family tree that was born in Sweden though where or if others were, is unknown still. The biggest surprise to me is my 51% Scottish estimate as I have not been able to trace anyone to Scotland. I have one potential candidate who according to records immigrated to the U.S. from Canada and has a very Scottish last name but that is it and certainly nowhere near half of my DNA's worth. So where my Scottish roots come from has been a mystery... but is much closer to being solved thanks to Ancestry DNA new Sideview technology.
Sideview splits your DNA in half and tells you which parent your ethnicity is coming from. Most of my lines I have traced overseas belongs on my mom's side of the family and they definitely contain Germanic roots. So I know that "Parent 2" labeled up above is my mom and "Parent 1" is my father. So now it becomes very clear that my Scottish ancestry is coming from my father's side of my DNA.
From the detailed chart above, you can see that nearly 45% of the 50% of DNA given from my father is in fact, from Scottish origins and 0% comes from the area of Germany. I find this very interesting because common lore of those researching my surname says it comes from some pretty famous people in Germany though I have never seen proof. Based off of what I learned just this morning, I would probably wager money that my paternal line comes from Scotland instead.
This was just rolled out recently and from what I have read since, this is just the tip of the iceberg on where this is heading. Soon they will be able to tie this information to specific lines of your family tree to narrow things down even more than just which parent this ethnicity came from. Eventually we may know which third great grandparents this ethnicity came from.
But there is a big caveat to all this. As you know, we only inherit 50% of our DNA from each parent. So although my father passed on 90% Scottish genes of the 50% I got from him, he very well may have not donated his 50% of African genes. I'm joking about the African genes as I have never had any tests show any, but it theoretically is possible. Just because the slice of homemade sour cherry pie didn't have a pit in it doesn't mean there aren't pits in the rest of the pie. I have proven that time and again every early summer.
So I found this all very intriguing and thought I would past it on as an extra in-between my regularly scheduled Grand Canyon boating series of posts.
Wow--Ed I appreciate you passing this on, this seriously just became a lot more fascinating! My younger brother has always talked about doing this, I can't wait to show him your post.
ReplyDeleteI took my DNA test many years ago but one nice thing about Ancestry is as technology has changes, they keep updating your results. My report back 20 years ago was a joke compared to the information provided in this recent update.
DeleteI had a DNA done quite awhile ago and didn’t learn much at the time. I think one can learn more now. AFAIK all of my ancestry is British Isles, at least for a long way back.
ReplyDeleteDNA tests really only relate to the last 500 years or so but they are getting more informative all the time.
DeleteThanks for sharing Ed. I have a number of people that have done this in the past; I am curious enough that I might do it someday to see if what I have been told and know (Basically British Isles/German Mélange with a hint of Dutch and possible a small bit of Native American) has any truth to it.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the delayed response. I just realized that among other problems bloggers is having, they are sticking legitimate posts of known people in my spam folder. I read about it on another site and rescued your comment.
DeleteAlthough they are getting more and more informative as the years go by, I still think the best reason to get one is to enhance ones genealogy research or that of another close family member.
Interesting! I had my Ancestry DNA done several years ago and I clearly need to go back and look at it, as they didn't have all this detail at the time. Perhaps some of your "Scottish" DNA comes from people of Scots ancestry who moved to England many centuries ago, and thus aren't considered in your family tree to be Scottish? Just a guess.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the delayed response. I just realized that among other problems bloggers is having, they are sticking legitimate posts of known people in my spam folder. I read about it on another site and rescued your comment.
DeleteYou may be right in your guess. I do have several families whom I have traced to norther England in the Yorkshire area. Although that isn't included in the boundaries drawn by Ancestry for Scottish genes, I would guess the boundary is very loosely interpreted.
They've kept changing the % and even the ethnicities as their systems became more sophisticated, so I'm never quite sure what is or will be accurate. However, this last version matches up to what I've always thought I was and to the family history: Scotland 22%, Northern Italy 20%, England and Northwestern Europe 16%, France 14%, Germanic Europe 13%, Norway 10%, Sweden and Denmark 5%.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the more tests they obtain to analyze, the more accurate they can be. Also, I learned something new the other day I hadn't thought about. There are many cultures where few stray outside of it in marriage, the jewish population is an example. This makes it hard for their analysis, especially in this new sideview analysis, because they will get identical sections of DNA on both sides of their line as families have several of their children marry several children in another family.
DeleteI've heard people complaining/asking about that difficulty on various genealogy sites I follow. In my case, it's simple: My dad was from the British Isles with some Scandinavian (Viking?) thrown in and my mom is mostly Northern Italian and French. It would probably be difficult for any families where they married within their own culture, unless one knew specifics about where the corresponding ancestors came from. Even then...
DeleteI know in a prior update, I counted back a ways on my mother's side and took educated guesses on my father's side and thought their percentages were pretty close to what I would expect, especially when I considered my German roots. Really over the years my percentages haven't changed much but their definition of areas has certainly been reduced in size.
DeleteI've forwarded this post to my SIL. He's had some testing done and it didn't indicate the Native American ancestry that is clearly in his line. (and it's not a case of woodpiles or anything)
ReplyDeleteI have never met someone with a DNA test showing Native American ancestry. But I’ve seen a number of cases where it was suggested over the years to usually benefit in some way at the time by a previous ancestor. Whether the Native American DNA of your SIL wasn’t passed in a way to detect, or somebody had a reason to fib about it will probably never be known at this point.
DeleteMy husband did his, I should do mine...my brother thinks we come from the sami people in Lapland. That could be interesting:) Hope you find out more!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great tool and combined with solid genealogy, it can really help with troublesome family trees. By itself, it is an amusement to settle family bets.
DeleteCool charts and results! Tempting, tempting. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t recommend getting one if not into genealogy. I’ve seen too many non-genealogists get one and we’re disappointed. The genealogy allows you to interpret the results in a much more detailed manner.
DeleteThis is so cool! When I had my husband do Ancestry, the results came in 100% Asian. And that was it.
ReplyDeleteThe DNA results for my wife, although 100% Asian, were broken down into three areas including a miniscule amount from southern India.
DeleteExtremely interesting, Ed. It's a huge clue that adds more to the mystery! Very fun.
ReplyDeleteAt least it somewhat narrowed things down to make it easier to solve the mystery.
Delete