Question of the Week: What are your DNA ethnicity estimates?

Question

If you have taken a DNA test, what does the testing company report for your ethnicity? Is it what you expected?

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Answer 1

         England & Northwestern Europe    39%

         Scotland.   30%   

         Sweden and Denmark    12%

         Wales    10%

         Ireland    9%

         Results from Ancestry.com

Comments

Looks very much like my brake down

Pruitt-2726

Answer 2

AncestryDNA

After all the updates, my ethnicity estimate on Ancestry looks almost identical to what I would expect from my genealogy research (once I figured out my own unexpected parentage). I'm primarily German, Dutch, Swedish, English, and Scottish based on my genealogy.

Germanic Europe: 40%

Sweden & Denmark: 27%

England & Northwestern Europe: 18%

Scotland: 14%

Baltics 1%

Two DNA communities: Early New England Settlers (Vermont, New Hampshire & Central Massachusetts Settlers) (1700-1975)

Netherlands (1700-1975)

Answer 3

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Ancestry Autosomal DNA Ethnicity Estimate

August 2023 Revised Estimate

• 51% - England & Northwestern Europe
• 32% - Scotland
• 14% - Ireland
• 03% - Norway

Total Matches:  57,044

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MyHeritage Autosomal DNA Ethnicity Estimate

December 2021 Estimate

• Europe
  • 42.5% - English
  • 41.5% - North and West European
  • 14.8% - East European
• America
  • 1.2% - Mesoamerican and Andean

Total Matches:  11,939

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Answer 4

From AncestryDNA, current results show

53% Scotland,

34% England & Northwest Europe,

5% France, 5% Ireland,

2% Basque and

1% Norway.

I also have the results for my late mother. The results are not consistant with the known genealogy.

Answer 5

Some notable differences between the providers.  A few of the percentages seem on the dot...

Ancestry DNA 

41% Scotland

Scottish Highlands and Islands

33% England and Northwestern Europe

Central Southern England

Devon & Cornwall, England

14% Ireland

6% Sweden Denmark

5% Wales

1% Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

FTDNA myOrigins

100% Europe

Western Europe

47% Central Europe

28% Ireland

19% Scandinavia

Southern Europe

5% Basque

<1% Iberian Peninsula

<1% Italian Peninsula

Middle East & North Africa

Middle East Jew

<1% MMizrahi Jewish

LivingDNA Recent Ancestry

Europen100%

Great Britain and Ireland 90.4%

South Central England 23.6%

Southeast England 20.6%

Northern Ireland and Southwest Scotland 7%

Northumbria 6.6%

Northwest Scotland 6.4%

South England 5.8%

Ireland 5%

North Yorkshire 4.7%

East Anglia 2.5%

North Wales 2%

Cornwall 1.6%

South Wales 1.6%

Orkney and Shetland Islands 1.4%

South Wales Border 1.3%

Europe (North and West) 8.6%

Northwest Germanic 8.6%

Europe (South) 1%

Sardinia 1%

Comments

Which one of the sites do you think is the most accurate based on what you know of your heritage?  For me, it's ancestryDNA.

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Based on my paper trail and the DNA matchs that I can confirm.  A combination of AncestryDNA and LivingDNA.

I do have a paternal issues on my paternal side.  There are at 3 questionable paternality on that side of the family.  1 Rape [in the Colony of NSW].  1 Out of wedlock. [Back in England].  1. Questionable Father.

AncestryDNA is the only one that shows Aboriginal and that is from I see from matchs is correct.

AncestryDNAs Irish percentage seems right.

AncestryDNA misses Switzerland, but has Sweden Denmark.  My paper trail goes back to middle of 16th century to a place called Poshiavo.  The percentage would be on the small side.  2-3%.  Living DNA has Europe (North and West) 8.6% and Europe (South) 1%.  Not too sure which one is meant to broadly represent Switzerland.

LivingDNAs estimates of South Central England, Southeast and Cornwall seem on the money.

The Scotland percentage is way too high.

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Is it possible that it’s the Sardinia (Italy) or that you did not inherit much of the Swiss genes?

I have Swiss German ancestors from Bern and Glarus going back to the 1500s.  They show up in my auntie’s DNA test as French (Stussi) and German (Baumgartner).

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On MyHeritage I have a few matchs where the shared ancestors are 5th GGPs.  This goes back in the early 1700s.   

The Compagnoni and Semadeni families were there going back to the 1500s.

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Is living Ancestry free or do they have a limited access free part that you know of? Thanks! Becky

Answer 6

FTDNA

50% Central Europe
30% England, Wales and Scotland
20% Scandinavia

MyHeritage (same DNA kit)

58.5% Scandinavian
22.4% English
16.7% Iberian
2.4% North and West European

Since for the last 250 years or so all my ancestors are from the Netherlands, FTDNA seems to have the better estimate.

MyHeritage nails it with the genetic groups though:

Netherlands (Gelderland and Utrecht)
Netherlands (South Holland, North Holland, Gelderland and Utrecht)

I also like playing around with the GEDMatch admixture utilities. Here are the results from the Eurogenes EUtest V2 K15:
33.41% North Sea
30.52% Atlantic
11.50% Baltic
10.17% Eastern Euro
6.41% West Med
5.06% West Asian
1.43% East Med
1.43% Red Sea
0.07% South Asian

Answer 7

My ethnicity estimate from Ancestry is:

Scotland - 54%

England & Northwestern Europe - 43%

Norway - 3%  

All my known paternal ancestors were born in Scotland and all my known maternal ancestors were born in England so I think this is very accurate. 

Answer 8

From Ancestry: 

• 39% England and Northwestern Europe
• 27% Germanic Europe
• 25% Scotland
• 3% Camaroon, Congo, Bantu ( One of my Maternal 5th great grandfathers was a former slave)
• 3% French (dispite two of my Paternal great grandparents being born there and immigranting within the last 100 years)
• 2% Sweden and Denmark
• 1% Baltic

My Heritage

• 59.4% North and West European
• 32.4 Scotland, Ireland, Welsh
• 8.2 Baltic 

So far this doesn't appear to match my tree, but then again Crista Cowan points out that our estates don't reflect the now. They reflect 500 to 1000 years in our past and due to at least 4 brick walls, I cannot even get that far back.

Comments

This does fit though, the germanic tribes migrated/conquered into France and if I recall things correctly, Normandy was originally settled by Norse settlers.  So it's possible to have French grandparents whose ethnicity is heavily Germanic and Norse.  Its amazing the things you learn playing Crusader Kings 3 :)

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We will never know because all my Paternal great grandparents passed before I could test.

My inheritance breakdown

Maternal

• 22% England/NW European
• 2% Germanic
• 23% Scotland
• 3% Camaroon

Paternal 

• 17% England/NW European
• 25% Germanic
• 2% Scotland
• 3% France
• 2% Sweden/Denmark
• 1% Baltic 

Communities

Maternal

• South Jersey Settlers
• Delaware Valley, Chesapeake, Midwest Settlers 

Paternal

• NW Ohio Settlers
• Early PA Settlers 

Both

• Ohio, Indiana, NW Kentucky Setters
• Northern Ohio, NW Indiana Settlers

There are a lot of communities my matches have that I don't that do fit with my tree.

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Plus each site has at least one if not several different versions and time periods (i.e. recent v.anciwnt DNA results) or one site might be looking at the most recent to create a lot of the "communities" I see posted...and lastly there are even specialties like looking at just certain chromosomes (e.g. according to an analysis of my Chromosome 1-  it is over 68% identical to the Viking DNA references or "Viking Index" on file w/Scandinavian Viking being the closest percentage followed by Slavic and British Viking)...

Answer 9

From Ancestry:

43% - England and Northwestern Europe

42% - Germanic Europe

8% - Sweden and Denmark

7% - France

<1% - Baltics

23 and Me Adds

1.4% - Italian

Trace Ancestry

Coptic Egyptian

Northern Chinese and Tibetan

Roma

Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish

Basque

Answer 10

* 88% Scotland

* 10%. Ireland

* 2% Other Regions

Ethnicity review from Ancestry.com

Answer 11

I have a variety of results across the companies (with many significant changes of regions and % in updates over the years). This provides an example of why it is an "estimate" and should not be used to change your identity. (e.g. start wearing a Kilt instead of Lederhosen) I have also noticed differences between a directly purchased kit and an upload from another company.

Personally, I find Ancestry currently has the "most accurate" results compared to what I have found in research especially when using their Communities and Side View. 

Expected Ethnicity Mix (Family Knowledge & Research)
Czech: 25%
English: 25%
Swedish: 25%
Irish: 25%

Ancestry DNA
Sweden & Denmark: 35%
England & Northwestern Europe: 26%
Ireland: 20%
Eastern Europe & Russia 11%
Scotland: 6%
Baltics: 2%

23andMe
British & Irish: 50.8%
Scandinavian: 22.4%
Finnish: 0.6%
Eastern European: 14.7%
Greek & Balkan: 2.1%
Broadly European: 0.7%
North African: 0.1%
Unassigned: 0.2%

My Heritage DNA Kit (and 23andMe Upload to MyHeritage)

Scandinavian: 75.7% (76.8%)
Irish, Scottish and Welsh: 15.3% (12.9%)
East European: 8.1% (3.8%)
Italian: 0% (3.5%)
North and West Europe: 0% (3.0%)
Baltic 0.9% (0%)
 

FTDNA
England, Wales, and Scotland 35%
Central Europe: 22%
Scandinavia: 18%
Ireland: 10%
Baltic: 7%
East Slavic: 6%
Basque: 3%
Italian Peninsula: <1%

Comments

It's interesting there's that much variation!

My wife came back as 8% Jewish initially, then checked in a few years later and they had retracted that. I think there was some overlap in SE Europe genotypes.

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When factoring in how my parent's results are reported there is even more variation. For example, my father has 50% Czech and 50% English ancestry.

His Czech portion is from areas of Bohemia that had sizable ethnic German populations. His results across companies show 20-40% German and 20-25% Eastern European. I have never been specifically assigned German. Given I have 50% of his DNA (confirmed) and if he is 40% German the odds of me being 0% German should be unrealistic. However, the algorithms just assign the smaller portions of the same DNA to different regions.

Answer 12

I used FamilyTree (FTDNA), and it matched up to what I expected - with one exception.

My family is largely German, my dad was proudly 100% German-from-Russia. But then I tested on Y chromosome, and it came back as solidly Irish. Somebody has some splainin' to do!

Answer 13

As of the current update over at Ancestry I'm

43% Southern Italian (That's obvious.)

29% Scottish (Probably from the Felker and Ross line despite the Ross part being Quebecois. Some of the Felker line is in there.)

13% French (Looking at my tree again, I think that'll change again. THAT keeps changing the most with each update.)

9% England (Felker line for sure.)

7% Northern Italy (I add this together with my Italian percentages because I haven't found anything connecting me to the northern provinces. My Italian side is strictly Calabria and Campania for centuries.)

2% Germanic Europe (Felker line.)

I suspect I'm always going to hover around 50% Italian because as someone once said my dad is "All Italian all the time."  My French side seems to change the most with each update.

It's weird how my mom's side changes with each update and my dad's stays the same. It's probably because my dad really is all Italian all the time. Heh.

Answer 14

I've tested on both Ancestry and 23andMe. The results are very similar.

Ancestry

34%  Scotland

23%   England & North West Europe

16%   Ireland

11%    Wales

10%    Norway

  5%   Germanic Europe

  1%    Nigeria

DNA communities:

• Appalachian Settlers of Kentucky
• North Central Appalachia Settlers
• Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia and Maryland Settlers,
• Virginia and Eastern Kentucky Settlers
• Scottish Lowland, Northern England and Northern Ireland

​​​​​​​Yes, I am a proud Appalachian!!!

23 and Me

91.3%   British and Irish

  3.7%   French and German

  1.9%   Broadly North Western European

  1.5%   Spanish and Portuguese

   0.3%  Eastern European

   0.6%   Nigerian

   0.1%   Senegambian and Guinean

   0.5%   Central Asian

At first, I was a little surprised by the Spainish/Portuguese, Nigerian and Central Asian.  But, then I remembered that several of the family names on my dad's (birth) family are known Melungeon names. 

I have tested my whole family and the Nigerian comes from my mom's side.  I have several brick walls on this side.  I am missing one complete set of 3rd great-grandparents (I might know the 3 great-grandfather but no proof) and on her mother's branch I only have 2 sets of 4th great-grandparents--the other six all date to the mid to late 1700's in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Answer 15

from My heritage

39.6 Italian

22.2 Iberian

20.6 English

9.2 West Asian

1.4 Ashkenazi Jewish

AncestryDNA 40 Italian

35 France

8 England and Wales

5 Bisque

2 Wales

I guess the Iberian is for my Swiss side. West Asian got me???

Answer 16

From My Heritage - 75% Irish, Scottish, Welsh, 21% Scandinavian, 2% Baltic, 1% Middle Eastern. As stated on my profile. 

Technically I should have SOME English as well, but since the West country (SW England) was oriiginally Celtic, then that pushes up the Irish/Scottish/Welsh grouping.

Most of the Scandinavian probably comes from Vikings in around Scotland and the Orkneys, as well any ancestors I might have had in the Daneslaw. 

Answer 17

England & Northwestern Europe: 54%
Ireland: 16 %
Sweden & Denmark: 10%
Scotland: 9%
Wales: 5%
Germanic Europe: 4%
Norway: 2%

Source: Ancestry.com

 

North_Sea	34.59 Pct
Atlantic	30.14 Pct
Baltic	8.61 Pct
Eastern_Euro	6.74 Pct
West_Med	8.16 Pct
West_Asian	6.28 Pct
East_Med	-
Red_Sea	2.64 Pct
South_Asian	1.2 Pct
Southeast_Asian	-
Siberian	0.76 Pct
Amerindian	0.46 Pct
Oceanian	-
Northeast_African	0.42 Pct
Sub-Saharan

 Source: GEDMatch using Eurogenes EUtest V2 K15

Answer 18

MyHeritage is rather simple, I am Scandinavian, Finnish and Baltic.

I mean, I know that my ancestors were Sami, which later are Swedish, Finnish and Baltic. I know that some of them went to USA.

MyHeritage has nothing about Sami at all, just bunch it together as Scandinavia. And there is very few tests taken in this areas.

Anyone knows if there is any better, more correct test?

Answer 19

We need an app that look at your wikitree and tells you that  X00 years ago X% of your ancestors lived in country X, Y% in country Y, etc.

Comments

Sounds like a good idea for a lot of people with mixed ancestry. For me, 100 years ago 75% lived in Canada, mostly Nova Scotia, 25% in the US, mostly New England ... an educated guess on the percentage -- 200 years ago 100% Nova Scotia in what is now Canada -- 300 years ago 100% in what is now Germany. No app needed. Which is also why ethnicity DNA is of no interest to me. I know where they came from as far back as the 1600's, before that I don't care.

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Let me rephrase this " I need an app that look at my wikitree and tells my that X00 years ago X% of my ancestors lived in country X, Y% in country Y, etc."

Better lol

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The advantage of dna testing is that, when combined with the dna test results of others who match with you, you can confirm whether or not the paternity of your various ancestors is what you expect it to be. In other words, are there any crooked lines of descent that you weren't aware of.

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I still prefer a good ol tree back by paper trail to any ethnicity estimate from DNA company like Ancestry 23andMe and everyone else

Answer 20

Hi all,

 mtDNA processed through Sequencing.com  ( I cannot understand the original FTDNA results):

Western European:

Broadly Northwest European 8%

Italian 15% 

Eastern European or Russian:

Georgian 16%

Balkan or Greek:

Greek 5%

West Asian or North African 

West Asian 72%

 Turkish 24%

Levantine 23%

Armenian 9% 

Hap Group: N21 Sequencing-X3a FTDNA 

Autosomal-Ancestry DNA:

Southern Italy 46%

France 36%

England and NW Europe 8%

Ireland 4%

Scotland 3%

Cyprus 2%

Norway 1%

What isn't showing is the number of Ashkenazi and Sephardic matches that were found at a genetic distance of 1 in FTDNA which correlates with the migration of the relatives from the West Asian region to Europe, specifically from the the Druze region of Southern Lebanon or Northern Israel area. I'm thinking its around the same area of the Middle East considered to be West Asia? I didn't do well in Geography 55 or 60 years ago...Anyways, my Sicilian italian mom always thought she was Jewish! its quite interesting really. In some admixtures we find other ethnicities while building my family tree, such as arctic Indian which I believe is where my Canadian Abenaki roots have come from. I learn something mew everyday!