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More and more people are taking DNA tests to get an insight into their genetic ancestries. Like everyone else, when I took mine earlier this year I was excited over the prospects of confirming (or questioning) the information I’d already gathered through family lore and my own research.
The result? Absolutely no surprises — ho-hum! But I did realize something new and interesting. My DNA results are readily explainable in terms of historic ethnic movements.
Here’s how my experience applies to you. If you study up on history of the past 1,500 years or so, you have a good shot at learning how the strands of your DNA ended up combined in yourself.
In my case, the bulk of the DNA (57 percent) is listed as Irish. That’s what I expected. Both lines of my family arrived in America from Ireland in the mid-1800s.
But how did I end up with 18 percent Great Britain? Here’s where family lore is the key. I’d been told decades ago that my mother’s paternal line started not in Ireland but in Britain, with the earliest record being my mega-great-grandparents living there in the 14th century.
It was about 200 years later that a direct ancestor left Britain for Scotland, with one of his descendants about 250 years afterward moving to Ireland and marrying there, a pair of moves that increased the Celtic (Irish and Scottish) content of my total DNA way beyond the British content.
Now, how to explain the 12 percent Western Europe? When I look at ancestry.com’s map with ancestral lands circled, I see that “Western Europe” seems to be largely the coast of France. Didn’t the Norman French invade England in 1066, settling down and, in time, marrying into the local populace?
There’s another circle up in the Baltic Sea area. If you remember your history courses, you’ll recall that groups from that area — chiefly Anglos, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings — invaded ancient Britain in early Christian times and, guess what, merged over the years with the local population of native Britons and Celts (ancestors of the Irish).
Some small oddities remain, but in tiny percentages. I see circles for central Europe and the Iberian peninsula. Does that mean that I’ve got some Austrian and Spanish?
No, I don’t think so. History shows that the Celts who eventually dominated in Ireland, Scotland and Wales arose in central Europe, with some moving down to what later became Spain and Portugal. The most likely explanation is that descendants of the ancient Celts share a good deal of the original Celtic DNA even today, no matter where their ancestors have been living for the last 1,500 years or so.
The test offers more precise results than I’d thought it would. It even shows that my Irish/Celtic DNA is divided between the northeast of Ireland (from which my maternal line emigrated) and the northwest (from which my paternal line emigrated).
So, when my parents married in 1941, my father brought a largely Irish/Celtic DNA that had begun in central Europe, while my mother brought a polyglot mix of British, Baltic, French and Irish/Celtic. That blend would account for the predominance of Irish/Celtic in my own DNA, with substantial but lesser amounts of the rest.
Want the same experience? Head on down to the Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. At 6 p.m. on July 12 they’ll have people there to help you take the ancestry.com DNA test. Regular price is $99. They’re at the Hanover Green Cemetery building, Main Road, Hanover Township.