BS: my mysterous dna

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,Mg
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 02:44 AM

i got deep into the stewarts today on gedmatch..just wrap me in a tartan..more of the danish and norwegian kings and queens.

descended from lady godiva.

i mentioned on one of the forums my many new cousins from camaroon. unfortunately it is from slavery as i thought. someone pointed me to the exact area where some of it took place in north carolina. i am sure there is more from virginia and georgia.

i strongly encourage people to do this. you might get nothing, as on my father's side, or you might get lots and lots like on my mother's. i think she would be an exception because her ancestry is so well documented from all the royals..and also nonroyals, of which there are some..included reformed dutch and quakers who kept very good records..most people would not be so lucky.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 03 Mar 15 - 08:50 PM

Well, I was thinking more people of Irish ancestry in US, Canada etc. There seems to be great interest and people are always wanting to go back to Ireland to find out where their ancestors came from. There was a wall of silence I think because of the famine...there was also active resistance to listening to anything because of how horrible it all was. It reminds me of the Chinook Indians..the Chinook trade language remains and we all still speak a few words of it, but the Chinook traditional language they say was lost when a huge epidemic wiped them out...survivors were unable to speak their own language. Of course, neither could the Irish in America. I did not realize until recently my own grandparents grew up speaking Irish in a community in Iowa that was settled by Dingle Irish. And of course they probably knew some English, some Latin, maybe some Spanish..I was told while there that they could get Spanish citizenship at some point because of all the connections there.

Anyway, one DNA interpretation says I am more Dutch than Irish..I know I have French Irish ancestry and of course the Vikings made social calls...and I do have some Dutch heritage I know of...I thought I would be way more Cornish and way more Welsh..but other than a stray person here and there it is Scots or English/Norman..most trace back to France and probably from there many at least to Norway.

I have almost no Irish information at all. None. but on my mother's side I can trace back to the king of troy and oden and king of the vandals etc.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Thompson
Date: 03 Mar 15 - 06:25 PM

Must say I find the results a little fishy; if you have a sister it might be worth getting her to send hers off, using a different surname and address, and see what the same company comes up with for her. If the results are very different there'd be cause for a little scepticism.

If the results are not hinky, the French might also be partly Irish - remember that the Bordeaux region, for example, is riddled with us, as are parts of Belgium, Spain and the Canaries. One instance alone: after the Siege of Limerick the English rolled up 70 ships and ferried 20,000 Irishmen across to Europe where they spread out, most taking service in various armies, others settling in Bordeaux, which was already a familiar place to the Irish, and becoming wine makers, and more going south and also ending up with vineyards. There are a load of wines still produced by these families, eg Chateau Lynch Bages (look up "Wine Geese" for more), not to mention Hennessy brandy and the like.

No, Irish people are not getting DNA tested. We're too suspicious; we imagine that the results will be leaked to insurance companies and we'll end up not able to get work, health insurance, etc because we're regarded as "pre-ill" from some familial condition; we're also paranoid that government and police will go looking for DNA that has been privately obtained on the basis that since we have sought the record it's now in the public domain. Call us paranoid.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 03 Mar 15 - 05:27 PM

this is very interesting. some chart on gedmatch that i do not understand is telling me i am danish.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 03 Mar 15 - 03:13 PM

I finally tied into gedmatch which you can do through ancestry. i did not know what I did took, but i got an email from an o'connor. that is one of the three top names i suspect on my irish side..the others being shea and sullivan..just from hints..no matches. also prob fitzgerald.
so anyway, i went there, don't know what i am doing, but finding all sorts of exact matches and lots of most likely matches. i was dumfounded when it went back to 1000...then 800...some norwegian king I think..then 300..i think it was king of the vandals. or selvidge the saxon. ancestry seems to only go back to 1600...this is astounding. everyone should try it but you will only get matches where people have odne trees and there should be way more irish trees than there are...and people takin the test.

lots and lots of stewarts and it is so confusing. just give me stirling castle or whatever one i deserve and be done with it.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 08:05 AM

The news about the dodgy royal line isn't new. There was a television programme about it some years back - I can't remember the details but there was a queen in the Middle Ages who bore a son 11 months after the king had left, I think, to fight in a war. The programme makers worked out who would have been king if that child had been declared illegitimate, and followed his line to man in Australia, who was interviewed, but showed no interest in trying to claim his throne.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 08:09 PM

One of my ancestors ran a chippie. I know this because I was brought up on the cod, chips and mushy peas from that very chippie, and that ancestor is my mum, who's still alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, when I was a well under-age lad to be legally employed, I spud-bashed for my mum three nights a week for seven and a tanner (half a crown a night innit). Bloody cold in winter, it was. But we were 'appy. Possible Scandinavian connections, eh? Jaysus, man, you may be related to one of Abba! Oh joy!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 07:54 PM

oh no. this might affect my royal lineage

https://news.wsu.edu/2014/12/18/kings-dna-throws-a-curve-ball-wsu-scholars-weigh-in/#.VJN1v_8Dok

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 06:38 PM

well the somme thing has probably been figured out. there are whole internet discussions devoted to it.   people think it has to do with a dropdown box that people use and that pops up...and of course people less scholarly than myself would just click and copy...

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 04:53 PM

what is the significance of Somme, Picardie, France? Several of my ancestors died there, separated by huge distances of time. And they would have lived in Scotland or England.   If they had all died at once I could see a battle or something..and later of course there was (same place??)...but did people go there to die perhaps? To get a miracle like at Lourdes? Was there a health spa? Did they get special indulgences? I think it is women as well as men so not sure it would be anything like the Hospitalatierres??

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 04:27 PM

Now I think through another line, and they all seem to connect, I get back to James lst Earl of Moray Stewart, son of James IV Stwart and Janet Janet Kennedy..Father of Elizabeth Stewart who was married to a Sotherton ancestor in Virginia. They are asking for DNA tests, I suppose to determine who gets the crown. But I will give them mine and they will have to decide.

I might do another song for our ancestors..could make it a series..it would be about the royalty..think about the songs that already exist about these people....

I also want to do one called Dixie because,despite the terrible things they did, they were still human and suffered for their crimes....and not all did terrible things of course.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 12:24 PM

fascinating as usual, Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: mg
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 11:36 AM

Most of my ancestors would have been overjoyed to have run a fish shop.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 11:25 AM

All this hankering after noble and royal ancient bloodlines...

One of my ancestors ran a fish and chip shop.... that's plenty good enough for me !!!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,#
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 11:20 AM

I hope you never find out you were adopted.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 08:08 PM

interesting because wikipedia says he had no children. This can not be because he is my 17th great grandfather or some such.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 08:05 PM

well I was all the way back to David II Duncan I think who was King of Scotland and his wife Jean of something ..David was called Bruce. Then I lost my place.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: mg
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 12:07 PM

The irish dont seem to be.signing.up for this in great numbers. I search by every irish name i can think of. Then i search for a name like oladsdattr and get way more hits.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Musket
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 05:49 AM

The world we live in.

First they slice bread, then they can distinguish the six counties from Irish DNA.

There again, if I were selling DNA Commentary, I reckon I'd make a killing in The USA. Just make it mostly Irish (if they are in Eastern states,) Scottish if they are near Canada or the English speaking biblical end of Judea if they are in Dumbfuckistan.

Easy.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 08:42 PM

West Asian ? That'd be Turkish of some kind I'd have thought.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 06:00 PM

well, now they are dying in the crusades.

I know on my father's side..not his relatives per se but people who traveled somewhat together in potato famine, lived easily to 90s, many to 100. Of course there was a great amount of selection going on at that time...

So here I am back to 900s on my mother's side..Kings of Norway now, and when you sing the song about the Lord of all Argyle that would be my gggsomething gfather...and I can not find my great grandparents' names on my father's.

Oh well.

But now I understand where my statuesque blondness comes from at least.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 05:35 PM

epigenetic information would be much more revealing about the quality of ancestral life and ergo your own state of sturdy health in your lifetime.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 04:14 PM

gets better and better...now i am descended (not 100% sure) from King of Norway way way back. But there is a question who the wife really was..one is descended from king of norway and one I have not tracked. Could all this Scandinavian DNA be from Kings etc. and not just from pillaging Vikings? This way back 9th to 12th centuries now. I am 12% supposedly Scandinavian and never heard of any ancestors although they did have various invasions etc. of British Isles..I would expect some of course..but I have more Scandinavian than British Isles...and my mother's father's side at least is all British Isles...

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 03:45 PM

think i have a scandinavian connection..naturally it is a queen and king..the king of argyle at this point.

Marriage to Rognvald Ranald King of the Isles, Lord of Argyll Somarledasson that is my 20th or so ggf

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 01:31 PM

oh dear. the one person more than any other i do not wish to be related to is Oliver Cromwell. I just clicked on something that said I might be but I don't think as a direct ancestor.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 01:18 PM

more and more on my mother's side. All the way back to lords and ladies and castles in Scotland..and some in England. Back to the Mayflower I think, definitely back to early settlers in Jamestown and Isle of Wight VA in general. My 19th ggf is Alexander Stewart Thomas High Steward of Scotland. I think if I can go a bit farther back on my mother's side I will get to France..there is definitely a Lyon line...of course a Devery line on my father's and they came from Normandy to Ireland.

I believe I am related to Queen Elizabeth's mother and John F Kennedy and all sorts of landed gentry...quite amazing...we knew about being early settlers to Virginia..history scrambles so much in my brain..I heard Jamestown indentured servant, Lord Cornwallis Yorktown...all scrambled together. but I kept tracing people back and back, and it is very well documented..mostly I stole from other trees, but my brother and sister have done more thorough jobs...anyway, no one ever seemed to immigrate..they all seemed to sort of crystalize in USA..but I guess they all intermarried. No Russian pedlars, no German brewers ever infiltrated that side of the family..her mother's father...they also did some very bad things which I will not publicize here....and it is showing up in some of the matches.

Mother's mother's side traced back to fairly early New York..Dutch..I am starting to get to the point where they had those great Dutch names..but sure enough..one married into royalty...

They somehow all became very poor nevertheless. But I have many castles in my background and will post links now and then.

WHat is odd is we thought on my mother's father's side we were a lot of Welsh and Cornish. What is showing up is a lot of Scottish...no idea. Before my only claim to vicarious fame was Big (Bad) Bill Devery, corrupt mayor of New York, and Bat Masterson but we can not prove a connection at all.

Would love help on a Michigan family...Madison/Whitehouse. A Samuel Madison died in the civil war, married to a Marietta Deacon/Madison. Later children were named Whitehouse but I can't find a Whitehouse...this is in Eaton Michigan. Perhaps they were orphans taken in ...rumor has it there was a bigamist called Whitehouse..perhaps there is trouble there...anyway, Carrie Whitehouse was my ggm, born 1868 in Eaton Michigan.

But the Irish side is very very sad like I said. I think I am finding connections with Sullivans and SHeas, but no definite names. And why since I have some much Irish DNA am I not at least finding lots and lots of Irish connections, realizing that all of us probably don't know very much..but the DNA would still be there and they would know a few generations back, as I do...it seems that Irish, like others of diasporas, would be the ones who would want to know more..they of course have to have the DNA done, submit what they know of family tree....but it seems they are not taking the first step. I am not saying I should have matches exact like on my mother's side, where they had wills and baptisms and marriages all recorded, but at least I should have a couple of hundred of DNA matches, regardless of names or not...confusing....I think they are planning to go to Ireland and get the Irish to submit samples......

Still don't know why I am 12% Scandinavian although I am a tall and stately blond, at least on the internet.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Nov 14 - 05:35 PM

I am having so much fun. Just learning it. Heard from someone who told me how to link to other sites with my DNA but it didn't work...but I have someone who can tell me now. Have found lots more fourth cousins, mostly on my mother's side. Her history is pretty good except for the Native American and Dutch lines. It is the Irish that is so sad. I have quite a few hits with Sheas..not on my tree..which only has six Irish names on it and two are French Irish. Possibly connecting iwth Sullivans. I am going to search by the main Irish names of my main area and see what I get. This of course does not mean it is where the connection is..you have to link to an actual tree with names, dates, etc....but so many Irish dropped literally off the face of the earth during the famine that so much is lost. And think how it would be for those brought here in slavery, or from China to work on the railroads etc. I am not a skeptic here. I think this is wonderful. I have quite a few definite connections..maybe about 8 I think and some more maybes. I have an ancestor, Obidiah COrnwell, who is like Ghengis Kahn and Neil of the 7 or 9 hostages in terms of leaving a huge number of descendents. I apologize for some of his activities however. Anyway, this is really valuable.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Nov 14 - 12:20 AM

http://dna.ancestry.com/atFAQ
here are some explanations..

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Janie
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 11:15 PM

yDNA, if sequenced to enough markers (at least 25 and 37 is much better,) can be a good genealogical research tool, but will still only take one so far.

yDNA only traces or confirms descendancy or relatedness from male to male. It can not be used to trace or confirm relatedness of any females. Still pretty useful and interesting if sequenced to at least 25 markers, and preferably to 37 markers. In some rare instances it may be worth paying for sequencing to 67 markers.

It can't necessarily establish the exact relationship among closely related males several generations past, but can indicate it is highly likely two males were either brothers or paternal uncle/nephew.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 07:38 AM

One of my father's grandmothers was born in 1860 & ILLEGITIMATE was very boldly written cross her birth certificate in the column for parent's marriage!

When she was 25 her parents married (dunno if g-g.mother & her 7 younger siblings were present) as her mother's (first) husband has finally died. Her father's first wife had died sometime earlier.

I wasn't sure how my father's 70 year old spinster cousin would react when I told her - but she was a modern Catholic woman & merely said 'I wonder if she knew, of course she would have as she would have needed her birth certificate when she started nursing!'

Dad said this grandmother looked like the "old Queen" - ie. Queen Alexandra, Queen Victoria's daughter-in-law, tho I've never seen a photo of her.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Rumncoke
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 04:44 AM

Hey punk folk rocker - I have one of those - but it is not surprising - it takes a year to convert to Judaism, and babies don't take that long - so there is no way for a 'proper' marriage to take place before the baby arrives. Better - they think - for no marriage than one that isn't proper.

My mother's mother's father was the son of the family and her mother was a servant in the house - she was dismissed without a character, and he was sent to Canada. The baby grew up with her grandmother whilst the mother worked to support her.

Previous generations were so constrained by society. It's like gang culture today.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 03:58 AM

.. which is why I was about 16 before I discovered certain closly guarded truths
about an important early 20th century part of my family history..

The young well off jewish 'cad' who abandoned his working class gentile mistress and baby daughter...

That's when I was first told about my own part E.European ancestry..

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 03:49 AM

Yeah... Topsie beat me to it while I was thinking about posting...

hence the old saying ....

"It is a wise child that knows its own father "....

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 03:41 AM

As well as the "adoptions, rapes, etc.", another problem with conventional genealogy is that a mother may either have lied about who fathered her child, or simply not known which of more than one candidate was responsible. If she was married, her husband would be assumed to be the father as far as the official records were concerned.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 12:28 AM

you have to go in without too many expectations because it all depends on how many people with shared dna have had the test done...so that confounds for education, culture, finances etc. also, if you have lived in Greece for 20 generations, you probably don't have burning curiousity about who your ancestors are...so perhaps not a whole lot of greeks have taken the test...or if your ancestors stayed in a greek community in Canada and did not intermarry etc...

there are also adoptions, rapes, etc...not everything follows the family tree.

but I just heard from someone else with a geographic similarity...probably some dingle connection although I am not aware of the surname on the family tree...on the other hand I can only go back three generations on my father's side, and that is for three ggfathers and one and perhaps two ggmothers...one ggmother..absolutely nothing is known but she is the only one we knew any story at all about..although it turns out it was wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 12:00 AM

OK, so, what are all the available options for having one's ancestry tested these days? Back when I first got into it, you could have your haplogroups done either for mdna (women) or ydna (men), and it told you deep ancestry, nothing about anything recent enough to have nationalities.
There is a national geographic thing? Who else? There is ancestry.com? What about geni.com?
I know my ancestry back many generations although not as many as if the Huguenots had stayed in Europe. THEY probably knew their ancestry back through the middle ages; we only know it that far. I got half hungarian jew, a quarter russian (white not red), and a quarter that is descended from those huguenots via at least one cherokee... we also know we're the bastard branch so if we did the ydna it would take a left turn several generations back and not tell us where the huguenots came from anyway. But I'd love to have mine and some relatives' sent in to various places and see what pops up!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 09:04 PM

that is so cool...mg

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,..gargoyle
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 08:34 PM

It appears...thee and me ...are related.
The connections are true.

A BIG embrace ... fellow distant cousin.

Our genes match in "e12714,e1987'



Sincerely,
Gargoyle



Via family stock that left Estonia to become servants in the royal household.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 07:10 PM

I am more than pleased. I have three confirmed relatives and one most likely and one maybe..some don't have trees or trees are private so i have not heard from everyone. woman who complained had 2 second cousins and still complained. it is not the fault of the test that they did not want to share or perhaps did not check the site to respond..she wanted to make it mandatory to share..not a good idea for many reasons. i would love to find second cousins..have found several through regular genealogy...as more people do this, it will only improve. you have to be knowledgeable going in..i was not surprised in general, surprised specifically by how scandinavian i seem to be...but people always ask if i am norwegian, which i don't think i look a bit like...i also have a connection with springfield ma which is interesting...a prime center for my distant relatives although i don't know of any that passed through there..mine came with a group that worked on the canals. my mother's genealogy is pretty well done, and includes some horrifying behavior which i won't go into on a public site..but anyway, my sister says she traced it to the library of cornwall. i don't know how i could be related to a library but there itis.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Anne Lister
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:43 PM

Point of information: "Celtic" is not an ethnicity. It will not, therefore, show up in anyone's DNA. "Celtic" is a language group and the latest archaeological discussion I heard said that they now think it was a trading language, which accounts for how widespread the language finds are across a lot of Europe, but particularly on the trade routes.
"British" is a term open to much misunderstanding as well. There's the historic version and the modern political version.
The "Iberian" origin has been much talked about here in Wales as well as elsewhere to account for darker skin tones and black curly hair. There is very unlikely to be a clear "British" DNA marker, given the various groups of invaders and settlers across the whole archipelago.

But good luck with finding out your family history - I'd love to find out more about mine but there's a missing great-grandfather complicating my mother's side of the story.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Noreen
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:23 PM

a-review-of-ancestrydna-ancestry-coms-new-autosomal-dna-test (2012)

DNA-ancestry-tests-branded-meaningless (2013)

my-ancestrydna-review-cautionary-tale (2014)

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:13 PM

Ancestry gives you a list of people who share dna with you. they have all submitted to the testing and agreed to share results. some have posted family trees and it lists the names on the tree and shows the tree. you compare to your family tree...i found three matches from shared trees just like that. a fourth person might be a tree match. this fifth person is not a tree match yet, but certainly a geography of origin match...others might not share their trees or have a tree. i send them my tree and see if they might see a connection. i think i had about 6 possible third cousins and dozens of fourth..one possible fourth is a definite match..in fact i have correspondended with her before I am quite sure...so it is all very interesting...

latest probable match ..family ended up in springfield ma where all sorts of dingle people went...including many from blasket islands..today is the anniversary of the day they left the island for good. would love to get matched with some crehans..know nothing whatsoever about the family except from kerry.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:08 PM

I am actually surprised it is not more Asian, as I believed my grandfather might have been Melungeon...he and my mother and others of his family had the copper skin and dark copper hair that are traits. He also is roughly from the area and also is one of the names..Williams...but nothing shows up. He sure did not look Scandinavian. And if he were Native American, as my grandmother was partially, it sure did not show up on the results either. Well, it is a developing science. My new third or so cousin has shared some info with me...same surname, same tiny tiny..not even a village, probably just a few houses, in Ireland...but we don't have a proven connection.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:08 PM

mg, do these 'possible cousins' make themselves known via the organisations that did the dna analysis? Is this a wide network? Or do you find them via genealogical research, independently?

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 05:31 PM

"British" peoples brings Picts to mind, since I don't
remember hearing of Picts elsewhere than Britain.

The Celts were all over West Europe in the old days leaving
DNA behind, mainly showing up in Ireland, Wales, (Cornwall??),
and Scotland these days, I think. Iberian might refer to the
Spanish traces in Ireland, and maybe a few in Scotland.

The term "West Asian" would seem to me to refer to the "-istans"
and India, and the like. Possibly Persia/Iran.

Seems to me that the categories given in the OP are not very useful;
much too general.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 12:46 PM

i read something last night, i think on ancestry.com, that said the cornish and welsh had the most stable dna of british isles...i do have ancestors from both...also all sorts of people were writing in and saying i have no known scandinavian ancestors and i get 80% on my dna..and then people who were swedish were writing in and saying i have no known british ancestors and come up 80% british. although i did read that british did settle long ago in scandinavia so there is huge overlap. lots of british people have syrian dna because of syrian archers who came in with romans...but then why not more roman dna? history scrambles in my brain..but i heard from another possible third or so cousin today. oh, also i have been reading that irish are not very celtic...very interesting stuff...i never know in reading irish history what we are supposed to believe..what is history and what is myth and why doesn't someone separate it out for those of us who are gullible...mg

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Stu
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 10:29 AM

These DNA tests are more about lineages than nationalities; remember that until a couple of thousand years ago there were no nations as such (roughly a mere 26 lifetimes ago, if you take a lifetime as three score years and ten).

As Bert says, if you can trace your ancestry back to the British Isles you'll be right old mongrel for sure. I've been doing my family history and we're Welsh shepherds, miners, English villagers and Ag Labs, Shoreditch Huguenots fro Nimes and Brittany via Berlin and Mannenhiem, Roma (on the waterways around London), Cockney's, pre-cockneys (Irish possibly, in the St Giles Rookery) and Scottish.

We're all a mix on these islands so if you trace your ancestry here, welcome to the club!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 10:14 AM

So.. due to the social upheaval of post 2nd world war...

West country born and bred dad met half English / half East European jew mum,
both young idealistic socialists - resulting in me.
Which by my reckoning means I'm 1/4 jewish by blood.

Knowledge of the jewish surname locates them to a probable pre pogrom location.

If I were to have a DNA test, would that likely indicate more specific geographical origins ???

.. and maybe explain why I've always had an 'innate' affinity for klezmer
and E.European folk music,
rather than any Celtic...???

[yeah.. ok.. that's a bit too fanciful.. as if blood determines musical & political preferences...??????]

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Rumncoke
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:01 AM

Your DNA represents only half of the DNA of the person 'providing' it anyway - so it is a sort of lottery - I remember a set of fraternal twins where one was fair and the other was dark - all over, that is, and it was thought improbably, impossible, the result of infidelity (so they had different fathers) but it was just a result of the selection of chromosomes from the parents being different, and in their cases resulting in them being different colours - identical grins though. They thought it was hilarious.

In my family my Brother got the contracture of the ligaments in his hands from our Viking forebears and I got the temper.

DNA is interesting - but it is not even half the story of ancestry.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 04:06 AM

The markers they use aren't the sort of thing that identify 'races' as such. All they can say is you have such and such gene that is more common among people in the Balkans, say. If you have a west Asian marker this might be from the Neolithic farmers who introduced agriculture into Europe and whose genes become more and more thinly distributed as you move from eastern to western Europe. Or it could be from a Turkish sailor!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 03:55 AM

Very interesting mg. I wonder how they differentiate between Irish and Celtic.

And 'British Isles' seems to be a quite vague description considering the mixed up history of the place.

One would expect that anyone from The British Isles would be a mix of British, Roman, Danish, Viking, French, Finnish, Jewish and African with a smattering of any or all of the colonies.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: mg
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 12:54 AM

I dont know enough..i think it is autosomal and gets both paternal and maternal...to be taken with a grain of salt. But they have experts working on this. I found three definite relatives as confirmed by our family trees.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Janie
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 12:19 AM

Ummm. I don't think the understanding or interpretation of the genetic message regarding mtDNA have progressed to the point as to be able to reputably assert such particular specificity of regional origin as you have been told, mg.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 11:18 PM

Thanks for the laugh you gave me, Rap. I could use a chuckle about now.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 08:57 PM

you just drool into a test tube..ancestry dna.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 07:33 PM

Mary, what did you do to send in your dna? Was it just a cheek swab? How long did it take and what does it cost?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 05:44 PM

West Asian probably means mongol, hun, goth or something barbaric. Fun, innit?

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 01:13 PM

Irish DNA is more, shall we say "sloshed"?, than British. My own DNA shows that I am 52.4% space alien from the Moon. Well, it says "lunatic" so I guess that means from the Moon.

But seriously, with all of the armies and traders who have crossed re-crossed the continents there ain't nobody "pure" anything. If someone says they are "pure" you know what it is!

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 04:58 AM

How odd that it separates Irish from British DNA. I thought a bunch of studies had found out that we were genetically identical?

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 03:24 AM

UK television has a series called 'Who Do You Think You Are?' which goes into the ancestry of 'celebrities' (described by someone [Jennifer Saunders?] as famous people crying in libraries). It often seems to involve the famous subjects getting emotional at the news that their ancestors died, as if they really thought their great-great-great grandparents were still around somewhere or just faded away without making a fuss.

I haven't seen an episode that included DNA searches. It would be an interesting addition, but I do wonder if the results might vary depending on who did the analysis.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 10:12 PM

The native american might be what's testing as west asian?

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 09:50 PM

There is a television show that I enjoy watching lately: Finding Your Roots.

It is hosted/prepared by Henry Louis Gates. There are always three persons whose background they investigate. These people are always well-known people, I think, or celebrities of some sort. It is interesting- the investigators go to the subjects' ancestral lands where they search records, and then finish with the DNA test.

In Alaska it is on PBS on Tuesday nights.

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw in a vacuum
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 07:21 PM

Scandihoovian? You're related to a Norwegian vacuum cleaner salesman?

I once asked my girlfriend if she'd ever thought she might have had a bit of Neanderthal in her. She gave me such a slap...

Subject: RE: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 07:06 PM

No Neanderthal then? I'm not making any suppositions as I don't know you, but word has it that we all have a small amount of Neanderthal dna.

And I am a bit puzzled about the classifications - I thought Iberia was in western Europe, and Ireland in the British Isles.

Subject: BS: my mysterous dna
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 06:55 PM

just got my ancestry.com dna back.

44% irish.
9% british isles
30% west europe
11% scandihoovian
4% east europe
1% west asia

I think that is all. Actually, being that high irish surprises me although i am all irish on my father's side. but two names are french of my 4 irish great grandparents. so i expect that is part of west europe. i know on my mother's side she is a combination of welsh, cornish, mixed british probably, dutch and native american. why does native american not show at all, when i should be either 1/16 or 1/32...why so little british isles? why scandinavian when i have never heard of a scandinavian ancestor (I do realize they made courtesy calls to Ireland on a regular basis). Oh yes, 1% iberian..i would have thought that would be higher since my father looked like and said he was black irish, which despite all sorts of definitions one of the main ones is spanish blood.