My maternal haplotype comes directly from Cheddar Man.
ancestry.com has me at
Great Brittain 42%
Ireland 28%
Europe West 13%
Scandinavia 11%
Myheritage.com has me at:
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
59.4%
Scandinavian
24.0%
North and West European
15.1%
My dear Hubby at ancestry:
Great Britain 26%
Ireland 20%
Iberian Peninsula 12%
Italy/Greece 9%
Native American 16%
Asia Central 3%
Africa North 2%
Myheritage has him at:
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
46.7%
North and West European
5.9%
East European
9.5%
Iberian
7.0%
Central American
21.8%
Central Asian (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan)
2.4%
North African (Morroco,Egypt,Libya)
4.2%
There are some slight differences but mostly myheritage.com doesn’t show either of us as having and English DNA and has transferred it all to Ireland/Scotland/Wales.
For information, my DH is 1/2 New Mexico native hispanic/amerind. There are rumors that at least one of his Spanish ancestors was in fact a dispossessed Shephardic Jew that was forced to flee to the Americas during the Spanish inquistion and that may very well be true since we see North Africa and Cental Asia in his DNA.
East Europe: 43%
Great Britain: 27%
West Europe: 16%
Italy/Greece: 6%
Ireland: 2%
Iberian Peninsula: 2%
European Jewish: 2%
Asia South: 2%
I know a “Hispanic” who found out through DNA that he had ZERO hispanic blood in him. He was primarily European.
MY friend’s ex-wife claimed to be Hispanic, as she was dark skinned from Lima, Peru. Turns out she is European as well without a trace of Hispanic blood in her.
50% Scandinavia
21% Ireland
9% Great Britain
7% Iberian peninsula
5% Europe West
4% East Europe
3% Italy/Greece
1% Finland/Northwest Russia
I’m a monochromatic salad.
What are you Haplogroups?
My father was an orphan, raised by a woman in the black neighborhood where my mother grew up. The story was that my father was probably part Jewish and part black. Maybe. The Air Force treated him as white, but supposedly his mother was the daughter of the Jewish store owner and either a black or a white guy. Since she didn’t know if he was part black (he looked white), he couldn’t go to a white orphanage and she gave him to a neighborhood woman.
When I had my DNA done, it turned out that the white part of me is mostly British & Irish and French & German. The little part of my Italian great grandfather also showed up.
I feel like the guy in the commercials who thought he was German and found out he was Scottish. And, perhaps it explains why I’ve always liked bagpipes and Gaelic music.
Geneticists are highly critical of the attribution of specific individual DNA to a particular nation or set of nations. Ancestry DNA has not fully explained its method and established it as scientifically valid. Experts regard such claims as beyond current science, which is mostly limited to population wide inferences and a handful of special cases.
This stuff has always fascinated me, and I really went into it a few years ago.
My paternal grandfather died before I was born, and my Dad never talked that much about him or his childhood. I knew my Grandmother on his side, but not much about the rest of the family. I wanted to learn as much as I could about things nobody ever told me about. Also, I have a pretty famous last name, and wondered if I was related to somebody you all would know, but after several years of research, I still can’t say.
I have a huge tree set up on Ancestry now, and did the DNA test last year. Here is what the test came back.
Europe 97%
Great Britain 38%
Ireland 22%
Europe West 21%
Italy/Greece 11%
European Jewish 2%
Scandinavia 1%
Finland/Northwest Russia 1%
Iberian Peninsula < 1%
Europe East 0%
America 0%
Native American 0%
West Asia 3%
Low Confidence Region
Caucasus 3%
Apparently my grandmother on my dad’s side said we have Native American Blood. My DNA test says that I don’t. My sister had the test done also, no Native blood. This distressed my Brother, who wanted to claim kinship to the Indians. Also, the 2% European Jewish didn’t please him I don’t think, he believes all sorts of Jewish conspiracies and post pro-Palestinian stuff on Facebook now and then.
The Italian Greek threw me for a loop at first, then I realized that my great grandparents came from Austria, specifically from the Tyrol area, which is on the border with Italy. (maybe I should check my Neanderthal DNA too after ready some posts above)
Just doing the research I have learned so much. I didn’t even have a picture of my grandfather, but I learned a lot about him, and even found pictures of his father and grandfather. My great great grandfather was one of the founding member of what was called the Iron Molders Union founded in 1859, now part of the AFL-CIO. His son also was a union man, ended up as a senior exec in the union around 1900, then quit to be a foreman at an Iron Works near Cincinnati.
My grandmother’s family on my Dad’s side came down from Canada in the late 1700s to Vincennes Indiana. They were descendants from some of the earliest French settlers in Quebec, and through them I am probably related to half of Canada. Which also makes me distant cousins to Justin Beiber, Madonna, Celine Dion, Jack Kerouac, and sadly Hillary Clinton.... I have also found that I distantly related to Ernest Hemingway and Robert Redford.
The most intriguing story to me is that of my Great Great grandmother on my Dad’s side. I had a hard time tracking info on her down. I knew she and my GG grandfather were married by 1860 but hit a dead end at first. Then found a clue about her maiden name, and started putting the pieces together. Found out she was married once before she married my GG Grandfather and already had a daughter. Found out she had married a Doctor about 1850, but I assumed he must have died or something. About a year later, I found out that he had not died, and didn’t die until 1866. In his will he mentions his daughter and what he wanted to leave her, if she was ever found.....He was living about 30 miles from her in Ohio at the time. I assumed they got divorced, which would have been a scandal back then, but maybe just left him and ran away? Through her, I can trace my ancestry back not quite to the Mayflower, but at least to the early settlers of Massachusetts.
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Genealogy can be fascinating, especially if you love history. It gives you a sense of actually being there for historic events, in a sense, with your own people having been there. You’ll find some illustrious people, or most will. You’ll find some embarrassments, or most will. But, the majority will be just regular people going about their daily lives, sometimes in extraordinary circumstances not necessarily of their choosing.
Many if not most Americans of European descent have at least a little nobility in their lines. Finding this is a treasure trove because they’re the ones that you can take back to almost the dark ages. Surnames were uncommon for anyone but nobility prior to the 13th or even 14th century in many countries of Europe, and surnames are largely what makes genealogical research possible. Certain religious groups were sticklers for record-keeping, too, so that can be a tremendous help, church records. In the US proper, census records can often get you past a brick wall, but some didn’t want to have records kept of their comings and goings, apparently, so you may have to just live with a few mysteries.
As far as the genetic testing, I’d say it’s beneficial for those who have nowhere to start, as far as actual records of their ancestors due to not knowing who their ancestors actually are, or an inability to access such records. Me, I know every boat that all of mine disembarked from, from Jamestown in 1610 to Philadelphia in 1738. I haven’t done the genetic testing because I’ve felt no need to do so. The only way there would be any surprises would be due to infidelity (possible but not highly likely) or due to a desire to conceal something. There was a time when native ancestry was looked down upon, and “indian” can cover a heck of a lot of ground, so I suppose there are a few surprises potentially with that.
Speaking of native ancestry, the toughest ones are the natives, in my instance literally Cherokee, all wives. They just materialize, no surname, no family recorded, given names that sound like nicknames because they usually were their English nicknames.
It’s a fun hobby, don’t let yourself be put off by the snobs and there are a few who pursue this for self-aggrandizement. Keep in mind that nearly everybody has at least a little nobility in America, who descends from European people. At a minimum you can claim Charlemagne, but then again so can everyone else. Getting a big head for finding illustrious ancestors is therefore foolish, being ashamed of shall we say too-colorful ancestors is foolish too.
What drives one to care about that? No offense to you, but when I see some of the folks on TV ads for DNA testing, I have trouble understanding their slant on how happy it makes them.
Did not post my DNA mix:
78% Western European
8% Scandinavia
7% Iberian peninsula
6% Ireland
No trace regions.