Question of the Week: What are your DNA ethnicity estimates?

Question

If you have taken a DNA test, what does the testing company report for your ethnicity? Is it what you expected?

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Answer 1

I tested at both Ancestry and 23andme.  The results are similar, but different.  From my tree I am mainly English, Scottish and Welsh.  I'm not sure why the differences in the results.  

Ancestry.com results 

over 1,000 matches 4th cousins or closer

• England and Northwest Europe 50%
  • Kent
• Scotland 29%
  • Scottish Highlands & Islands
    • Ross & Cromarty
• Sweden & Denmark 11%
  • Normal for people with deep English roots to have some Sweden, Norway or Denmark roots.
• Wales 10%

23andme Results

1,502 relatives

• Northwest European 100%
  • British & Irish 85.5%
    • Greater London
    • County Dublin
    • 15+ regions
  • French & German 13.9%
    • Germany
  • Broadly Northwestern European 0.6%
    • can be Irish or Scandinavian 

Answer 2

So, My DNA is extraordinary!!  I am comprised of 15 different countries!!!!!!!!!!!! The Quintessential Bi-Racial Female!!!

Eastern Europe & Russia: 26%

Nigeria: 18%

Benin/Togo: 8%

Ireland: 7%

Senegal: 6%

Cameroon,Congo & Western Bantu People: 6%

England & Northwestern Europe: 6%

Wales: 6%

Ivory Coast & Ghana: 5%

Mali: 4%

Norway: 4%

Nigeria-East Central: 1%

Jewish: 1%

Sweden & Denmark: 1%

Scotland: 1%

These are my results from AncestryDNA.com  I alo tested at 23&me, with similar resullts

Answer 3

I used My Heritage DNA test with results being 98.6% Scandinavian and 1.4% Finnish.

Answer 4

Per AncestryDNA.com I am 46% Scotland, 38% England, Northwestern Europe, 2% Germanic, 2% Norway, 2% Ireland, 9% Wales and 3% Sweden & Denmark.

Per FamilytreeDNA - I am 100% Alpine Celt, from the Hallstatt Culture 2000 BC era. DCG.

Answer 5

I tested with My Heritage ( as it was free for adoptees) It came back as 77% Irish 23 % Scandi

I later tested with Ancestry  and now I am 95% Irish 2% English 1 % Welsh and 2% Scandi

So quite a difference .. I wonder which is nearer the truth

Answer 6

It's always changing,... which keeps things interesting.

According to Ancestry.com:

1. - 69% Scottish (Primarily North East + Orkney & Shetlands)
2. - 24% English (Primarily Central Southern England), although I come from a very long line of Cornish Ancestors)
3. - 7% Irish (Ancestors seem to come from Northern Ireland

According to 23andMe.com

1. - 98.3% British and Irish
2. -1.6% Scandinavian (Probably from my Shetland Ancestry)
3. - 0.1% Vietnamese ???? (Can't wait to discover this person). 

According to Genomelink.com

1. - 62% North Western Europe
2. - 11.9% Iberian
3. - 11.5% Balkan
4. - 6.6% Italian
5. - 2.7% Eastern European
6. - 1.1% Scandinavian 
7. - 1.1% Near East
8. - 1.0% Dravidian

Although my Viking Index is 68% and primarily Scandinavian.

When I break down my European Ethnicities on Genomelink:

1. - 20.8% Irish
2. -17.8% Great Britain
3. - 14.3% German
4. - 11.1% South Slavic
5. - 10.3% Iberian
6. - 8.3% Northern Europe
7. - 6.6% Southern Italy
8. - 2.7% Eastern European
9. - 1.5% Basque
10. - 1.3% Roma
11. - 1.1% Scandinavian
12. - 0.9% French
13. - 0.4% South Balkan
14. - 0.3% Hispanic Jewish
15. - 0.3% Central European Jewish
16. - 0.1% Tirolean Alpine

Answer 7

No surprise here. I knew my father's side had primarily German roots. My maternal grandfather emigrated from Wales, and his MIL (my GG) from Sweden.

35% Central & Southwest Germany

34% Wales

15% Sweden and Denmark

9% Eastern Europe & Russia

3% Norway

3% England & Northwestern Europe

1% Baltics

Answer 8

I have tested with Ancestry and transferred the results to My Heritage and Family Tree DNA.

Ancestry Ethnicity estimates are:

England and Northwestern Europe: 46%

Scotland: 19%

Wales: 17%

Sweeden & Denmark: 11%

Germanic Europe: 6%

Ireland: 1%

Much as I expected except Ireland was lower and I was surprised at no Native American.

Heritage results were similar with:

English: 51.7%

Irish, Scottish, & Welsh: 32%

Scandinavian: 8.9%

Balkan: 5.6%

Finish: 1.8%

Still no native American, and the Finnish surprised me.

All these companies have their data bases configured differently so you have to interpolate at times....

My Genomelink estimate is: 

Northwestern Europe

62.9%

Other European

21.0%

East European

11.8%

Asian

0.5%

Native People of Americas

0.0%

Oceanian

0.0%

African

0.1%

Other                                                                                       3.7%

 Although Genomelink has now estimated 1% Native American. 

Very Interesting......

Answer 9

I used Ancestry.ca, and my DNA results were pretty much what I was expecting.

England & Northwestern Europe 52%

Sweden & Denmark 15%

Wales 12%

Ireland 10%

Germanic Europe 7%

Scotland 3%

Eastern Europe & Russia 1%

Answer 10

Ancestry DNA

Results were what I anticipated.

England and Northwestern Europe.        52%

     Central Southern England

     Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Scotland.                                                 17%

Ireland.                                                    17%

Norway.                                                     8%

Germanic Europe.                                    3%

Wales.                                                      2%

Basque.                                                   1%

Answer 11

The only grandfather I knew was not my biological one but he came from Scotland in the 1920's.  I was surprised by the amount of  Scotland I had.  With grandparents named Godwin and Kendall I expected the England.  Though with Snyder and Saurborn expected more Germany.

41% England and Northwestern Europe

39% Scotland

8% Wales

Answer 12

23andMe

• 56.2% Scandinavian (Västra Götaland County)
• 15.1% British & Irish (Greater London, County Kerry)
• 2.1% French & German (Grand Est)
• 7.2% Broadly Northwestern European
• 16.4% Eastern European (Riga, Latvia)
• 1.4% Southern European (Sardinian)
• 0.2% Broadly European
• 0.6% Nigerian
• 0.4% Coptic Egyptian
• 0.2% Siberian
• 0.2% Broadly Arab, Egyptian & Levantine

AncestryDNA

• 47% England & Northwestern Europe
• 23% Norway
• 17% Baltics (Estonia & Latvia)
• 11% Sweden & Denmark (Västra Bohuslän)
• 2% Finland

Both are generally correct as far as known genealogy. My maternal grandmother was from an island on the west coast of Sweden that was historically more connected to Norway than Sweden. I have a small amount of Danish ancestry on my father's side as well. My maternal grandfather was from Latvia. His mother being from Riga, and his father from northern Latvia, very near the border with Estonia. His grandmother however had a surname that seems more Scandinavian than Latvian, so he may not be 100% Latvian. Trace African seems correct, as my aunt's DNA results confirmed it with a stronger percentage, including a very long segment. No known southern European, Arab, Egyptian or Levantine ancestry. I think that is an artifact of there being Northern European with some African segments, and some ends up getting categorized as from midway between the two areas. Siberian could be from the Latvian ancestry, but also could be how my very small and distant Native American ancestry gets picked up. The only quibble is that the 23andMe Scandinavian amount is likely more than I really have.

Answer 13

Tested at 23andMe, results as of Jan 2023:

British & Irish	62.3%
French & German	34.5%
Northwestern European	0.8%
Eastern European	0.9%
Southern European	0.9%
Trace ancestry	0.6%

Which is about what I expected, although the French & German is higher than I'd have thought. I recently uploaded my 23andMe data to MyHeritage, and as folks here have mentioned, I got some very unexpected results:

Scandinavian	41.5%
North and West European	29.6%
Irish, Scottish, & Welsh	20.3%
Iberian	8.6%

Aside from the huge Scandinavian number, there's no mention of English even though my grandmother and many generations of her family lived in the greater London area. And no idea where that Iberian came from.

Answer 14

MyHeritage: 80.1% English, 19.9% Scandinavian

Ancestry: 70% England and NW Europe, 9% Scotland, 4% Other Regions

FTDNA (autosomal): 48% Western Europe, 31% England Wales and Scotland, 21% Ireland

23andMe: 89% British & Irish, 5.1% Scandinavian, 1.5% French & German, 2% Finnish, 3% Broadly NW European, 0.5% Spanish & Portugese

Answer 15

51.2 % British / Irish

38.6 % French / German

2.3 % Sardinian

1% Ashkenazi Jewish

.08% Greek

Answer 16

Family Tree DNA

Ireland 42%

Central Europe             27%

Scandinavia                 21%

Eng. Wales, Scotland    7%

Magyar                           3%

Less than 1% each of Inuit and Middle Eastern Jewish.

The Basic Site for My Heritage gives the following;

English                            49.4%

Irish Scottish, Welsh       30%

Scandinavian                  14.4%

Greek and S. Italian          3.6%

Central Asian                     2.6%

Answer 17

From Family Tree DNA (pretty much what I expected):

Europe100%

Western Europe

England, Wales, and Scotland

68%

Scandinavia

19%

Ireland

13%

Answer 18

From 23 and Me:

1. British & Irish: 68.2%
2. French & German: 8.4%
3. Italian: 9.6%
4. Broadly European: .7%
5. West African: 1.9%
6. Congolese & Southern East African: .3%
7. Cypriot: 1.5%
8. Broadly Northern West Asian: .4%
9. Coptic Egyptian: .2%
10. Indigenous American: .5%
11. Unassigned: .2%

Answer 19

MyHeritage results are as follows:

Irish, Scottish, and Welsh  31.0%

English 25.2%

Scandinavian 21.3%

Ashkenazi Jewish 5.0%

Ilocano 16.0%

Answer 20

My ancestry is almost entirely from the British Isles which conforms to the estimates from the different testing companies; although they vary in the amount that is Scottish vs Irish and the fractions coming from northwestern Europe or Scandinavia.  I have been fortunate to test three generations, and the results emphasize the consequences of not inheriting exactly the theoretical percentage from each grandparent.

One grandchild inherited 32% from his maternal grandfather and only 18% from his maternal grandmother.  The grandfather was half French in comparison to British Isles ancestry for the other three grandparents.  One grandchild was estimated to have less than 20% continental ancestry while his brother was estimated to have over 40%.  It is easy to see how smaller percentages can vary widely as DNA from more distant ancestors can be over-represented or completely lost.