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.