Wednesday, November 7, 2012

My Ancestry DNA Results

Recently I took the Ancestry.com DNA test, mostly because it was on sale and I was curious about the differences from my FamilyTree DNA test. Here's the easy pie chart breakdown of my results:

I have several comments, so I'll just go down the list.

The Scandinavian Thing
My family tree research is relatively recent given the amount of time people have walked on the planet. So far I have not encountered a single Scandinavian hint of anything in my genealogy research. However, I know how far back history goes in that area, so I'm not surprised I have it. I am surprised at the 33% though. I just don't know where it comes from.

I suspect the big blue slice in my results comes from my dad's side of the family. I looked at another person's close DNA match (second cousins once removed) on my mom's side. That guy's results show no Scandinavian anything whatsoever. So barring a non-paternal event, the Scandinavian thing probably doesn't come from my maternal grandfather. My maternal grandmother is also not likely. I'll explain that later.

My paternal grandfather is all German and Luxembourger so far. That leaves my paternal grandmother as the prime suspect. More on that below.

The British Isles thing
I have my Williamsons, Cloyds, Scotts and Joneses in America in the 1700's. I haven't crossed the pond with most of them yet, but the literature out there says they came from the British Isles. This is my paternal grandmother's side of the tree.

More reading is necessary, but I'm guessing my British Isles ancestors have Scandinavian history and the two are tied together on the same lines.

I'll have to look at my French ancestors, too, since they lived on the Atlantic coast and could have easily come from the British Isles at some point.

I am 59% Scandinavian and British Isles
This is surprising only because all of my European research so far has focused elsewhere. Though they all came from somewhere, so maybe this is it.

The Eastern European thing
I also have these results in my FamilyTree DNA test, just not as high as 17%. This is all my maternal grandmother's side...I think. Her mom was born in Austria and I've traced the family to Hungary. I think the line goes further east and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little Jewish history in there.

The Central European thing
I am surprised it is so low. Based on the research I'm doing and the places it's taking me, it feels like many of my ancestors were from this area. Instead, it's the lowest identified group.

Is 10% "uncertain" high?
I did a quick look over my closest matches, and I didn't see anyone over 10%. Most were 1-6% uncertain. What's in my blood?

How I will proceed.
At the very moment, I won't do much. There is one definite match at the second cousin level, but it looks like he has the same information as I do. I'm currently working on fortifying my database, pulling info off of my private Ancestry tree and putting it in RootsMagic. All neat and tidy with sources, citations and such. I want to get that done before I do more digging.

Final thought on this DNA test
I might be Scandinavian, but you'll never get me to try lutefisk.


[Update: someone asked about the "See Full Results" button in the photo and what exactly that entails. I've answered the question here. --A]

13 comments:

  1. We did the same test for my dad recently, also with unexpected results. He's about a third German, but instead of any German showing up that percentage was all Scandinavian. So our theory is that the Germans must have been genetically Vikings way back when... His Swedish great-grandmother we're guessing is the Russian/Finnish result, since those percentages match each other. And to our surprise, the mystery/ potentially Indian/ great-great grandmother (and the reason we tested) percent showed as Spanish/Portugese/Italian, although the distant cousins it connected us with on ancestry are named things like Long Crane Chocsaw and are also from Nebraska in the 1800s. So we're scratching our heads a little bit and testing his brother next to see how they match (and if that 5% uncertain changes). Thanks for sharing, it's so fascinating!

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Anita. The Scandinavian-to-German theory works in my case, too. And it makes sense because I'm doing so much German research now. I'll have to read up on early Scandinavian history and see where they went.

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  2. Hi Amy,
    50% Scandinavian here - my father came to Canada from Denmark. I'm not surprised by the amount of Scandinavian in your results, given your British Isles connections, and the proximity of Scandinavia to the UK. Those darn Scandinavians seem to find their way everywhere!

    I have McLeod bloodlines, from the Isle of Skye, and if history hold correctly, the original McLeod was...you guessed it, Scandinavian!

    I'll have to look into getting tested, would be interesting to see what my DNA has to say.


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    1. Thanks for commenting, Pearl. Your mention of Canada reminded me of my own Cajun ancestors who got the boot from Canada. Could be where the Scandinavian pie slice comes from. So many possibilities!

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  3. Same thing with my results (My post). I also assume this was beause the Vikings and Goths from that area spread across Europe and probably settled in places like Ireland, Germany and Poland.

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    1. This could be my case, too, as I have all sorts of German roots.

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  4. I noticed that at the bottom of your chart above, you could click on "See Full Results" I'm considering having this done as a Christmas present to me. I was wondering exactly what this means. How much of a breakdown is actually offered?

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    1. Great question! I decided to answer it in a blog post: http://wetree.blogspot.com/2012/11/see-full-results-in-ancestrycom-dna-test.html

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  5. I've been debating doing the AncestryDNA test, but unfortunately it's not available in Canada (at least not yet!)

    What is included in the full results? Do they give you a list of possible family matches through Ancestry?

    I really hope that I'll be able to purchase the DNA tests as some point - I would love to do one with my Thompson relatives!

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    1. Aislynn, yes they give you a list of possible matches. You can also look at a person's tree if it is public.

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    2. The more I hear and read about the DNA tests the more I want to do it! Hopefully Ancestry will open up the program to those outside the US soon!

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  6. There have been several who have questioned what is being called the "Scandinavian Surprise," wondering whether Ancestry is really picking up that bit of ethnicity from further back in history than other DNA companies are...or whether Ancestry is making a mistake.

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    1. Interesting thought. I did the test for my own amusement, so I'll just wait and see what develops from it.

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