DNA

I originally tested my DNA with Ancestry.com in April 2015, having asked for the kit for my birthday in March. I got the results, and then uploaded my raw data to another DNA testing site, familytreedna.com, paid another fee to unlock the matches, and then lastly uploaded the raw data to another site, GEDMatch.com. This way my data is in three large databases, and the more databases you are in, the more access to other people who may match you genetically. The other large company that I know of is called 23 & Me, but I haven't tested with them. Perhaps I will one day, but really at this point I would rather spend the money on getting other family members to test. Here are the ethnicity breakdowns I received from Ancestry and FTDNA and a new site that launched this week, DNA.land

All of them agree, I'm pretty European, which is no surprise. I've traced my family lines back to the 1700's for most of them, and everyone (except one, who was from Ireland) is British born. There are vast differences in the percentages though. When I first saw the Ancestry results (which is in the top third of the picture) my heart sank as it said 3% British. How could that be?! Then I looked into the overlaps of the other regions and it started making more sense. Britain was invaded. A lot. So there is a melting pot of DNA roaming around. Vikings, Romans, Normans, Saxons, all lumped together. The ethnicity predictions are a bit of fun, but that's it. They're not much of a clue as to where my ancestors were 500+ years ago, because they could have been British, or one of the many people from elsewhere that ended up in Britain.