Ancestry DNA Results

• Great Britain - 60%
• Iberian Peninsula - 12%
• Scandinavia - 8%
• Ireland - 6%
• Europe East - 5%
• European Jewish - 4%
• Europe West - 3%
• Italy/Greece - <1%
• Asia South (India) - <1%

You may remember from a former post that I expected my results to be mostly central and western European, and clearly this is not what I got. Best I can tell, this is because of migration patterns and the way Ancestry groups the results. An aunt on my mom's side also took the test but with another company - 23 And Me. Here are her results. Note that they are reported in a different way and using different regions:

54% British/Irish (They do not specify how much of each as over time the country-level populations overlapped; so many people moved back and forth between the two)

15% French & German (Again, the overlapping)

24.8% Broadly Northwestern European (Likely more % of German but it's complicated how they break it down)

2.2% Broadly European

1.3% Eastern European

1.2% Scandinavian

1.2% Southern European

0.9% Iberian

0.3% Ashkenazi Jewish

0.2% Sub-Saharan African

Because she is one generation closer to our supposed native American ancestor I was disappointed that nothing showed up in that area. We are working to get my grandmother's results too. If no native shows up there it will almost surely mean that the story that Grandma Wilson (Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson) was 1/4 native was incorrect. I know this is a common error in oral family histories but I gave it more credence since one of her given names was 'Arkansas.' I can't imagine where that would have come from in 1870 if not as a nod to a native ancestor or the place that the ancestor's people had been removed to.

But getting back to my own results, I'm not sure I fully understand why I didn't see more western European. I got hundreds of cousin matches on my dad's side, so the genealogy that we have there must be solid. And I can trace most of his lines back to what is now Germany, eastern France, and Switzerland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Maybe the question can be answered by studying where those people migrated from.

The Iberian peninsula is also kind of a mystery. I haven't uncovered any Spanish or Portuguese ancestors. Again, it must be migration that occurred before the records I have.

The Osterwise line explains the 4% European Jewish. There may have been other lines as well.

The only "genetic communities" they have me in so far involve southwestern Pennsylvania, from my dad's side. No new information there. This is a new feature for Ancestry so hopefully they'll add groups as they compile results.

My cousin matches showed a common ancestor with a Jonathan J Jowers, 1783-1854. He would be my 4th great grandfather. I haven't done a lot of work on the Jowers line yet but that is an important connection which gave us several more generations. The Jowerses appear to have come from England. 

There are also "DNA Circles," which show groups of descendants who share portions of DNA which can be traced back to a common ancestor. I am in circles for Jonathan Jowers, Duncan Henderson, Belinda Stafford, and John Tyler Henderson, all on my mom's side. I have fifteen circles on my dad's side that I haven't really even explored.

I'm not sure if all of the DNA and matching features are available to non Ancestry members. No matter what service you use I would encourage you to load your info and make your tree public so that we can find more common ancestors. 

Updated Info on James Madison Brown

See here for the previous blog on James Madison Brown. He was my great, great grandfather, first husband to Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson (Grandma Wilson) and father to Rena Mae Brown Jowers.

Thanks to my Ancestry membership, I've finally broken this brick wall. The clues lie in two places - the 1870 census for Pulaski county, Georgia, and the cemetery at Antioch Baptist Church in Atkinson county, Georgia.

I have studied the Antioch cemetery because Mae Jowers's brother Harry James Brown (b. Jul. 9, 1898 d. Aug. 31, 1922) is buried there. We also find James Madison Brown (b. Mar. 2, 1865 d. May 2, 1902). Near James Madison's grave is a Martha Ann Brown (b. Nov. 28, 1838 d. Sep. 26, 1904), as well as a John T. Brown (b. Aug. 25, 1862 d. Mar. 8, 1908) and his wife, Belinda Brown (b. Aug. 1, 1866 d. 1955). There is also a William A. Brown (b. 1867 d. 1923) buried in this grouping.

Harry James Brown

James M Brown

Pictures of the additional headstones can be found here. Note that the info listed at find a grave for Martha Ann Brown is (I believe) incorrectly attributed to a Martha Anderson Brown who married a McKinnon. The stone only reads Martha Ann Brown with the dates of birth and death stated above.

Martha Ann Brown

Antioch Baptist Church is located on Highway 82 between Kirkland and Willachoochee, Georgia, between mile marker 9 and 10. Turn north on County Rd 42 (Antioch Church Rd). Cemetery is located at corner of County Rd 42 and County Rd 35 (Sutton Rd). (appro 1 1/2 miles).

The physical proximity of these graves made me suspect a relation, and there was one other family tree at Ancestry that showed our James Madison and John Tyler "Jack" as brothers, with a mother named Martha A Crawford and a father named James M Brown, but I couldn't prove anything until I lined this family up with the 1870 census records.

James M Brown, age 48, planter
Martha A Brown, age 31
Sallie J Brown, age 9
Jonathan, age 7
James M, age 5
William R, age 2

1870 census, Pulaski county, Georgia

The ages of Martha and the boys line up perfectly with the birth years of Martha A., John T. (assuming he was listed as Jonathan on the census), James Madison, and William A. as listed on the grave stones. This is conclusive enough for me to state with reasonable certainty that the family on the census are our ancestors.

One other item of interest is that the Martha A Brown of the 1870 census is listed as a "lunatic." Don't be put off by that word, as back at that time it may have covered a wide variety of conditions, from schizophrenia to post partum depression (she had four children under the age of 9 at this time) to epilepsy and more. The term was not necessarily intended to be pejorative.