Disappointed with ancestry results

[kitk]

I just got my ancestry DNA results back and I'm a bit disappointed. I know enough of my family history to know I am mostly Irish and welsh but my paternal grandmother and at least 4 generations back were all Italian and this hasn't shown up in my results at all. I don't look Italian in any way and my love for the food is all I've got to show for the link (and who doesn't love Italian food...) but I'm sad that it looks like I didn't inherit a single percentage of DNA from her line. I know the tests aren't wholly accurate and should be used just for fun but she died when I was 13 and I feel a bit sad that there's nothing in me to show the impact she had on my life. I know I'm being silly by the way... it just feels weird! Hope it's ok to vent here!

@Sporty99 no tin foil hat needed - though it’s not very surreptitious. The data from 23 and me goes directly to pharma (I think GSK). Not to the government to be fair, but not benignly stored - it is used.

You could argue it’s helping make better drugs, but it’s not a particularly informed choice - people are paying for information for themselves which is actually of far greater value and use to the service provider. It’s a really interesting one!

It does not go directly to GSK. They use the phenotype information (all the health questions you answer) and link that to the genes. All on a macro level across the 10m or so people in the database. That way they can associate something, eg high cholesterol with a particular genetic mutation or set of mutations.
That way they can use that information, along with genomic work, to determine targets for drug development.
But you can opt out of participating in any of that research if you want anyway.

I was quite happy for them to use mine...I want someone to discover something to help Alzheimer's before I or any of my family get it for example.

can't you apply with a false name and dob?

@LuckyMarmiteLover
What test did you use ?

Is there any chance your dad isn't your biological dad, OP?
Like others said, look for matching cousins on the Italian side. Where are they?
Look at the Leeds 'colors' method for finding matches.

FWIW, I suspect there is an interruption in my surname line; I can't find any distant cousins (4th or so) on that line: there should be hundreds or thousands (long published pedigree). Something is wrong...

You can't rely on DNA to give you information about relations more than about 3 generations back - it's just too diluted by that point.

@WonderingWillI - I have tested with AncestryDNA, 23&me and have uploaded to FTDNA, my heritage and GEDmatch. I found AncestryDNA most helpful and traced my birth parents through a second cousin match. My closest match was on FTDNA though a first cousin once removed, but I didn’t upload there until I had already found my birth parents. My closest match is now my birth father as he kindly agreed to test for me ❤️

It may not be the father that is incorrect. It could well be a 3xgreat grandfather. I was very suspicious with mine as I had very little of either my surname or my mums maiden name in my matches. I’ve done the paperwork back to 1800 on all sides. And a lot of it is lies, the paper trail simply doesn’t match up to the dna.

However because my father is from a very small town, and my 3x great grandmother had left a clue to the real parentage of her son in my 2x great grandfathers middle name, I was able to find the real baby daddy who lived locally. From 1850. The dna matches became clear and I had over 50 matches to that line.

Our Irish element is harder but given the paper work I would expect my grandad to be 80%-90% Irish and he is only 50%. I’ve still to find in which generation the discrepancy or discrepancies are, but someone has definitely told a fib or two along the line.

@LuckyMarmiteLover
Thank you

Is there anyone who has done their family tree and NOT found lies? We've got dozens - grandchildren passed off on census returns as biological children, lies about ages on marriage certificates, lies about DOB to enroll in the Army - and that's before you get to the fact fathers were often just never recorded for illegitimate births.

Our generation didn't invent shagging around and having a child by someone who you're not married to.

Not saying all of the previous posters have promiscuous ancestors. But my maxim was always "believe nothing, question everything".

You can download the raw data from you DNA ancestry and upload it to my heritage. See if anything else comes up

You might be interested in the programme on Radio 4 - "How to argue with a racist" which covers the use of these generalised Ancestry DNA tests in a lot of detail and pretty much discounts them as having any useful meaning. Listen to episode 3 in particular although it's all interesting.

@Gwilt160981 You can download the raw data from you DNA ancestry

How do you do that from Ancestry DNA? I can't see a link anywhere.

I’m pretty sure that when women test, they only get information regarding their moyher’s side. That’s what 23andme said once I closely looked into it.

You need a male relative to test too to get a full view if your ancestry. Father or a brother.

@Saker my brother found out about his biological father and siblings after testing on Ancestry. I had a different father who I suspected was foreign from the way I look. It turns out he was from India and I have traced some 4th cousins.

@sandrown - yes that sort of testing is perfectly valid, but I didn't think that was what the OP had done. I understood the OP to have taken one of the tests that comes back and says you are 15% british, 25% african, 60% mediterranean.

This is an example of the way that Ancestry are selling it on their webpage:

"Ali Clemesha
I am your typical looking Aussie girl, a blonde, blue eyed, surfer who grew up in the Eastern Suburbs. Once I decided to do the AncestryDNA test, I waited eagerly for the results, discussing it with my family, my co-workers and even my clients. When I received them, I was very surprised.

“My initial thought after getting my results was, "Wow my ethnicity is a serious mix!"”

My dad’s side of the family is English, tracing back to the Norman Conquest. And my Mum’s side is Italian and Maltese. I grew up very proud of my heritage, attending gatherings with my huge Italian family and hearing stories from my Nonna. And I would bring my Mum’s creative antipasto choices and foods like the Arabic dish Molokhia to school.

Before taking the AncestryDNA test, I truly believed I was made up of only Italian, Maltese and British blood. I was surprised to find the strongest part of my ethnicity is actually from Western Europe – and that my ethnic mix included traces from 10 different world regions.

The biggest shock for me was that I was a small percentage North African. West Asian was also something I certainly did not expect, honestly they were all a big surprise. It seems there is a lot more to my heritage than I expected, which has really raised a number of questions for me."

That's not the same as looking for specific matches of people who might be related, and this is what is discredited on the radio programme.

A lot of Maltese peolen will have African dna because of the islands proximity and invasions. Cyprus and Sicily are the same.

Malta was the crossroads of the Med. Virtually everyone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem called in. It was a safe port with Knights Hospitaller protecting pilgrims for 250 years. It causes a lot of mixed up genetic history.

Portugal shows up in this way as well - huge amount of British troops fighting Napoleon left their mark.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csz1vh?xtor=ES-211-%5B30979_PANUK_DIV_13_SND_BBCSoundsEditorial_REG90_GHI_O35%5D-20200402-%5Bbbcworldservice_bbcsoundscrowdsciencecanitrustdnaancestrytests_factualscienceandnature%5D hope this link works, interesting podcast

I found it helpful in a way, but not helpful in another but that’s because I’m waiting on more people to test.

My maternal grandmother was an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia; much of the family escaped but her paternal family remained behind. I’ve managed to trace connections in three other directions (my paternal sides, my mothers paternal side) - and found a surprise first cousin - but my grandmothers paternal side remains out of reach. Interestingly my DNA ethnicity report comes out with 88% British and Irish, 6% Germanic and 6% Sweden. I know the origins of Nanas Germanic part (immigrants during the AustroHungarian empire) but I need to figure out the Swedish bits. For me, it just confirms that your genetic inheritance is a bit of a lottery. None of the Ethnicity changes who I am, but I do think it’s fascinating.

Hi OP, here is my ancestry story.

So my dad and I did the DNA testing because he wanted to know a, what happened to 2 sisters who got adopted and if there were any more b, whether his dad was really his dad.

Well the DNA results told us SFA other than 4th cousins and that we were irish/scottish and german which we already knew.

However, what I did do, was enter my family tree into Ancestry and that helped a lot because other people had done family trees too. Every time I entered a name, a 'match' would come up (it looks like a leaf). I could then see the source of the match, who their kids were, their parents etc and build my family tree.

I also used the national records of Scotland (we are Scottish). Searches are free but certificates need to be paid for and I spent rather a lot of money TBH.

I entered my late grandmother's surname and places of birth. It brought up a few potential children and I had to buy a few certificates but I found one sister who had sadly passed away but we were able to reconnect with her children - my cousins. Which was lovely.

Then we tried to track down the other sister but could not find her at all. I wondered if her name had been changed / if she had been adopted so I contacted the NRS directly and they kindly did a search by mother's name and found the other sister, who has also passed away but again I have reconnected with my cousins.

Through using the NRS and looking at valuation rolls, census records, birth and death records, I have also been able to establish that there may be a 3rd aunt but as her name is different and she was adopted, there is not way of knowing for sure unless she also does a DNA test and I'm not going to ask an old lady in her 80s who has never met me to do that. Not sure how to go about it to be honest.

I have also established that we are descended from royalty on both sides.

My great great grandmother was seemingly a prostitute as my GG grandfather is listed as the father of several children by several women and these women all lived in the same house but with different names.

There is a lot of illegitimacy, adoptions and suicides on my fathers side. My mothers side dont seem to have had any issues other than war and famine.

So stick with ancestry for the family tree rather than the DNA.

We have a lovely family story about how our Portuguese ancestors worked for the Spice companies and settled in Asia where they lived for centuries as euroasisans. Have seen family tree websites where both my mother’s partner and maternal lines have been traced back to the 14OOs. Mum did a ancestory DNA test and not only did she come back without any Asian blood she had a lot of European /Swedish. My mum looks Asian so not sure what that is all about. However, what my mum did find is a grandchild she didn’t know she had. My brother had asked this girl’s mother if he was her father and was told he was not...turns out he is.