The Results Are In - AncestryDNA

The news of the day is that my AncestryDNA results are in. I'm guessing a big batch of results were posted yesterday (3/19), because quite a few of the genealogy folks I follow on Twitter were reporting that they had results in too.

The test results comprise two components - the Ethnicity Estimate and your Matches. Both parts are interesting in their own way and deserve some discussion.

First, the Ethnicity Estimate.  No surprises here.  My estimate is 97% European, with the remaining 3% spread out over other categories. 

The breakdown (in descending order of prevalence) :

• Europe West (37%) - Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein
• Most of my ancestors on my paternal line (with the exception of my surname line and a few others) are from the German speaking areas of West Europe - many early German immigrants ended up in south-central Pennsylvania, so most people who have roots in that part of the country will have deep German roots
• Ireland (27%) - Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland
• Between this category and the one to follow, this covers pretty much entire maternal line as well as the Irish components of my paternal line.
• Great Britain (25%) - Primarily located in: England, Scotland, Wales
• My maternal line is largely predominated by that group of immigrants known as the "Scotch-Irish" or "Scots-Irish", early settlers from Northern Ireland, originally of Scottish and English origin.  More than a few of these immigrants ended up in what is now known as Appalachia.

 These three categories make up 89% of my estimate, based on the averages that Ancestry has calculated (Ancestry describes the methodology used to calculate these numbers in some detail, and I'm not going to try to explain it in detail here, but  the averages are based on a number of trials which define a potential range of values, the listed value being an average of the values in the range).   The remainder of my Estimate is composed of what AncestryDNA calls trace regions - regions that have a positive average but where the range begins at 0% and which could thus appear by chance.

Trace Regions (in descending order with no commentary:

• Iberian Peninsula (4%)
• Scandinavia (2%)
• Finland/NW Russia (1%)
• Asia South (1%)
• Europe East (< 1%)
• Africa Southeastern Bantu (< 1%)
• Melanesia (< 1%)

So, according to AncestryDNA, that's my genetic heritage in a nutshell.

Now, we turn our attention to the Matches component.  At the time of writing, I have 252 pages of  matches, ranging in predicted degree of kinship from second cousin to distant cousin (5th cousin or more distant) - most in the last bucket with verying degrees of confidence.  I have not had the chance to review all of my matches so far, but i've at least browsed most of my closer matches.  I haven't initiated contact with any of my matches, but two of my matches have contacrted me - one whose user name I recignized as a known cousin and a second who AncestryDNA pegged us as 4th cousins, but who has no recognizeable paper trail to connect us at this time.

Some observations:

• I'm seeing a lot of matches on my maternal line, and in quite a few of those the degree of kinship is overstated, primarily due to the presence of Barnabas Curry as a common ancestor. I have, I believe, three Curry lines that trace back to him, so even though he is either my 4x great or 5x great grandfather, his impact on my DNA is somewhat disproportionate
• I need to do more work on my Ancestry Family Tree, particularly on my maternal side to facilitate matching
• I think I need to come up with a handful of templates to use in contacting prospective cousins, one or two for each of my maternal and paternal lines

All in all, still lots of work to do.

One final note - I have located a folder that documents a potential family unit for Christopher McNally back in Ireland.  In the very near future, I'm going to document that on the blog and tie that in to the Y-DNA testing I have going on FTDNA.

A Brief Update

I received my AncestryDNA kit in the mail yesterday, so today I activated my kit, spit in the tube and put it out in the mailbox to make its way back to Utah for processing. In order to make the most of the test, it looks like I need to at least put up a skeleton of a pedigree chart, minimally showing my direct ancestors. 

To date, I've put almost no effort into my Ancestry tree. I am continually frustrated by the number of bad actors and name hunters that poach from the Ancestry trees and call the work their own without any attribution (or even fact checking).  Additionally, I've done considerable work gathering documents and evidence that cannot be found on Ancestry.com, and I have no desire to let Ancestry monetize my work product.  End of rant.

So you can add to my resolutions updating my Ancestry tree.  I won't be posting any outside documentation, and my source citations may not be Evidence Explained approved (my Legacy database is another matter), but names, dates and relationships will be there.  

See you on the web.

A few more genealogical resolutions

For Christmas 2012 (or maybe for my birthday, it falls close to Christmas) I was given the gift of Y-Chromosome DNA testing, in order to try to make the McNally leap back across the ocean.  I chose the Family Tree DNA service, based in part on their extensive history and deep member base.  I received my swabs, took my samples and sent them back to see what would happen.  

A few weeks later, I received my results (in stages, due to the number of markers I had tested).  Between sending my samples and getting my results, I had enrolled in a handful of relevant studies to try to find matches, hopefully still in Ireland who might be able to trace back to Christopher McNally's ancestors. 

When my full results were finally back, I had one good match, a young man in Ireland who carries the McNally surname.  I sent off on e-mail of introduction and waited for his to respond, which he did after a week or two.  He only had information back to his great-gradfather (I think he has an aunt that is the genealogist of the familiy) but he was willing to exchange e-mails and share information as it came available.   We e-mailed back and forth a few times, the last time back in July of 2013.  After that, my genetic genealogy project languished, solely due to my lack of effort.  

Fast forward to last week.  I received in the mail an advertisement for the AncestryDNA test for $79.00.  The AncestryDNA test is an autosomal test, which covers all lines of ancestry, both paternal and maternal, rather than a direct line test unlike the Y-DNA test I have on the books (the Family Tree DNA analog would be their "Family Finder" test"), so I decided to give myself a late birthday present and give it a go.  I have not received my testing kit yet, having just ordered it, but I'll keep the blog updated on that progress.

After looking over my last post, I realized that I had included no resolutions related to my genetic genealogy endeavours, so here they are.

First - I'm going to follow up with my Irish contact to re-open the lines of communication and see if he has learned anything new.

Second - I'm going to be more active at the FTDNA website and on the studies that might be relevant.  

Third - I'm going to be a bit more proactive in trying to confirm or deny a theory I have about Christopher, starting right here - In March of 2012 I proposed a theory about Christopher McNally's parentage, that he might be the son of a Laurence McNally and Mary Dillon.  I would encourage any male McNally's that can prove a line of descent from Laurence and Mary to contact me.  In a subseuent blog post I will post all of the information I have about this family to aid in this.

Fourth - The book "DNA and Social Networking" by Debbie Kennett has some fabulous suggestions about how to make genetic genealogy more effective, so I'm going to re-read the DNA part and follow up on some of her ideas.

Finally - I'm going to do whatever I can with the Ancestry test to cast a wider net for relatives in my extended family to share with and learn from.

Here's to making 2014 a good genealogy year.