Not long ago, Ancestry introduced a new DNA tool called Ethnicity Inheritance where they apparently show you which ethnicities you have inherited from each parent – even if your parents haven’t taken DNA tests.
As it happens, both of my parents have tested so I was curious to see how the ethnicity inheritance results on my own and my younger brother’s tests compared to my parents’ actual DNA ethnicity results. Remember, these ethnicity splits are ignoring my parents’ actual tests and just estimating the split using their technology they call SideView and applying it to my and my brother’s results. It’s also worth bearing in mind that we only receive half of each parent’s DNA leaving half that we don’t. In addition, the 50% you receive is random which is just as well otherwise we’d all be identical twins to our siblings!
Ancestry initially label the parents as Parent 1 and Parent 2 and it’s up to you to label them yourself if you think you can work out which side is which. You need to have studied your family tree to do this and you’ll want some variation between each parent. I’m fairly confident that I have the paternal and maternal side correct and so I added these labels manually.
Below you’ll firstly see the ethnicity results taken directly from my parents’ DNA kits and then you’ll see my and my brother’s actual ethnicity results together with what Ancestry believes we each received from each parent.
My Dad’s DNA Ethnicity
My Mum’s DNA Ethnicity
My Ethnicity Breakdown
My Brother’s Ethnicity Breakdown
As stated, we don’t get an exact 50% split from each parent’s individual ethnicity but, for the purposes of this exercise, I’ve halved their figures to see how my brother and I compare to our parents.
Half of my dad’s ethnicity would be…
England & Northwest Europe: 41%
Norway: 3.5%
Wales: 3%
Scotland: 1.5%
Sweden & Denmark: 1%
Half of my mum’s ethnicity would be…
England & Northwest Europe: 23%
Ireland: 16%
Scotland: 8%
Norway: 1.5%
Wales: 1.5%
So what do we see?
Both my brother and I received a fairly accurate split of England & Northwest Europe from each parent. I’m a little top heavy on the Ireland region whereas my brother has a lot more from Scotland. I seem to have all of my dad’s Norway whereas my brother received a little from both parents. I got my dad’s 2% Sweden & Denmark but my brother has none and, for me, the Wales was a fairly good split between each parent but my brother got all his Wales from my mum.
It’s interesting to note that, when I went into the ethnicity inheritance estimates for my parents, I wasn’t able to work out which parent was which when I looked at my dad’s split. Ancestry believe my dad received 43% England & Northwest Europe from one parent and 39% from the other and the smaller regions don’t really give me any clues.
I was much more confident with my mum’s estimate as she received 44% England & Northwest Europe from one parent and only 2% from the other. This would account for my gran’s North Devon and Somerset ancestry. Mum also shows 32% Ireland and 16% Scotland from the other parent only and this is born out by the fact that my aunt and two more of their paternal first cousins (who have quite distinctive splits) point to similar results on my grandpa’s side of the family. Scotland and Ireland have close ties in genetic terms. I still have not identified where this DNA comes from but I have a suspicion that my grandfather’s father, James Geake, might not have been the son of the parents named on his birth certificate.
[UPDATE 2025: through further DNA testing and analysis, I have since learned that my great-grandfather, James Geake, was not the son of his recorded parents and that he had strong genetic ties to Sligo in Ireland. The mystery continues but the surname Kilmartin/Gilmartin from that area crops up numerous times amongst our family’s DNA matches. Read about the DNA discovery here.
