Ancestry DNA
The only thing I really wanted for Christmas was the Ancestry DNA test. Could I afford it myself? Absolutely. Is it more fun to receive it was a gift? Yup.
So I'm sure by now everyone knows the premise: Spit in a cup, send it in, and wait. AndwaitandwaitANDWAIT. I actually had some kind of error happen the first time around, so after waiting six weeks or so I got to wait AGAIN while they tested a new sample. But let me tell you, when that email comes in telling you it's ready, the excitement is totally worth it.
My Ancestry DNA results came back as follows:
Great Britain: 69%
Europe South: 10%
Scandinavia: 7%
Europe East: 7%
Europe West: 3%
Caucasus: 1%
Ireland/Scotland/Wales: <1%
Finland/Northwest Russia: <1%
European Jewish: <1%
At first these results threw me a bit. I know my Nona was 100% Italian, and my grandpa was 100% German. I also know we're heavily German/Dutch on my mom's side. So first I learned a few things.
Apparently even though technically I should be like 25% Italian and some 60 odd percent German, DNA doesn't really work that way. Despite fifteen plus years of genealogy research, I didn't know how your DNA was actually inherited. You don't automatically get the assumed percentages of each ancestor, it's kind of hit and miss. And even siblings won't be the same; I may have inherited 10% of our Italian ancestor's DNA, she may have only gotten 5% (she's slated to take her test soon so we can compare.)
So I learned how DNA works, and doesn't, and then I learned we're a lot more diverse than I thought. I'd have never guessed Scandinavian, and I can tell you I as super confused over my biggest hit: the Great Britain result. On the plus side, Ancestry gives you more than just a data list.
When I open up my results a little further, it tells me that my GB result is primarily located in England, Scotland, and Wales. This doesn't line up with anything I really knew to be true, but if you open it up even further it goes on to say that this DNA match is also found in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.
Much better. So I know my German ancestors were from South Eastern Germany, in Waldulm, which is very close to the border of France, which encompasses two of the additional 'sources.' Add in our Northern Italian and we've probably got a good chunk of that 69% covered. I know the Weller's (my moms side) have some proper English thrown in there as well, so that result starts making a whole lot more sense.
"Europe South" is also primarily Italy and Greece, so again, I am actually more than 10% Italian when you add those up, I just don't yet know how much of that first 69% is matched to Italy. When you continue to open that up it also includes France, Switzerland, and a whole bunch of countries I know I have no relation in.
Scandinavia. I'm part Viking!!! Probably not, but it's cool anyway. When opened this covers Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, but then goes on to include Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltic States, and Finland. So there's more of our Northern Germany, and I know some of my mom's side moved to Germany from the Netherlands, so that's a great hit.
Europe East covers Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Estonia, and Bulgaria. So again with the Germany and then throw in a bunch of people who were probably married into the family and weren't direct paternal line ancestors. I'd like to explore this one some more.
Europe West is more of the same: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, England, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic. It covers pretty heavily the Lower Midwest and Virginia Settlers, which would be my Weller side.
Caucasus: My sisters exact words were "WTF is 'Caucasus." I didn't know. Turns out it's Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Palestine, Romania, Turkmenistan. PROBABLY still hitting on Italy here but I'm only guessing. I'm not sure how far back this DNA can pick up on....
I'm less than 1% of the last three so we'll just skip on over those for now.
Now you can go into a decent amount of detail here reading up on these places, their early settlers, who's conquered and integrated with the native peoples, and where said peoples have migrated over the eons. If you click along the bottom of your main results page it shows not just the migration patterns but links you tot he ancestors it's referring to. I can click on Germany, 1700-1775 and it shows me I have 17 ancestors in the Germany region, click again and it shows me exactly where and who. Pretty cool and definitely something I'll be exploring over time.
I have just downloaded my raw DNA sample, which means I'll be sharing with other analysis websites to see what they can tell me. I've submitted to GEDmatch, and My Heritage. More sites are adding the option for DNA submission, I'm hoping 23 and me will begin to accept outside results, and I'd love to see Wiki Tree begin also. I'll update when I get the results from the two new sites.
**UPDATE**
So MyHeritage came through and I got exactly what my research has been telling me all along. They have a much more limited estimate but for me in a way, it was easier because I can pinpoint exactly what it is I was looking for (confirmation my research has been correct.)
So I got:
86.5% North/West Europe- 58% Germany, 22% Irish/scottish/welsh, and 6% Scandinavian (Sweden, Denmark) which besides the Irish all fits in exactly where I "knew" it to be.
the remaining 13.5% is Southern Europe which they list as Iberian but encompasses Italy.
So there ya go. LOL
So I'm sure by now everyone knows the premise: Spit in a cup, send it in, and wait. AndwaitandwaitANDWAIT. I actually had some kind of error happen the first time around, so after waiting six weeks or so I got to wait AGAIN while they tested a new sample. But let me tell you, when that email comes in telling you it's ready, the excitement is totally worth it.
My Ancestry DNA results came back as follows:
Great Britain: 69%
Europe South: 10%
Scandinavia: 7%
Europe East: 7%
Europe West: 3%
Caucasus: 1%
Ireland/Scotland/Wales: <1%
Finland/Northwest Russia: <1%
European Jewish: <1%
At first these results threw me a bit. I know my Nona was 100% Italian, and my grandpa was 100% German. I also know we're heavily German/Dutch on my mom's side. So first I learned a few things.
Apparently even though technically I should be like 25% Italian and some 60 odd percent German, DNA doesn't really work that way. Despite fifteen plus years of genealogy research, I didn't know how your DNA was actually inherited. You don't automatically get the assumed percentages of each ancestor, it's kind of hit and miss. And even siblings won't be the same; I may have inherited 10% of our Italian ancestor's DNA, she may have only gotten 5% (she's slated to take her test soon so we can compare.)
So I learned how DNA works, and doesn't, and then I learned we're a lot more diverse than I thought. I'd have never guessed Scandinavian, and I can tell you I as super confused over my biggest hit: the Great Britain result. On the plus side, Ancestry gives you more than just a data list.
When I open up my results a little further, it tells me that my GB result is primarily located in England, Scotland, and Wales. This doesn't line up with anything I really knew to be true, but if you open it up even further it goes on to say that this DNA match is also found in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.
Much better. So I know my German ancestors were from South Eastern Germany, in Waldulm, which is very close to the border of France, which encompasses two of the additional 'sources.' Add in our Northern Italian and we've probably got a good chunk of that 69% covered. I know the Weller's (my moms side) have some proper English thrown in there as well, so that result starts making a whole lot more sense.
"Europe South" is also primarily Italy and Greece, so again, I am actually more than 10% Italian when you add those up, I just don't yet know how much of that first 69% is matched to Italy. When you continue to open that up it also includes France, Switzerland, and a whole bunch of countries I know I have no relation in.
Scandinavia. I'm part Viking!!! Probably not, but it's cool anyway. When opened this covers Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, but then goes on to include Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltic States, and Finland. So there's more of our Northern Germany, and I know some of my mom's side moved to Germany from the Netherlands, so that's a great hit.
Europe East covers Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Estonia, and Bulgaria. So again with the Germany and then throw in a bunch of people who were probably married into the family and weren't direct paternal line ancestors. I'd like to explore this one some more.
Europe West is more of the same: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, England, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic. It covers pretty heavily the Lower Midwest and Virginia Settlers, which would be my Weller side.
Caucasus: My sisters exact words were "WTF is 'Caucasus." I didn't know. Turns out it's Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Palestine, Romania, Turkmenistan. PROBABLY still hitting on Italy here but I'm only guessing. I'm not sure how far back this DNA can pick up on....
I'm less than 1% of the last three so we'll just skip on over those for now.
Now you can go into a decent amount of detail here reading up on these places, their early settlers, who's conquered and integrated with the native peoples, and where said peoples have migrated over the eons. If you click along the bottom of your main results page it shows not just the migration patterns but links you tot he ancestors it's referring to. I can click on Germany, 1700-1775 and it shows me I have 17 ancestors in the Germany region, click again and it shows me exactly where and who. Pretty cool and definitely something I'll be exploring over time.
I have just downloaded my raw DNA sample, which means I'll be sharing with other analysis websites to see what they can tell me. I've submitted to GEDmatch, and My Heritage. More sites are adding the option for DNA submission, I'm hoping 23 and me will begin to accept outside results, and I'd love to see Wiki Tree begin also. I'll update when I get the results from the two new sites.
**UPDATE**
So MyHeritage came through and I got exactly what my research has been telling me all along. They have a much more limited estimate but for me in a way, it was easier because I can pinpoint exactly what it is I was looking for (confirmation my research has been correct.)
So I got:
86.5% North/West Europe- 58% Germany, 22% Irish/scottish/welsh, and 6% Scandinavian (Sweden, Denmark) which besides the Irish all fits in exactly where I "knew" it to be.
the remaining 13.5% is Southern Europe which they list as Iberian but encompasses Italy.
So there ya go. LOL
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