General Chat

I keep seeing the posting on FB for Ancestry D.N A..

It says that it now includes female as well as male lines

Has anyone taken up their offer and what do you think?

I just sent off mine and my husband's. I'll let you know.

I did it about 18 months ago and the results were interesting. It also kind of confirmed some of my origins as I'd traced my dad's maternal line to Yorkshire in the 1300s where I read that family of the same name fought on the borders against the Scots and were known as the 'Irish Vikings'. In later generations, some had bought land and lived in Ireland too before some returned to England. My direct line then became Quakers in Bedfordshire and then settled in America, with later generations then returning to England again. I didn't have all the documentary evidence to support this and my parents never mentioned Irish ancestry in the family or Quakers or all this movement so I was dubious I was on the right track at all..

Imagine my surprise when my DNA test matched Irish DNA the most, (my mid point on the range given was 48%) followed by Scandinavian DNA (my midpoint being 18%! ) This fitted rather well with the Irish vikings I'd found and obviously is where my blue eyes come from!

You are given a list on their site of others who have taken their test and who have some matching DNA and may well be related and they suggest how close the connection is eg 2nd cousin, 4-6th cousin. I haven't done much work on this yet, but have identified 2 rellies, 1 from my father's side and one from my mother's side and who lives in Australia. She doesn't have a tree on line, but we were still able to work out how we were related by telling each other the surnames in our families. That has led to a useful exchange of info since.

What you have to realise is that they can't be accurate going very far back due to the randomness of inheritance with more and more ancestors being involved. Therefore they give you a range of percentages for each geographical area your DNA has matches with. You could be anywhere within the range they give but they give you the middle percentage as an average. Eg You could be in a range of British DNA between say 20-40% so they show you as the average, 30%.

Wherever you have the analysis done you can put the raw DNA information on a free site called GEDmatch and meet up with relatives who have had their analysis done elsewhere.

The AncestryDNA test is an" Autosoma"l test which means it covers both male and female lines.

They have recently changed some of the "markers" they use which they claim helps narrow down the range of errors.

As Annx says you can upload your Raw Data to the free Gedmatch site where there are several "tools" to help find more matches

The option to upload the NEW version of AncestryDNA to the FamilytreeDNA site is no longer available since the changes.

I did mine last year !

Reporting back.

Interesting results. OH is still in bed so I can't report on his but my results coincide with my research quite well. Apart from the fact Ancestry have included Wales and Scotland in "Ireland" when you look at the map. I'm assuming they meant Celtic.

Europe 99%
Africa North 1%

----------------------------------
Europe West 35%

Scandinavia 30%

Ireland 22% (they meant Celt)

Iberian Peninsula 9%


--------------------------------------------

Trace

Great Britain 3%

Europe East < 1%

My paternal grandmother had a name known to be "Viking" and they lived on the east coast where there is a lot of Scandinavian ancestry. My maternal line is Welsh, hence Celtic.

I had my YDNA done with Family Tree DNA and recently extended that to the Family Finder (autosomal) test.

I've only just received the results and I am still trying to digest the information, although I have found one person with the same surname that I am interested in, in their list of family names.

Nice to hear that you are happy with your DNA results Guinevere,
Hope you are also pleased with your OH's.

I'm still wondering if it's worth the money as I don't have an ancestry account at the moment,nor do I have my tree on there and I was told that to get the most out of it, it is advisable.

Would be very interesting I'm sure and I'm very tempted.
Wonder if they do an offer for an annual subscription and DNATest?

I have done so much of mine though except the Tipperary side which has been extremely difficult,but I suppose the parish registers are more accessible now for that area,which I confess I haven't searched for a while .

I was doing more of my history when I was caring for my sick husband and he was watching TV all the time....it was a good therapy for me at that time when I couldn't get out.

Winter will soon be on the way,so we will see?

I haven't had my DNA tested although I have thought about it.

If I were to go ahead at all, it makes more sense to me to go through an independent source who had no access to my family tree and background.

That's my take on the subject but I am aware that everyone will not think the same way as I do. :-)

Despite being tempted, I've no desire to have my identifying DNA on a data base, especially one owned by a foreign company.
It's one thing being legally compelled, but totally different volunteering 'for fun'.

I have received my DNA test kit today

Only ordered it yesterday after getting a 4 month deal on ancestry to try and update my tree as I think my granddaughter may be interested in carrying on after me.....so here goes?....

I have gone on to the Ancestry app and find it searches possible records for you as there are more parish records available than they had when I was using it.

Has anyone tried the App?

Will let you know how I get on with the DNA and interested to know anyone else's thoughts and experiences with it.

Guinevere hope you have found that it was worth getting!

I have asked for the DNA test as my Christmas present this year :-)

I have had my DNA test done via Ancestry ....... whether it was by my family tree on there or whatever....... the results I have received were as follows :


61% Ireland... no surprise there as many of my ancestors moved from Ireland to England.

Western European 35 %

Trace : Scandinavian 2%

GB 2 %

Very surprising results for the latter figures in my results given my research in to my family history, where so many came from London ! :-D
Just goes to show that the invaders of my homeland brought their DNA with them ! :-D

Hmm, not sure about Wales and Scotland being clumped with Ireland as 'Celtic'.
Where does this leave Cornwall?

As far as I know, I have no Scottish, Irish or Welsh ancestry, but a very strong Cornish ancestry - which is also 'Celtic' - but a different sort of 'Celtic'.

We had ours done last month for our birthday. Very interesting oh matches to the research i have done.
Mine very surprising as all my tree so far was local South East of England. However largest two portions of DNA are Western Europe and Scandinavia followed by Ireland and GB. Looking forward to finding these somewhere in my tree.

I think its worth the money.

Well I have sent off my sample ...it will take up to 8 weeks so hope it comes before .Christmas.

I have northern English roots,mainly Lancashire....but
I have a lot of Celtic I think as have Cornish,Welsh, Irish...,and I thought that the west side of UK was all similar Celtic coming up from France...mainly .Breton?
I know there are so many similarities between their culture,music etc.I

Don't think there's any Scottish link,but who knows

Will let you know how it goes! :-)

Well,my result came this morning .

Not had time to peruse it yet,but have a load of names who could be 3-6th cousins
Could be interesting


REGIONAPPROXIMATE AMOUNT
Europe 100%
Great Britain 46%
Europe West 24%
Ireland15%
Iberian Peninsula 9%
Trace Regions 6%



At least am mainly European...!! :-)

I am seriously tempted would hope the results would show up the percentage of my German Ancetsry as my paternal grandfather was German

I really am looking to get it done

Seem to have some German in mine,but must look into it more and see if I can contact some of my matches that have come up...you never know!
Good luck Shirley gives you an interest.
Christmas present to yourself! :-D

For JoyLouise,

I subscribe to Ancestry but have never ever had my tree on Ancestry, but one of my first cousin's daughter's does, but doesn't have me in her tree. She also did the DNA test. So the fact that Ancestry identified her as my 2nd cousin in my matches was purely from our DNA tests and not from any family tree connection.