My DNA Results
 

Well they are in and as I thought nothing unusual insomuch that it is evenly split. Not sure what Northwestern Europe includes.

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe = 50%
Southern England
East Anglia & Essex

Ireland and Scotland = 50%
Scotland
Central Scotland & Ulster, Ireland

I have a lot of matches on Ancestry two very close and I was confused with one but now realise she is a very close relative who has uploaded them in her married name which I didn't know and another is a contact in Australia whose mother was my maternal grandmother's niece.

Lots of 3rd and 4th cousins, a lot from the Scottish side but I haven't had time to look at them all in detail and a lot from the English side a few from the English side that I recognise as contacts I have already.

Two interesting ones is a Jewish connection and a Dutch connection. I can only assume one of my ancestors married one of their ancestors but one doesn't have a tree (Dutch) and the other only has 20 names on it.

Anyway annoyingly I have to go out in hour I have a meeting so I will look at it in more detail later.

So pleased they are in, Maggie.

I'm envious of your 3rd and 4th cousin matches. I have one 2nd cousin match, one 3rd cousin match, and lots of 4th-6th cousin matches. I have emailed quite a few people, but only a couple have replied.

Actually not many 3rd cousins only three. Oh and the 4th cousins could be 4th - 6th cousins have now noticed the breakdown. It is a lot to take in.

I have 231 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousin matches. Although broken down two 2nd cousins (I know both connections) three 3rd cousins (I don't know any of these) the rest are 4th cousin matches and having had a quick look I have had contact with 4 of them.

If you go to the Ethnicity page it should tell you what northwestern europe means, assuming you used ancestry.

Good luck with the matches. I've found some useful information just by looking at online trees and seeing what I can prove from things I didn't know.

What is a bit annoying is some don't have trees on Ancestry but I am looking at the shared matches, which gives me an idea of which bit of the family the link comes from. I have been doing the same with the ones with private trees. Some only have 4 or 5 people on their trees!

There are a few trees on my matches where I cannot see any connection and they go back generations, one of them has a lot of Native American ancestors. I have a suspicion where the link is but I was going around in circles yesterday.

I was being a bit erratic yesterday but I think I shall now make a plan and get organised better because I think a couple could knock down a few brick walls.

I assume that when these people look at their matches and click on new I will appear?

Yes, you should appear as new but I do wonder how often people check. Dad only wanted to know his ethnicity and so I can do what I want with the matches and I think many are like that.

Shared matches only got me so far. I have many without trees or shared matches or are from the US. I can only think someone went to the US and had a dozen children who then all had a dozen and so forth but somehow his name has been forgotten or is untraceable so I can't solve the link. It's frustrating.

I've found that it's paid dividends to search the families of my direct ancestors' siblings forward as far as possible, because the surnames of people they married will often turn up in someone's tree.

Maggie,

I don't know if this relevant to your results but every time I see "native american ancestors" I remember a big discussion about this on another site and when I googled it, it would seem that actually, the american indian tribe had western (british?) dna and it is that which shows up as shared.

As I say, maybe not relevant to your results.

OC

Depends what Maggie meant by "one of them has a lot of Native American ancestors", OC - in their tree or in their ethnicity breakdown?

I came across a public tree recently where the author had annotated some of their ancestors with a symbol that they used to denote Native Americans, and they had recently added a comment saying that they had just realised that "native" on the particular census they were looking at (I think it was a Canadian one) just meant born in the country, not actually Native American at all!

No I meant Native American Indians, there are census returns with Indian on and also their tribe name is noted as Pawnee and they have Native American Indian names. I would say 90% ancestors on this tree are Native American Indian I have spotted no father listed on at least one female ancestor.

The owner of the tree has Shared DNA: 38 cM across 2 segments with me which in the scheme of things is pretty low but I am just curious.

I think I know what happened some of my ancestors siblings went to the USA and then a few went into Kansas and Oklahoma, farming community, I think there must be a descendant in amongst that tree.

As an aside another of my ancestors siblings descendent from another branch did actually go to Indian territory, Outagamie County, Wisconsin home of the Oneida Tribe .