Ethnicity

The original ethnicity estimates were a guess based on the surnames and nationalities of the tested of your DNA matches. The original ethnicity estimates sparked huge public curiosity, headline news and huge profits for testing companies

The obvious flaw in this is - it depended on what ethnicities people identified themselves? This was refined but you found a difference between companies and websites due to the differences in populations using those sites. So, it was originally a guess and later an 'educated guess' (what we call a "guestimate") - some truth but not to be completely trusted.

In 2024 the game has moved forward and your old evaluation has been re-assessed using DNA, against known 'native populations' - they have to have 8 great-grandparents from the same locality to provide any proof of ethnicity to a testing company. These families are then used in comparing your ethnicity with known natives. However, the system is still flawed - they are not necessarily pure bred groups - just more typical of the area or region than others?

You should treat your percentage ethnicity with caution? If you know something about your background it can help. In my personal case the ethnicity of MyHeritage matches the flags of people who's ethnicity is 99.9% identifiable. If it comes from one side of your parentage then it is easier? The more ethnicity, the closer the source. Ethnicities of 1 or 2% are way back in your tree? People in America will have more problem with this due to the massive ethnic mixing over 300 years of immigration and the mobility of internal migration too.

It is impossible genetically to separate a German's DNA from a French DNA sample!

If you look at ethnicity groups as given in charts that plot the variations we can see that there are spreads of ethnicity within a population and overlap with geographic neighbouring groups

Prehistory and Historical Ethnicity

Your haplogroups are parts of DNA that change little over the centuries and thus provide the clues about human migration from Africa across the globe. Haplogroups can also determine geographic origins in more recent times, up to and including the time of recorded history.

Some websites will give an idea of how far back it was that say your French, Swedish or Jewish ancestry was introduced in the last couple of hundred years which might help direct your research.

Please note there is a difference between Haplo-groups and Haplo-types. The latter is more specific and is used in maternity and paternity testing. It is used to identify subgroups in genealogy for a given surname.

This site aims to be complimentary to other sites with similar aims.

Copyright © 2021- Seamus Crowe All Rights Reserved