A Side by Side View of my DNA

As an only child I don't have any sibling with whom I can compare my DNA....but I am fortunate in having a double first cousin who shares my four grandparents. Our fathers are brothers and our mothers are sisters.

Currently lots of genies are sharing their results from Ancestry's new SideView tool that shows which ethnicities we inherited from which parent. Of course I am joining the party. Below on the left are Jane's results and on the right are mine. Our fathers' ethnicity is on the left of the diagrams and our mothers' on the right.

Jane

Jill

It appears that I have more of our Duncan grandfather's Scottish genes and Jane has more of his aboriginal genes. Jane is more Irish  and English than me and I have missed out on the Basque gene.

No wonder we have so many unique matches in the Ancestry database. 

Science Mirroring the Traditional

It took me half a dozen attempts this morning to find my new DNA ethnicity estimates on the Ancestry app. I presume many other genies around the world were trying to access their results at the same time.

When I finally got the results I was rather pleased as they appear to reflect what I have found through traditional research. I have always thought that I am about 67% Irish so I'll take 65% - thanks @AncestryDNA.

As I am an only child I have no siblings with whom I can compare research but I'm lucky enough to have a double first cousin who shares my two sets of grandparents and all my ancestors going back in time. 

While the results from my cousin's test and mine are basically the same there are a few minor differences in the amount of Scottish and English estimates but the total of these is very close. My cousin additionally has a 1% Basque estimate, I feel that may be a furphy.

My Results

Cousin's Results

I've posted our results here so that, next year, when Ancestry issue their next round of ethnicity estimates I can easily retrieve what they offered 2021.

What did you discover?

What a Difference!

Last night I was playing around with the Ancestry DNA that kits I manage.

I looked at my Double First Cousin's DNA ethnicity report from Ancestry.com  and thought it looked different from mine. I had expected that, as we share grandparents and direct ancestors on earlier generations, our reports would be similar. I got a surprise after I checked my report and compared the results side by side. (Sorry about the blurry images but I wanted to have them beside each other on the post so had to limit their size.). 

My ethnicity breakdown is a pretty good match with what I have discovered through traditional research but my cousin's doesn't ring true. 

 

Biddy

Ancestry.com's new ethnicity results are in. My social media streams this morning are full of people sharing their new ethnicity results. Many users report that the results more accurately match their research and family lore.

My results more accurately reflect my traditional research. There is a marked increase in Irish/Scottish which is more in sync with my research. I am most excited about the 2% Melanesian which recognises my aboriginal ancestor, Biddy Sergeant. 

For 30 years distant cousins and I have tried to find some hard evidence to confirm family stories that the mother of my 2 x Great-Grandmother, Bridget Ann Hayward, was Biddy. This latest piece of scientific evidence convinces me that our family stories and circumstantial evidence are correct and that  Biddy is my 3 x Great Grandmother.

My latest ethnicity results from Ancestry DNA

Did you find any surprises in your results?

Blog in Malay - On St Patrick's Day!

Blogger made an inappropriate suggestion to me..

I have seen no evidence of St Patrick's Day while out and about in Singapore today but thought I should not let the day pass without blogging as the ethnicity suggestions from my DNA tests suggest that I have a good bit of Irish DNA.

Ancestry DNA suggests that I have 51% Irish ancestry while FTDNA suggests my DNA is 86% from The British Isles (which includes Ireland). My traditional research suggests that I am more than 60% Irish so I do have cause to celebrate. In fact I can claim to have a Green Tree.

But let's get back to Blogger and that inappropriate suggestion. The people at Blogger think they know me well but today they suggested that I should blog in Malay. Here is the message I received when I logged in to write this post today.

Thanks for your interest, Blogger. As the only phrase I know in Malay is Selamat Datang, I think I'll pass on your suggestion and concentrate on tracking down my ancestors from Ireland.

St Patrick's Day Image from https://clipartfest.com/">clipartfest.com

Spit Hit - Now I'm a Believer

One of the last geneatasks I carried out before my holiday was The Big Spit in which I provided a sample of saliva for DNA analysis by AncestryDNA.

As I was having so much fun on my travels I didn't think much about this until I was heading home. Conveniently two months later while waiting in the airport lounge in Bangkok I received notification that my results were in. I didn't look straight away but sat on the results until I got home.  So what did I find?

On my DNA page that was clearly set out I found a summary of my ethnicity estimate and links to my DNA matches. I was pleased to find that there were some matches. With the AncestryDNA  service being very new in Australia I thought that I might not find anyone close to me.

My Summary Page

I firstly selected the link to look at my Full Ethnicity Estimate. There were no great surprises there. As all my Dad's side hails from Ireland and Mum has a couple I expected this to be over 50%. The Scandanavian bit was at first a surprise as I have no known ancestry from that region but I guess I can put that down to marauding Vikings who invaded the British Isles (my convict roots?) centuries ago. I have D'arcy in my ancestry so that might account for the Iberian Peninsula percentage.  I was not able to confirm any Australian aboriginal ancestry as I have learnt that Ancestry does not test for this yet.

Full Ethnicity Estimate

It was then time to search for cousins. The results told me that 10 4th cousins or closer plus some more distant ones had been identified. I have been a bit sceptical about all this DNA stuff - how could a bit of spit contain so much information? I haven't the foggiest idea but the results I received confirmed some of the research I have done over the past 25 years.

I am so fortunate that two distant Australian cousins in my tree have undertaken AncestryDNA tests and that their results match mine closely - one as a 3rd cousin and one as a 4th cousin. How's that? Now I'm a believer. That's only two from my list of matches but I now have faith that these others must be related waaaaay back.

My closest match is a 3rd cousin named Michelle with whom I was in contact yonks ago. I had lost her details but have now reestablished communication and she is as excited as me. In a message she said "It is so exciting! I don't know a lot about this line so would love to collaborate with you." We are related through my ancestors James Pusell and Maria Tucker. I have been able to trace the Tucker line back to Datchet, Bucks but in spite of visits to Wigan and their archives and years of searching cannot identify James Pusell with confidence. Hopefully DNA will lead me to an answer.

The image below from AncestryDNA shows how I am related to Michelle. For reasons of privacy I have only shared three generations from the image.

My shared ancestors with Michelle

Although I immediately contacted the other confirmed cousin (with whom I have no previous contact) he has not yet responded. He is a descendant of my ancestor Elizabeth Phipps. Although he does not have Elizabeth Phipps listed in his online tree it was easy for me to work this out from my research and the names he had published.  If one wants to find matches it is vital to link one's DNA results to a tree and to make it public so that others can find you.

I have gone through all of the matches identified by AncestryDNA and cannot work out where we have a connection. Of course some of the matches have not made their info private or shared a tree so I will get round to messaging them individually.

Today AncestryDNA added a new Shared Matches tool that interrogates one's matches trees for shared matches. It showed Michelle as a shared match but not the other cousin (because he doesn't have Elizabeth phipps in his online tree).

As one who has an unscientific brain I find the way the AncestryDNA platform easier to use than the other DNA testing company with which I have tested.

I am trying to decide whom in my family I will get to test next. Perhaps someone on my Dad's side. The two confirmed matches I have so far are from Mum's side so a test from my paternal line will help me organise my matches.

Now I am going to sit back and hope some of my genimates and unknown cousins take a test with AncestryDNA so that their database can grow and provide more surprises.


Disclaimer AncestryDNA provided me with a complimentary DNA testing kit