I knew both sides of my family came from Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. Took the Ancestry test just to see what it would say. They nailed it. The test zeroed in on Friesland, with the farther flung ancestry including England, Scandinavia, and Iceland, probably due to the influence of marauding bands of Vikings a thousand years ago.
Care must be taken in regard to interpreting these “ancestor” locations on Ancestry and on 23andMe. The results do not necessarily reflect where your “ancestors” FROM. They only reflect where your distant COUSINS ENDED UP. In a “Melting Pot” like the USA, genetics from a certain ethnic group can soon wash out. In rural Europe, however, the same genetics intermarried in Friesland for many centuries, invaded what is now Anglia in England during the Anglo-Saxon invasions, and then intermarried in Anglia for centuries. So, even after so many centuries, these populations CROSSMATCH on these tests. On 23andMe, all testers in the Republic of Ireland, whose ancestors never left Ireland, will be told that they has “Recent Ancestry”” from every English and Scottish city that was an industrial center in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Why? Because a huge number of the siblings and cousins of their own Irish ancestors immigrated OUT of Ireland to Manchester and Liverpool and London, etc. to find works, several generations ago. Likewise, because of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, the genetic link between Anglia, England and the Netherlands is so strong the Englishmen with 200 years of genealogy limited to Anglia will be told on 23andMe that they have “Recent Ancestors” in the Netherlands. On the flip side, the testers in the Netherlands will be told they have a huge percentage of “ancestry” FROM England, when they are matching the Frisian genetics of the Anglo-Saxons invaders of what is now Anglia. Those Anglo-Saxon invaders were not the “ancestors” of the modern Frisians. The Anglo-Saxon invaders of Anglia were the siblings and cousins of those who STAYED in what is today the Netherlands.
Most of the ancestry I'm aware of is Vries too, NL Vries on my dad's, Ost-Friesland on my mum's side. As for your England component - maybe Vries migrated across the North Sea in much greater numbers than suggrested by the story that the migrants were mainly Saxon. Linguistic evidence apparently supports that.
My grandpa is over 50% Italian. And we all know this before anyone took a DNA test. I took one. And I had no Italian at all. Which is was actually feeling like maybe I wasn't related. Like there was a secret nobody told me. Then, this morning I got a notification that my DNA has been updated. Now I'm 18% Southern Italian. I was so happy when I seen that
@AnjelLee-f8c people are paranoid about taking a DNA test. But the thing is. If they have your close relatives DNA, especially your grandparents, parents, or siblings. Then they already have everything they need. It's not like you don't exist until you take a DNA test. If they wanted to manipulate your DNA some how. They would. It's not that hard to do.
@@mtauren1 I don't think the tests can pick up on individual tribes. To gain Cherokee citizenship, you need to have an ancestor listed on the final Dawes Rolls.
I was never confused because I recognise what the word estimate means and I took the time to understand their processes. My estimates have changed many times. Each time it's become more accurate, These days it directly reflects what my social and genetic research tells me about my ancestry.
Question for you,: Does Ancestry update your results automatically as their data bases improve, or do you need to retake the test to get the most recent analysis?
@@ickster23 It just updates as they publish their new findings. You can't roll back or view earlier predictions but I don't really care because I see a consistent trend towards improvement.
I sent my DNA to one of those ancestry/ heritage sites. I found out that I'm from mixed European descent. The results came back 40 % German shepherd 25 % English bulldog 20 % Irish setter 15 % French poodle I may have sent it to the wrong place.
For all forty-something years of my life, I believed I was part Cherokee. Mom said Dad was about 25%. Well, I discovered that "Dad" isn't even dad.😅 we shared 0% DNA. Then I discovered that my cousin is also my brother because we have the same father. His mom is my mom's little sister. I was born out of wedlock and was a "dirty secret" that never came out until they were both deceased. I gained 2 brothers, and lost 3 sisters 😅 my aunt is my stepmom, my cousin is my brother and I'm still confused. 😅
Happens a lot more than people realise. I spent 39 years wondering why I didn't look at all like any other Polish people I was aware of. My mum was almost entirely Welsh, but my dad apparently was a combo of English and Irish.
Genetics does not mean as much as people think it does. I don't mean genomics tests are not factual. I mean those facts don't matter in your life. You didn't "lose" or "gain" any siblings. They have the same role in your life as they ever did.
My brother found out he was my half brother before my mom died, then he did a test to confirm. We both have different father’s. You’ve got to wonder how many family trees this DNA analysis has affected. People just swept things under the rug or honestly weren’t sure cuz they had no tests years ago.
When someone shows me a detailed family tree I always wonder how many illegitimate births it contains and how all it takes is just one to bring the whole charade down.
My first estimate was the closest to family history then went further away during new updates. However they nailed where my grandfather's family is from, down to the right village.
A few years ago, a reporter for the CBC in Toronto and her identical twin sister took some of this type of test. It turned out they had different ethnic backgrounds! So much for the accuracy.
@James_Knott think of it as salt and pepper, pour half of the pepper into the salt, shake well, then pour into two containers, they will not be the same. My sister had her dna tested after I did. After a long amount of time, I contacted her. She cried. Hon, you and I have different fathers, our dna is not exact. After calming her down and going through the relatives, who were the same, we connected with the testers and asked questions. We are definitely sisters and daughters of the same parents. She has more Norwegian than I do.
Thank you! (Speaking of cleaning headstones, I've been so tempted to make a reaction video about the woman who is using what looks like pink oven cleaner... but I'm not sure my blood pressure can take it!)
I have never cleaned a headstone. My parents have a metal marker in a lawn cemetery. The thing to remember is it's an estimate, and you don't inherit dna from all your ancestors.
Clear explanation for deciphering one’s DNA results which continually frustrate me due to my ethnicity forever changing, so much so I don’t know what I am. And I certainly have no idea what/which part of me I have inherited from my mother and father.The last time I checked on Ancestry and asked, they responded saying they haven’t broken our results down yet as to which parent contributed what. All of this has confused and frustrated me. New subscriber. Thank you.
Hi, looking at your paternal and maternal haplogroups may help you a bit. Only males carry the paternal haplogroup so you would need the results of your brothers, if you have one, or,of course, your father.
My husband was born & raised in Slovenia. He's never been to Russia. His Ancestry DNA was 99% Russian. Why? Because centuries ago, a group of Russian Slavs migrated south to the Adriatic area. History & DNA results go hand in hand.
Unfortunately the companies (not just Ancestry) sell there kits on the phrase "where you're from", which is very, very misleading. These calculators are *similarity calculators* , they do NOT tell one "where you're from." Also, unfortunately very few people bother to look at the uncertainty in their result. Customers all too often do not click through to see their range bars and try to understand them.
With this last Ancestry update, I'm throwing all my ethnicity estimates out the window. It's been all over the place with new regions coming and going with each update. This last update though was like I'm a totally different individual. I understand variation and I watched this video, but I have still come away that that as of now these ethnicity estimates mean nothing. at least in my case.
True! Don't focus on percentages. They're false. Build your family tree and follow the documents to find out where your family is from. Keep searching & good luck. 💪🏾
Another great video! 🤗 I'm curious if Ancestry will do a DNA update this year? I know they never announce them ahead of time, but it's always fun to see how our percentages have changed from the previous one.. 🌎 (Like you said.. sometimes they change a LOT.. 😆)
So cool how much mine changed. Def matches my ancestors tho in my family tree. My sister had just done hers a few months back and hers changed a lot also with the update. She now only has three regions for hers while mine and our other sister has 5. Technically hers shows 4 but the French shows less than 1% when I look on my chromebook, but when on the app on my phone it shows France as 0% but includes it because it's still a tiny amount, and not completely zero. She asked why it changed so much, and I explained the more ppl who get the test, the larger the database gets, and the more precise they can make the regions. So cool hearing this explanation and that I was basically right. I didn't know for sure why the amounts changed, but guessed based on logic and getting actual clinical DNA testing done due to the genetic disorder I have. That's how they explained my variants. I have a variant of uncertain significance for the dchs1 gene and it's only been seen in .0009% of their databases. I have yet to find any literature on my specific variant at all and I am really good at researching.
Certainly if you are relying on genealogical companies, like Ancestry or My Heritage, where people cut and paste bits from each other's trees into their own trees, without checking if they are accurate.
That’s just not true. Mine revealed a whole new branch of my ancestry (by an extra-marital birth) that was, and would always have remained, invisible in any official paper records.. I followed it up and eventually all was revealed. The results are not pinpoint accurate but it is unrealistic and naive to expect that. My own results also raised questions about another branch. It’s a very good guide.
My Mom's Dad's line came straight from Norway. Her Mom's German side came over in the early 1700's. My Dad's English/Irish heritage (mid-1800's). The best they could do for me was I am from the entirety of Northwest Europe, including the Shetlands & Orkney's.
Lately 23andme decided my Norwegian ancestry was from Finnmark, above the Arctic Circle. Maybe that's why I turn down the thermostat. Or why I crave herding reindeer.
I did Ancestry and 23&Me. I have genealogy records back to the 1500’s on all 4 grandparents so it was easy for me to check. They were both very close although they gave me less French than I thought I would have. What I liked was they kept sending me updates as their testing was refined and got my French up to where records showed it to be. What totally blew me away was they were able to tell me the exact 3 areas of North America that my ancestors settled in from Europe and that told me that the tests were legit! Because of my records, I didn’t do the tests to find out what I was, I did it to find relatives that are 3rd and 4th cousins where our linkage was back about 100years. I think it’s a great service especially for linking with family and for adoptees who would like to know their ethnicity and find birth relatives.
in 23 & me i'm 100 inbreed my heritage too , ftdna i'm 87 iberius , 13 % British isles ancestry i'm spanish portugues basque , galizian , catalunia , aquitania , skotia , ha ha ha i no longer inbreed
@@BunnyWatson-k1wLots of trade links between Ireland, the West Country of England, and the Iberian Peninsula, so no surprise there. These islands have had international trade and invaders for millennia, we are a hotchpotch of everything from Vikings to Phoenicians, and further afield too.
I have always felt British and was proved correct when my DNA showed a good percentage of Celt, Viking and Saxon which apparently are the DNA building blocks of Britain. My DNA also had a good percentage of Northern England which fits with my research as my surname is old English/viking and comes from Cumbria/Northumberland. Cumbria was where my traceable ancestors lived. An example where my DNA profile fitted to my expectations though I was hoping for some surprises.
Thank you, Amy, for sharing your knowledge with us. My initial DNA (several years ago) showed Yakut (had to look that up), Ashkenazi, and Sub-Saharian African (later id'd as Ethiopian). They disappeared after a couple of years (the percentages were very low). I asked what happen to them and was told that the percentage was below what they reported. In the last few years I have a lot of Scotland DNA and have learned that there is a connection between Ashkenazi and African DNA and Scotland. I am thinking that is where my Jewish and Black DNA came from--a result of them being in Scotland. The Yakut (I assume from looking at map with the proximity of Russian and Scotland up in the North) probably came thru Scotland too. Such an interesting tool to have.
Well done! Folks need to have at least a basic understanding of statistics (sample size, probability, confidence level, etc) before getting too focused on these results. You did a great job explaining that, especially how confidence increases with increasing sample size ("n"). Over the 10 years or so that I've been observing my results, the "origin" estimates have become more and more aligned with my known pedigree. In the latest set of results my "ancestral origins" estimate is 86% Scotland and N. Ireland; nearly all of my people came to America from what is now N.I. and considered themselves "Scots-Irish" and the few who didn't come from there married someone who did.
New iteration has greatly simplified my estimates-now only Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Cornwall. All sorts of other regions have come and gone, and disparities between me and my sister are largely gone also. The new estimates are now basically what we thought we were before doing the test. 😂
My late wife, was a white, fair haired woman with blue eyes and suspected Irish ancestry. At age 17, already pregnant, she married her first husband. He was a white, fair haired, blue eyed Irishman. Their first child had darkish skin, black hair and Brown eyes. Until and including her death, some 65 years later, no one could explain this anomaly. Just after her death, I got an update on her DNA analysis which showed she was 30% native north American. Problem solved ? Let's hope so. Mark born 09/02/1966, please note.
It is interesting that the parents had recessive genes and that was their phenotype but they had a child with dominant genetic traits like black hair and brown eyes. I suppose it's possible but it must be very rare.
Must have been quite a surprise. It is not impossible for people you describe to have children of differing coloring to themselves. I once saw a picture of a Mexican couple of Mestizo origin and their six children. He was skinny, and pink skinned, she, rather fat and yellow skinned. The children, the two eldest were black skinned, the two middle were yellowish skinned and the two youngest pink skinned, and light haired. I am male, I been married twice, I have four children, 3 from one wife, 1 from the other, all red haired. I am Southern European, both parents dark haired, I am dark haired, and four red headed children. Dna test, I find I am a carrier for red hair, no one in the family knows of any red heads.
@@Ponto-zv9vf It is not unusual or strange for two dark haired parents to have redheads or blonds because they can carry the recessive genes and dominant genes will mask that you carry those traits. What is more difficult to explain is people with recessive traits having children with dark hair and dark eyes. The reason being to have recessive traits like blue eyes and blond hair or red hair you only have the recessive traits so you don't carry the dominant traits. I know people will say it happens and is possible but I have my doubts. I guess anything is possible but I'd be inclined to suspect something else.
One "ethnicity estimate" factor that has less to do with sample size is migration. In my case, I expected to see more French in the mix. The same goes for my British Isles background. Remember all of the places that the Vikings invaded? Many of my French ancestors came from Normandy...so that might pump up my Norwegian percentage.
That’s been the tricky thing with ancestral lines in the British Isles - what is “British” and what is “Viking invaders.” That has gotten better over the years.
@@MichaelTheophilus906 If you are from old, Northern landed families, your DNA may stick more -narrower circle for permitted marriage. In our case, massive Norman % and a little Iberian -and no German/French/Irish/Scottish in spite of being on the soil since 1069.
You wont see it truly as DNA testing is banned in France for direct-to-consumer purposes, including genealogical DNA tests. The French bioethics law allows DNA testing only for medical, scientific, or judicial reasons. The government say it is to keep peace within families. The real reason is the so called Bourbon descendants didn't match samples from two French Kings separated in time by about a 100 years, while the two do match each other as great.. grandfather does to great.. grandchild, they also both match the Plantagenets of England.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow The Anglo-Saxons were invaders and peaceful settlers of Britain as well, they just started earlier in the 5th Century CE, while the Vikings invaded/settled in the 8th Century CE. Both are equally important in making modern British DNA. What's funny is modern Scottish people have the same percentage of Anglo-Saxon as the average modern English person, both average about 30% Anglo-Saxon. But Anglo-Saxon is seen by some as English.
Great video again,they're always interesting and very informative. Here in the UK,my ethnicity has just changed.England and Northern Europe has gone up 6% to 80%.Wales down 11% to 2%,Scotland down 3 to 5%,Germanic Europe up from 0 to 5% and Sweden/Denmark down from 2 to 0%. Look forward to watching your videos again.
Hello to the UK from the US. I manage my grandmother’s AncestryDNA account, and the update brought her English percentage up 19% to 68%, her Scottish percentage down 26% to 13%, her Irish percentage up 3% to 9%, her Danish percentage up from 0% to 5%, her “Germanic Europe” percentage up 4% to 5%, her Baltic percentage down 3% to 0%, and her Welsh percentage down 2% to 0%.
My DNA shows a small percentage of Scadinavian/Danish ancestry. I assumed it was from the so called Vikings who had descendants throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland where the great majority of my ancestors came from. However, I discovered, on Ancestry, a branch of my family going back to Norman English who in turn were descended from Vikings who settled in Normandy and then conquered England in 1066.
It could be. The Normans were of Scandinavian origins and settled in France, but over time, some Normans could of had zero Scandinavian and 100% French ancestry, and any range in between.
I already know I'm Irish, English and Polish because of my family history. Ancestry DNA gives a percentage. Their estimates are broad, but the research I did through tracing my families from public records and family members gave me pretty accurate info. You have to be willing to put the time into searching.
I took an Ancestry DNA test about eight years ago, and the results came back with a 50% Scots, 50% Irish background, and this was entirely consistent with what I already knew about my ancestry. Then the reference panel got updated, and the results changed to 73% Scots, 12% Irish and 14% English, and 1% Norwegian. Since then, a new reference panel shows my ancestry as 49% Scots, 28% English/Welsh, and 16% Irish, with the remaining smaller percentages coming from Cornwall and elsewhere, with 1% being central European. The Cornish ancestry itself is confirmed by a Y-DNA test I took via Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) that showed a large number of matches to men with Cornish surnames. So, given these changes, there is no way any ancestry DNA-type test can tell you precisely where you're from, only indicate general probabilities. I've always wondered why my English results are as high as they are, particularly on my paternal side. One of my maternal great-grandmothers had American ancestry that came by way of England, and on my paternal side, I have no known English ancestors in paper records. A clue came to me when I remembered that my paternal grandmother's mother's maiden surname was Hewitt. She was born in Ireland, but so far as I can tell, Hewitt is a surname that is not native to Ireland. It is much more commonly found in England and sometimes in Scotland. It appears to be derived from the old Norman surname Huot, which is derived from the personal pet name for 'Hugh'. It's more than likely that this ancestor was descended from Hewitts who may have migrated from England to Ireland about 400 years ago (along with many, many other English families) and settled in the Dublin region before branching out to what is now Northern Ireland and other parts of Ireland itself.
The trouble is the Hewitt’s were Norman settlers to England, and the Normans themselves were Norse Viking settlers in France so genetically they would have been Scandinavian 🤔
@@roboparks The haplomarkers are taken from local samples, in Scotland you could be of Germanic descent if you were from the south east( Anglo/ Saxon Northumbria) , from the north east you could be of Pictish descent , the north west coast and islands you be of Gaelic Irish or Nordic Vilking decent, from Dumbarton down to the borders Brythonic Briton descent, add into the mix the Flemish , and the Normans who settled in Scotland, with all these variables it really begs the question…. What is it to be “genetically Scottish” ?
@@AmyJohnsonCrowi am Italian and that's the Japanese version of southern Italian lol Mario bros.Im in the North here we are more Germanic North: The Austrian region of North Tyrol East: The Austrian region of Salzburg
@xh4r744 I’m not sure if you’re referring to the mustache. If so, that was my “impersonation” of what someone said in a workshop, not what I thought Italians are like.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow yes read my comment but it’s incorrect stereotype.We are multiethnic country.Ignorance makes people believe we’re a specific race or a single ethnicity.Every region is a like a different country and dialect
One interesting feature is the panel showing where in the US your ancestors lived years ago. Ancestry absolutely nailed the locations, including down to the county in Ohio where most of my people lived a hundred years ago.
I never considered my ethnicity estimates to be much more than entertainment. My matches and shared matches have been the real valuable information for confirming research.
I think it is more important for adoptees, and people who don't know their actual ancestry. Many Australians know they have British and Irish ancestry but are not sure, and other groups have immigrated to Australia like German speakers from Germany itself or places once controlled by Germany. They don't really know. All my matches are of my ethnic group either fully, or partly.
@@Ponto-zv9vf I can agree sort of agree with that. I have a friend who’s adopted and she had exhausted all attempts to find out about her heritage so she tried a DNA test. It did give her a good idea of her ethnic background but it was still communication with her strongest shared matches that got her closest to her actual parentage. She wasn’t able to nail it down to her actual parents but now she knows that half of her background is Croatian on her father’s side. She still has no info on her Mother.
Statistically, the bigger the sample size, the more accurate the sample. When my nephew sent me the sample kit years ago. It had Scandinavia, several countries combined under Western Europe, and Ireland with Wales. Now it has individual countries broken down even further.
I got my DNA sequence through 23AndMe when I participated in a study. It's largely remained the same but it has slightly changed on the margins. One thing people struggle to understand is that there's plenty of diversity within populations, and on average more depending on how you group a population. You don't need conscious interbreeding for this and people wouldn't have seen the world in that way before the 19th century anyway. I'm fortunate that both my grandparents on my maternal side have extensive and well-researched genealogies.
For years my DNA results from Ancestry showed that I was Scot, Irish, English, Welsh, Norwegian and Swedish. Now, suddenly in July it pops up that I am 1% from Cameroon and Congo. What on earth can explain that?
Ms. Johnson that always made sense to me. I.E my dad was born in Stoke on Trent to an American soldier and Welsh mom. But he had English too and we all know that Danes intermarried heavily so if Dane shows up in my DNA i understand where it likely came from. And I have Scottish ancestry from the Orkneys which was ruled and inhabited by Norway. So I no doubt have Norwegian through my Scottish side and I even say it like that to folks . The Scottish family name is even Norwegian " Lichliter"
According to my DNA test from Anecstry, as a native of Switzerland, my genes are 50% English, 35% Irish and, as expected due to the Romans who were here 2000 years ago, 10-15% Italian. How can that be? Up until my great-great-grandparents around 1840, my ancestors were all Swiss. My DNA test didn't even reveal any German ancestors, although my grandfather once told me that our ancestors immigrated from the Swabian Alps via Lake Constance to western Switzerland around 1500. Thank you for every helpful answer!
My dna from my mom is from the British Isles. My dad's is Dutch, German , Swiss with a little English and Scot. I've charted my tree back to the 3rd and 4th century. Both sides are descended from Royalty, which makes it easy. My mom is decended from James I/VI of Scotland and England, and my dad from James V of Scotland. The lines actually meet a second time with James II. One is descended from Alexander and the other through James III.
Mine is the opposite my dad's side is British Isles Scotland Ireland and France . My mom's side is Dutch Germanic ancestry from the Netherlands and Switzerland. I knew this before I ever took the test . I took Living DNA for the mother line and it did in fact trace the Germanic to my mother's side of the family. I went from 3 regions to 5 with some Danish in there too in the recent update.
Picture it … Austria WW2 … my grandmother has a liaison with a French soldier mid 1942 … which produces my dad who is now 81 years old. He never knew his biological father. It would be interesting to see what pops up on our dna tests and any French family we may have !! Fascinating stuff.
Saw this years ago, my mom is Mexican of Spanish ancestry... from northern Spain. Ancestry had these ancesters coming from France, right across the Pyrenees mountains. Three years later, our ancesters were back to where they were from.
Napoleon occupied and invaded Spain around 1800 and that could explain the French part. Mexico is made up also of many nationalities but mostly from Spain. The term Spanish is the language, but can also refer to country of origin. Mexico can have native DNA, etc. It gets confusing when they are talking about DNA but use terms like Spanish, Mexican which is another mouthful of confusion. I am born in Puerto Rico but by DNA is 94% europeon.every could try in Europe may have multiple historical DNAs.
@@ralphramirez1545 The connections between Northern Spain and Southern France are much older than that. Look at the Basque and Occitano-Romance languages. The Basque Country is of course split between Spain and France, and, in addition to that, the language of most of Southern France, Occitan, is the closest relative of Catalan (and Catalan is also spoken in part of Southwestern France).
@@ralphramirez1545Nah. It’s Basque and all the native Europeans that were there earlier like Celts, Gauls especially if she was for the North for sure Basque
I took Ancestry and 23 and Me mainly to compare the results and see if they were the same or much different. Luckily I have genealogists in the family and for 3/4 grandparents I have back to late 1500’s n early 1600’s and the 4th to early 1800’s. I did the tests to try n find more about that 4th grandparent who was French Canadian. When I first got the test results, everything was expected except the French was much lower than it should have been and half as much as my half sister who has the same grandparent. So I was really happy when I kept getting those updates and each time I was more and more French and now I’m right where my genealogy history says I should be. What I loved most about 23 n Me that blew my mind was they showed 3 areas of North America where my family settled when they came-New England, Ohio River Valley and St, Lawrence River Valley and those are EXACTLY where they settled. For the depth of information, I really preferred 23 n Me to Ancestry and I’m sad to hear they aren’t doing well.
I have been working with someone born in England who found roughly 25% of his admixture was from native American and/or Spanish origins. He matched my father, so I knew he was Mexican, which was a total surprise to him! We believe we have been able to figure out who his paternal grandfather was using his shared matches and traditional genealogy.
My mom, both sides of her family could trace her ancestry back to Germany for about 6 generations all since coming from Germany and a couple generations before coming to the US. (she was born in 1942) and it had her 50% English…
I took my test in 2017. Everything looked pretty accurate except I was only 4% German. One set of paternal great grandparents were from Switzerland and had Germanic surnames. I was told that my grandma was fully German because of her parents. I was surprised that I didn’t have more German. A few weeks ago I received an update. I am now 23% German. That totally makes more sense.
From 2018 to 2022, my Ancestry estimated results were consistent with England, Ireland, Scots, Denmark, Sweden and Norway percentages. In 2023, they threw in some Welsh. 2024, They estimated England, Ireland and Scotland, everything else gone. This is a problem for people testing from the U.K. like myself and the other 2 companies do exactly the same thing. I've downgraded my membership from All Access to Basic and I'm very tempted to downgrade it further to Preserve My Tree at this point, as I have no appetite to continue researching with this company.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Thanks for letting me know that. I don't have a membership with them even though I keep getting their emails. I would have had one but they changed my credit card for that without my permission and that really infuriated me even though I got them to reverse the change.
I’m interested in trying these kits, as my grandma on my mom’s side was adopted. As was my great-grandfather on my mom’s side. I’m curious to see who I actually am
Knowing the history of various regions can be very helpful. It's not actually surprising, for example, that someone with an ancestry estimate primarily from the British Isles would have some small percentage from Italy and Greece. Rome occupied England for some 400 years. And some of their soldiers and servants were of Greek descent. It would be a bit more than credulous to think that there was never any "mixing" with the local populations in 400 years of history.
What a great video and what a great host. I really appreciate this information. I was hoping you can help me with something. I kind of saddens me actually the problem I have is I want to find the test that shows with the percentages like you pointed out 45% Scotland, etc. and I’ve understood what you’ve mentioned regarding how it could change or almost evolve in a sense, just because changing and what not but I had two questions first of all. Does your test does ancestry help to show the migration pattern is there one that does that and when I take the test is my DNA much more useful than my last name because my father passed away before I was born, and my mother didn’t think she could give me his last name. My mother and father were not married and so, I have her legal married name from my last name I go about getting those accurate Findings Thank you David
Good video; I did that test (it was based on a saliva sample) when they first started this service. Have they changed the way they get the sample? Mine showed I was 0 % Irish, although it was assumed my mom’s paternal side was Irish. My wife’s showed she was 0% American Indian which in her family tradition she was like 1/8 Cherokee.
I am an adoptee who wondered their whole life about ethnicity. I have been following DNA tests since they came out and have tried various ones. Let me say the wide range of results just left me angry and frustrated. I went from being mostly French and Middle East and Russia on one test and now I am UK, Balkan and Eastern Europe. Let me edit to say that I did finally get a paper trail and one set of Grandparents came from Serbia which is a crossroads of various populations.
@@annehersey9895 I think "we" means European and north African, Middle Eastern... maybe West Asian too. Not sub-Sahara Africa, far east Asia, South Asia, Australia or the Americas.
@@CitizenTurtleIsland I have 1.4 % Neanderthal and I’m from the US so it appears to be everyone. Since we emerged from Africa long ago common ancestors must have mated with Neanderthal-too complicated for me. I try to keep up with research but so much going on today to worry too much about thousands of millennia ago! 😀😀😀
My test came up with a region in Central Europe stretching east to a tiny town which was mentioned by name. That happened to be my mother’s home town. Strange, although she was born there, neither of her parents were from there. The only relatives I have in that town are two cousins. I wonder if one of both of them had a DNA test, linking our pattern to that town. Otherwise we are known to hail from much further east, but all the family have migrated, so any tests would not be linked to that geographical region. My test has produced more questions than answers.
wow very interesting. I took a DNA test this July. I was told by my father his parents were all Swedish and spoke Swedish but were born and grew up in Kronoby Finland. to my surprise my test came back 47 percent Finnish ! my grandparents were indeed Finnish not Swedish. I was also 7 percent swedish { 5 percent from my mom!} 2 percent Norweigan, 22 percent enlgish, 10 percent Irish, 8 percent Scottish, and 4 percent French. my estimates just changed last week. 48 percent Finnish, 2 percent swedish , 33 percent English, 4 percent Irish, 4 percent Scottish, and 3 percent Netherlands.
My partner is more Finnish than Norwegian too despite being able to trace back some 3-400 yrs in Norway. Turns out the border was blurred somewhat and many people crossed rivers etc which were deemed as borders hence the mix. With Finnish Sami in the mix it makes sense.
For anyone reading, and maybe this clarifies, maybe this doesn't, but when you take a DNA test, it is absolutely required to refrain from analyzing your results from a modern, "the world as we currently know it" perspective. Do not look at the map and say, "Oh! I have ancestors from X country!" Rather, look at the map as having different regions. Its also an absolute MUST to understand borders, migration, history, trade routes, immigration and how people moved from land to land, not nessessarily from country to country. For example, You may have the regions of Australia and/or New Zealand highlighted in your results. That COULD mean you have connections to Aboriginal, Celt, Anglo Saxon, or Norse cultures/ancestors. When the British Empire gained control of Australia/New Zealand, they used that land to send thousands of their criminals, defects and those banished out of the British Isles. Another example...If "Jewish" shows up in your DNA, it would NOT nessessarily mean your ancestors are from Israel/Middle East. That data could also mean that your ancestors are from Central Europe. If that is the case, youd want to start looking into WWII history and the Holocaust to see if you have any connections to those victims. Norse Viking ties? You may very well also have Anglo Saxon, Pict or Celt connections. Another example... I knew that my results would come back with Swiss German, French and maybe a few other European regions. However what really surprised me was the Scots Irish and Native Durangan (Mexican) connections. With more digging, historical records, historical timelines and countless hours of diving into Ancestry, FindAGrave, Google, obituary records, newspapers and world history, ships records and other sources, I finally tracked down the family I was looking for. I hope maybe this all helps someone else. Stay open minded!
According to the "Family Tree DNA" test, my sample is 68% English, Scottish and Welsh. But I am a “real German” and definitely have no ancestry from the island. I rather suspect that about 2000 years ago there was a mixture of Celts and Germanic peoples in my area, just as it happened 500 years later on the island when the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and even later some Vikings arrived there. These are also things that the current test results do not show. I tried to ask about this, but the staff who communicate with you there are neither trained nor interested. They say, no, you must have ancestors from Great Britain. But I am sure that it is as I have described.
I know that I’m approximately 50% Norwegian; my mother was full Norwegian with immigrant parents. My father was a little fuzzier. Initially I was told by him that his family was mostly Irish. According to my cousins, his family is actually Scottish. This makes sense since my paternal grandmother’s maiden name was McMurtry. However, the company I used for DnA sent me an update to let me know that I had a high percentage of … Guatemalan? And other Central American countries. I don’t think so.
Bizarre that my tests come back as being all UK and have never changed since taking the test several years ago .. but there is no mention of the roots of UK people, as in Gaul, Goths, Danes, Vikings, Germans etc.... where does their DNA trace disappear to?
I check my Ancestry account. It was updated 3 times in the last few years. Now when I check after not being on for months. It as updated again. As usually things, get higher or lower, added , or some things get dropped off. Which was confusing sometimes. The new update list some of the tribes, people the DNA test came from, which you share DNA with.
@ @ it does not use the word Blk or whit*. Now to answer the question no have not have a huge changes. For example I was about 9% Mali ancestry, it is now is 4%.
@@DoubleBeezy exactly my percentage was much higher, higher for Mali, when I first did my Dna test 10 years ago. Other things got lower or higher. Another example is my Netherlands ancestry got higher. Original my first test it was Scandinavian. My Irish also got higher. Original I was 1% Senegal, that got dropped off the last updated, things got added . These are just some of the examples. I went to find the very original test chart could not find it. As you had me thinking.
The strange thing is that with the technology advancement and refinement of reference panels, I expected the result to be more fragmented. I thought that new regions would appear, that is, the picture would be more colorful. But in fact, there was regions consolidation and merging
@@gaynor1721I did as well, it finally found the small amount of Spanish 23andme had reflected for years. My German-Scandinavian went way up but since my UK history is Eastern in areas with heavy Viking/Germanic invasions it’s consistent with what I know. My sister and Moms dna shifted along with and matches.
I’ve done my dna with two different companies and had slightly different results. Using DNA, my family tree search and my matches, I’ve been able to piece together somewhat better than just my DNA alone.
A year ago I had Swedish and Norwegian and now those are gone and I have Dutch and German. 🤷🏻♂️😕 The only one that has stayed the same is the 42% England and Northwestern Europe.
YEP!!! Bingo. I am so glad you are reporting on this. My Bio Dad remarried a Vietnamese women and had Kids with her...and after he had his children DNA Tested and added to the database, my results then changed me to being part Vietnamese. That's when I deleted my account and knew it was no longer accurate. I had a friend write in to Ancestry explaining there was no way they were German she knew from her great grandmother they with polish. So Ancestry took her word and changed the family results.
They would never change their results based on someone's claims alone. I'm sorry but it's not that arbitrary. Estimates for ethnicity not specific to Europe will need a lot more refinement I'd think.
Something is not right regarding your test. No way could you be part Vietnamese if your mother and father or past relatives do not carry a Vietnamese gene. Or you parenthood needs to be questioned. Or you misunderstand your DNA matches.
Mine was: 1) 50% Scandinavian (my mother’s family), and 2) 30% English/Irish & 20% German/Dutch (my father’s family). It lines up with what I was told before I took the test.
This most recent update is a little closer to my actual known genealogy...which is significant. For the 1st time, I'm 10% Germanic Europe...and my Shrum/Schramm line came from Bavaria prior to the Revolutionary War. My 5th great-grandfather--well known in German ancestry groups--took an oath of naturalization via sacrament at 14 years old prior to the Revolutionary War. I lost "some" Irish percentage. My 4th great-grandfather came from Antrum, Ireland also prior to the Revolutionary War, so I had shown a bit more...but I'll take the reduction in favor of the correction to my Germanic ancestry.
Your DNA results are what is prominent in you, right? Because both my parents and I did separate DNA tests under different accounts and times. But it listed them as likely parents. Everything matches, with the exception that I have way more Norwegian DNA than both my parents combined. Not sure if it just confused the Swedish since they are so closely related. As my father is Largely Swedish with some Norwegian.
Ignore those. Most geneticists who don’t work for the popular DNA companies say they ignore everything below about 10-15%. There are several reasons for this. They also never speak of ethnicities; only locations. And even then, they say accuracy is basically regional, and most accurately, continental. Anything more focused than that is guesswork, at this point. For some of the reasons mentioned in the video. Also, current “ethnicity” testing fails to account for travel, which is a big flaw in the whole system. People have always migrated, voluntarily or not, in the big picture. But currently, only Y-chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA take migration into account, or can be compared to more ancient DNA samples taken from skeletal remains. But the general tests don’t test for those. You have to test at FamilyTree DNA or a couple of other companies that offer those tests. (Autosomal DNA, which most companies like Ancestry test, taken only from cell nuclei, don’t last very long so don’t survive in ancient bones; also, autosomal DNA recombines in every person, so after just a few generations their origin can’t be pinpointed.) That’s why, when the document trail runs out in family research, autosomal tests aren’t very helpful. And ethnicity isn’t genetic at all. Ethnicity is socio-cultural.
Generally, AncestryDNA seems to be the best at splitting out UK vs Scandinavian, and they do have the largest number of reference panels. Honestly, though, the ethnicity estimate isn't the most informative part of a DNA test. You get better information from the matches and from AncestryDNA's DNA communities (now called "DNA journeys.")
Yes, an estimate is just an estimate but considering the lack of scientific understanding, confusion arises here and in many other areas too. If there were extensive contributions to the data pool from a certain area, then more accuracy would obtain. Ancestry correctly called the exact county in Ireland whence my wife's maternal family came.
I have a question about the veracity of My Heritage DNA regions as compared to that of Ancestry. My DNA was first tested via Ancestry. The matches have changed slightly but still put me in the same regions. England, Germanic Europe and Scandinavia (the latter alternating from time to time between Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands). Nothing else. I downloaded the data and uploaded to My Heritage. This then matched me with the same regions but also matched me at 0.9% with the Middle East. From the same data! I then uploaded to My True Ancestry, which does a match with ancient DNA from archaeological sites. It bore out the Ancestry regions. I am Celt, Viking, Saxon. So, the question is, where's the rogue 0.9% Middle Eastern on My Heritage coming from?
They are estimates and I'm guessing from the evidence i see they have a hard time even being close the more ethnicities one person has and i think it confuses whatever process that figures this stuff out. I don't really have faith that the ethnicity estimates are even close in my case, but for people that are one or two different ethnicities i think its more accurate
Mine changed somewhat but the regions stayed the same. My understanding of history is key to understanding how modern borders are meaningless for dna accuracy. My ancestors came from the Baltic coastal area edging towards Denmark. We always considered them German. Ancestry said so until it changed from German to Danish/Swedish. How could this be? Sweden and Denmark once held that territory for long periods so the people there would reflect that. So, my family was German in culture but dna something else.
This is something very, very common everywhere in Europe and has been for centuries. Europeans don't take DNA tests. For good reasons, they identify with their language or its specific dialect they have grown up with, and this also allocates them a region to call home.
The thing I don't like about ancestry is they advertise "find out who you are. you are" not who you are decended from, you deserve neither their credits or grievences of an ancestor, particularly when there is so much fake history out there. I took Ancestry and found almost exactly what I expected knowing the history of the family. It is fun to trace a connection to people who lived in the past like watching a movie and having a connection to the story. Not based on my research but I may have had one ancestor who was the most incompetent generals ever created by Napoleon.
Good video. Explains it concisely and clearly. With respect to myself, my ethnicity match 68% Scottish, 42% Irish) is more or less what I expected, what with being Scots-born of some Irish extraction, and even some of the latter will actually be Ulster Scots and therefore actually Scottish.
It will also be because of the constant exchange of people back and forth between Ireland and Scotland for thousands of years. Before the advent of modern fuel-powered transportation, water was the fastest and easiest way to get almost anywhere. This meant the sea created close ties instead of being a barrier.
I had my DNA done by 23 and Me, but it was at such variance with my family trees that I had it redone with Ancestry. Ancestry was MUCH better. The Ancestry version has undergone a number of changes since then, but I do feel that it is becoming more accurate.
I had my dna tested with genebase, they let you know your percentages / match to someone male/female, with there surnames, so basically know where your ancestors came from.
I've been wondering. My direct ancestors are German, English, Irish, Scotch & Welsh. Ancestry says I'm like 35% Scotch. I have one Great Grandmother from Scotland. (I knew her.) My family tree says a surprising number of my ancestors, from both sides of my family, come from Wurttemberg Germany. (My Father's side is the main German line, salted with Scotch & Irish. My mother's side is mostly English & German.) BTW: How reliable are the "traces" through history? One trace up my mother's paternal grand-father's line leads to a sister of Katheryn Howard, one of the wives of Henry VIII. (Should I write "cousin" Charlie a polite note and tell him to get off my chair?) I've wondered how reliable that "trace" is and how I could "proof read" it.
I knew both sides of my family came from Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. Took the Ancestry test just to see what it would say. They nailed it. The test zeroed in on Friesland, with the farther flung ancestry including England, Scandinavia, and Iceland, probably due to the influence of marauding bands of Vikings a thousand years ago.
Care must be taken in regard to interpreting these “ancestor” locations on Ancestry and on 23andMe. The results do not necessarily reflect where your “ancestors” FROM. They only reflect where your distant COUSINS ENDED UP. In a “Melting Pot” like the USA, genetics from a certain ethnic group can soon wash out. In rural Europe, however, the same genetics intermarried in Friesland for many centuries, invaded what is now Anglia in England during the Anglo-Saxon invasions, and then intermarried in Anglia for centuries. So, even after so many centuries, these populations CROSSMATCH on these tests. On 23andMe, all testers in the Republic of Ireland, whose ancestors never left Ireland, will be told that they has “Recent Ancestry”” from every English and Scottish city that was an industrial center in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Why? Because a huge number of the siblings and cousins of their own Irish ancestors immigrated OUT of Ireland to Manchester and Liverpool and London, etc. to find works, several generations ago. Likewise, because of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, the genetic link between Anglia, England and the Netherlands is so strong the Englishmen with 200 years of genealogy limited to Anglia will be told on 23andMe that they have “Recent Ancestors” in the Netherlands. On the flip side, the testers in the Netherlands will be told they have a huge percentage of “ancestry” FROM England, when they are matching the Frisian genetics of the Anglo-Saxons invaders of what is now Anglia. Those Anglo-Saxon invaders were not the “ancestors” of the modern Frisians. The Anglo-Saxon invaders of Anglia were the siblings and cousins of those who STAYED in what is today the Netherlands.
That's cool did you taked ancestry DNA or my heritage
Most of the ancestry I'm aware of is Vries too, NL Vries on my dad's, Ost-Friesland on my mum's side. As for your England component - maybe Vries migrated across the North Sea in much greater numbers than suggrested by the story that the migrants were mainly Saxon. Linguistic evidence apparently supports that.
It's easy to tell that you're an expert in the field and an expert in teaching through your way of speaking. Top notch video
My grandpa is over 50% Italian. And we all know this before anyone took a DNA test. I took one. And I had no Italian at all. Which is was actually feeling like maybe I wasn't related. Like there was a secret nobody told me. Then, this morning I got a notification that my DNA has been updated. Now I'm 18% Southern Italian. I was so happy when I seen that
Great. I would like to get a DNA update as well. I am going for Cherokee. Where can I get it?
@@mtauren1 ancestry is where I got mine
You Mr first mistake was to do that test.
@AnjelLee-f8c people are paranoid about taking a DNA test. But the thing is. If they have your close relatives DNA, especially your grandparents, parents, or siblings. Then they already have everything they need. It's not like you don't exist until you take a DNA test. If they wanted to manipulate your DNA some how. They would. It's not that hard to do.
@@mtauren1 I don't think the tests can pick up on individual tribes. To gain Cherokee citizenship, you need to have an ancestor listed on the final Dawes Rolls.
I really like your map comparison for the change in ethnicity estimates as they gather more data! Great video!
Thank you! I'm so glad you like it!
I was never confused because I recognise what the word estimate means and I took the time to understand their processes. My estimates have changed many times. Each time it's become more accurate, These days it directly reflects what my social and genetic research tells me about my ancestry.
Question for you,: Does Ancestry update your results automatically as their data bases improve, or do you need to retake the test to get the most recent analysis?
@ickster23 It is automatically updated. You don’t need to retest.
@@ickster23 It just updates as they publish their new findings. You can't roll back or view earlier predictions but I don't really care because I see a consistent trend towards improvement.
You can view one version back.
@@gavanwhatever8196 I very much wish they would allow you to view previous estimates.
I sent my DNA to one of those ancestry/ heritage sites. I found out that I'm from mixed European descent. The results came back
40 % German shepherd
25 % English bulldog
20 % Irish setter
15 % French poodle
I may have sent it to the wrong place.
Hilarious! Thanks for the laugh! 🤣
I really needed this laugh. Thank you very much!😂😅
😂
LOL!
got to watch those French poodles!
For all forty-something years of my life, I believed I was part Cherokee. Mom said Dad was about 25%. Well, I discovered that "Dad" isn't even dad.😅 we shared 0% DNA. Then I discovered that my cousin is also my brother because we have the same father. His mom is my mom's little sister. I was born out of wedlock and was a "dirty secret" that never came out until they were both deceased.
I gained 2 brothers, and lost 3 sisters 😅 my aunt is my stepmom, my cousin is my brother and I'm still confused. 😅
Happens a lot more than people realise. I spent 39 years wondering why I didn't look at all like any other Polish people I was aware of. My mum was almost entirely Welsh, but my dad apparently was a combo of English and Irish.
Haha Beverly hillbillies
Genetics does not mean as much as people think it does. I don't mean genomics tests are not factual. I mean those facts don't matter in your life. You didn't "lose" or "gain" any siblings. They have the same role in your life as they ever did.
My brother found out he was my half brother before my mom died, then he did a test to confirm. We both have different father’s.
You’ve got to wonder how many family trees this DNA analysis has affected. People just swept things under the rug or honestly weren’t sure cuz they had no tests years ago.
When someone shows me a detailed family tree I always wonder how many illegitimate births it contains and how all it takes is just one to bring the whole charade down.
My DNA estimates changed wildly. Fortunately my family has many records & family photos & legal documents so the DNA is icing for me. Love it.
My first estimate was the closest to family history then went further away during new updates. However they nailed where my grandfather's family is from, down to the right village.
A few years ago, a reporter for the CBC in Toronto and her identical twin sister took some of this type of test. It turned out they had different ethnic backgrounds! So much for the accuracy.
@James_Knott think of it as salt and pepper, pour half of the pepper into the salt, shake well, then pour into two containers, they will not be the same. My sister had her dna tested after I did. After a long amount of time, I contacted her. She cried. Hon, you and I have different fathers, our dna is not exact. After calming her down and going through the relatives, who were the same, we connected with the testers and asked questions. We are definitely sisters and daughters of the same parents. She has more Norwegian than I do.
@@bonniewiggins1168 They were identical twins which means identical DNA! Yet completely different results.
@@James_Knott citation needed
@@PaulDubi th-cam.com/video/Isa5c1p6aC0/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUXbWFya2V0cGxhY2UgZG5hIHRlc3Rpbmc%3D
Mix up at the lab. I'd redo the test.
Well done. This is such a touchy subject for people who don’t understand the science. (2nd only to how to properly clean a headstone)
Thank you! (Speaking of cleaning headstones, I've been so tempted to make a reaction video about the woman who is using what looks like pink oven cleaner... but I'm not sure my blood pressure can take it!)
I have never cleaned a headstone. My parents have a metal marker in a lawn cemetery. The thing to remember is it's an estimate, and you don't inherit dna from all your ancestors.
dnland , says i'm inbreed 100% the most accurate reading , saying people in Canada share my DNA , its misleading , because it is not Canada origin
I have watched a number of youtube videos on that subject , is there one you could recommend?
@@Ponto-zv9vf think again , about it how you inherited 2% of Neanderthals DNA ? how does it reach today in your gene ?
Clear explanation for deciphering one’s DNA results which continually frustrate me due to my ethnicity forever changing, so much so I don’t know what I am. And I certainly have no idea what/which part of me I have inherited from my mother and father.The last time I checked on Ancestry and asked, they responded saying they haven’t broken our results down yet as to which parent contributed what. All of this has confused and frustrated me. New subscriber. Thank you.
Hi, looking at your paternal and maternal haplogroups may help you a bit. Only males carry the paternal haplogroup so you would need the results of your brothers, if you have one, or,of course, your father.
I'd been researching both sides of my family decades prior to having my DNA identified via ancestry. I found the results to reflect my research.
My husband was born & raised in Slovenia. He's never been to Russia. His Ancestry DNA was 99% Russian. Why? Because centuries ago, a group of Russian Slavs migrated south to the Adriatic area. History & DNA results go hand in hand.
This is an EXCELLENT description of Ethnicity Estimates and why it keeps changing- the comparison to map making is simple and effective.
I went to Ancestry. I “discovered” my background added up to some 150%, which I first found odd, but then decided I must simply be extraordinary.
@@sheilah4525 😆 Love this
Lol
Unfortunately the companies (not just Ancestry) sell there kits on the phrase "where you're from", which is very, very misleading. These calculators are *similarity calculators* , they do NOT tell one "where you're from." Also, unfortunately very few people bother to look at the uncertainty in their result. Customers all too often do not click through to see their range bars and try to understand them.
AncestryDNA says I am 100% from the country I was born in, the range being 99 to 100%. Now, does that mean to you, it's accurate?
What's it to you anyway? Deal with your own insecurities, never mind others'.
With this last Ancestry update, I'm throwing all my ethnicity estimates out the window. It's been all over the place with new regions coming and going with each update. This last update though was like I'm a totally different individual. I understand variation and I watched this video, but I have still come away that that as of now these ethnicity estimates mean nothing. at least in my case.
True! Don't focus on percentages. They're false.
Build your family tree and follow the documents to find out where your family is from. Keep searching & good luck. 💪🏾
Mind you, Ancestry recently told me I had a "strong" connection to the Channel Islands, before they deleted that completely.
Your voice is so calming
Another great video! 🤗 I'm curious if Ancestry will do a DNA update this year? I know they never announce them ahead of time, but it's always fun to see how our percentages have changed from the previous one.. 🌎 (Like you said.. sometimes they change a LOT.. 😆)
I wouldn't be surprised. My last update was a year ago.
I got my update today - 10th October 2024.
@@gaynor1721 You're right.. They updated it. Looks different! 😲
They just did. It's different..and is puzzling a bit.
So cool how much mine changed. Def matches my ancestors tho in my family tree. My sister had just done hers a few months back and hers changed a lot also with the update. She now only has three regions for hers while mine and our other sister has 5. Technically hers shows 4 but the French shows less than 1% when I look on my chromebook, but when on the app on my phone it shows France as 0% but includes it because it's still a tiny amount, and not completely zero. She asked why it changed so much, and I explained the more ppl who get the test, the larger the database gets, and the more precise they can make the regions. So cool hearing this explanation and that I was basically right. I didn't know for sure why the amounts changed, but guessed based on logic and getting actual clinical DNA testing done due to the genetic disorder I have. That's how they explained my variants. I have a variant of uncertain significance for the dchs1 gene and it's only been seen in .0009% of their databases. I have yet to find any literature on my specific variant at all and I am really good at researching.
Increasingly, these ancestry dna tests are sounding as reliable at unveiling your past as a fortune cookie is your future.
Certainly if you are relying on genealogical companies, like Ancestry or My Heritage, where people cut and paste bits from each other's trees into their own trees, without checking if they are accurate.
That’s just not true. Mine revealed a whole new branch of my ancestry (by an extra-marital birth) that was, and would always have remained, invisible in any official paper records.. I followed it up and eventually all was revealed. The results are not pinpoint accurate but it is unrealistic and naive to expect that. My own results also raised questions about another branch. It’s a very good guide.
Sometimes they are just plain wrong!
@@claymor8241 "The results are not pinpoint accurate..." That's something people should consider before they cut and paste.
About as reliable as performing 40 cycles with PCR!
My Mom's Dad's line came straight from Norway. Her Mom's German side came over in the early 1700's. My Dad's English/Irish heritage (mid-1800's). The best they could do for me was I am from the entirety of Northwest Europe, including the Shetlands & Orkney's.
Ha, I am one quarter Norwegian, Irish, Scottish, German.
Same basically
Norwegian, Scottish, English, French German. No polish. Lol
Lately 23andme decided my Norwegian ancestry was from Finnmark, above the Arctic Circle. Maybe that's why I turn down the thermostat. Or why I crave herding reindeer.
I did Ancestry and 23&Me. I have genealogy records back to the 1500’s on all 4 grandparents so it was easy for me to check. They were both very close although they gave me less French than I thought I would have. What I liked was they kept sending me updates as their testing was refined and got my French up to where records showed it to be. What totally blew me away was they were able to tell me the exact 3 areas of North America that my ancestors settled in from Europe and that told me that the tests were legit! Because of my records, I didn’t do the tests to find out what I was, I did it to find relatives that are 3rd and 4th cousins where our linkage was back about 100years. I think it’s a great service especially for linking with family and for adoptees who would like to know their ethnicity and find birth relatives.
Yes, I have done dna tests to prove my family tree, I knew my ethnic background, and as for relatives I am related to everyone of my ethnic group.
Yup the few regions they showed for journeys was exactly where my ancestors came over to in the americas
in 23 & me i'm 100 inbreed my heritage too , ftdna i'm 87 iberius , 13 % British isles ancestry i'm spanish portugues basque , galizian , catalunia , aquitania , skotia , ha ha ha i no longer inbreed
My sister tested for 2% Iberian (Spanish), yet both Dad in from English/Irish and Mom is from Scottish ancestry.
@@BunnyWatson-k1wLots of trade links between Ireland, the West Country of England, and the Iberian Peninsula, so no surprise there. These islands have had international trade and invaders for millennia, we are a hotchpotch of everything from Vikings to Phoenicians, and further afield too.
I have always felt British and was proved correct when my DNA showed a good percentage of Celt, Viking and Saxon which apparently are the DNA building blocks of Britain.
My DNA also had a good percentage of Northern England which fits with my research as my surname is old English/viking and comes from Cumbria/Northumberland.
Cumbria was where my traceable ancestors lived.
An example where my DNA profile fitted to my expectations though I was hoping for some surprises.
Thank you, Amy, for sharing your knowledge with us. My initial DNA (several years ago) showed Yakut (had to look that up), Ashkenazi, and Sub-Saharian African (later id'd as Ethiopian).
They disappeared after a couple of years (the percentages were very low). I asked what happen to them and was told that the percentage was below what they reported. In the last few
years I have a lot of Scotland DNA and have learned that there is a connection between Ashkenazi and African DNA and Scotland. I am thinking that is where my Jewish and Black
DNA came from--a result of them being in Scotland. The Yakut (I assume from looking at map with the proximity of Russian and Scotland up in the North) probably came thru Scotland too.
Such an interesting tool to have.
Well done! Folks need to have at least a basic understanding of statistics (sample size, probability, confidence level, etc) before getting too focused on these results. You did a great job explaining that, especially how confidence increases with increasing sample size ("n"). Over the 10 years or so that I've been observing my results, the "origin" estimates have become more and more aligned with my known pedigree. In the latest set of results my "ancestral origins" estimate is 86% Scotland and N. Ireland; nearly all of my people came to America from what is now N.I. and considered themselves "Scots-Irish" and the few who didn't come from there married someone who did.
New iteration has greatly simplified my estimates-now only Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Cornwall. All sorts of other regions have come and gone, and disparities between me and my sister are largely gone also. The new estimates are now basically what we thought we were before doing the test. 😂
My late wife, was a white, fair haired woman with blue eyes and suspected Irish ancestry. At age 17, already pregnant, she married her first husband. He was a white, fair haired, blue eyed Irishman. Their first child had darkish skin, black hair and Brown eyes. Until and including her death, some 65 years later, no one could explain this anomaly. Just after her death, I got an update on her DNA analysis which showed she was 30% native north American. Problem solved ? Let's hope so. Mark born 09/02/1966, please note.
It is interesting that the parents had recessive genes and that was their phenotype but they had a child with dominant genetic traits like black hair and brown eyes. I suppose it's possible but it must be very rare.
Must have been quite a surprise. It is not impossible for people you describe to have children of differing coloring to themselves. I once saw a picture of a Mexican couple of Mestizo origin and their six children. He was skinny, and pink skinned, she, rather fat and yellow skinned. The children, the two eldest were black skinned, the two middle were yellowish skinned and the two youngest pink skinned, and light haired. I am male, I been married twice, I have four children, 3 from one wife, 1 from the other, all red haired. I am Southern European, both parents dark haired, I am dark haired, and four red headed children. Dna test, I find I am a carrier for red hair, no one in the family knows of any red heads.
@@Ponto-zv9vfthnx for the info, esp abt the Mestizo family. It's strange & fascinating how all the genes mix and appear!
I can think of a very obvious reason.....
@@Ponto-zv9vf It is not unusual or strange for two dark haired parents to have redheads or blonds because they can carry the recessive genes and dominant genes will mask that you carry those traits. What is more difficult to explain is people with recessive traits having children with dark hair and dark eyes. The reason being to have recessive traits like blue eyes and blond hair or red hair you only have the recessive traits so you don't carry the dominant traits. I know people will say it happens and is possible but I have my doubts. I guess anything is possible but I'd be inclined to suspect something else.
One "ethnicity estimate" factor that has less to do with sample size is migration. In my case, I expected to see more French in the mix. The same goes for my British Isles background. Remember all of the places that the Vikings invaded? Many of my French ancestors came from Normandy...so that might pump up my Norwegian percentage.
That’s been the tricky thing with ancestral lines in the British Isles - what is “British” and what is “Viking invaders.” That has gotten better over the years.
The French are not a single people. They are like Joseph's coat of many colors. I think that's the point, no nationality is homogeneous ethnically.
@@MichaelTheophilus906 If you are from old, Northern landed families, your DNA may stick more -narrower circle for permitted marriage. In our case, massive Norman % and a little Iberian -and no German/French/Irish/Scottish in spite of being on the soil since 1069.
You wont see it truly as DNA testing is banned in France for direct-to-consumer purposes, including genealogical DNA tests. The French bioethics law allows DNA testing only for medical, scientific, or judicial reasons. The government say it is to keep peace within families. The real reason is the so called Bourbon descendants didn't match samples from two French Kings separated in time by about a 100 years, while the two do match each other as great.. grandfather does to great.. grandchild, they also both match the Plantagenets of England.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow The Anglo-Saxons were invaders and peaceful settlers of Britain as well, they just started earlier in the 5th Century CE, while the Vikings invaded/settled in the 8th Century CE. Both are equally important in making modern British DNA. What's funny is modern Scottish people have the same percentage of Anglo-Saxon as the average modern English person, both average about 30% Anglo-Saxon. But Anglo-Saxon is seen by some as English.
Great video again,they're always interesting and very informative.
Here in the UK,my ethnicity has just changed.England and Northern Europe has gone up 6% to 80%.Wales down 11% to 2%,Scotland down 3 to 5%,Germanic Europe up from 0 to 5% and Sweden/Denmark down from 2 to 0%. Look forward to watching your videos again.
nearly the same as mine. But also my Norwegian and Scottish has gone. now its saying Northern Ireland. Quite sad, its messing with my head a little.
Hello to the UK from the US. I manage my grandmother’s AncestryDNA account, and the update brought her English percentage up 19% to 68%, her Scottish percentage down 26% to 13%, her Irish percentage up 3% to 9%, her Danish percentage up from 0% to 5%, her “Germanic Europe” percentage up 4% to 5%, her Baltic percentage down 3% to 0%, and her Welsh percentage down 2% to 0%.
My DNA shows a small percentage of Scadinavian/Danish ancestry. I assumed it was from the so called Vikings who had descendants throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland where the great majority of my ancestors came from. However, I discovered, on Ancestry, a branch of my family going back to Norman English who in turn were descended from Vikings who settled in Normandy and then conquered England in 1066.
If you found that from someone’s tree on Ancestry, you’ll want to go back and verify it. Once you get back that far, it’s mostly wishful thinking.
It could be. The Normans were of Scandinavian origins and settled in France, but over time, some Normans could of had zero Scandinavian and 100% French ancestry, and any range in between.
I'm confused I lost my Scottish DNA and it turned into Denmark
I already know I'm Irish, English and Polish because of my family history. Ancestry DNA gives a percentage. Their estimates are broad, but the research I did through tracing my families from public records and family members gave me pretty accurate info. You have to be willing to put the time into searching.
What a great video. I laughed at you saying cheerio to the trip to Italy 🇮🇹 😂
I took an Ancestry DNA test about eight years ago, and the results came back with a 50% Scots, 50% Irish background, and this was entirely consistent with what I already knew about my ancestry. Then the reference panel got updated, and the results changed to 73% Scots, 12% Irish and 14% English, and 1% Norwegian. Since then, a new reference panel shows my ancestry as 49% Scots, 28% English/Welsh, and 16% Irish, with the remaining smaller percentages coming from Cornwall and elsewhere, with 1% being central European. The Cornish ancestry itself is confirmed by a Y-DNA test I took via Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) that showed a large number of matches to men with Cornish surnames.
So, given these changes, there is no way any ancestry DNA-type test can tell you precisely where you're from, only indicate general probabilities.
I've always wondered why my English results are as high as they are, particularly on my paternal side. One of my maternal great-grandmothers had American ancestry that came by way of England, and on my paternal side, I have no known English ancestors in paper records.
A clue came to me when I remembered that my paternal grandmother's mother's maiden surname was Hewitt. She was born in Ireland, but so far as I can tell, Hewitt is a surname that is not native to Ireland. It is much more commonly found in England and sometimes in Scotland. It appears to be derived from the old Norman surname Huot, which is derived from the personal pet name for 'Hugh'.
It's more than likely that this ancestor was descended from Hewitts who may have migrated from England to Ireland about 400 years ago (along with many, many other English families) and settled in the Dublin region before branching out to what is now Northern Ireland and other parts of Ireland itself.
The trouble is the Hewitt’s were Norman settlers to England, and the Normans themselves were Norse Viking settlers in France so genetically they would have been Scandinavian 🤔
The percentages aren't Important. What's matters is what haplomarkers actually match.
@@roboparks The haplomarkers are taken from local samples, in Scotland you could be of Germanic descent if you were from the south east( Anglo/ Saxon Northumbria) , from the north east you could be of Pictish descent , the north west coast and islands you be of Gaelic Irish or Nordic Vilking decent, from Dumbarton down to the borders Brythonic Briton descent, add into the mix the Flemish , and the Normans who settled in Scotland, with all these variables it really begs the question…. What is it to be “genetically Scottish” ?
@@MichaelTheophilus906 Great to know people just appear out of thin air….. and here’s us thinking it was the stork all along
Interesting. I knew a fellow who was about a fifth Scotch.
Bahahah the mustache, you’re hilarious Amy 😂
I have admit, I had fun with that 😂
@@AmyJohnsonCrow I feel compelled to find a place for a mustache in one of my videos now😂
@@AmyJohnsonCrowi am Italian and that's the Japanese version of southern Italian lol Mario bros.Im in the North here we are more Germanic North: The Austrian region of North Tyrol
East: The Austrian region of Salzburg
@xh4r744 I’m not sure if you’re referring to the mustache. If so, that was my “impersonation” of what someone said in a workshop, not what I thought Italians are like.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow yes read my comment but it’s incorrect stereotype.We are multiethnic country.Ignorance makes people believe we’re a specific race or a single ethnicity.Every region is a like a different country and dialect
One interesting feature is the panel showing where in the US your ancestors lived years ago. Ancestry absolutely nailed the locations, including down to the county in Ohio where most of my people lived a hundred years ago.
Very interesting, thank you. I was curious why my ethnicity was changing.
I never considered my ethnicity estimates to be much more than entertainment. My matches and shared matches have been the real valuable information for confirming research.
Yes - the ethnicity estimate is pretty much the least useful part.
I think it is more important for adoptees, and people who don't know their actual ancestry. Many Australians know they have British and Irish ancestry but are not sure, and other groups have immigrated to Australia like German speakers from Germany itself or places once controlled by Germany. They don't really know.
All my matches are of my ethnic group either fully, or partly.
@@Ponto-zv9vf I can agree sort of agree with that. I have a friend who’s adopted and she had exhausted all attempts to find out about her heritage so she tried a DNA test. It did give her a good idea of her ethnic background but it was still communication with her strongest shared matches that got her closest to her actual parentage. She wasn’t able to nail it down to her actual parents but now she knows that half of her background is Croatian on her father’s side. She still has no info on her Mother.
Smart.
True😂
Statistically, the bigger the sample size, the more accurate the sample. When my nephew sent me the sample kit years ago. It had Scandinavia, several countries combined under Western Europe, and Ireland with Wales. Now it has individual countries broken down even further.
I got my DNA sequence through 23AndMe when I participated in a study. It's largely remained the same but it has slightly changed on the margins. One thing people struggle to understand is that there's plenty of diversity within populations, and on average more depending on how you group a population. You don't need conscious interbreeding for this and people wouldn't have seen the world in that way before the 19th century anyway. I'm fortunate that both my grandparents on my maternal side have extensive and well-researched genealogies.
For years my DNA results from Ancestry showed that I was Scot, Irish, English, Welsh, Norwegian and Swedish. Now, suddenly in July it pops up that I am 1% from Cameroon and Congo. What on earth can explain that?
The Irish came from the Congo
Ms. Johnson that always made sense to me. I.E my dad was born in Stoke on Trent to an American soldier and Welsh mom. But he had English too and we all know that Danes intermarried heavily so if Dane shows up in my DNA i understand where it likely came from. And I have Scottish ancestry from the Orkneys which was ruled and inhabited by Norway. So I no doubt have Norwegian through my Scottish side and I even say it like that to folks . The Scottish family name is even Norwegian " Lichliter"
According to my DNA test from Anecstry, as a native of Switzerland, my genes are 50% English, 35% Irish and, as expected due to the Romans who were here 2000 years ago, 10-15% Italian. How can that be? Up until my great-great-grandparents around 1840, my ancestors were all Swiss. My DNA test didn't even reveal any German ancestors, although my grandfather once told me that our ancestors immigrated from the Swabian Alps via Lake Constance to western Switzerland around 1500.
Thank you for every helpful answer!
My dna from my mom is from the British Isles. My dad's is Dutch, German , Swiss with a little English and Scot. I've charted my tree back to the 3rd and 4th century. Both sides are descended from Royalty, which makes it easy. My mom is decended from James I/VI of Scotland and England, and my dad from James V of Scotland. The lines actually meet a second time with James II. One is descended from Alexander and the other through James III.
Mine is the opposite my dad's side is British Isles Scotland Ireland and France . My mom's side is Dutch Germanic ancestry from the Netherlands and Switzerland. I knew this before I ever took the test .
I took Living DNA for the mother line and it did in fact trace the Germanic to my mother's side of the family.
I went from 3 regions to 5 with some Danish in there too in the recent update.
1.52: Ireland/Scotland/Wales are a separate category from Great Britain which consists of Scotland, Wales and England?
When I first took the test, the region in the ethnicity estimate was "Ireland/Scotland/Wales." Now it's been split into separate regions.
Yes, after doing ancestry DNA years
ago, I too noticed the changed over
time, and no longer particpate in it. 😊
Picture it … Austria WW2 … my grandmother has a liaison with a French soldier mid 1942 … which produces my dad who is now 81 years old. He never knew his biological father. It would be interesting to see what pops up on our dna tests and any French family we may have !! Fascinating stuff.
Saw this years ago, my mom is Mexican of Spanish ancestry... from northern Spain. Ancestry had these ancesters coming from France, right across the Pyrenees mountains. Three years later, our ancesters were back to where they were from.
Napoleon occupied and invaded Spain around 1800 and that could explain the French part. Mexico is made up also of many nationalities but mostly from Spain. The term Spanish is the language, but can also refer to country of origin. Mexico can have native DNA, etc. It gets confusing when they are talking about DNA but use terms like Spanish, Mexican which is another mouthful of confusion. I am born in Puerto Rico but by DNA is 94% europeon.every could try in Europe may have multiple historical DNAs.
@@ralphramirez1545 The connections between Northern Spain and Southern France are much older than that. Look at the Basque and Occitano-Romance languages. The Basque Country is of course split between Spain and France, and, in addition to that, the language of most of Southern France, Occitan, is the closest relative of Catalan (and Catalan is also spoken in part of Southwestern France).
@@ralphramirez1545Nah. It’s Basque and all the native Europeans that were there earlier like Celts, Gauls especially if she was for the North for sure Basque
I took Ancestry and 23 and Me mainly to compare the results and see if they were the same or much different. Luckily I have genealogists in the family and for 3/4 grandparents I have back to late 1500’s n early 1600’s and the 4th to early 1800’s. I did the tests to try n find more about that 4th grandparent who was French Canadian. When I first got the test results, everything was expected except the French was much lower than it should have been and half as much as my half sister who has the same grandparent. So I was really happy when I kept getting those updates and each time I was more and more French and now I’m right where my genealogy history says I should be. What I loved most about 23 n Me that blew my mind was they showed 3 areas of North America where my family settled when they came-New England, Ohio River Valley and St, Lawrence River Valley and those are EXACTLY where they settled. For the depth of information, I really preferred 23 n Me to Ancestry and I’m sad to hear they aren’t doing well.
I have been working with someone born in England who found roughly 25% of his admixture was from native American and/or Spanish origins. He matched my father, so I knew he was Mexican, which was a total surprise to him! We believe we have been able to figure out who his paternal grandfather was using his shared matches and traditional genealogy.
My mom, both sides of her family could trace her ancestry back to Germany for about 6 generations all since coming from Germany and a couple generations before coming to the US. (she was born in 1942) and it had her 50% English…
Thanks for the great, easy to understand explanation. It will help a lot of people!
I took my test in 2017. Everything looked pretty accurate except I was only 4% German. One set of paternal great grandparents were from Switzerland and had Germanic surnames. I was told that my grandma was fully German because of her parents. I was surprised that I didn’t have more German. A few weeks ago I received an update. I am now 23% German. That totally makes more sense.
From 2018 to 2022, my Ancestry estimated results were consistent with England, Ireland, Scots, Denmark, Sweden and Norway percentages. In 2023, they threw in some Welsh. 2024, They estimated England, Ireland and Scotland, everything else gone. This is a problem for people testing from the U.K. like myself and the other 2 companies do exactly the same thing. I've downgraded my membership from All Access to Basic and I'm very tempted to downgrade it further to Preserve My Tree at this point, as I have no appetite to continue researching with this company.
Thanks for this information. I did a DNA test with them two years ago Maybe I need to have it checked again. 🤔
You don’t need to test again. They’ll update the test you already did.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Thanks for letting me know that. I don't have a membership with them even though I keep getting their emails. I would have had one but they changed my credit card for that without my permission and that really infuriated me even though I got them to reverse the change.
I’m interested in trying these kits, as my grandma on my mom’s side was adopted. As was my great-grandfather on my mom’s side. I’m curious to see who I actually am
Knowing the history of various regions can be very helpful. It's not actually surprising, for example, that someone with an ancestry estimate primarily from the British Isles would have some small percentage from Italy and Greece. Rome occupied England for some 400 years. And some of their soldiers and servants were of Greek descent. It would be a bit more than credulous to think that there was never any "mixing" with the local populations in 400 years of history.
This feels like an ancestry ad, are you connected with them? Appreciate your explanations.
I used to work for them, but I am not affiliated with them now.
What a great video and what a great host. I really appreciate this information. I was hoping you can help me with something. I kind of saddens me actually the problem I have is I want to find the test that shows with the percentages like you pointed out 45% Scotland, etc. and I’ve understood what you’ve mentioned regarding how it could change or almost evolve in a sense, just because changing and what not but I had two questions first of all. Does your test does ancestry help to show the migration pattern is there one that does that and when I take the test is my DNA much more useful than my last name because my father passed away before I was born, and my mother didn’t think she could give me his last name. My mother and father were not married and so, I have her legal married name from my last name I go about getting those accurate Findings
Thank you
David
4.50 to 5.10 is very delicately put, good advice.
Good video; I did that test (it was based on a saliva sample) when they first started this service. Have they changed the way they get the sample? Mine showed I was 0 % Irish, although it was assumed my mom’s paternal side was Irish. My wife’s showed she was 0% American Indian which in her family tradition she was like 1/8 Cherokee.
AncestryDNA still uses a saliva sample.
I would probably disregard the lower percentage and focus more on the higher ones for a wee bit more accurate, but still rough estimate.
I am an adoptee who wondered their whole life about ethnicity. I have been following DNA tests since they came out and have tried various ones. Let me say the wide range of results just left me angry and frustrated. I went from being mostly French and Middle East and Russia on one test and now I am UK, Balkan and Eastern Europe. Let me edit to say that I did finally get a paper trail and one set of Grandparents came from Serbia which is a crossroads of various populations.
Greetings from The cliffs of mother ❤ County Clare Ireland, you have a poster of the cliffs on your video ❤❤❤
what about my 2% Neanderthal ? where is the sample population for that?
There in museums, and dna libraries. There are quite a few Neanderthal remains, and many of those have been dna tested.
@@GrimmJaw496 It’s recently been shown we all have some Neanderthal in us-usually 1-3% so you are good!
@@annehersey9895 I think "we" means European and north African, Middle Eastern... maybe West Asian too. Not sub-Sahara Africa, far east Asia, South Asia, Australia or the Americas.
@@CitizenTurtleIsland I have 1.4 % Neanderthal and I’m from the US so it appears to be everyone. Since we emerged from Africa long ago common ancestors must have mated with Neanderthal-too complicated for me. I try to keep up with research but so much going on today to worry too much about thousands of millennia ago! 😀😀😀
My test came up with a region in Central Europe stretching east to a tiny town which was mentioned by name. That happened to be my mother’s home town. Strange, although she was born there, neither of her parents were from there. The only relatives I have in that town are two cousins. I wonder if one of both of them had a DNA test, linking our pattern to that town. Otherwise we are known to hail from much further east, but all the family have migrated, so any tests would not be linked to that geographical region. My test has produced more questions than answers.
Thank you for sharing this info. It can be so confusing 🤦🏼♀️
These tales of convoluted genealogy always make me think of the song `I'm my own Grandpa`
wow very interesting. I took a DNA test this July. I was told by my father his parents were all Swedish and spoke Swedish but were born and grew up in Kronoby Finland. to my surprise my test came back 47 percent Finnish ! my grandparents were indeed Finnish not Swedish. I was also 7 percent swedish { 5 percent from my mom!} 2 percent Norweigan, 22 percent enlgish, 10 percent Irish, 8 percent Scottish, and 4 percent French. my estimates just changed last week. 48 percent Finnish, 2 percent swedish , 33 percent English, 4 percent Irish, 4 percent Scottish, and 3 percent Netherlands.
My partner is more Finnish than Norwegian too despite being able to trace back some 3-400 yrs in Norway. Turns out the border was blurred somewhat and many people crossed rivers etc which were deemed as borders hence the mix. With Finnish Sami in the mix it makes sense.
@PatsyStone73 interesting. Yes my family goes back hundreds of years in Kronoby. I have cousins there. Those vikings got around lol 😆
For anyone reading, and maybe this clarifies, maybe this doesn't, but when you take a DNA test, it is absolutely required to refrain from analyzing your results from a modern, "the world as we currently know it" perspective. Do not look at the map and say, "Oh! I have ancestors from X country!" Rather, look at the map as having different regions. Its also an absolute MUST to understand borders, migration, history, trade routes, immigration and how people moved from land to land, not nessessarily from country to country.
For example, You may have the regions of Australia and/or New Zealand highlighted in your results. That COULD mean you have connections to Aboriginal, Celt, Anglo Saxon, or Norse cultures/ancestors. When the British Empire gained control of Australia/New Zealand, they used that land to send thousands of their criminals, defects and those banished out of the British Isles.
Another example...If "Jewish" shows up in your DNA, it would NOT nessessarily mean your ancestors are from Israel/Middle East. That data could also mean that your ancestors are from Central Europe. If that is the case, youd want to start looking into WWII history and the Holocaust to see if you have any connections to those victims.
Norse Viking ties? You may very well also have Anglo Saxon, Pict or Celt connections.
Another example...
I knew that my results would come back with Swiss German, French and maybe a few other European regions. However what really surprised me was the Scots Irish and Native Durangan (Mexican) connections. With more digging, historical records, historical timelines and countless hours of diving into Ancestry, FindAGrave, Google, obituary records, newspapers and world history, ships records and other sources, I finally tracked down the family I was looking for.
I hope maybe this all helps someone else. Stay open minded!
According to the "Family Tree DNA" test, my sample is 68% English, Scottish and Welsh. But I am a “real German” and definitely have no ancestry from the island. I rather suspect that about 2000 years ago there was a mixture of Celts and Germanic peoples in my area, just as it happened 500 years later on the island when the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and even later some Vikings arrived there. These are also things that the current test results do not show. I tried to ask about this, but the staff who communicate with you there are neither trained nor interested. They say, no, you must have ancestors from Great Britain. But I am sure that it is as I have described.
I know that I’m approximately 50% Norwegian; my mother was full Norwegian with immigrant parents. My father was a little fuzzier. Initially I was told by him that his family was mostly Irish. According to my cousins, his family is actually Scottish. This makes sense since my paternal grandmother’s maiden name was McMurtry.
However, the company I used for DnA sent me an update to let me know that I had a high percentage of … Guatemalan? And other Central American countries. I don’t think so.
i have like 17 regions in mine so its always changing, but it's kind of cool to see it change!
Great explanation!
Thank you! I hope it was helpful!
Bizarre that my tests come back as being all UK and have never changed since taking the test several years ago
.. but there is no mention of the roots of UK people, as in Gaul, Goths, Danes, Vikings, Germans etc.... where does their DNA trace disappear to?
I check my Ancestry account. It was updated 3 times in the last few years. Now when I check after not being on for months. It as updated again. As usually things, get higher or lower, added , or some things get dropped off. Which was confusing sometimes. The new update list some of the tribes, people the DNA test came from, which you share DNA with.
Have you ever had huge percentage changes?
For example you 85% blk and end up 96% blk and 18% Nigerian and end up 35% nigerian
@ @ it does not use the word Blk or whit*. Now to answer the question no have not have a huge changes. For example I was about 9% Mali ancestry, it is now is 4%.
@@DoubleBeezy exactly my percentage was much higher, higher for Mali, when I first did my Dna test 10 years ago. Other things got lower or higher. Another example is my Netherlands ancestry got higher. Original my first test it was Scandinavian. My Irish also got higher. Original I was 1% Senegal, that got dropped off the last updated, things got added . These are just some of the examples. I went to find the very original test chart could not find it. As you had me thinking.
The strange thing is that with the technology advancement and refinement of reference panels, I expected the result to be more fragmented. I thought that new regions would appear, that is, the picture would be more colorful. But in fact, there was regions consolidation and merging
Thanks for the explanation, as I often wondered why my data changed. I lost Norwegian and gained Wales and Luxembourg.
otzi the bad boy went sneaking everywhere i suppose ha ha ha
Ireland Scotland and Wales has always been separate in Australia, the US is being brought into line with other countries it looks like
I wish they’d do an update, nothing has been refined in over a year.
I got my update today - 10th October 2024.
@@gaynor1721I did as well, it finally found the small amount of Spanish 23andme had reflected for years. My German-Scandinavian went way up but since my UK history is Eastern in areas with heavy Viking/Germanic invasions it’s consistent with what I know. My sister and Moms dna shifted along with and matches.
I’ve done my dna with two different companies and had slightly different results. Using DNA, my family tree search and my matches, I’ve been able to piece together somewhat better than just my DNA alone.
A year ago I had Swedish and Norwegian and now those are gone and I have Dutch and German. 🤷🏻♂️😕
The only one that has stayed the same is the 42% England and Northwestern Europe.
Great Video Amy
Thank you, Brian! I appreciate the kind words 😁
YEP!!! Bingo. I am so glad you are reporting on this. My Bio Dad remarried a Vietnamese women and had Kids with her...and after he had his children DNA Tested and added to the database, my results then changed me to being part Vietnamese. That's when I deleted my account and knew it was no longer accurate. I had a friend write in to Ancestry explaining there was no way they were German she knew from her great grandmother they with polish. So Ancestry took her word and changed the family results.
They would never change their results based on someone's claims alone. I'm sorry but it's not that arbitrary. Estimates for ethnicity not specific to Europe will need a lot more refinement I'd think.
Something is not right regarding your test. No way could you be part Vietnamese if your mother and father or past relatives do not carry a Vietnamese gene. Or you parenthood needs to be questioned. Or you misunderstand your DNA matches.
Mine was: 1) 50% Scandinavian (my mother’s family), and 2) 30% English/Irish & 20% German/Dutch (my father’s family). It lines up with what I was told before I took the test.
This most recent update is a little closer to my actual known genealogy...which is significant. For the 1st time, I'm 10% Germanic Europe...and my Shrum/Schramm line came from Bavaria prior to the Revolutionary War. My 5th great-grandfather--well known in German ancestry groups--took an oath of naturalization via sacrament at 14 years old prior to the Revolutionary War.
I lost "some" Irish percentage. My 4th great-grandfather came from Antrum, Ireland also prior to the Revolutionary War, so I had shown a bit more...but I'll take the reduction in favor of the correction to my Germanic ancestry.
Your DNA results are what is prominent in you, right? Because both my parents and I did separate DNA tests under different accounts and times. But it listed them as likely parents. Everything matches, with the exception that I have way more Norwegian DNA than both my parents combined.
Not sure if it just confused the Swedish since they are so closely related. As my father is Largely Swedish with some Norwegian.
Funny, I just looked at it again, and it updated to way higher Swedish with no Norwegian now....
My first result said Middle Eastern more than 1000 years ago. Now no Middle Eastern, and why don’t they use the timeline of years any more?
What do you think when your test shows .1% and .2%?
Ignore those. Most geneticists who don’t work for the popular DNA companies say they ignore everything below about 10-15%. There are several reasons for this. They also never speak of ethnicities; only locations. And even then, they say accuracy is basically regional, and most accurately, continental. Anything more focused than that is guesswork, at this point. For some of the reasons mentioned in the video.
Also, current “ethnicity” testing fails to account for travel, which is a big flaw in the whole system. People have always migrated, voluntarily or not, in the big picture. But currently, only Y-chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA take migration into account, or can be compared to more ancient DNA samples taken from skeletal remains. But the general tests don’t test for those. You have to test at FamilyTree DNA or a couple of other companies that offer those tests. (Autosomal DNA, which most companies like Ancestry test, taken only from cell nuclei, don’t last very long so don’t survive in ancient bones; also, autosomal DNA recombines in every person, so after just a few generations their origin can’t be pinpointed.) That’s why, when the document trail runs out in family research, autosomal tests aren’t very helpful. And ethnicity isn’t genetic at all. Ethnicity is socio-cultural.
@@Historian212 Thank you for getting back to me.
So which would you suggest is best for ethnicity?
Generally, AncestryDNA seems to be the best at splitting out UK vs Scandinavian, and they do have the largest number of reference panels. Honestly, though, the ethnicity estimate isn't the most informative part of a DNA test. You get better information from the matches and from AncestryDNA's DNA communities (now called "DNA journeys.")
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Thankyou
Yes, an estimate is just an estimate but considering the lack of scientific understanding, confusion arises here and in many other areas too. If there were extensive contributions to the data pool from a certain area, then more accuracy would obtain. Ancestry correctly called the exact county in Ireland whence my wife's maternal family came.
I have a question about the veracity of My Heritage DNA regions as compared to that of Ancestry. My DNA was first tested via Ancestry. The matches have changed slightly but still put me in the same regions. England, Germanic Europe and Scandinavia (the latter alternating from time to time between Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands). Nothing else.
I downloaded the data and uploaded to My Heritage. This then matched me with the same regions but also matched me at 0.9% with the Middle East. From the same data!
I then uploaded to My True Ancestry, which does a match with ancient DNA from archaeological sites. It bore out the Ancestry regions. I am Celt, Viking, Saxon.
So, the question is, where's the rogue 0.9% Middle Eastern on My Heritage coming from?
They are estimates and I'm guessing from the evidence i see they have a hard time even being close the more ethnicities one person has and i think it confuses whatever process that figures this stuff out.
I don't really have faith that the ethnicity estimates are even close in my case, but for people that are one or two different ethnicities i think its more accurate
Mine changed somewhat but the regions stayed the same. My understanding of history is key to understanding how modern borders are meaningless for dna accuracy. My ancestors came from the Baltic coastal area edging towards Denmark. We always considered them German. Ancestry said so until it changed from German to Danish/Swedish. How could this be? Sweden and Denmark once held that territory for long periods so the people there would reflect that. So, my family was German in culture but dna something else.
This is something very, very common everywhere in Europe and has been for centuries. Europeans don't take DNA tests. For good reasons, they identify with their language or its specific dialect they have grown up with, and this also allocates them a region to call home.
The thing I don't like about ancestry is they advertise "find out who you are. you are" not who you are decended from, you deserve neither their credits or grievences of an ancestor, particularly when there is so much fake history out there. I took Ancestry and found almost exactly what I expected knowing the history of the family. It is fun to trace a connection to people who lived in the past like watching a movie and having a connection to the story. Not based on my research but I may have had one ancestor who was the most incompetent generals ever created by Napoleon.
What I am most confused about is how I lost several of my supposed estimates.
Thank-you for this very informative video.
Good video. Explains it concisely and clearly.
With respect to myself, my ethnicity match 68% Scottish, 42% Irish) is more or less what I expected, what with being Scots-born of some Irish extraction, and even some of the latter will actually be Ulster Scots and therefore actually Scottish.
I'm glad you liked the video!
It will also be because of the constant exchange of people back and forth between Ireland and Scotland for thousands of years. Before the advent of modern fuel-powered transportation, water was the fastest and easiest way to get almost anywhere. This meant the sea created close ties instead of being a barrier.
@@soccerchamp0511 Yeah, to a degree. The story of my y-DNA haplogroup is basically of going back and forth between the Hebrides and Ulster.
I had my DNA done by 23 and Me, but it was at such variance with my family trees that I had it redone with Ancestry. Ancestry was MUCH better. The Ancestry version has undergone a number of changes since then, but I do feel that it is becoming more accurate.
I had my dna tested with genebase, they let you know your percentages / match to someone male/female, with there surnames, so basically know where your ancestors came from.
I also have pictures, books etc that helps, along with the dna test.
I've been wondering. My direct ancestors are German, English, Irish, Scotch & Welsh. Ancestry says I'm like 35% Scotch. I have one Great Grandmother from Scotland. (I knew her.) My family tree says a surprising number of my ancestors, from both sides of my family, come from Wurttemberg Germany. (My Father's side is the main German line, salted with Scotch & Irish. My mother's side is mostly English & German.)
BTW: How reliable are the "traces" through history? One trace up my mother's paternal grand-father's line leads to a sister of Katheryn Howard, one of the wives of Henry VIII. (Should I write "cousin" Charlie a polite note and tell him to get off my chair?) I've wondered how reliable that "trace" is and how I could "proof read" it.
Scottish not scotch. Scotch is a drink. Americans always get it wrong😂