I always thought I was close to 100% Italian. After MANY different tests from different companies it turns out I’m like 90% Scandinavian and german lol. No italian whatsoever
My DNA test has yield 0 surprises. All of my great grandparents were Slavic, and besides some trace results around the Slavic World's edges, my results confirm what I had been told. Frankly, it was a bit disappointing that there wasn't something surprising or interesting to discover. Your results are way more interesting!
The best way to find out for sure is build your family tree. Most of us barely know who our ancestors are. Think about it, you have 32 3xgreat-grandparents, 64 4xgreat-grandparents, 128 5xgreat-grandparents. Once you start digging into those ancestors and where they came from, the more your ethnicity tests will make sense. By the way, did you get any close DNA matches? Any surprises?
@@Elke_KB everything seems pretty accurate. I was able to trace my family history back about 300 years. Some even further. Nothing was really surprising to me.
I did Ancestry and 23 n Me, knowing i was mostly German, crazy when it came back 98% German even my grandfather who passed was. I did find family lost thru death and lies. This video was cool...now im off the watch your other PA dutch stuff. Thanks for posting.
Wow, you have a very interesting mix there, I'm envious. You got your understanding of the tests mostly right, but as a Brit i have no German in my test results and i think that is what the majority of British people whose ancestors have been here for hundreds of years will have. You got your understanding of how they build these estimates, as far as i understand, but it won't tell you back further than 200-300 years in the majority of cases and this is because the reference populations they use have to be from people who knew their grandparents all lived within a certain area/region and anyone alive today, say the oldest people (100+ years old), their parents will only have been born in the early 1800s. Their parents and grandparents may or may not have been from that exact region (many will be there no certainty on this being the case). For this reason it won't pick up pre historic Celtic migrations. Now i don't know how they resolve conflicts - say someone in Sweden has the same DNA segment as someone in Scotland or Ireland, through an ancestor way, way back leaving Sweden for these places, and it's in one of the people in the reference panel they use then is it Swedish or is it Scottish/Irish? I guess they will have either decided which one based on multiple people having this segment, or they exclude it altogether until more research is done. This is why this is an estimate. As for your results and your lack of German in your results, i think this will be because DNA does not respect the artificial borders us humans have put in place, and because the Rhineland is close to the French border, that some of your French is this Rhineland ancestry (maybe it will appear as more people test and the accuracy and finer detail of the results can be teased out). Lastly, and apologies for the long comment, but it's always possible for your Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors to have been from what is now called France and they migrated from there into the area you think should be represented in your results. Oh, one final comment is that we do have ancestors from over 3 generations back that we haven't inherited any DNA from. Obviously we get 50% from each parent and roughly 25% from each grandparent (this can vary though), but beyond that it won't be an even split because in the end which bit of DNA we inherit from each parent, and the same for each of our parents is pure luck, and as you get further back there will be ancestors whose DNA we just don't inherit. This is why a sibling won't have the exact results you have, they might have inherited part of the DNA on a certain chromosome from mom that you inherited from dad. It's also why it you test a parent they will match people that you don't (because you didn't inherit the DNA that matches the match that they posted). I hope this comment helps anyone taking these tests. DNA is a very useful tool in finding it where your ancestors are from but there are limitations.
@@mattpotter8725 When I took a closer look at the region map, the French area does overlap into the Rhineland of Germany. I think that's exactly what's going on. Thank you for the comment!
I always thought I was close to 100% Italian. After MANY different tests from different companies it turns out I’m like 90% Scandinavian and german lol. No italian whatsoever
Good evening sir! I'm Spanish/Portuguese with a Greek name!
South-Western Germany, e.g. all of Baden-Würtenberg was part of France until 1871. The borders were also very fluid up to 300 years ago.
@@mikapeltokorpi7671 I caught that after I filmed the video. That's where my family is from in Germany, so it makes sense.
I have read where some of the DNA sites may include some German among the French and Poland.
My DNA test has yield 0 surprises. All of my great grandparents were Slavic, and besides some trace results around the Slavic World's edges, my results confirm what I had been told. Frankly, it was a bit disappointing that there wasn't something surprising or interesting to discover. Your results are way more interesting!
After letting the results sink in, mine seems pretty accurate as well. A very good reflection of the last 300 years of my family history.
The best way to find out for sure is build your family tree. Most of us barely know who our ancestors are. Think about it, you have 32 3xgreat-grandparents, 64 4xgreat-grandparents, 128 5xgreat-grandparents. Once you start digging into those ancestors and where they came from, the more your ethnicity tests will make sense.
By the way, did you get any close DNA matches? Any surprises?
@@Elke_KB everything seems pretty accurate. I was able to trace my family history back about 300 years. Some even further. Nothing was really surprising to me.
I did Ancestry and 23 n Me, knowing i was mostly German, crazy when it came back 98% German even my grandfather who passed was. I did find family lost thru death and lies. This video was cool...now im off the watch your other PA dutch stuff. Thanks for posting.
@@Wunderlust76 Thanks for watching! 🤗
Wow, you have a very interesting mix there, I'm envious. You got your understanding of the tests mostly right, but as a Brit i have no German in my test results and i think that is what the majority of British people whose ancestors have been here for hundreds of years will have.
You got your understanding of how they build these estimates, as far as i understand, but it won't tell you back further than 200-300 years in the majority of cases and this is because the reference populations they use have to be from people who knew their grandparents all lived within a certain area/region and anyone alive today, say the oldest people (100+ years old), their parents will only have been born in the early 1800s. Their parents and grandparents may or may not have been from that exact region (many will be there no certainty on this being the case). For this reason it won't pick up pre historic Celtic migrations.
Now i don't know how they resolve conflicts - say someone in Sweden has the same DNA segment as someone in Scotland or Ireland, through an ancestor way, way back leaving Sweden for these places, and it's in one of the people in the reference panel they use then is it Swedish or is it Scottish/Irish? I guess they will have either decided which one based on multiple people having this segment, or they exclude it altogether until more research is done. This is why this is an estimate.
As for your results and your lack of German in your results, i think this will be because DNA does not respect the artificial borders us humans have put in place, and because the Rhineland is close to the French border, that some of your French is this Rhineland ancestry (maybe it will appear as more people test and the accuracy and finer detail of the results can be teased out).
Lastly, and apologies for the long comment, but it's always possible for your Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors to have been from what is now called France and they migrated from there into the area you think should be represented in your results.
Oh, one final comment is that we do have ancestors from over 3 generations back that we haven't inherited any DNA from. Obviously we get 50% from each parent and roughly 25% from each grandparent (this can vary though), but beyond that it won't be an even split because in the end which bit of DNA we inherit from each parent, and the same for each of our parents is pure luck, and as you get further back there will be ancestors whose DNA we just don't inherit. This is why a sibling won't have the exact results you have, they might have inherited part of the DNA on a certain chromosome from mom that you inherited from dad. It's also why it you test a parent they will match people that you don't (because you didn't inherit the DNA that matches the match that they posted). I hope this comment helps anyone taking these tests. DNA is a very useful tool in finding it where your ancestors are from but there are limitations.
@@mattpotter8725 When I took a closer look at the region map, the French area does overlap into the Rhineland of Germany. I think that's exactly what's going on. Thank you for the comment!
Genetics is a mixed bag. You don't always get the genetic inheritance from all your ancestors.
The DNA tests from ancestry are not 100%
We 😆are all Mutts