I have been taking the ethnicity estimates with a large pinch of salt, although I have to say Ancestry estimates have been largely accurate.
Our family here in Australia is a mixed pot of English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish ancestry - anything else is back beyond the advent of parish registers. Which part of Ireland is mainly still under investigation.
I looked at the Ancestry reference panel, which is apparently just over 40,000 individuals. By knowing I can trace most of our family back through the various parish registers, I can work out that only about 25% of the ref. panel would have any common DNA with ours, so the pool of referees is quite small. I think FTDNA works with a much small panel.
So, on Ancestry, we have my Dad at 92% English, Welsh, Nor-West Europe and 8% Swedish. His only sub-group is South East England. If you look at his family tree, his ancestors came to Australia from Somerset, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Norfolk, Surrey and Sussex, so no surprises there.
Mum is 55% E,W and NWE, 41% Scottish and Irish and 4% Swedish - her only sub-group is NW - Lancashire - this is probably because her father was born in Lancashire, so you would expect this to be her largest group of Ancestors. Based on her family tree, this too, is pretty accurate. (Lancashire, Ireland, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries-shire)
My two daughters are 80 and 82% E W and NWE, 15 and 16% Scottish and Irish, but one is 3% Swedish and the other 4% Norwegian. Their fathers ancestors have pretty much the same spread as their mothers - Scotland (Perthshire, Ayrshire), Ireland, Wales, Somerset, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex, Rutland, Yorkshire. Both have the sub-groups SE England, Surrey and Sussex and Central Southern England - one also has this further designated Hampshire and Isle of Wight.
Their father's sisters are 67 and 70% E W and NWE, 31 and 26% Scottish and Irish, one is 2% Norwegian and the other 0% anything else.
I am coming to the conclusion that DNA is totally random and even though siblings share a percentage of DNA, their ethnicity can be very different. I would love to get my other children to test and see how different they really are.
I take little notice of my FTDNA ethnicity which says 57% West and Cent Europe, 29% Scandinavian, 9% British isles and 5% South and Eastern Europe. Compared with the Ancestry results (and paper trail), it makes no sense at all. I think I need to transfer (or do a new test) my DNA to Ancestry, although family tree wise, it will not add much in the way of matches.
Di
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