Our Ethnicity Estimates Compared

What are our compared Ethnicity estimates?

Despite a deal of controversy, ethnicity estimates are great fun. Commentators suggest almost 40% of people who have taken a test have done so SOLELY to see their ethnicities. The reference populations that different DNA companies use continue to evolve over time. We have also noted differences in our ethnicity estimates if we tested with multiple companies. 

If you haven't already checked out the first panel on Ancestry's DNA Home page, it is definitely worth looking at. Initially we received a 'global' estimate that included all our DNA from both parents. This year Ancestry released a clever analysis that split the chromosomes along parental and maternal lines. Now we can see what ethnicities our individual parents gave us. 

This can be very interesting if you can clearly differentiate the ethnic backgrounds of your parents. This was easiest for me (and my siblings) as our father had most of the Scottish as we understood our pedigree - and we thought our mother had none, although we were wrong and it is probably her Cumbrian ancestors! Also only our father had Welsh ancestry. If you can do this you can label each of the two 'sides' of our DNA ancestry. My mother has oodles of English ancestors, while my father has none! He would be very pleased to know that as he waves his Irish Independence flag from his grave. Norway? Vikings?


My parental DNA breakdowns.

It can most useful when a completely unexpected result emerges, which might lead you to review a large part of your pedigree!  

Because this is new, and fun, I thought you'd enjoy seeing the variation of Ancestry estimated ethnicities among the people who have shared DNA match lists with me. Because I don't know the respective ethnicities of your ancestors (without looking really carefully, and I have no reason to do so), I have compared only our total ethnicity estimates. 

I was interested to see how much would be Scottish. And the winner of the 'most Scottish DNA ' is Helen B with an 84% Scottish estimate. 



Note the huge difference between my brother and I with my sister Julie, with her whopping 60% Ireland [now 50% in August 2022, and Pedro has dropped to 24%]. Does Marnie know where her 1% Bengal ethnicity came from?

Eng&NEW is England and North Western Europe

SwedDen is Sweden and Denmark

GermEuro is Germanic Europe

EastEuro is Eastern Europe and Russia


Have a look at your own estimates on your Home DNA Page, and you'll see the actual percentage amounts. Do you need some help to interpret your ethnicity estimates, or would like to share your responses to what you found? Comment on this post, letting me know if you would like your comments shared.

August 2022 Ethnicity Update

We have all changed a little bit, in Ancestry's latest ethnicity update. In general Scottish ethnicity fell for almost everyone.


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