Advice please

Lizheen

I'd love to get some opinions here on a DNA question - well, two actually.

My mother recently did a DNA test via Ancestry and it's been a great experience and really interesting, although we still need to put more work into getting the tree finished.

The first question is: to our amazement, Ancestry assessed my mother's ethnicity as being 20 per cent Scottish - but given all 8 gt-grandparents were Irish and also the 9 gt-gt-grandparents about whose identity we are fairly sure, does 20 per cent not seem surprisingly high? Given the profile of the 9 gt gt grandparents, I'd be disinclined to imagine they had much opportunity to mix with many from far outside their area and all our surnames are very Irishy.

Second question: my uncle (mother's brother) is interested in getting his done. As I understand it a man's DNA can be really useful for tracing back the male line. Given that from my mother's we got everything we need to set us on the trail of paper records, and what's going to hinder us getting any further back is the lack of older records, what DNA company's offering would be most useful for my uncle?

Mick Tator

Lizheen wrote: »

I'd love to get some opinions here on a DNA question - well, two actually.

My mother recently did a DNA test via Ancestry and it's been a great experience and really interesting, although we still need to put more work into getting the tree finished.

The first question is: to our amazement, Ancestry assessed my mother's ethnicity as being 20 per cent Scottish - but given all 8 gt-grandparents were Irish and also the 9 gt-gt-grandparents about whose identity we are fairly sure, does 20 per cent not seem surprisingly high? Given the profile of the 9 gt gt grandparents, I'd be disinclined to imagine they had much opportunity to mix with many from far outside their area and all our surnames are very Irishy.

Second question: my uncle (mother's brother) is interested in getting his done. As I understand it a man's DNA can be really useful for tracing back the male line. Given that from my mother's we got everything we need to set us on the trail of paper records, and what's going to hinder us getting any further back is the lack of older records, what DNA company's offering would be most useful for my uncle?

There are three main types of DNA test
1. Autosomal – this tests the DNA you receive from both parents and for that reason is often known as ‘family finder’.
2. Y-DNA – this is for males only and tests the Y chromosome which each male receives from his father, so it is a male ‘surname’ test.
3. Mitochondrial – this traces the female line (daughter, mother, maternal grandmother, etc.) so it is not of huge benefit to the genealogy/DNA beginner.

The autosomal test results are based on an algorithm – it aggregates the results of people tested and displays them geographically. If a test result approximates to a specific group it is given that geographic ethnicity. The surname Mullen/Mullan for example is common in N. Ireland and Scotland, so a test could assign ethnicity to either. Bottom line is that ethnicity is a guide, not (yet) much more. Ancestry.com have by far the biggest database but it is heavilyt skewed to the US.

Your uncle will match very closely with your mother (Brother/sister) on autosomal so he should take a Y-DNA test which will give him male relative matches. The best (IMO) for that is FamilyTreeDNA.com.
You should upload both your mother’s test and that of your uncle to Gedmatch. If your mother did an Ancestry.com test you can also upload that the FTDNA. This widens the scope for matching potential relatives.Finally. it is best to build a solid paper tree and then use DNA to search for clues/potential connections, not the other way around. You are of course dependent on matches replying to your emails, responses usually being the exception, not the norm.

pinkypinky

Y DNA tests cannot be uploaded to Gedmatch.

spurious

Your example shows what a joke the 'ethnicity estimates' are.

Mine switched the other week to a sizeable Basque component - utter rubbish. My brother's shows no trace of the mystery Basques.

Mick Tator

pinkypinky wrote: »

Y DNA tests cannot be uploaded to Gedmatch.

Yes. My error. I also should have added that the minimum test the OP's uncle shoul do is a 67 marker.

Lizheen

It's been quite funny: I joked to my mother that she was guaranteed to be like Michael Healy Rae - "100 per cent Irish" - and she was close to devastated to discover she might not be. I know there have been alterations in other people's ethnicity results so I will watch for changes.

Lizheen

Mick Tator wrote: »

Yes. My error. I also should have added that the minimum test the OP's uncle shoul do is a 67 marker.

Thanks so much for that info - I hope he does do it: it would be fascinating for all of us.

Earnest

People need to remember that ethnicity estimates go back centuries. Probably the majority of my ancestors were 17th century immigrants to Ireland who tended to marry endogamously, and the majority of the remainder were more recent immigrants. The most Irish that Ancestry can come up with is 11% Irish and the most Irish that MyHeritage can come up with is 5% Irish/Scottish/Welsh. So 3 1/2 centuries of residence count for very little. The reason is that the comparison is with people who came from the same place but didn't migrate.

Yes, I can't explain the 11% Swedish that Ancestry comes up with or the 6.9% Iberian that MyHeritage comes up with. I would expect that as more people are tested the estimates of rival firms would tend to come closer to each other.

According to ISOGG the range for siblings is 2826 centiMorgans to 4537 centiMorgans shared. So you cannot expect siblings to have exactly the same ethnicity.

spurious

I have people from 2 generations back on both sides tested and nobody else has the Basques. Neither do any of the other testing companies. I treat it as a complete red herring.

pinkypinky

We've discussed the merits and lack thereof of ethnicity estimates many times here (and recently in the much less polite After Hours forum!)