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DNA test with Ancestry...a puzzle

(44 Posts)
Yammy Fri 08-Jul-22 15:24:52

I had my DNA tested with Ancestry a number of years ago and it seemed to match what I have found.
They have recently changed the format and give you your two parents with the percentage of DNA and show it as countries. They do not say which half is paternal or maternal.
Has anyone managed to find which half belongs to which parent? I have English, Irish, Scots and Scandanavian on both sides. When one country matches up and I think yes dad the other doesn't. Has anyone manage to solve theirs?

StarDreamer Fri 08-Jul-22 15:31:28

Is it actually medically possible to know unless perhaps if DNA samples for the two parents have been tested as well?

I don't know one way or the other, just wondering.

Yammy Fri 08-Jul-22 15:49:35

My parents are unfortunately dead though I am sure my mum would have had hers tested. She got me started with all this when it came online, she had done it the old way with microfiche at the records office.

Grannyben Fri 08-Jul-22 19:14:42

I thought the same thing when I saw my results. Thankfully my mum is still with us so I've just sent her sample of. Getting her to put saliva into the tube could start a post on its own ?

Blossoming Fri 08-Jul-22 19:49:15

My Ancestry account shows which parent the DNA comes from, maybe it depends on how many matches you have that share common ancestors.

lemsip Fri 08-Jul-22 20:28:17

on ancestry you have a long list of dna matches, by searching through these you find out which side of your family they come from! you must of course have a tree on the site

Yammy Fri 08-Jul-22 20:55:44

Grannyben

I thought the same thing when I saw my results. Thankfully my mum is still with us so I've just sent her sample of. Getting her to put saliva into the tube could start a post on its own ?

I do have my tree on site and know who my close matches are either personally or them contacting me.
It's the Circle they give you each half representing a parent ,I just can't seem to work it out. I know my great-grandparents back to the 8th generation. One side does have a lot of illegitimacy and I am wondering if that is making it difficult. I found my grandfathers great grandfather through DNA.
matches.
I can imagine the fun you would have getting your mum to spit into a tube mine would have been exactly the same. You are very Lucky to have her test to compare.
Thanks everyone for all your help.

BlueBelle Fri 08-Jul-22 21:28:08

I agree Yammy I couldn’t work it out either I think I might know but not for sure they were similar …Icelandic Swedish danish French English a tiny bit of Irish which I ve no idea where or who that could come from ??!

Chestnut Fri 08-Jul-22 21:43:07

I am lucky because my mother is 100% Welsh so that shows up as 50% of my DNA and the rest from my dad. So it's easy to tell which is Parent A and which is Parent B. I'm not sure you can know otherwise.

How fabulous to get your mother's DNA! Although it may not help to identify Parent A and Parent B if you have the same ethnicities from both parents (if both had a lot of English for instance). It might help if for instance your mother had no Scottish but you did, then you would know the Scottish came from your father.

pixietrix Mon 08-Aug-22 10:42:34

I was able to work mine out because I was adopted and knew that my biological mother was Irish/Scottish and my biological father was from the south of England. The results showed a clear divide between the two. So facing the screen, my maternal side was on the left, the paternal side on the right. I tested this on the results of two of my children who had also had their DNA done and it was accurate for them as well. I don't know whether this is the same for everyone.

nanna8 Mon 08-Aug-22 11:39:40

It is fascinating and I always watch for the slight changes which occur from time to time. One of my grandchildren has inherited all our Scottish genes and comes out as 40 % Scottish heritage which is more than anyone else in the family on all sides. She is very tall and very blonde. The rest of us have, on average, 20 % Scottish. Lots of Scandinavian everywhere . They were a busy lot those Vikings! I got 10 % Welsh off my gt.grandma I am proud to say.

Chestnut Mon 08-Aug-22 11:56:35

I would love to get the whole family tested including children, their spouses and my grandchildren, and my parents (but they are deceased). I love the idea of making a DNA family tree!

I also want to make a blood group family tree, but only have some of the family blood groups. So annoying!

nanna8 Fri 02-Sep-22 10:48:49

With the new dna results my Welsh ancestry has gone up to 20%. Fair enough,as I know my gt gt grandparents were both Welsh but it was intriguing to see some of it came from my Dad’s side. The nearest I can get from those ancestors was Oswestry but I believe that was once part of Wales way back when. It is certainly fascinating.

Nandalot Fri 02-Sep-22 11:58:39

In my ancestry DNA results my father’s results appear on the left, my mother’s on the right.
This latest update has been a surprise for me, my mother has Anglo Indian roots, but my DNA shows only14% which I expected. The surprise is that coming from her side I have 27% Scandinavian roots. Before they showed each parents results separately, I always thought this would be from my Dad’s Yorkshire roots from historical Viking invasions. My mother’s British side of the family came from the West Midlands. A bit far for the Vikings to have gone.

Germanshepherdsmum Fri 02-Sep-22 12:01:47

The Vikings and their descendants had a good few centuries to travel to the West Midlands before your mother’s family became traceable!

Chestnut Sun 04-Sep-22 00:20:57

nanna8

With the new dna results my Welsh ancestry has gone up to 20%. Fair enough,as I know my gt gt grandparents were both Welsh but it was intriguing to see some of it came from my Dad’s side. The nearest I can get from those ancestors was Oswestry but I believe that was once part of Wales way back when. It is certainly fascinating.

I have lots of Welsh ancestors and the counties can be a real challenge because they changed. This website is absolutely brilliant. It's on Denbighshire, but if you change the county in the search box, and then go to 'county map' you can zoom into your chosen county very close and see the exact county boundaries. The Welsh maps even show the parishes. I have found this so helpful:
www.genuki.org.uk/node/26718/countymap

nanna8 Sun 04-Sep-22 05:03:19

Thanks for that, Chestnut. Will certainly check it out.

Oopsadaisy1 Sun 04-Sep-22 07:13:44

I’m stumped as well, after they updated the DNA, I lost all of my ‘Welshness’ despite having Welsh ancestors on my tree and it was replaced with ‘Scottish’ even though I don’t have any Scottish ancestors ( even though I’ve gone back a long long way) I now find that I have Scottish Ancestry on both Parents sides. On my Fathers side I can’t go back any further than Grt Grandfather on one side, so it’s plausible that his father was a Scotsman, but his is the tree with my Welsh Ancestors, but my Mums tree goes back to the 1700s so I’m surprised to say the least. My Scots DNA on both parents is around 24%.
Sadly my parents and my brother are no longer with us. So I don’t have anyone to compare it with.

lemsip Sun 04-Sep-22 09:04:42

after telling family I was 43% scotland I am now only 21% after they updated on ancestry.

Anniebach Sun 04-Sep-22 09:32:59

I was 98%Welsh 2% Irish, update not Irish but 2% Scottish

Germanshepherdsmum Sun 04-Sep-22 09:39:01

Where did the other 22% go, lemsip? That’s a big change.

lemsip Sun 04-Sep-22 09:59:43

well that was various of course! just pointing out I wasn't much of a scot any more. lol.
includes

17% Ireland and 7% norway 1% basque

Yammy Sun 04-Sep-22 10:13:46

The Irish and Norwegian might have a link Lemsip. Norwegian Vikings sailed to Ireland for slaves around the North of Scotland, they also took Irish slaves to Iceland as well. I have the same trade roots and lost my Danish and Swedish Vikings. Icelandic friends tell me that a common slur in Iceland is to call people Irish slaves if they have auburn hair.
I have lost a lot of Scots and gained Western European. I do have one family that might have come across with the Normans.

Lexisgranny Sun 04-Sep-22 10:24:48

Nana 8 I realise that you are primarily talking about DNA, but it sounds as if you have been doing some family history and I thought this might help.

North Wales/Shropshire is quite a challenge for the researcher. For example the area around Oswestry of which you speak has many small villages with Welsh names even though they are in Shropshire eg Trefonen, Treflach, Nantmawr, and Rhydycroesau! In the days when electoral rolls were taken house to house manually, places of birth that were given were often,to say the least, flexible, as a result of small villages and hamlets that were on boundaries that the average person would not know about.

Oswestry did indeed change its allegiance between Wales and England several times in the Middle Ages (its Welsh name is Croesoswallt). There is a Facebook Group called Oswestry memories which gives you a lot of historical detail.

(About 25 miles from Oswestry is an area which has always been in Wales but the county has been in Flintshire,Denbighshire, Clwyd,and Wrexham County Borough!)

Witzend Sun 04-Sep-22 10:34:23

I have yet to do this type of DNA test - it’s on the list - you’ve all urged me on! - but I don’t suppose it’d tell me where dd2 got her colouring - that creamy-olive skin which to me is Mediterranean, or at least Southern European. It’s quite unlike anyone else on either my or dh’s side.

My pet theory is washed-up Armada sailor, since a set of GGPs on both my sides came from separate areas where such a thing would have been possible.

Years ago now dh and I did an ancestral DNA test via Oxford ancestors, which was very interesting, but I’m sure the science must have moved on so much by now. We both had the same male paternal ancestor - shared with around 45% of native Europeans (so he was evidently a busy chap) but different maternal ones. His went back a mere 20,000 years or so, to SW France, and was relatively common.

Mine went back 45,000 years to NW Greece, shared with 11% of native Europeans, including Cheddar Gorge Man.