Tuesday, April 3, 2018

New 23andMe Ethnicity Results

Still waiting on the Living DNA results. However new ethnicity results came in from 23andMe to help tide me over until I get those results.

The ethnicity results have come a long way since my first results in 2012. My first results looked like what you see in the pie chart below. Very basic. The Middle Eastern result has gone down to a small trace.

The new 23andMe result is attempting to present much more specific results based on more populations. 23andMe has always presented my family with the best ethnicity estimates based on our knowledge of our heritage.

The added ethnicities now showing up are accurate for my family. Here is my list of ethnicities. I highlighted the new specific results.


Ireland that would be accurate because my great-grandmother Helen Mullen was born in Ireland. The Slovakian is an ethnicity that I haven't been able to verify using traditional genealogy. DNA.Land also came up with a similar result. This result would have come from my Austro-Hungarian family. They lived on the Austrian Hungarian border. They were actually relocated from another unknown area in the 18th Century to the border area. This result may lead us to a place of origin at some point?  I'm leaning on definitely believing the Kappels and Kurtas were Slavic.

My grandmother Graciela Del Castillo was Nicaraguan so that ethnicity is also correct.

My mother's results are also fascinating (see below). Her British Isles wasn't categorized as Irish, but instead they are calling it United Kingdom. Often someone like my mother with substantial Scottish heritage is grouped with Irish, or just called Irish. That is a pet peeve with me because the Scottish and Irish are culturally different. They both have wonderful, but different cultures. I know from a DNA standpoint these two groups may be nearly identical, or actually identical. If they can be separated I would like to see that, or just make it clear Scots and Irish are indistinguishable from a DNA standpoint.

My mother was half Nicaraguan so that was spot on.



I would say the percentages are not completely accurate, because these are estimates. Otherwise the results are looking good. Can't wait to see what Living DNA come up with. They say they run the test 100 times to get the most accurate result. We'll see?


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