In various iterations I’ve gotten from ancestry.com I seemed to “become more Irish,” starting about 23% and getting up to about 28%. And then there was a big drop in the last interpretation. It’s not that I’m less Irish; I knew this this intellectually.
| Region | August 2023 | July 2024: more information | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 28% | 20% | – 8% |
“Your DNA doesn’t change, but our knowledge does. Over time, the amount of data we have increases, and we improve the ways we can analyze it. When that leads to new discoveries, we update your results.”
Iin some ways it makes a whole lot more sense I couldn’t figure how it could be more than 25% Irish given the fact that my father’s side is virtually 0 percent. Virtually all the Irish is on my mother’s side.
I’m still looking for my mom’s father’s (Clarence Williams)’s mother’s (Margaret Collins) parents, who are almost certainly from Ireland. maybe this year, I’ll be able to crack that nut.
But I haven’t spent that much time looking at my mom’s mom’s (Gertrude Yates Williams) father’s (Edward Yates, b. 1851) mother (Anna Kiser), who may be Irish.
“Same data, more detail. This chart shows the percentages of each region you inherited from your parents. Added together, the percent from each parent for a region equals your percent for that region.”
Mixing it up
The thing about doing genealogy is that I, and likely others, often try to take the easiest path. There’s been a line of my mother’s mother’s mother’s people that I’ve known all my life because they were all lived in Binghamton and there was a family Bible that gave much of the story. Oher branches are much more mysterious, in large part because families have secrets.
Parent 1 is clearly my mother, parent 2, my father. Hmm, I’m more Germanic than I used to be.
| Region | Parent 1 | Parent 2 | You |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nigeria |
7% | 13% | 20% |
|
Ireland |
20% | <1% | 20% |
|
Benin & Togo |
5% | 10% | 15% |
|
England & Northwestern Europe |
8% | 7% | 15% |
|
Mali |
1% | 4% | 5% |
|
Germanic Europe |
3% | 2% | 5% |
|
Senegal |
0% | 4% | 4% |
|
Ivory Coast & Ghana |
1% | 2% | 3% |
|
Nigerian Woodlands |
2% | 1% | 3% |
|
Cameroon |
1% | 2% | 3% |
|
Western Bantu Peoples |
1% | 2% | 3% |
|
Central West Africa |
<1% | 2% | 2% |
|
Indigenous Americas—North |
1% | 0% | 1% |
|
Norway |
<1% | 1% | 1% |
I am 81.5% British/Irish according to 23 and Me. The breakdown on Ancestry.com is slightly different. My father’s mother was Pearl Murphy (Murphree) and I wish I had known to ask more questions before she died (I was a teenager).
Top of the Morning to ya, on this fine St. Patty’s Day! Be sure to wear your green… love you!