My DNA Changes Again!! 0_0 ... :P, just another Ancestry Update

Another Ancestry Update = Another Existential Crises. :P

Heh, no, it's all good and funny. I got more Scottish! Up from like 19% or so, can't remember. My English was around 30% last time, and now it's split with Germany. And I've still got 2% Welsh.

 

I'm pretty much dominant Celtic. I really need to watch documentaries on the Celtics. Watched one once, and all I gathered from it was how obsessed Celts were with black magic. Is that the reason I'm so spiritually sensitive and attacked?

 

(Actually, I have a really weird story. In my mid 20's I went to the temple to do baptisms. In my room there was a small table, and when I came home the glass top from this table was on the floor. On top of this table I displayed four fairy figures, but now these figures were spread around my room, one against a wall with another under a bookshelf, the others spread in between.  So many things on these fragile figures could have broke, but the only thing that broke, on all the figures, were the wings. No one in my family did it, and I trust them. My Dad is a miracle worker with super glue and fixed them. This experience always freaked me out, but I put it in the back of my mind... until doing research on Celtic Fairy tales for the podcast last year, and after listening to a book on the subject, and realizing how connected those old Celt beliefs were tied to black magic, I thought of my broken fairies, and how only the wings broke, scattered beyond physics from one end of my room to another. Something out there was mad at me for going to the temple and wanted to scare me. I'm stronger than that. I got rid of that table many years later when, late at night, a crystal was knocked off. I heard shuffling around my room, which stopped when I turned on the light and picked up the crystal. I wasn't paralyzed, so it wasn't sleep paralysis.  Yup... fun stuff. Is it any wonder I sleep with a night light!!?)

Back to DNA! 

This update seems more trustworthy than the last. My Mom got her Scottish back! A whole 9%. She's 7% Welsh, and now has German at 10%, which is completely new. Her English went down.

It seems that some of the previous English percentages contained German, that are now easier to detect.

 

A newer feature is the parental breakdown of inherited DNA. In the pie chart it says Parent 1 and Parent 2, but since my parents DNA has been done I can figure who each parent is, and assigned them as such.

 

My Dad is 56% English, which was a huge surprise.

 

Anywho, I'm still going through all the results.

Fun stuff. :D

 

 

 Sarah

The Latest Ancestry DNA Update is Weird

Ancestry DNA recently updated their results, predictions, etc, which means I'm a new breed of something or other that I wasn't yesterday.

First of all I lost the small bit of German DNA that I have, my last name being of Rhineland Prussia roots, Americanized around the Revolutionary War. I've gone from 1% to 2% Welsh. And I've gone up quite a bit in Scottish DNA, nearly balancing England, Ireland, and Scotland.

But This is what's weird, and why I'm not so trusting of this latest calculation: My Grandparents results vs my Mom and Aunt.

My Grandpa R is 4% Welsh and my Grandma A is 2% Welsh. My Mom's results were 10% Welsh whereas my Aunt is 4% Welsh.

My Grandpa R is 3% Scottish whereas my Grandma A is 8% Scottish. My Mom's results were 0% Scottish (nothing!) whereas my Aunt is 16% Scottish.  

My Mom's not happy that for the first time Scotland isn't showing up at all with her results, and I think there's a mistake there.  My Dad is 38% Scottish.

Further proving what an imperfect science all this DNA region testing is.  The app has taken away the ability to see percentage ranges for each ethnicity.

It's all fun, and there's some truth in the data, but it's not to be taken quite literally.

A map of my heritage and the second is my communities, though I also belong to "Munster Ireland" and "Arkansas, Oklahoma & Texas Settles", which are not pictured.

The New Ancestry DNA Update Gave Me New Numbers and a New Region

From Ancestry:

"Thanks to our growing and increasingly diverse DNA reference panel, we’ve added eight new regions from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Although you may not see these new regions in your personal results, you could see changes in your ethnicity estimate as part of this update."

 "This update adds the following eight regions to AncestryDNA • Indigenous Americas—Panama & Costa Rica • Indigenous Americas—Ecuador • Indigenous Americas—Chile • Aegean Islands • Arabian Peninsula • Egypt • Levant • Bengal

"Your DNA itself doesn’t change, but the technology and methods we use to analyze it are constantly evolving. As we continue to advance the science, you will see even more updates in the future. We’re bringing you our most precise ethnicity estimate to date using a combination of scientific expertise, the world’s largest online consumer DNA database, and millions of family trees linked to DNA results."

My numbers have shifted around a little, and I now have Wales! All of 1%, but I've now got a little of the whole British Isles.

To Give you an idea, here is my previous numbers: England 36%, Ireland 35%, Scotland 19%, Germanic Europe 6%, Norway 4%.

For my updated DNA results I'm going to include my range in parentheses.  "You range comes from making multiple comparisons of your DNA to our reference panel. It includes other possible, but less likely, percentages."

My updated results: Ireland 41% (13-41%), England & North Europe 39% (33-58%), Scotland 13% (0-32%), Norway 4% (0-8%), Germanic Europe 2% (0-12%), Wales 1% (0-12%).

Since I've done my whole family, including grandparents and an aunt, plus I know the results of another grandparent, a cousin, and a great-uncle (my maternal grandmother's brother, which is interesting to compare), it's interesting looking through all the numbers and recognizing patterns. 

It's interesting going through all the information.  My Dad use to have Wales, but no longer does, though I did trace one of his lines on Family Tree (not reliable information) to the Welsh monarchy several centuries back.  My Dad is now 44% English and 43% Scottish, but only 2% German despite our last name being of Americanized German origin.  My maternal grandmother now has Irish, though she wasn't showing it before, and we had a few paper trails back to Ireland on that side, so that's finally showing up.  My Great-Uncle still has 3% French, which my Grandmother didn't inherit, so none of us down this branch of the tree inherited it, but it's nice to see it's still there, though he lost his 1% Spain.

And it's fun comparing myself with my siblings and seeing all our different numbers.  Robbie and my percentages are really close.  Michael is evenly balanced between Ireland, Scotland, and England all within the low 30%.  Steven is 55% English and only 5% Scottish, though he and Robbie are both 4% Wales (my Mom is 6% Wales).  Also, my Mom is 100% British Isles.  She's the only one out of my whole tested family who has nothing in continental Europe.

Fun stuff.  It's all very fascinating.  Sure enough as more data is collected and algorithms improve the numbers will continue to change.

It's cool my Irish numbers have increased to my dominate region, though Scotland went down because of it.  I'm still primarily Celtic!!  :D

 Sarah

 

Ancestry DNA Has A New Update: Separating England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales

Ancestry DNA has a new update which separates the British Isles.  There used to be only two ethnicities: England and Scotland/Ireland.  Now England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales are all separated.   And alas I have all but Wales.

This is what I am now, before it changes again.  In the brackets are my ranges, as Ancestry does this whole "1,000 Estimates" thing using probabilities, a reference panel, and what is known.  The percentages are derived by algorithms based on current knowledge and information.  Essentially this information is subject to change, because DNA research is still imperfect.  This is what the algorithm assigned me: England (30-36%), Ireland 35% (0-43%), Scotland 19% (0-20%), Germanic Europe 6% (0-20%), Norway 4% (0-5%).

Now, this is what the system gave me.  Once upon a time I was able to see the whole list of ethnicities and what they tested, and even if the system didn't assign an ethnicity to me, doesn't mean I don't have it.  I used to be able to click on a random Ethnicity and see if it was all 0%, or if there was a small percentage bracket.  For instance my Mom is Ireland 56% (42-63%) and my Aunt is Ireland 50% (34-55%), yet my Grandma didn't register as having any Irish.  If I was allowed to see the full list of ethnicities and then click on Irish, I could see what the tested bracket percentage said.  My Grandma has Irish in her family tree, though it's possible they emigrated from Scotland (as she registers 37% Scottish), but with my Mom having 56% Irish with the percentage bracket she does, there's no way my Grandma doesn't have a small percentage of Irish.

Also, I was hoping to have some Welsh in my DNA, so that I could be British Isles Divergent (nerd reference).  Apparently I don't have any, though my Dad is 2% Welsh (0-13%), Mom is 1% Welsh (0-7%), my brother Steven 5% Welsh (0-11%), and my Grandma Stuff. is 4%.  I have gone down my Dad's family tree on the Family Tree website, and there is Welsh there, some of which are royalty (which I take with a grain of salt, but it's fun).  I've found Welsh elsewhere.  It's a little, but there's a paper trail.  Proof that our DNA is a hint of linage, but not a true representation of our heritage and family history.  DNA is simply what we inherit. 

The most interesting discovery is between my Grandpa R and Grandma A.  We always assumed my Grandpa had a lot of Scottish.  He was obsessed with Scotland, yet he only has 5% (0-14%).  Ironically my Grandma A has more with 37% (0-37%).   It's just funny.  Though my Grandpa was 91% Irish (71-95%), connecting with 9 regions all through the south of Ireland, from Kerry to East Cork.

It's all fun.  It's interesting comparing the results of my family.  My Grandma's brother, my Great Uncle, had France 3% (0-7%) and Spain 1% (0-1%) show up in his results, so that's interesting.  And even though Steven is the only one of my siblings to have Wales show up in his DNA, he only registered 6% Scottish (0-13%), whereas my brother Michael is 33% Scottish (2-35%).  Steven is 47% Irish (22-54%).  It's just interesting how similar, yet different we all are, even with the same linage.

So I've spent the weekend nerding out over Family History. :0)

PS. I don't care what they say, I'm still British Isles Divergent.

Seeing My Grandpa's Updated AncestryDNA Region Results Has Me Dreaming of Ireland

(Last September in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland)

A few months ago there was an update to AncestryDNA results.  They always send the message that our DNA doesn't change, but their information, samples, algorithms, etc, get better.  My percentages changed: 55% Ireland & Scotland, 37% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, 4% Sweden, 2% Norway, 2% Germanic Europe.  So I think this means I'm 55% Celtic and 37% Anglo Saxon.  Could be wrong.

I was excited to see what my maternal Grandparent results had changed to, did it better match what I know from research?  My Grandma A: 50% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, 31% Germanic Europe, 15% Ireland & Scotland, 4% Norway.  All her Iberian Peninsula, which was about 14%, gone.  My Grandpa R: 90% Ireland & Scotland, 8% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, and 2% Norway.  His 90% Ireland and Scotland are no surprise.

Then yesterday I got an email that said AncestryDNA has 150 new regions, 92 regions in Ireland.

I had to see what Irish regions my family taps into.

 

I personally only tap into one: East Cork & Waterford.  I might have to collect more crystal. :0)

 

My Mom taps into four: South West Munster, East Cork & Waterford, East Cork, and Iveragh Peninsula.  My Aunt Tam taps into those four plus North Munster.

 Then I looked up my Grandpa.  9 whole regions, all in the South of Ireland: South West Munster, Iveragh Peninsula, Beara Peninsula, East Cork & Waterford, North Munster, East Cork, West Cork, Killarney, and East Beara Peninsula.  The Mahoney's, in which I'm connected, originate in the south of Ireland, so these results match that.  My Mahoney line dead ends in Newfoundland, so having this regional confirmation is nice.  My O'Neil line dead ends in Maine, USA, though the clan history is more north Ireland.  The other Irish family names in my line aren't prominent enough to have a coat of arms or clan history.

 This is exciting, because the two times I've visited Ireland it was this region, and it felt like home.  It was wonderful.  Beautiful landscapes and very nice people.  Now I want to return and see so many places, mainly the Ring of Kerry, but traveling up the coast from Cork to Waterford would be fun as well.

Okay, I just want to go back to Ireland.

Going Offline while Visiting England, Scotland, and Ireland: Getting in Touch with my Roots

 I'm back!

While I was taking a break from being online I was with my Mom touring England, Scotland, and Ireland, fulfilling both our dreams in visiting the land of our ancestors.  We went with a tour so everything was mapped out for us, didn't have to worry about driving, and met many new friends.

It was so beautiful!

On September 22 we flew out of Salt Lake and landed in London on the 23rd, spending a couple days there.  Then we inched up to Scotland visiting Oxford, Bampton, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stratford-Upon-Avon for the night, Audlem, Chester, York, Lake District, Edinburgh, Glamis Castle, St. Andrews, then over to Dublin, Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough, Avoca, Rock of Cashel, Blarney and its stone (Yes, I kissed it), Killarney, Inch beach, Wild Atlantic Way, Dingle, Ross Castle, Cliffs of Moher, Medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle, and then finished by staying at Dromoland Castle.

Epic!!

Needless to say I wanted to be completely in the moment.  With the international cell phone plan I was on I was limited to 800 mb in data and wanted to dedicate that to texting, google maps, and the (okay, I'm admitting it) occasional popping onto Pokemon Go to catch international Pokemon.

Got Mr. Mime.

A couple times I hopped onto Facebook out of habit and quickly got off, though one of the times I read something my sister-in-law wrote about one of my nieces, so I don't regret that because it was quite funny.  But beyond that I really avoided Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, and it was a strange, but nice experience.  I also completely disconnected myself from the news.

I was so disconnected that I thought LDS General Conference was a week later then it was, so when I was at Dromoland castle using their really good wifi, I was really confused when I found all the talks already on the gospel library app.  I NEVER forget general conference, so that proved how out of touch I was to not even be aware.

I'm really excited to be blogging about the stuff I learned and all the fun adventures in coming months.  I took 4,215 pictures, and my Mom took just over 8,000 pictures.  A lot to download and go through! 0_0  But I'm already ready to relive it all.

Before going on the trip I wondered what place I would feel "at home" in.  For instance, I loved visiting France last year, but it didn't feel like home, just a fun place I visited and would like to travel to again.  Tokyo, on the other hand, felt like home.  I left a part of my heart there.  Between England, Scotland, and Ireland I found my heart in Ireland.  I loved all three places, would love to spend a week in the Lake District being by the water and explore other places more thoroughly, but Ireland felt like home.  If I was ever able to return, positive thinking, I would like to visit Wales as well, as I have genealogical roots there as well.

Maybe I feel connected to Ireland because I'm studying Gaeilge.

In terms of inherited DNA I'm 23% Ireland and 70% Great Britain, so more G.B.  (Fun fact, I stated inherited because the genes we get vs our ancestral tree is not the same.  My Grandma is 5% Western European, her brother, my great uncle, is 62% Western European.  I'm less than 1%.  My maternal great-grandparents must have had a lot of Western European, and in just 4 generations I won't pass any of that along.  But I've still got my Celtic roots!)

 (Grandma vs Great Uncle Allen DNA results)

(Why it's good for siblings to get tested, because we all inherit different things, and then pass on different things.  Doesn't fully represent our roots, just what's been inherited.

Man, wish I could have seen what my Granny and Gramps results would have been!!)

In terms of feeling a connection to Ireland, maybe a part of that is because our trip up through the U.K. felt more rushed, like a highlight trip, whereas by the time we got to Ireland the jet lag wasn't so bad and we had more time to explore certain places.

But I also feel really connected to my Mahoney line, out of all my lines, though I also feel really connected to my emigrant Robertson ancestor.

James Bell Robertson, who came over just before the Civil War, fought for the Union, and was at Gettysburg.

(In the coat of arms Blue represents loyalty and truth, Red is the "Martyr's color" signifying military fortitude and magnanimity, yellow represents generosity, chevron repents protection, Lion = deathless courage, and snake = wisdom.  From Irish Surnames.)

But the Mahoney (O'Mahony) coat of arms is the best!  Ah man, I love it.  I wish my Mahoney line didn't dead-end in Newfoundland.  A fire destroyed important key documents.  But according to this document the O'Mahony's is apart of a royal Celtic dynasty who built 14 defense castles in the Southern part of Cork next to the sea.  How cool is that!!??  It would be neat to be descended from Celtic royalty.  Maybe that's why I'm feeling drawn to the Irish Gaelic language?  I also have O'Niel (O'Niell), which I guess goes back to the High King of Ireland in the 5th century.  Cool stuff!

So a trip of a lifetime, and I enjoyed every moment.

And the weather was surprisingly amazing!!!

Exploring AncestryDNA Genetic Communities; Comparing Different Family Members

 (All photos are screen shots from the Ancestry.com mobile app)

Last week Ancestry.com gave us a brand new update to AncestryDNA called AncestryDNA Genetic Communities.  I'm still learning about it, so this blog post is about my casual observations comparing myself with my parents, siblings, aunt, and maternal grandparents.

When you take a DNA test through Ancestry there are 26 Ethnicity's that can appear in your results, taking the last 1000 years or so into account.  There are over 300 DNA Communities which shows what is happening in your linage in the last few hundred years, showing migrations.

There's a considerable amount of communities all over the world and in the United States.  There's five Genetic Communities in "Settlers of Colonial New England" alone.

I love this new update because my ethnicity DNA doesn't get into my American Heritage, showing I'm mainly Great Britain (Scots and Welsh included), Irish, and Scandinavia.  And even though this is cool, showing what regional DNA I've inherited, it doesn't get into my deep American roots, which I'm also interested in learning.

When you sign into DNA and get into the communities there's a video you can watch, which is also found on Youtube: Introducing AncestryDNA Genetic Communities.  It's only a couple minutes. There's another helpful video from AncestryUK called Understanding Your Genetic Communities, which is around six minutes.

My Communities:

I'm only in two genetic communities: Settlers of the Missouri Ozarks & East Tennessee; Early Settlers of Eastern Kentucky & Northeast Tennessee.

Am I in total shock?  Nope.  This is all on my Dad's side of the family.

Just look at the Hugh Patrick genetic circle I belong to.  Crazy strong.

 

 He was born in Virginia and migrated to Kentucky with his family.

I am interested in knowing more about my Missouri roots, but there's a major brick wall with my paternal great-great grandfather.  My great grandfather Norman Rhoades was born in Bolivar, Poke, Missouri in 1909, but here's the kicker, Rhoades is his mother's maiden name. She died never telling my great grandfather who his biological father was.  Lula Rhoades married Harvey Kelley, and they later moved to Ventura CA.  My only clue over Norman's father is, according to my Dad, Lula worked as a maid for some major family in Missouri, and something might have happened then.  Who knows?  It just might remain a permanent mystery.  But it appears I do have some deep Missouri roots.

What I like about these communities is that there's historical information by date, events that may have affected ancestors and caused them to move or whatnot.

 

Click on a time period and all this cool information pops up.  The map changes while showing different information as you change from one historical event to another.

Before I get into more detail, it was interesting comparing what communities I was in verses other members of my family.  There were a few different communities.

Steven and Robbie's Community:

Sadly my brothers Steven and Robbie are only in one community, and it's the very same community: Settlers of the Missouri Ozarks & East Tennessee.

Michael's Community:

 My brother Michael got a community no one else in my family got:

Settlers of Western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois & Southern Iowa.

This is the only community he got.

Here's what's funny, Michael was called to serve a mission in the South Chicago mission, which also included parts of Illinois and Indiana.

We have super strong Iowa roots.

And apparently there's a small museum in Toledo Iowa that has a good amount of information about my Emerson ancestors.

Man I would love to visit.

My Dad's Communities:

My Dad belongs to three communities:

 Early Settlers of the Lower Midwest & Virginia; Early Settlers of Eastern Kentucky & Northeast Tennessee; Settlers of Southwest Virginia & Eastern Kentucky.

 My Mom's Communities:

My Mom belongs to three: Irish in Kerry, English Newfoundlanders, and Settlers of Rhode Island & Southeastern Massachusetts.

 It's interesting that on my Mom's map, even though she's only apart of the Irish in Kerry, it also brings up Munster Irish.  The Kerry ancestors, I believe, are from my Grandpa's side, whereas I found an ancestor on my Grandma's side born in Dublin.

We're just very southern Irish.

My Aunt's (Mom's Sister) Communities:

She actually belongs to a total of four communities: Irish in Kerry; English Newfoundlanders; Settlers of New England & the Eastern Great Lakes; Settlers of Colonial New England.

My Maternal Grandpa's Communities:

My maternal Grandfathers communities: English Newfloundlanders and Irish in Kerry.

It's been this huge mystery tracing back my Grandfather's Grandmother's roots, Mary Hallisey.  There's two Mary Hallisey's with parents named John and Ellen born around the same time, one in Kerry and one in Cork.  When I ask my Grandpa where Ma immigrated from he says Kerry, so this gives some validation.

My Maternal Grandma's Community:

And my Grandma's community: Settlers of Rhode Island & Southeastern Massachusetts.

 The "very likely" shows how confident Ancestry is in my Grandmother belonging to this community, whereas my Mom is only Possible, and it doesn't show up in my communities at all.  It's all in the name of inherited DNA.  Amazing how much can disappear in just three generations. 

 As you click through the history in each community it will bring up your ancestors that were in the area during the time mentioned.

 And a lot of cool graphics on the map pops up.

Giant dots represents those in the community.

Little pointers with numbers are ancestors in your tree.

(See how important it is to add a family tree with your DNA?)

 And with David Davis Eby we're also apart of his DNA circle.

Genetic Communities are very interesting, and I like the path of migration and historical information provided.  Of course, the accuracy of this information also depends on the accuracy of family trees along with records and so forth.  There's a lot of inaccurate genealogy research, which is frustrating, and I'm guilty.  Still, this is a cool update in which I still have a lot to explore.

So in total my family belongs to:

Settlers of the Missouri Ozarks & East Tennessee

Early Settlers of Eastern Kentucky & Northeast Tennessee

Settlers of Western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois & Southern Iowa

Early Settlers of the Lower Midwest & Virginia

Settlers of Southwest Virginia & Eastern Kentucky

 Irish in Kerry

English Newfoundlanders

Settlers of Rhode Island & Southeastern Massachusetts

Settlers of New England & the Eastern Great Lakes

Settlers of Colonial New England

So even though I belong to two, there are a total of 10 my family belongs to.