Community Chat

[sunsetbeach]

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.

[golding76]

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

[twinsister]

@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.

[golding76]

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. 

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

@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.

[cindyNC]

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. 

[GoneButNotForgotten]

---

---

@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

[chrystaltree]

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

[Burnsite]

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? 

[Mindy D]

@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.