Locations of my dna matches on My Heritage

[CarolB08]

I did my dna test using Ancestry.co.uk and I do have a whole lot of matches, although apart from my Brother none closer than 319 cms across 18 segments, I was a little disappointed by this but given my odd family history I expected it.
I then downloaded my results from Ancestry and uploaded them to GEDmatch genisis, Family tree dna and My heritage in the hope that cousins could be hiding there. Still no one as close as my match on Ancestry, but what I did notice was the wide diversity of Countries that I have dna matches with
A little background for you, my Mother is as far as I know English with possibly a touch of Irish in her make up, I do not know for sure as she was adopted as a child and died 38 years ago so not around to ask more, my Father was Polish and came to the UK after WW2.
On my Heritage I have 45 Countries with matches, my highest Country of matches is U.S.A at 1'191 followed by the UK at 504 then Australia, Germany and Canada and so on. Poland which I expected to be really high is just 2 matches
So I really have a cosmopolitan make up, and i still have only identified about 4 people and where we match, enough to start building a tree in the hope of following the trail of bread crumbs back to Mum and Dad eventually.
Am I unique or do others have an equally diverse table of results?

 

[jorghes]

I'm honestly not sure, but I'll give you what MyHeritage gave me, and you can decide for yourself!

My maternal ancestry is English & Welsh (mostly Midlands/Welsh Borders) and my paternal ancestry is English, Scottish, Ulster Irish and Ashkenazi Jewish (mainly from Holland) - all strands emigrated to Australian between 1839 and 1949.

MyHeritage gives me approximately 64 different countries where people have matches - some of them are only a single match (which probably is simply spurious). Over 5000 matches come from the USA, then UK (914), Australia (288), and Canada (248) and then - Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, France, Sweden.

I'm not particularly surprised by some of these answers - I know of large groups of my relatives who have emigrated to the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, my Jewish ancestry is from central Europe, so Germany is not a surprise, and my Jewish relatives lived in the Netherlands for a long time.

At this point, it suggests I have 2 "Extended Family" matches - both of who are from my paternal side, I know exactly where one comes from and have a general idea for the other.
They suggest there are just over 10,000 distant matches (which I found surprising), and I have only located a couple of them on my extended tree, but I haven't expended a lot of energy on that as of yet.

 

[CarolB08]

Goodness Jorghes 64 different Countries, I thought I was high at 45, I wonder if anyone can top you? The four dna matches I have identified and linked by means of a tree all come from one couple in Yorkshire back in the late 1700s, one of their sons went to the USA early in his life and descendent of one of their daughters emigrated to Canada in the 1960s I think off the top of my head. Their daughter is my second highest match after my Brother at 263 cms across 12 segments.

 

[jorghes]

Goodness Jorghes 64 different Countries, I thought I was high at 45, I wonder if anyone can top you? The four dna matches I have identified and linked by means of a tree all come from one couple in Yorkshire back in the late 1700s, one of their sons went to the USA early in his life and descendent of one of their daughters emigrated to Canada in the 1960s I think off the top of my head. Their daughter is my second highest match after my Brother at 263 cms across 12 segments.

It would probably have been more interesting if I'd uploaded my grandmother's results rather than my own, but I thought it was just about reasonable enough to do me! (she has an incredible number of matches on Ancestry, more than I've ever seen).

The two links that are there, the two "Extended Family" links - one is to the direct male line, and the family which emigrated to Australia in 1839/1840 - I just don't know which branch of the family that particular member comes from, although a message to her would probably clear it up right away, as I have a fairly comprehensive understanding of that line of the family.
The other is my 3rd cousin through my paternal grandmother's grandparents. I haven't contacted her either, but I know I should!

That is a lot of links through one tree - I have a few through my direct male ancestral line, and a large number through the Ashkenazi Jewish side too.

 

[CarolB08]

Well I thought I was of Polish extraction but a recent message through Ancestry and then my facebook messenger leads me to think that maybe I am of Ukrainian extract my only fear is and it is a big one that there is no paper trail to be able to confirm yes or no.

 

[jorghes]

Well I thought I was of Polish extraction but a recent message through Ancestry and then my facebook messenger leads me to think that maybe I am of Ukrainian extract my only fear is and it is a big one that there is no paper trail to be able to confirm yes or no.

From what I understand there can be issues with locating records in Eastern Europe - either because the records weren't good, or they were destroyed in bombing raids or possibly the Soviets destroyed them when bringing Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain.

 

[DavidL]

Well I thought I was of Polish extraction but a recent message through Ancestry and then my facebook messenger leads me to think that maybe I am of Ukrainian extract my only fear is and it is a big one that there is no paper trail to be able to confirm yes or no.

Ukraine was once part of Poland. It has also been part of Hungary and the "Russian Empire". It is why town and village names on old maps often have three different spellings.

 

[CarolB08]

That is interesting DavidL thank you for that it all makes sense now.