Mildly surprised by Ancestry DNA results...

I just got my results back from Ancestry.com . I had my first DNA kit about 1.5 years ago, with myheritage.nl, but as I had my doubts about the results, I decided to do some more tests.
I also did a test with 23andme, but after 2 attempts they gave up on extracting my DNA, and I got my refund. Apparently they couldn't do it.
I have a second account with myheritage.nl and am still in the process of getting these results, I want to see if they differ from what they said 1.5 years ago :)

My first results, from myheritage.nl:
64.8% English
22.9% Irish, Scottish, Welsh
11.5% Finnish

Why do I question these results:
I am Dutch, and my family has lived in the Netherlands for at least 2.5 centuries. When looking into my family tree, I can go back to around 1750, and nothing I found indicates that people from the UK are part of my family tree, not in their names or that they registered coming from abroad. Of course with all the travelling back and forth people did around the 1600 - 1750, and especially to the Netherlands as we were in our Golden Age at that time, it is very common to find Western/Northern Europe DNA in Dutch people.

However, my family spend those 2.5 centuries in the North of the Netherlands, and didn't move around till early 1900s. My family never lived in Amsterdam or other big cities where there was work. So people travelling to the Netherlands to find work is possible, but that they ended up in those teeny tiny villages in the North where my ancestors were from... I have a harder time to believe that :)

Time for a new test, from Ancestry.com:
45% Germanic Europe - Germany/Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg -> The Netherlands
39% England, Wales, Northwestern Europe (could be between 0-39%)
11% Norway (could be between 0 - 24%)
5% Sweden (could be between 0 - 7%)

Even though there is a large part Germanic Europe, there is also a substantial amount from England Wales, etc. Northwestern Europe. According to the description this could include Belgium, which would make more sense, I think. And we can safely say, there is some Nordic DNA in me as well. About 10 - 15% but whether it is from Norway, Sweden or Finland is anyone's guess.
 
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I knew I was German and Scandinavian (almost 3/4ths). I didn't know I had some French in there. And found out my father's father was Irish/English. He died when my father was about 18, so we didn't know much about him at all. Most of my relatives were from Schleswig-Holstein.
 
Do many people make contact with relatives and, if so, how far do you look back? Second or third Great Grandparents or is that too far?
 
Do many people make contact with relatives and, if so, how far do you look back? Second or third Great Grandparents or is that too far?
Well, I've only contacted a first cousin on my Dad's side. Other than that there were a lot of people matched on my Mom's side that I already knew. I did have someone contact me that was like a forth or fifth cousin, but we couldn't really figure out exactly how we were related. But, in my generation, I'm one of the younger ones, and most have already passed away.
 


I’m Puerto Rican so I expected a big mix. I’m mostly Portuguese, Spanish, French, indigenous Puerto Rican (Taino Indian) and several African countries. That was expected.

What surprised me was the 162,000 matches. All cousins. From 1st to 8th. I know about 3. Lol. I’ve shown some to my grandmothers and they do recognize some of them as their siblings grandkids. I guess this is what happens when your great and great great grandparents had about ten kids each and those kids had a bunch of kids too.
 
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So, I have to ask, none of you were concerned that submitting your DNA could expose a family member as a criminal? We have several major cases here where police linked DNA information from the testing sites to relatives of those who submitted the DNA who committed crimes and left DNA behind.

honestly if I have someone in my family who murdered people or raped multiple women ala Golden State killer happy to help.

I always was told Irish/German. Nope. Irish yes 78%, no German. Ukrainian & Mongolia.
 


Wow, 162,000! That’s a lot of birthday cards😂. I only have 1500. I used 23&me which I think is more US based than some.

I have matches everywhere. Mostly in USA and PR. But I have plenty all over Europe, Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, India and many more.
 
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So, I have to ask, none of you were concerned that submitting your DNA could expose a family member as a criminal? We have several major cases here where police linked DNA information from the testing sites to relatives of those who submitted the DNA who committed crimes and left DNA behind.
Lol fast forward last month..
B2K caught when family member submitted dna to trace family
 
Were you actively looking for each other? Was it a happy ending?

not really. I had an interest in finding her since both my parents were now passed. It was an interesting conversation I learned the circumstances around my birth I actually felt very bad for her it was a terrible situation for her. She has four children she told to them right away and they contacted me I have a relationship more with them than with her

I didn’t contact her family it was actually her granddaughter who contacted me since we matched so strongly
 
So, I have to ask, none of you were concerned that submitting your DNA could expose a family member as a criminal? We have several major cases here where police linked DNA information from the testing sites to relatives of those who submitted the DNA who committed crimes and left DNA behind.

Nope, not concerned at all - there are a few relatives on my family tree I could do without, and would have no qualms about getting them arrested.
Families in that situation have said it tore their family apart. That is how it would be your problem.

My guess is that those families had some major issues to start with, if having one of them arrested for a crime turned them against each other.

Can someone explain to me how geography affects DNA? I understand how DNA from China, Africa, and Europe would be different, as we're talking about different races. But how in the world does DNA differ between England and France, or Germany and Austria?

Racial differences I obviously understand. But how can DNA be identified by an arbitrary line on a map between neighboring countries? Is American DNA that much different than Canadian DNA? :confused3

While there is some fluidity to borders, especially in central Europe, there are ethnic groups that have stayed close-knit for centuries. If you think about how humans started in one (or maybe two?) areas on Earth, and spread out over time, there's a definite one way flow of movement that also allows for the regional genetic differences.

My DNA tests were not too surprising - most of the family genealogy is accurate, as I was shown to be what I call "white bread with the crust cut off" - all UK/Ireland for the most part, with a smidgen of French/French Canadian. Last revision did have a speck of North Africa though, which was very interesting.

Also found a first cousin who was adopted, but don't have enough cousins' DNA done to figure out which uncle (or aunt) gave up a baby for adoption. The older four uncles are dead, so I can't ask them. Not sure if I want to ask the older cousins to take the test? Should I tell them about the adopted one?
 
I thought we had a real scandal in my family. A lady contacted me saying that we were first cousins. Considering that I knew all of my first cousins, I was a little surprised. Then I remembered that my grandfather was quite the scoundrel and had had affairs. I kept thinking that I was glad my father had passed because he wouldn’t have been happy to know that he had a half sibling that my grandfather hadn’t acknowledged. After talking with this “first cousin” we solved the mystery. Our grandmothers were identical twins, so the DNA was so close that it looked like we were first cousins. Whew! 🤣
 
I did myheritage and my results came out of left field. I'm supposed to be English, Scottish, German, and Hungarian. I grew up with my grandmother, who had grown up with her grandparents, who both were from Scotland. Their birth certificates are from Scotland. My other grandmother was English; census records show that her father claimed to be from England and my DNA has been matched as 3rd-5th cousins with numerous people with the same last name from England. And I have immigration records for my father's grandparents, listed as coming from Hungary.

Well, I came out as:
North and West European (Germany, France, Austria)
46.4%
Scandinavian (!)
35.2%
Finnish (!)
1.9%


East European (Ukraine, Romania)
16.5%

(I do know that the Scandinavian part makes sense if so many people in my family are from the UK. I just wasn't expecting it).

My son and husband were pretty much as expected...DH is 93% Polish and Irish. The part we didn't expect was 5.5% Northern African (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt) and .8% Nigerian. Our son (we had to use an egg donor to have him, so he's 49.3% match with DH and the rest is someone else) is 97.5% Polish, Irish, and English (this is specifically noted) and 2.5% Northern African.
 
Always viewed those DNA tests as more of a novelty then anything else. Some friends used one of those test kits (don't recall which one) and mostly they got back a lot of generalized information relating to the region where their ancestors were from. A small portion of the report related to specifically to them.
 
I did mine with LivingDNA and was surprised by a couple of things:
  • One of the things they show is recent ancestry (for the last 300 years). Mine showed as all European (mostly English, Scottish, Irish but some Scandavian), but we have unbroken lineage going back to the early 1700's in the US. No mention of US. When I questioned that, they said "recent" actually meant 300-500 years.
  • Then they updated their database and I am now 100% English, Scottish, Irish. The databases are constantly being updated by new customer DNA, so there probably will be changes as you go along.
  • My wife had a similar result -- at first kind of all over the place, but then more Italian/Spanish/Portuguese. Her mother's side of the family is 100% Italian.
One of the difficulties for women is that you only get the maternal geneology because you don't have the dreaded Y chromosome.

Surprisingly enough, they may come back pretty similar though in families where both the X and the Y chromosomes are traced. My brother and sister have both had theirs traced, and my brothers was of course through the Y chromosome, and my sisters through the X. However, both had very similar results overall, maybe a small difference on percentages in some areas, but not much different. :)
 

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