Yay DNA! Post the Second

I find myself wishing that there were some way for me to be employed as a genealogist... but not in the way that you think.  I'd like to be paid to research my own genealogy.  I mean, I'm not above helping someone else with their research, and in fact, I've sort of inspired some friends to look into the hobby as well.  But to have the time to freely research, among the many other things that make demands on my time, would be pretty stinking awesome.  And maybe, as a result, you'd hear a little bit more from me on this blog.  Alternatively, I could just call you about once a week and fill you in on any progress I've made, Dad.  You who are likely my only faithful reader. ;-)

In the time that has passed since I shared the results from my AncestryDNA test, Ancestry has updated the program.  This was exciting news for me, since, I confess, that 7% "Uncertain" was haunting the genealogical corners of my brain.  You just can't see "7% Uncertain" and not question your existence.

Who am I?

In particular, I couldn't help wondering if the elusive "pure-blooded Cherokee" relative was in there somewhere.  And what about that humongous percentage of "British Isles?"  There are 4 different countries included in there, you know...

Well a little more of the mystery has been revealed, and once again, the results were unexpected.

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The "British Isles" has been split up and that's where my first shocking piece of information came from:  I had no idea that I had so much Irish blood!  I mean, 30% isn't huge, but when you consider that it's almost a third of my DNA, I still call it pretty significant!  Now what I'd really like to know is if my results can be further pared down to indicate the amount of Scottish vs. English.

And let's talk about Germany for a minute.  What in the world???  This update is pretty significant in how it shows those "Central European" areas differently than before.  Where it was once a collective 13%, that figure has completely changed.  Germany is now considered part of "Europe West," which makes up a mere 3% of my total ethnicity.  This has been a pretty big deal to me, because I know that I have German ancestors.  I am still working on proving all of that information for myself, but I feel sort of excited to know that I've only scratched the surface of my origins by knowing about potentially less than 3% of my lineage originated in Germany!  It motivates me to find some of that 30% Irish and that 31% British!

Now I had just started getting familiar with the "cousin matches" that are part of the DNA program.  Based on your own DNA and that of others who have taken the test, they can share with you who has similar results and potentially similar ancestors, estimated within a certain generational range and percentage of confidence.  Also, if you both have family trees on Ancestry.com, they can show you the common surnames and/or common people in your family tree, (if the other person's tree is public).  Of course you are also given a way to contact the person to request further information.  I haven't had any revolutionary breakthroughs with this system (yet), but there have been some interesting matches.  Now that things have been upgraded, I haven't had an opportunity yet to check it out and see if the cousin matching has had an upgrade also.  I'm excited to check that out as well.  Maybe this will eventually lead to clues for that unknown 1/4 of my tree.

Expecting the Unexpected

I know, I know... I said "soon," and it's almost a year later.  Shame on me.  But this post has been in the works for a while, I promise. :-)

There is a whole side of my family tree that is still waiting to be discovered.  In the meantime, I'm left to ponder all of the infinite possibilities surrounding my heritage from that branch.  They could be from anywhere...  even Africa!  With this level of uncertainty, I was looking VERY forward to my AncestryDNA test results.  Maybe they would finally give me a clue about this side of the family.  I already know that one set of ancestors are from Germany, and that another set are supposedly from Scotland.  So I hoped that I would get some confirmation on these origins.  And of course, as all of us are told if we live in the USA, there is the elusive great grandparent who was full-blooded Native American - usually Cherokee, specifically.  Perhaps my test results would solve several mysteries.

So let's check it out, shall we?

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These are my personal results.  Now, of course there is a lot more to it than this, but this is the most concise visual "summary" of my heritage.  I have to say that I was surprised to be less surprised!

As I said, I already had heard from various family members that we had Scottish ancestors, and being a Caucasian American, of course I figured that there would be a significant amount of overall British Isles in my background.  Germany, also, was expected and so Central Europe was not a big surprise.  Not quite sure what to think just yet of the percentage, though.  I've just brushed the tip of the proverbial iceberg where my German ancestry is concerned, so it makes me curious about whether there could be other Central European countries involved.

The one thing that I actually was surprised to see was Southern European.  I did mention there is a whole 1/4th of my ancestry that is currently a mystery.  I have a strong feeling that perhaps it's that 1/4th that contains the Southern European blood.  The uncertain is just that... uncertain.  I've watched some of the seminars ancestry.com has had and asked about this personally.  To sum up from memory, when it comes to this DNA project, ancestry.com has certain regions where they've obtained DNA.  There are 20 of these regions where they can compare your submitted DNA to their reference DNA panels, and thus come to a conclusion about your ethnicity.  If you have "uncertain" in your ethnicity results (and I imagine almost everyone would), there could be a couple of reasons behind it.  Either you have some ethnicity from a region in which AncestryDNA does not currently have a reference panel, or the percentage of your "remaining" ethnicities are so small that it is difficult to accurately classify them.

So while I was expecting the unexpected - to perhaps find some African or Eastern European - it turns out that my DNA ethnicity is slightly less interesting than that.  However, I was still surprised by the Southern European finding, and can't help wondering what part of southern Europe my ancestors could have come from.  Italy?  Spain?  Portugal?  For reasons I can't quite explain, part of me is hoping for some Italian blood. :-)

I'm still learning about all that the AncestryDNA program has to offer and how to make findings based on my results, but I've heard and seen a lot of people ask if it's worth it.  It's hard for me to answer a strong, resounding "YES!" at the moment because, well, to be blunt... it's $99.  As I'm about to enter my 7th year of marriage this fall, I can tell you that $99 is not something we have just lying around waiting for a frivolous DNA test to be spent on to feed my obsessive genealogy hobby.  But it made a great birthday gift! :-)  (Thanks mom and dad!)  And this certainly bumped it up a few notches of worthiness.  (Now if $99 is chump change for you, then I would most definitely say it is worth it).

What, then, would make it worthy of that resounding "YES!"?  Well I'll tell you:  In the process of watching some of the informative videos that Ancestry.com has created about the DNA program, I have come across a surprising but extremely relevant bit of information:  You don't have all the DNA you think you have.  That's a topic for another day, but my point is that if I could afford another $300, I'd order a DNA kit for my sister, my mom, and my dad for more thorough results and information.  THAT would be absolutely worth it.  Maybe someday it will happen and a little more will be revealed!

Interested in checking it out for yourself?  You can purchase the DNA kit now on ancestry.com.