The DNA Results are In!

That was quick. Quicker than I expected. Quicker than Ancestry said. It's always good to under-promise and over-deliver.

My head is still spinning. There is a lot to take in, but ultimately, it isn't a huge surprise. Well, still a bit of a surprise.

I expected 40% Europe West and result was 46%. About right. A lot of German background.

I guessed 30% Great Britain and result was actually a lot lower at 11%. It seems like I've read some discussion about the Great Britain percentage, and I suspect this is because of the numerous outside influences to the island. in particular, Vikings. In fact, while I predicted a small amount of Scandinavian ancestry with 5%, the results show 17%. A lot more than I thought.

Irish ancestry has always been a suspicion of mine, although I can't trace back to Ireland. With ancestral names like Brady, Brennan, McInytre, it seemed likely. I guessed 5% given what little I could prove. Irish is actually my second highest ethnicity at 20%.

It seems odd to me that having two great grandparents from Great Britain, and numerous old American lines going back to colonial times, that Great Britain would have such a small influence on my DNA makeup.

Those four, Europe West, Irish, Scandinavian, and great Britain make up 94% of my ethnicity. As I suspected, there are small amounts of Europe East and Iberian Peninsula, but even smaller than I thought. But 3% Italian/Greek is pretty interesting to me.

What does not show up is interesting as well. No African, no Asian, no Jewish, no native American - 100% European.

The folks at Ancestry DNA explain that this is all just an estimate. Our DNA varies, even between siblings, And our family trees cannot possibly be traced as deep as what our DNA shows.

The other advantage that DNA matching brings is matching other people who have DNA test results posted and many who have actually posted their trees. One of my matches is a first or second cousin in Georgia. I don't know who that is, so I am anxious to find out. And then there are dozens of other matches, more distant, a few of whom I have corresponded with in the past regarding genealogy. Sometimes the match shows the common ancestor on our trees. More often there is just a list of common surnames. But it depends on how complete our family trees are on ancestry. Sometimes, the connection isn't known at all. Ancestry allows you to display maps of birthplaces in both trees. In my short time, I haven't found that to be helpful, but I really like the idea.

You can also look at the ethnicity mix of others. Another Stephenson family related to me also shares more ethnicity from Scandinavian than Great Britain.

I'm sure a lot more will come up.