DNA matches to place and people Time to do some tests

Results from your author’s Ancestry DNA test arrived late on New Years Day. Only a month after posting it off, and no great shocks to kick off 2024! {1}

Community connections

Ancestry’s large database of DNA tests allows it to produce various analyses. The ‘ethnicity’ breakdown wasn’t an important reason for taking the test, but there was always the chance of it revealing some hidden migration source.

In the event, the overall breakdown by Ancestry groupings, as shown in the screen clipping below, is England (and a bit of NW Europe) 54%, Wales 41% and Sweden/Denmark 5%. Ancestry then makes a stab at localising further with ‘communities’, geographic areas which overlap to some extent.

It would have been amazing if Norfolk didn’t feature highly as all dad’s grandparents came from there. Central Southern England encompasses Somerset and Dorset, the origins of half of mum’s grandparents. The northern European connection is less obvious – as a small percentage just something to keep an eye on for now. {2}

That is actually rather a low figure for England when put against a simple division across mum and dad’s grandparents. However DNA inheritance is rather more random. Here’s a bit more data detail:

Looks like my inheritance of the maternal genes favoured mum’s paternal line somewhat, with Wales (41%) at the expense of England (9%). While dad just had a small bite taken out of his Norfolk DNA by the Scandinavians.

Tree connections

It’s early days in finding additional relations via the various Ancestry DNA features. At time of writing, there are 545 matches to ‘4th cousins or closer’, and a total of 19,308 distant matches {3}.

Largest identified group amongst the closer matches is 17 in the Watts line, mostly in America and already in the tree. (ThruLines, which shows how matches might be related, has 37 possible connections for 2x great grandfather Matthew Watts.) No matches show for the Cutlock line yet, and only a few distant and low possibilities on the Howes side. {4}

Now to see how many of those thousands of distant (or close) matches spot the new HWNS Skeleton tree connection and decide to get in touch. Just the one so far …

Notes

1. I’d been putting off doing a test as part of my enjoyment in doing family history research is the ‘chasing down’ of records. That has slackened somewhat – time for a new angle.
2. Also no surprise that there are no Ireland or Scotland genes showing, despite some cousins reckoning the Neal family had Scottish islands roots. (I’ve lost the note on which island was suggested.)
3. A public ‘skeleton’ version of the Howes Watkins Neal Scott tree has been uploaded and connected to the DNA results to facilitate matching and messaging.
4. Next on the to-do list is creating a set of mouth swabs and sending off for Y-DNA analysis. Left until now as a customs form and trip to the Post Office will be involved. The results will be linked to the Howes one-name study group, which should have quite a few tests from others with Besthorpe relations already there.
5. Ancestry’s test involves spitting into a tube, screwing on a cap and posting in a small pre-paid airmail box, no customs form required.
6. Update: links to further Cutlock articles on DNA
   • Exploring DNA results and tools.
   • A piece about Y-DNA results appearing soon!