July 7th 2020 archive

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here, so here goes!

Ancestry has been giving me some new information, especially on their website.

On their website, it pointed out that a considerable enough percentage (although it has yet to tell me what) of my England, Wales, and Northwestern DNA must come from Belgium… for it to point that out. That surprised me, because I didn’t expect to have any Belgian DNA, so I definitely remembered it. Given that Belgium is frequently lumped in with Scandinavian countries though, that would account for the fact that 23andMe uncovered Scandinavian DNA when I did a test with them, although they were not able to conclusively identify from what country — or countries — it came from and still have not been able to. This seems to go a ways toward answering that question. If I bring up that portion of my DNA on the Ancestry website, it now tells me that I have an affinity for watching BBC Sherlock and Doctor Who my DNA from that section is primarily located in Belgium, the Channel Islands, England, and Wales. Not much of a surprise!

Clicking the Ireland & Scotland section, which is right below it, tells me that my DNA from that section is primarily located in a ball of spitfire and sass Ireland, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The last section available for me, Germanic Europe, simply reveals not much of a surprise Germany.

A friend of mine was also nice enough to use his paid Ancestry account to help me begin to put together a family tree for research purposes, which answered some questions that I had about relatives on my mom’s side. One of the questions that got answered, although I didn’t really have it going into that, was “who those “first cousins”/presumably half-aunts were that popped up high on my Ancestry match lists might be related to me through”, and now I think I have a much better idea who I am related to them through because of this.