This week, Ancestry.com rolled out enhanced ethnicity estimates for everyone who has taken their DNA test, and the genealogy world is awash with stories about their 'increased precision'. I got my update several months ago, but as I’ve never been a fan of DNA ‘ethnicity’ tools, I didn’t find reason to mention it before now. I’m Irish, so these tools never seemed to add much to the understanding of my ancestors.
Originally, Ancestry had me down as 66% ‘Ireland, Scotland and Wales’, and 34% ‘Great Britain’. Granted, you might think they pinned it down nicely to the right corner of the world… but 34% British! Hmph!!! To an Irish person, that’s bordering on a major slur. And, there's no supporting documentation for this statistic! What happened to innocent until ‘proven’ guilty?
 |
My pre-June 2018 Ethnicity Estimate from Ancestry.com
|
Their new release seems to be going in the right direction, in my perhaps somewhat prejudiced opinion. They’ve broadened the geographic scope, yet homed in more precisely on Ireland - 21% more precisely to be exact. But that still leaves 13% ‘England, Wales and Northwestern Europe’ in my DNA. That’d be the equivalent of one great-grandparent being of 'the old foe’.
 |
My post-June 2018 Ethnicity Estimate at Ancestry.com
|
MyHeritage reports a similar ethnic background to Ancestry’s original estimate, with me supposedly being 40% ‘English’. But, although these figures came from a separate, independent test, I didn’t believe them either. My parent’s test results were also uploaded to MyHeritage, and they both showed 0% ‘English’. That's more like it. 😅 So, where did my ‘English’ supposedly come from? I didn’t lick it off a stone. It was obviously bogus. Right?
 |
My Ethnicity Estimate at MyHeritage (based on FTDNA test results)
|
Plus, my parent’s results were far too exotic for our tiny, historically subjugated island, on the fringes of western Europe. Dad showed 9% Italian and 8% Eastern European. My mother showed 20% Scandinavian and, with 1% ‘Central American’, she could even claim a mythical ‘Indian Princess’ among her distant ancestry. It’s all just too far-fetched to be taken seriously, especially if you ever met my parents.
 |
Mam's Ethnicity Estimate at MyHeritage (based on FTDNA upload)
|
 |
Dad's Ethnicity Estimate at MyHeritage (based on FTDNA upload)
|
But, with everyone singing the praises of Ancestry’s revised results, I’m having second thoughts. As reference populations increase and become more dependable, the results are bound to become more accurate, someday. Has that day arrived? Am I letting historic sensitivities get in the way of tracing my real ancestors?
I do have one great-grandfather whose origins cannot be proven – Charles O’Neill, born about 1849, the son of John and Margaret O’Neill. He sounds Irish enough. Was he descended from the ancient High-Kings of Ireland, as his name suggests… or was he an impostor?
That may be the real question here!
I do have one great-grandfather whose origins cannot be proven – Charles O’Neill, born about 1849, the son of John and Margaret O’Neill. He sounds Irish enough. Was he descended from the ancient High-Kings of Ireland, as his name suggests… or was he an impostor?
That may be the real question here!
P.S. to all my lovely English friends, I’m only joking… sort of.😀
This is a great source of irritation to my husband. Most of his ancestors were German and about 26% Irish, on his mother's side. Now he is 1% Irish and he is mad. I told him to just believe the old one.
ReplyDeleteI hate to bring it up because he is like an old dog with a bone.
It's obvious these ethnicity tests are not infallible, Claudia, I wouldn't lose any sleep over the results. Sure, they'll probably change again!
DeleteGood news! My Irish went up to 51 percent, and the british went down;)
ReplyDeleteLOL! what are we like ;-)
Delete