Another DNA surprise

[MarcuccioV]

Finally got my wife to do her DNA test (Ancestry). She was pretty confident it would only show ethnicity from within the British Isles.

When the Ancestry results came back, they were pretty much as she expected (English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish).

I had my doubts, as Ancestry's matrices have their problems.

So I uploaded her raw data to several different sites (which I had done for mine) to see what variations might be present. I was especially curious as to see what FTDNA and MyHeritage found, as they were among the most accurate for me (my Ancestry percentages were off a bit on several ethnicities, but not totally incorrect).

Surprise, surprise..! They were both very closely in agreement. In addition to Scandinavian at 15% (which is likely due to considerable Scottish ethnicity), one of them reported 4% Southern Italian/Greek and the other 5% Italian/Sardinian.

My guess is it comes in as someone's wife as there are no Italian surnames uncovered so far, although some branches in her tree are extremely short and she hasn't had time to research them yet.

It will be interesting to find the 'mystery' Italian in her woodpile..!

[joetucciarone]

My wife & I, as well as our two kids, also took Ancestry's DNA test. And we've also found interesting things hidden away in our genes! About 12 years ago, I took the now defunct National Geographic DNA test. It showed I had a distant relative in London, and indicated our last common ancestor lived about 900 years ago. If it was accurate (a big "if"), then all I could figure was a British Crusader must've fought in the Holy Land, after which he headed home to England, picking up a wife as a travelled through Italy.

[MarcuccioV]

My wife & I, as well as our two kids, also took Ancestry's DNA test. And we've also found interesting things hidden away in our genes! About 12 years ago, I took the now defunct National Geographic DNA test. It showed I had a distant relative in London, and indicated our last common ancestor lived about 900 years ago. If it was accurate (a big "if"), then all I could figure was a British Crusader must've fought in the Holy Land, after which he headed home to England, picking up a wife as a travelled through Italy.

I'm going to have her do the 23&Me test as well, as THAT has been the most accurate for me (CLOSELY followed by FTDNA and MH)...

[MarcuccioV]

So the update on this one is that according to DNAland, she has 5.5% Italian and 9.3% Sardinian. I still haven't looked into her family tree paper trail yet...