My DNA Results!

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!