Has DNA helped me in my genealogy research? Yes, it has. I’ve touched upon this on a previous blog entry in January 2024 titled Origins. Interesting how the companies have updated their estimates.
First, let’s look at the ethnicity. Ancestry reflects that I have six regions. These are as follows:
· 48%
England & Northwestern Europe (reflected in the map as green)
· 40%
Germanic Europe (reflected as blue)
· 5% Ireland (Orange)
· 3% Central & Eastern Europe (purple)
· 3 % Scotland (brown)
· 1% Sardinia (teal)
The Central & Eastern Europe as well as Sardinia
are regions I have not traced ancestry to.
Those must be my brick walls.
I have also uploaded my DNA data to other websites
including MyHeritage, myFTDNA, and myLivingDNA.
You have to check all these sites periodically as they keep changing as
more and more people test or upload their information.
MyHeritage has a different breakdown but still in Europe.
· 27.5%
English
· 21.7
% Scottish & Welsh
· 21%
Germanic
· 13.2%
Dutch
· 5%
East European
· 4%
Danish
· 2.6%
French
· 2%
Breton
· 2%
Irish
That really changed from earlier estimates. East European must be the brick wall area as
I haven’t traced families to those regions.
·
71% England, Wales, and Scotland
· 20%
Ireland
· 6%
Greece & Balkans
· <2%
Central Europe
· <1%
Finland
Interesting results there too. What’s real interesting is that Central
Europe, which includes Germany is so low, when I have traced most of my Dad’s
ancestry to Germany.
LivingDNA shows only Great Britain & Ireland – no Germanic or Central European. So, here’s their breakdown:
· 29.3%
East Anglia
· 26.4%
Southeast England
· 9.9%
South Central England
· 5.5%
Northern Ireland & Southwest Scotland
· 5.4%
Northumbria
· 4.6% Aberdeenshire
· 4.6% Northwest England
· 3.7% Cumbria
· 3.3% Ireland
· 3.1% South England
· 2.2% Central England
· 2.1% North Wales
This is great for breaking down the areas of England
but I know I have Germanic ancestry.
Let’s create a chart to see the similarities and
differences:
|
REGION |
Ancestry |
MyHeritage |
FTDNA |
LivingDNA |
|
England &
Northwestern Europe |
48% |
27.5% |
71% |
86.7% |
|
Germanic Europe |
40% |
21% |
Incl in
Central Europe |
Not incl |
|
Ireland |
5% |
2% |
20% |
3.3% |
|
Central &
Eastern Europe |
3% |
27.8% |
<2% |
Not incl |
|
Scotland |
3% |
21.7% |
Incl in
England |
5.5% |
|
Sardinia |
1% |
|
Not incl |
Not incl |
|
Finland |
Not incl |
|
<1% |
Not Incl |
|
Greece &
Balkans |
Not incl |
|
6% |
Not incl |
|
Totals |
100% |
100% |
100% |
95.5% |
I have traced my ancestry to Germany, England,
Scotland, Ireland, and France. So, where
does that leave Central & Eastern Europe?
How is Europe divided up into different regions? Well, that takes us to the World Atlas to get
the definitions.
· Northern Europe consists of Iceland, United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland), Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. This region is also known as Baltic, British Isles, and Scandinavia.
· Eastern Europe includes Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia & Ukraine,
· Western Europe has Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, France, Liechtenstein, and Monaco.
· Southern Europe has Portugal, Spain, Italy, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, and Vatican City. This region is also known as The Mediterranean.
The highlighted are the parts of Europe that I have traced ancestry to.
How has DNA helped besides the ethnicity breakdowns?
It was able to break some of my German brick walls for the Kludt, Ahrendt,
Reisner, and Haueisen surnames.
Actually, I’m still working on the Reisner & Haueisen families. I looked at shared matches and locating the
Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) and narrowing it to my paternal side. However, I need to be careful as the Kludt
& Reisner’s had siblings marrying each other. This information has been covered in the blog
entry entitled “Brick
Walls in Family Research”.
