So for my birthday, I asked for a DNA test for my genealogy.
We have several spots that have questions, and I was hoping to prove or
disprove some of them. I just got my Ancestry DNA results back this morning. A
perfect week to get them back, because I'm home today and tomorrow, so I can
really play around with it all. And tomorrow I go over to see my family, so I
can show it to them. The mix was a bit different than I expected, but then I
expected a few surprises, so I guess that's par for the course.
My Mix:
55% Great Britain
This one was one of my surprises. I have a grandmother who
is full-blooded Welsh, and a great-grandmother who was Northern Irish, so I did
expect some English, possibly even more than 25%, but more than half is
shocking. Until I look at the map Ancestry provides about each grouping of DNA.
This one includes Denmark and Germany. And given that Danish is another 25% of
my Ancestry, 55% suddenly makes a lot more sense.
30% European Jewish
At first this one made sense, until I realized it's more
than one grandparent's worth of DNA, which would only be 25%. Wow. This means
that I have hidden Jews in my tree. A whole 5%, at least. More, really, given
that the Jewish lines married into the area in many cases. And when I take into
account two of the smaller strands in my tree below; the Iberian and Caucasus lines,
that brings the percentage up to almost another 10%, if I am right about those
also being Jewish in origin for my family.
4% Europe West
This includes the central body of Europe: France, Germany,
Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc; but also bits of England, Denmark,
Italy, and the Czech and Slovak regions of Eastern Europe. I expected this
piece to be much higher, given that I have at least four different areas of my
tree that link back to Germany, and one that links to France. I was hoping to
have some proof for the Huguenot ancestry on my great-grandmother's side, but
unfortunately, this doesn't help that at all.
4% Scandinavia
This was a major shocker, given that two of my lines are
strongly Scandinavian. Nana was the daughter of two full-blooded Danish
Immigrants, and Grandpa's father was "full-blooded" Norwegian. Until
I remember that Danish is also included in the Great Britain results, at least
partially, and that several of Grandpa's line actually came from Germany, but
that still doesn't explain the Europe West part. Perhaps several of the Hidden
Jews were in this line, and that's why they moved to Norway?
3% Ireland
This was one of the things I was hoping to prove. My
great-grandmother was Northern Irish, which tended to be more Scottish and
English than actual Irish, but now I know for certain we have a small amount of
Gaelic blood, whether from the Scottish or the Irish, I'm not sure. The test
doesn't separate out the two, which isn't a shock, given how close the two are
related. Still, I'm very glad to have this confirmed. We are not just English
Transplants.
2% Iberian Peninsula
And then there's this, which makes me even more excited. My
family surname, Hillinger, was actually spelled Hilinger by my great-great
grandmother. I know nothing of her line aside from her and her descendants. But
when I look up the surname, I find that there are a larger percent of Hilingers
in the Iberian Peninsula than anywhere else in the world. Which made me wonder
if we might have some roots there. If this result is right, and not from some
other line, this means that we most likely have some small Saphardic heritage.
Very exciting.
2% Caucasus
This is the middle east, basically, which implies that this
is the origin branch of my Jewish Heritage, so unsurprising, but still nice to
see.
So what does all this tell me? Well, I'm still very Northern
European, which I knew before. But the Jewish Heritage (34% total if I include
Iberian and Caucasus) is far larger than expected, so I will have to look into
that, and I have definitely proved the Irish connection, even if it is way far
back there.
Off to look into the connections they suggest now. Wish me
luck!