topic Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com in Community Chat

Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

golding76 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:20:47 GMT

As Ancestry.com receives more and more DNA specimens to analyze, they are able to refine their results. Wow, but I have had dramatic changes since my first analysis that was sent to me about five years ago.

In the last few years, the updates have been more frequent. Sometimes it is just a matter of tweaking a percentage while the major contributing DNA groups remain the same. For instance, I am of Greek descent on both sides of my family, and all any of us has ever known is that we are Greek.

However, at the outset, we were "Italian/Greek"; then we became "Greek"; and lately "Greek and Albanian." At one point, we were analyzed as "Jewish," but that was altered later to "Eastern Europe & Russia" (I think that is what the Jewish element became but I'm not certain).

The most recent change is that I am 11% "Aegean Islands," up from the previous 6%. Yes, the Aegean Islands are part of Greece, but they are not the mainland and are regarded as having their own distinctive DNA.

Has anyone else been experiencing these periodic updates? Are your changes of DNA identification and distribution dramatic?

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

D Kay — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:18:03 GMT

I have, but not dramatic changes. Mostly like an increase in percent Scottish and a decrease in percent Irish, etc. My first one had a small percent Portuguese but hasn't shown up since.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Kachina624 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:32:51 GMT

What is their explanation for the constant changes? Seems as though if you were 100% Greek 10 years ago, there's no way that would change.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Laura14 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:35:05 GMT

My DNA is with 23andMe. I initially came back as 70some percent Italian which I thought was low since every great-grandparent who stepped through Ellis Island came from the boot.

I am now up to 88% Italian after a few years which I think is about right. I have also switched the collection of minor ethinicities to become essentially a three race person with 88%, 9% and 3% of my makeup.

My ancestors apparently went sailing occasionally across the Sicilian sea but for the most part they kept to themselves and stayed home.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Laura14 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:35:59 GMT

@Kachina624 As more people join their database, they get more refined in pinpointing where you probably came from in the world.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

D Kay — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:37:19 GMT

My understanding is as their technology improves/fine tunes, there will be some changes.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

spumoni99 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:51:07 GMT

I have a lot of connections on 23 and me and don't know anyone that is 100 percent anything. It seems like we are all a mixture because of long ago immigrations I guess.

@Kachina624 wrote:
What is their explanation for the constant changes? Seems as though if you were 100% Greek 10 years ago, there's no way that would change.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Puppy Lips — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:05:13 GMT

My sister has had it done, so I don't need to. Frankly, I don't care that much. I am me, no matter where I came from.

I find it interesting that Jewish people share some DNA traits.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

JFD12 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:17:07 GMT

My DNA results do not change drastically during the updates. I'm always in the 90-something percentile for Irish, and the rest is distributed here and there.

I just checked for my update... 91% Irish, 7% Scotland, and 2% Norway. Don't know what happened to my British! But none of my brothers and sisters who have submitted their DNA has any Norway in them! 🤷‍♀️ 🤔

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

drizzellla — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:24:56 GMT

My Husband and his sister sent their DNA in to be tested. They sent it in to a company that was affiliated with the Smithsonian.

Since my husband's sister has a different name (by marriage) and lives 1,000 miles away, he thought it would be interesting what the DNA test showed.

Boy oh boy. It said my husband''s ancestors were from Africa and his sister descended from Northern European. Nothing in the reports were remotely similar.

My husband and his sister were born 15 months apart. And there is no doubt they have the same parents. In fact if you looked at their baby pictures, you would think they were twins.

My husband took his report to his family reunion. No one could believe it. They all thought my husband was playing a joke. He has no interest in paying for another test.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

sunsetbeach — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:36:52 GMT

I had my DNA tested 3 or 4 years ago and do receive updates and my percentages have changed. Currently, I am 65% England & Northwestern Europe, 12% Wales, 12% Scotland, 9% Norway, and 2% Ireland. Previously, I was more Wales and Ireland. I mainly did my DNA because I am adopted and have no information about my parents or ancestors. I did have a 1st cousin match that I contacted through Ancestry, but never received a reply, so I just gave up. It is nice to know where my ancestors were from, tho.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

golding76 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:12:39 GMT

Kachina, innocently and before receiving my first results, I thought that I'd be found to be 90 - 100% Greek. When you know that your ancestors on both sides and going back several generations are Greek, that is an expectation.

From the very first analysis, I never registered 100%. From the get-go, I was determined to be 86% "Italy/Greece." I believe they always write the country or region's name and not the adjectival form. This did not apply to the "Jewish" component. It was in this first iteration and at least two more that I had the "Jewish" component. All my relatives on my mother's side had the same breakout: "Italy/Greece," "Jewish," "the Caucasus," etc. The changes in my analysis have been mirrored in their analyses.

A couple of iterations out, the Italian and Greek components were separated, and my Italian part was drilled down to "San Marino." San Marino is an independent country within Italy, and I had a significant amount of DNA from there. For a while. So, I was Italian but only San Marino Italian. Then that changed. However, my one son's Italian DNA has increased. Must be because of his father's side.

At this time, my latest iteration is different from my original one. Using their terminology, I am -- at this moment:

Greece & Albania -- 82%

Aegean Islands -- 11%

Eastern Europe & Russia -- 4%

Anatolia & the Caucasus -- 2%

Baltics -- 1%

I get a kick out of the Baltics appearance. It's from my mother's side, too. That side got around.

Baltics

Primarily located in: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Also found in: Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

twinsister — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:37:24 GMT

@golding76 - I did mine through Ancestry and have received two updates in the last year and a half. At first it was 94% Italian, primarily Southern, which was no surpise since my father was born in Sicily. My maternal grandparents were from Northern Italy. The remaining were 2% Albanian, 2% Cyprus and 2% Middle East. The next update was 96% Italian with 4% Levant, which includes Jordan, Israel and Palestine. The last update there was a little England thrown in.

What did surprise me was being notified of two people who share a lot of the same DNA with me. They are either 1st or 2nd cousins - a man and woman. I don't recognize either name and can't figure out how we are related, since this means for first cousin, our parents are siblings and for second cousin, they are children of my first cousins. Both my parents are gone so there is no one to ask.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

golding76 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:40:40 GMT

Puppy Lips, I think the "Jewish" designation has much more to do with exact geographic locales than actual traits. It is just a guess on my part. When my first cousin on my mother's side did his DNA first and he said he was 10% Jewish, I questioned how a religion could be measured and quantified. But all of us on my mother's side were informed that we had Jewish DNA.

Because Jewish people were often exiled into certain regions and, of course, ghettos of major cities, I think the tracing was of DNA found primarily in those sorts of regions. I'm no expert in this, but this must be part of it.

Also, there have been diasporas throughout time, and groups of Jews have fled to other countries and certain regions within those countries. Once again, the DNA pool shows certain identifiers that can be traced to those specific areas.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 22:11:12 GMT

@Puppy Lips I thought I was only only person who did care about this.

My feeling is I can't change it so why bother.

My maiden name is 100% German, so is my Mom's maiden name. both my grandmother's maiden names. I know my maternal grandmother's mother came here from Germany. I'm going with I'm German.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

cindyNC — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 22:31:36 GMT

My brother had his done. And we came up with an out of wedlock cousin from my mother's side of the family. Apparently my grandfather found a new friend after my greatgrandmother passed away. We were alwys told my grandfather was an only child. I do wonder if my mother knew and never said a word about it.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

GoneButNotForgotten — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 22:46:37 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
What is their explanation for the constant changes? Seems as though if you were 100% Greek 10 years ago, there's no way that would change.

It might change as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

I almost wish we'd never done this because my DH spends a lot of his spare time (well, it's all spare time since we're both retired ) searching for his relatives. But on the other hand, wish I had more information from my father's side but he ditched us early on so we never got much information on them

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

chrystaltree — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 23:40:47 GMT

And those constant changes are why I haven't done it and probably never will.

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Burnsite — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 00:08:38 GMT

I did Ancestry to help my sister, who was working on family geneology. Besides, they were having a sale--I can't resist a bargain.

So, I'll get to my results. . .but this year (there was another sale) I sent my sister a kit, too.

Here's the thing: they now say how much of your dad's DNA you have, and how much from your mother. My sister looks so much like me that we were once stopped by a policeman in Philly and asked (in a jocular way): "OK, ladies. . . sisters or cousins?"

Well, I am now listed as 88% Irish (3 of 4 grandparents came from there in the early 20th c) and my sister as 50% Irish. I got more of my mother's genes and my sister got more of my dad's. So every sibling will test a little differently.

What made us both happy. . .our dad's father always told us there was a native ancestor from a coastal tribe in Nova Scotia. Ancestry says we are a small percentage of "Northeastern Indigenous" ancestry.

I just did this as a lark originally, but who knew that every child gets a different percentage of each parent's genes?

Re: Question for Those Who Have Had Their DNA Analyzed by Ancestry.com

Mindy D — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 05:25:23 GMT

@Kachina624 @The larger the pool of DNA present the more the companies can make comparisons and assign ancestry to particular genes stemming from particular regions. The person submitting their DNA does not change but the data used to make the determination changes as more data becomes available.