My AncestryDNA Ethnicity Inheritance Results

My Ancestry DNA results were updated recently. This update included a new interesting feature called Ethnicity Inheritance. This feature "estimates which regions" I inherited from my father and my mother.¹ Initially, the inheritances were labeled Parent 1 and Parent 2. I was able to edit those labels to Maternal and Paternal. In my case, it was pretty easy to see that Parent 2 was my father, Jan Albert Iverson, because the ethnicity regions for Parent 2 only came from Sweden and Norway.

My father's maternal grandparents, Carl Albert Gillberg and Maria Hilda Carlsson were immigrants from Sweden. My father's paternal grandparents, Christopher Iverson and  Anna Christopherson, were children of Norwegian immigrants.

The rest of my ethnicities come from my mother, Maria Elizabeth Webster, who was born in Brazil. From her I inherited ethnicities from Portugal, Sweden & Denmark, England & Northwestern Europe, Indigenous Americas--Mexico, Indigenous Americas--Yucatan Peninsula, Wales, Spain, Senegal, Basque, Northern Africa, and Northern Italy.

My mother's mother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was born in Brazil and was mostly of Portuguese ancestry. My mother's father, Debs Warren Webster, was also born in Brazil. Debs' father, Frederick Emory Webster, was born in Ohio, USA, and Debs' mother, Esther Matus Villatoro, was born in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico.

Here is my ethnicity inheritance from both of my parents.

Sadly, both of my parents have passed away. I sure do miss them. My dad never took a DNA test, but my mom did take one before she passed away.

I am the manager of my mom's Ancestry account and have been able to access her DNA ethnicity inheritance results. I have been able to differentiate between Parent 1 and Parent 2 in my mom's results based on the known ethnicities of her father and mother. I will share those results in a future post and compare them with mine.

Have you been able to differentiate between Parent 1 and Parent 2 in your Ancestry DNA ethnicity inheritance results?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana Last

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1 ”Ethnicity Inheritance,” Ancestry Support (https://support.ancestry.com : accessed 13 July 2022).^↩

My DNA Ethnicity Estimate From MyHeritage

Earlier this week MyHeritage announced their new and improved Ethnicity Estimate.

I decided to check out my results and found them very interesting.

Under the DNA tab, I clicked on the Ethnicity Estimate tab and my Ethnicity Estimate list and corresponding world map appeared.

Here's my Ethnicity Estimate list.

And here's my Ethnicity Estimate map.

When I placed my cursor over a region in my Ethnicity Estimate, the region's color darkened and a box with the Ethnicity Estimate region and percentage appeared.

At the top of the page above the map is a "Play Intro" tab.

When I clicked on it, a separate tab on my computer opened and a video started playing.

The video began like this:

And ended with this:

This cool animated video revealed "who I am" according to my ethnicity estimates. As each region was listed and highlighted on the map, representative music from that region played. It was pretty neat.

When the video ended, this map appeared.

At the bottom of the map is a "Play again" button to view the video again.

Here's another interesting feature. To learn more about a region in your ethnicity estimate, simply click on that region in the map or in the list.

I did that for my Central American region and this is the screen that appeared.

It will be interesting to compare my DNA ethnicity estimates from MyHeritage to my results from Ancestry and Family Tree DNA. I will likely share those comparisons in an upcoming post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2017 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

My Updated Family Tree DNA myOrigins Results

Family Tree DNA recently updated myOrigins. The update changed my previous myOrigins map and ethnic makeup percentages.

Here's my previous myOrigins map as of 6 May 2014.

And here's my updated myOrigins map as of 7 April 2017.

Notice that the reference populations have different colors assigned to each one. And, the assigned colors in the Ethnic Makeup chart match the colors on the map.

Iberia is purple in the chart and on the map. Check out what happened when I hovered my cursor over Iberia in the chart (see below). Spain and Portugal remained purple on the map and every other reference population on my map turned gray. 

That same kind of thing happened as I hovered my cursor over the other reference populations in my Ethnic Makeup chart. Each reference population on the map stayed the same color as the corresponding color on the chart, and the rest of the reference populations turned gray.

With the recent update, my Ethnic Makeup percentages changed too. The previous Ethnic Makeup percentage chart on the left is from 2014 and the one on the right is the updated chart.

In case these charts are difficult to read, here's the breakdown of the results:

Previous myOrigins Ethnic Makeup Results

Jana Last - Ethnic Makeup - 6 May 2014
European	85%
European Northlands	36%
European Coastal Plain	17%
North Mediterranean Basin	16%
European Coastal Islands	16%
New World	7%
Bering Expansion	7%
Middle Eastern	5%
North African Coastlands	5%
East Asian	2%
Asian Northeast	2%
Central/South Asian	1%
Eurasian Heartland	1%
African	1%
Niger-Congo Genesis	1%

Updated myOrigins Ethnic Makeup Results

Jana Last - Ethnic Makeup - 7 April 2017
European	80%
Scandinavia	45%
Iberia	23%
West and Central Europe	12%
New World	10%
North and Central America	10%
Middle Eastern	6%
North Africa	3%
West Middle East	3%
Trace Results
East Central Africa	<2%
Southeast Asia	<2%
West Africa	<2%
British Isles	<2%

The updated British Isles result is surprising. My research shows that my maternal great-grandfather’s ancestry is from the British Isles.

The New World result isn’t surprising. Family Tree DNA states that this cluster includes Native populations. My AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate also lists Native American ethnicity at 10%. I attribute this result to my Mexican ancestry through my maternal great-grandmother, Esther Matus Villatoro, who was born in Arriaga, Chiapas.

I realize that these are just estimates, but they are quite interesting.

Have you had your DNA tested? Were you surprised by your results?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2017 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

My AncestryDNA Results Are In ~ Some Surprises

I received my AncestryDNA test results the other day. They arrived a lot earlier than I was expecting, which was awesome. And, they revealed a couple of surprises too.

AncestryDNA  Test Results

The AncestryDNA test results provide some very interesting and helpful tools and charts. Here's my Ethnicity Estimate Chart.




In case the chart above is difficult to read, this is the percentage breakdown for my Ethnicity Estimate Chart:

North Africa – 5%
Native American – 10%
Scandinavia – 34%
Europe West – 20%
Great Britain – 9%
Ireland – 8%
Iberian Peninsula – 7%

I didn't include the Trace Regions. According to AncestryDNA, they may or may not actually be part of my ancestry.

A Really Cool Feature

This is what happened when I clicked on Scandinavia. A bar graph shows up and on the right side of the screen some interesting information about Scandinavia appears. I've blurred the map because of copyright issues. You can also see that they've included a bar graph that  shows how my average ethnicity percentage compares with a typical native Scandinavian.

This is a screen shot of the top portion of the page. As I scrolled down the page, additional information such as genetic diversity and population history can be found. You can see portions of those sections in the next two screenshots.







No Surprises

I'm not surprised by the Native American result. Last year I took the Family Finder (autosomal) DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA. I shared those results here on my blog. It was quite exciting to see these results because they showed that I have Native American ancestry, specifically Mayan ancestry. This verified something that my mom's stepmother had told her a long time ago. She said my mom had Mayan ancestry, and she was right. My maternal great-grandmother, Esther Matus Villatoro, was born in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico. The Mayan people inhabited parts of Chiapas and other areas, so this could explain the Native American result.

Esther Matus Villatoro

I'm not at all surprised by the Scandinavian result. My father, Jan Albert Iverson, was Swedish and Norwegian. His maternal grandparents, Carl Albert Gillberg and Hilda Maria Carlsson, emigrated from Sweden to the United States in the early 1900's and his paternal great-grandfather, Iver Iverson, emigrated from Norway to the United States shortly before the U.S. Civil War.

Jan Albert Iverson

Carl Albert Gillberg and
Hilda Maria (Carlsson) Gillberg

The Family Finder DNA test I took last year didn't include Scandinavia in my results. But, it did include North Africa. My maternal grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was Portuguese. Some of her ancestors came from the Azores and the Island of Madeira. I'm wondering if this accounts for the North Africa ethnicity result. The Island of Madeira is quite close to Morocco, which is in North Africa.

Sarah Vasques Madeira 

The Great Britain and Iberian Peninsula results also don't surprise me. My Webster and Waterman ancestors are originally from England. And the Iberian Peninsula includes Spain and Portugal. As I already mentioned, my maternal grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was Portuguese. So, this could account for the Iberian Peninsula result.

Surprises

The ethnicity results that surprised me were the Ireland and Europe West results. They did not show up in my Family Finder DNA test results.  And I don't have know of anyone in my family tree from Ireland or the countries represented in the Europe West region.

Matches

The Member Matches feature of the AncestryDNA test is really awesome. I have lots of matches. At the top of the list is my 1st cousin one time removed. She and I had already been in touch with each other. There are some great features included in the Member Matches including lists of shared surnames, a map showing birth locations that appear in both your family tree and your potential cousin's family tree, and even a shared ancestor hint feature.

Conclusion

I'm really glad that I took the AncestryDNA test in addition to the FamilyTreeDNA tests I've taken. I also took the mtDNAPlus test with Family Tree DNA. But, I haven't shared those results on my blog yet.

I love the Member Matches feature on AncestryDNA. I have a long list of matches to look through. And hopefully, I will be able to make new cousin connections soon.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

My Family Finder DNA Results Are In ~ Grandma Was Right!

Yep! My Grandma Willis Webster was right! Many years ago, she told my mom that my mom had Mayan ancestry. Grandma Willis was my mom's step-mother. My mom's mother died when my mom was four years old.  Grandma Willis was the only grandma I ever knew on my mom's side of the family, so to me she was simply Grandma. And she was a very sweet and loving grandma.

Anyway, as I was saying, Grandma Willis claimed that my mom had Mayan ancestry through my mom's father (my grandfather) Debs Webster. Debs' mother, Esther Matus Villatoro (pictured below) was born in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico on September 18, 1893. She was the wife of my "Traveling Dentist" great-grandfather, Watson (Frederick) Emory Webster, who was born in Coolville, Athens, Ohio on February 14, 1864.



According to History.com (The History Channel's website),

"…the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador."

So, while it's true that my great-grandmother was born in Chiapas, and the Maya had lived in parts of Chiapas, and my grandmother claimed that my mom had Mayan ancestry, I still wouldn't have known for sure if part of my ancestry was, in fact, Mayan. Until now. You see, I took Family Tree DNA's autosomal DNA test called Family Finder. And I'd like to share my results with you.

Family Finder DNA Test Results

Here's the Pie Chart from my Family Finder DNA Test:

See that Native American slice? That's where the Mayan ancestry is listed.

Here we have the breakdown of the results by Continent, Population, Percentage and Margin of Error.




It's kind of hard to read, so here's the transcription:

• Europe (Finnish, French, Orcadian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tuscan) – 79.50% – Margin  of Error:  ±1.84%
• Middle East (North African) – 12.83% – Margin of Error:  ±1.61%
• Native American (Colombian, Maya) – 7.66% – Margin of Error:  ±0.67%

My Native American ancestry is populated by both Columbian (which I don't understand) and Mayan ancestry.

And here's a handy map that was provided with the results as well:

So, what about the rest of my DNA test results?

The Europe Result

I'm not surprised by the large European percentage. My father, Jan Albert Iverson, was half Norwegian and half Swedish. His ancestors go back for generations in both Norway and Sweden. And my great-grandfather on my mom's side, Watson (Frederick) Emory Webster, a.k.a. "The Traveling Dentist," was of English ancestry.

What is intriguing is that Sweden and Norway are not listed in the population list for Europe. Hmm. Orcadian is listed and Orcadians came from the Orkney Islands. According to Wikipedia, "Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse."

Finland borders both Sweden and Norway. According to another article in Wikipedia, "From the 12th until the start of the 19th century, Finland was a part of Sweden."

Do these facts explain how my Norwegian and Swedish ancestry is listed in this DNA test?

The Middle Eastern Result

I have to say that at first I was quite surprised by the Middle East (North African) test result. But, after doing some research, I'm not quite as surprised. My grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira (my mom's mother who passed away when my mom was four years old) was of Portuguese descent.

I have Portuguese ancestors from the Azores and Madeira. It's interesting to note how close those islands are to North Africa, especially the Island of Madeira. It's quite close to Morocco, which is in North Africa.



According to an article about the Portuguese Empire in Wikipedia, sailors from Portugal started to explore the coast of Africa in 1419. And the Portuguese colonized several areas around the world, including parts of Africa. Could this explain my North African DNA result?

Conclusion

So it turns out that my Grandma Willis was correct about our Mayan ancestry. Unfortunately, I can't tell her that she was right because she passed away in 1991. I am left to wonder how she knew this interesting bit of information about our family history. Did she discover this when she and my Grandpa Debs visited relatives in Chiapas, Mexico in 1955?

DNA testing is quite fascinating. But, it's just one piece of the family history puzzle. More traditional research is still needed to find and put together all of the puzzle pieces of our family histories.

By the way, I've emailed Family Tree DNA to see if they can answer my questions about why Norway and Sweden were not listed in my Population List for Europe. And I also asked them about the Middle East test result and if that was representative of my Portuguese ancestry. We'll see what they say.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last