What do members think of their latest ethnicity update from Ancestry? I have been researching since 1986 and all of my known ancestry is in the English midlands. I have no doubt that I have some untraced Welsh ancestry. Last year Ancestry gave me a substantial percentage of Scottish ethnicity on my mother's side, and now they have reduced my English ethnicity to less than 50% and are giving me Scottish on both sides, plush Irish and Swedish/Danish. Are their estimates actually getting worse for British people?
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August 2022 Ancestry Ethnicity Update
- Thread starter MazH
- Start date
Mine is significantly more accurate than the previous version (though not as accurate as it was a few years ago). My Irish component has doubled from 2% to 4%, which is much more realistic, and my Scottish component has gone from 14% to 9% - though I have no known ancestors from the north of England, let alone Scotland.
The estimates for my wife and mother-in-law have also improved.
Because of the way that DNA is inherited, we shouldn't expect the ethnicity estimates to match what we know - there are bound to be differences.
Thank you, Peter. I agree with you, but I am surprised by the significant drop in my English ethnicity and the appearance of, or increase in, ones for which I have no evidence from over 30 years of research. I too, think that my last but one report was my most realistic one. As no-one alse has replied, I guess most people have had updates which match their expectations.
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
Since I last looked, in September 2021, my England and Northwestern Europe has gone up to 71% from 61%. That is not unexpected since all my information has everyone in my three branches is in England. Scotland went down from 25 to 21, Sweden and Denmark were at 6% and are now at 4% each. Norway is now from 6 to 4% and Ireland is gone altogether.
Ethnicity estimates can never be totally accurate because of the randomness in the way that DNA is inherited, but even if they were there's also the question of timescale - not only was England invaded many times, people moved around within Britain.
Mitch_in_Notts
LostCousins Member
Mine seems to be all over the place - 2021, 33% Scotland, 32% England & NW Europe, 16% Sweden/Denmark, 13% Ireland, 6 % Wales. In January my England jumped to 46% and is now 43%, my Irish dropped to 11% and is now just 4%. My Welsh disappeared in January but I added 4% Norwegian which is now up to 7%. Interestingly I was 84% British Isles in 2021, 84% in Jan 2022 and am now at 79%!
My Adoptive Parents - Dad 96% British Isles in both 2021 and Jan 2022 has now dropped to 91%. Mum 97% British Isles in 2021, 86% in Jan 2022 now down to 80%!
Downward trend in British Isles as Scandinavian elements grow.
My Adoptive Parents - Dad 96% British Isles in both 2021 and Jan 2022 has now dropped to 91%. Mum 97% British Isles in 2021, 86% in Jan 2022 now down to 80%!
Downward trend in British Isles as Scandinavian elements grow.
Thank you all for your comments. I came to the conclusion some time ago that small percentages can be ignored because of the way they come and go, and larger percentages can vary a lot between undates. It is also a fact that siblings can get very different ethnicity estimates. When uploading to, or testing with, several sites, every one of them, and every update they give, provide different results.
Britjan
LostCousins Star
I'm intrigued by the 5- 7% "Scandinavian" percentages in many of the verified family trees that I follow. Several trees have common roots in East Anglia and the West country , and where appropriate agree on the approximate timeline for migration to Canada and varying Irish and Welsh connections that account for the individual variations. Since the men on my West country and East Anglia trees were mainly mariners I wonder if there really are some distant cousins in Scandinavia!