Ancestry DNA Results — Ethnicity

While the main reason for me taking an Ancestry DNA test was to find matches (both to connect with long-lost living relatives and to hopefully help me with my research), I was curious about my ethnicity results.

The ethnicity ‘estimates’ you receive from DNA testing are just that: estimates. And the ethnicity results have received bad press recently. Exposés and investigative news stories have appeared on TV and in magazines about the inaccuracy of DNA ethnicity.

The fact is that the ethnicity results are based on information provided by the test subjects themselves as well as DNA testing of ethnic groups who claim to have lived in a region for generations. There is no magic way for Ancestry to test people who lived in the past. And no one is digging up bodies from all over the world to test their DNA so it can be compared to yours. That’s not happening.

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Instead, Ancestry uses ethnic DNA testing as well as the family trees provided by those in their database to generate the estimates. If you have a tree that shows everyone in your family is from Scotland, the algorithm will identify markers in your DNA with Scotland. If those markers are also found in their control group for that ethnic group, then you are identified with that group. If you have a tree that has mostly Italians, the algorithm will identify markers in your DNA with Italy. And so on. Ancestry’s algorithm categorizes markers by location and associates them with specific ethnic groups who lived in those regions. When your DNA is analyzed, the algorithm compares your markers to those already identified and makes a guess as to your ethnic make-up. But if the information provided in trees is wrong, then the estimates will also be wrong. In the world of data there is a saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

As more and more ethnic groups are tested and more and more people take personal DNA tests and link the results to family trees, ethnicity results should become more and more accurate.

I was already aware of all the above before I took my DNA test, and I wasn’t relying on the results to tell me about my ethnicity. I was pretty confident I knew my ethnic background from my family history and the genealogy research I'd done. But there are people who have no idea where their ancestors came from, so for them ethnicity is important, and I can understand the concern about inaccuracy. For me, that wasn't an issue, and I hadn't pinned my hopes on my DNA test results providing me with an epiphany about my origin.

But that doesn't mean I wasn't hoping for a surprise.

I’ve watched television programs where people were shocked by the ethnicity revealed in their DNA — North Americans or Western Europeans discovering roots in sub-saharan Africa, for example.

Would I get that kind of revelation? I hoped I would. I prayed for an exotic strain of DNA from a rain forest tribe or warriors of the savannah. But it was not to be. My ethnicity was just as you would expect from a person whose father came from English, Irish and Scottish roots and whose mother was Dutch.

The only slight surprise was that the ethnicity linked me to a specific part of Ireland: North Mayo. I hadn’t heard of anyone having a location that specific identified. I have one ancestor who came from the Ballycastle area of County Mayo. As you can see, Ballycastle falls right in the middle of the area my DNA linked me to (an area less than 100 km across). I’m not sure why my DNA is so strongly connected to that location, but there it is.

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For more information on how Ancestry comes up with an ethnicity estimate visit: https://support.ancestry.com.au/s/article/AU-Reading-Your-Ethnicity-Estimate

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