Dna and ethnicity

[Jaslima]

Ok, i know this is going to sound really sad :-D

I'm Northern Irish, have Irish parents, Irish grandparents, Irish ancestry as far as I knew etc but there has always just been something about my mother's side that I just couldn't put my finger on. It's a certain look: dark eyes, dark hair, certain features...not tanned skin but definitely a certain vibe that made me think maybe our distant ancestors weren't European. I always suspected Middle Eastern but had no way of knowing. This was a lineage I invented in my head.

I remember being about 20 and looking in the mirror and thinking 'I just know there is something in my blood from somewhere far away'. My husband used to joke that people from Arabic countries were 'my people'. All my friends knew my crazy theory.

Anyway, at Christmas I decided to do one of those dna tests to see if we had any Middle Eastern heritage. I know they are based on an algorithm, aren't an exact science and can be misleading but the kit was on sale so I did it.

Anyway, the results came in yesterday. It was exactly what I thought.

93% of the Ethnic group of the Irish/Northern Irish/Scottish/English/Welsh (as expected),

5%Finnish (makes sense being so close to the above).

1.2% West Asian and 0.8 Middle Eastern! I can't tell you how not surprised I was by this. In my heart it made perfect sense.

I only know one Irish person who did a dna test and hers was pretty much 100% British Isles, more or less. I told someone about my results and she said that everyone probably everyone has some Middle Eastern dna somewhere. I felt a bit deflated!

Is this true? Again I know that these are just estimates and should be taken with a pinch of salt. I just can't help thinking how strange it is that my totally unfounded hunch that my family has Middle Eastern roots was backed up by the DNA test, even if it was just 0.8%. I feel like this has kind of validated a feeling I've had all my life but am wondering what the chances are that it's not true.

If you got your dna done, what did it come back with? Did it line up with any research you did? I find it all insanely interesting!

Thanks everyone!
So it wasn't just the colouring, as that can indeed be Irish/Welsh colouring. Its the features too..I have very almond shaped eyes for example. A lot of my mothers side are blood group B (I'm AB, the A from dad) which I read was very common in Asian countries, which I hung on to as (questionable) semi evidence (in my mind!).

To me it seems like more than a coincidence that I somehow sensed some Middle Eastern/Asian blood in there somewhere and that's what I got in my dna test (even if it was 2% in total). I know lots of Irish get Scandinavian countries and have viking ancestry, and even Spanish, but I guess I wanted to know how common it is to detect a bit of Middle Eastern/Asian. The more I look into it, the more real it seems.

My husband is the least woo person on the planet and he was so shocked that I actually got the ME/West Asia as I've been harping on about my exotic ancestry for over a decade! In your face, sceptical husband!!!

That is so interesting! My eyes are a very distinctive Hazel and aren't like the colour of eyes that I see regularly in Ireland. When I was a child my hair was almost black but lightened as I got older. Maybe you and I are related 😄

Nonsense. All Armada survivors were killed bar about 100 who made it back to Spain. One of whom wrote it all up - De Cuellar by name.

De Cuellar wrote about the fate of 3 ships out of 130. And yes from those 3 ships, there were around 300 survivors from 1,000 men of which around 100 survivors settled in Ireland. (Around 100 of the 300 survivors were killed by occupying English soldiers as Elizabeth I was working on expanding Ulster west and south.)

De Cuellar wrote extensively about how the native Irish (being also Catholic), were friendly and welcoming to the Spanish as they were at war with the English too and viewed Elizabeth I to be a heretic queen.

The Armada ships landed/wrecked all down the west coast of Ireland. De Cuellar wrecked in the north west coast of Sligo. So as you move south, where the majority of the Armada wrecked, you’d have more than 10% of survivors settling and quickly approach zero being killed by English soldiers as they did not control very far south at the time.

Even if you extrapolate from De Cuellar’s account, that is still over 4,300 survivors from the whole Armada that likely settled in Ireland. 🤷‍♀️

sorry, not 10% of survivors, but 10% of total Armada sailors settling.

33% of survivors settling, 33% being killed by English soldiers, 33% going back to Spain or signing on an Irish ship (itinerant seamen).

South of De Cuellar’s landing, where no English soldiers to murder 1/3rd survivors, could expect more than 33% settling all down the west coast of Ireland.

This is an interesting article

dna--explained-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/dna-explained.com/2017/06/27/ancestral-dna-percentages-how-much-of-them-is-in-you/amp/?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16764653397845&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fdna-explained.com%2F2017%2F06%2F27%2Fancestral-dna-percentages-how-much-of-them-is-in-you%2F

My dad had his dna done first - not just Irish (and Scottish), but specifically Roscommon. He's only been to Ireland once in his life.

Mine - Irish (Roscommon and Kildare), English, Welsh, Manx, Swedish and a tiny bit Jewish. Pretty much the 57 Varieties. Oh, and I am my father's daughter. He insisted on seeing that in writing - I was 62, I think, at the time, and he'd never been sure, apparently! I thought my Swedish would be from the Vikings as I'm from NW England, but no, I've traced the heritage to an actual Swedish sea captain and his family a few hundred years ago.

Didn't Armada sailors also settle in the Isle of Man? I lived there for a few years and Juan was a popular name allegedly hanging on from those times.

My Irish uncle recently had it done and had Kurdish ancestry. Not sure about the percentage. My family is from Cork and we had a lot of brown eyes and olive skin in our family. My brothers also have a genetic condition that originated in Scandinavia. I am really quite keen to do this test!

Very interesting, thank you!

That is so interesting. Do you have any other evidence to back up the Kurdish link? Definitely do the test!

Thats so interesting. Which company did you use? @StopStartStop

I just looked at my results so I could have zero Scandinavian or up to 10%. My results show 2% estimate.

2%

Your ethnicity estimate is 2%, but it can range from 0—10%.

Close

Your range of 0—10% comes from making multiple comparisons of your DNA to our reference panel.

@Mercurial123 have you any info to make you think it might be one way or another? Family records rtc?

I think some posters are missing the point.

YOur DNA is matched with other individuals in a region ( a very small number of individuals - sometimes only one or two)

That tells you nothing about where those individuals originated before being in that place.

So DNA from Spain matches other people on the data base who were in Spain when analysed ( even if their parents were from Mars) It does not mean shipwrecked survivors from the Amada, who's DNA is in Ireland, and counts as Irish

No, no other evidence. I am interested that @StopStartStop the test drills down to counties. My dad comes from one particular area of Ireland and my Mum a couple of generations back from the next county. With a genetic condition in the family, I did genuinely wonder if my parents were perhaps related. I’d be keen to know the tests that can identify counties.

I had a DNA test done: 100% Irish, and all from the same area too.

Most unexciting results ever. My ancestors evidently really didn't like blow ins.

as I just tried to explain, any "blow ins" would count as Irish on these tests, as their DNA is now in Ireland, so actually your ancestors could have come from anywhere in the world that people arrived in Ireland from, especially the celts, from Spain, etc

Depends on the company doing it. Many companies have moved on from this and they are measuring known haplo groups that originated from outside the region in other ethncities several hundred to thousands of years ago, depending.

It’s literally how some companies can estimate % Neanderthal DNA.

These are commercial companies, none of them are capable of identifying Neanderthal DNA, they just use information bought from established, successful research groups based in genuine academic institutions, and derived from meticulous thorough, decades long, well funded research. Several stratapheres above a commercial DNA company

These DNA companies are just a gimmick, and tell you nothing of meaning - just look at the number of times identical twins have had different results returned

I'm Irish and mine came out with a category of British and Irish, it wasn't broken down. I got 8% scandinavian (in total) different countries. My brother got roughly the same. I said to him well that was a hundred euro well spent.......

I would love if it had come back 100% spanish princess

Its literally just a spread sheet, and you are paying to be put on it, and the more people pay to be put on it, the bigger the spread sheet, and the more serious sounding they can make themselves appear, and I find it difficult to believe how many people PAY to have their intimate details handed over to a commercial enterprise like this!

If you are actually interested in genuine genetic research, there are many genuine research groups that might be interested in samples, but you dont get the silly certificate!

Mine came back 98% Irish/Scottish and 2% Southern African. No idea where that came from but I'm a red head (well I was) with pale freckled skin. 2% is hardly anything really.

I beg to differ @Nimbostratus100
My dh was desperately seeking answers re his parentage. Taking the DNA test gave him answers.
He wasn't keen on "giving away" his DNA to a big company but for him it was worth it. He was fearful he would never know for definite who his parents were.

I'm not sure how it works but my husband was born in North America, ancestors from a slave plantation in the Caribbean. His DNA shows where his ancestors came from in Africa. We were told that part of Africa was where most of the slaves on that particular island came from. I can't see how the connection was if it is just where people testing now are.