The love of thousands...

I got my AncestryDNA results back today!  Since the process began on December 17th, it only took a month to get my results.  I was a little surprised that my ancestry is a mix of a lot of different folks.  

This was the breakdown, in percentages:

79% Great Britain
10% Scandinavia
  3% Iberian Peninsula (Spain)
  4% Europe (East: Germany, France, Switzerland, West: Poland, Ukraine)
  2% Finland/Russia
  1% Ireland
  1% South Asia (India, Pakistan)

This is how they did it!  When they calculate your estimate for each ethnicity region, they run forty separate analyses. Each of the forty analyses gives another estimate of your ethnicity, and each one is done with randomly selected portions of your DNA (that was a LOT of spit!).

They use forty analyses because ethnicity estimation can be variable from comparison to comparison — different combinations of DNA gives them different information, so doing multiple analyses can give them a more accurate estimate, as well as the likely range.

This is the map they sent me.  This is me right here!  :)

 

As part of my results, they matched me with 1,148 people who are my fourth and better cousins.  I've started a family tree (for the Halls, Clarks, Schneiders and Webbs) and that's gonna be my hobby over the next few months.  I'm really excited to see what I can find out about my folks and meet my new cousins!

This was a lot of fun!  If anybody out there wants to do it, too, or has done it, I'd love to hear from you!  You can buy the kit directly from ancestry.com and it's $99.  It was a Christmas gift from Larry for me but I think it's well worth it, especially if you don't KNOW for sure.  I've always been told we came from England (and we do) but I had no idea we came from all these other areas, too.  India??  Spain??  Those two surprised me the most.

I found this little ancestry quote online and I just loved it:

Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me

"Be still", they say. 

"Watch and listen."

You are the result

Of the love of thousands.