DNA ABC
As a gift to myself for my birthday, I ordered up a DNA ethnicity profile from Ancestry.com. While I was reasonably sure what the results would be, I thought it might be fun to see if anything unexpected popped up. The results are that I'm 94% Eastern European Jew (shock! SHOCK!), and then trace amounts of other ethnicities. The report says that my genetic profile shows a slightly lower-than-average amount of Jewish genetic heritage, but at 94%, no one's going to argue that I'm not an Ashkenazi Jew.
The detail that surprised me was 2% Scandanavian. Now, the website says the following about trace amounts of ethnicity (by which they seem to be referring to amounts that are 5% or less): "These are regions where you seem to have just a trace amount of genetic ethnicity - there is only a small amount of evidence supporting the regions as part of your genetic ethnicity. Because both the estimated amount and the range of the estimate are small, it is possible that these regions appear by chance and are not actually part of your genetic ethnicity." That's probably true, but I get a kick out of thinking that somewhere in my genetic heritage there's a Viking pining for the fjords. :-)
I found it mildly disappointing that the profile didn't show any Italian or Greek, given that I've been mistaken for both of those at one point or another. Another trace was 1% Caucasus, a whole percentage point less than the Scandanavian, but far less interesting to me, I admit.
Another interesting part of the report was a list of other Ancestry members who had done the test who were almost certainly second, third and fourth cousins, most of whom I've never heard of, and many of whom aren't or don't appear to be Jewish. I looked at some of their trees and found no surnames in common--although given how families fled Europe and names got changed, I suppose anything is possible. I need to investigate those lists a little more, and I need to find a way to continue building my tree. You know, in my copious spare time.
Anyway, fun.
The detail that surprised me was 2% Scandanavian. Now, the website says the following about trace amounts of ethnicity (by which they seem to be referring to amounts that are 5% or less): "These are regions where you seem to have just a trace amount of genetic ethnicity - there is only a small amount of evidence supporting the regions as part of your genetic ethnicity. Because both the estimated amount and the range of the estimate are small, it is possible that these regions appear by chance and are not actually part of your genetic ethnicity." That's probably true, but I get a kick out of thinking that somewhere in my genetic heritage there's a Viking pining for the fjords. :-)
I found it mildly disappointing that the profile didn't show any Italian or Greek, given that I've been mistaken for both of those at one point or another. Another trace was 1% Caucasus, a whole percentage point less than the Scandanavian, but far less interesting to me, I admit.
Another interesting part of the report was a list of other Ancestry members who had done the test who were almost certainly second, third and fourth cousins, most of whom I've never heard of, and many of whom aren't or don't appear to be Jewish. I looked at some of their trees and found no surnames in common--although given how families fled Europe and names got changed, I suppose anything is possible. I need to investigate those lists a little more, and I need to find a way to continue building my tree. You know, in my copious spare time.
Anyway, fun.