Around two years ago I bought a basic commercial DNA test through Ancestry.com. (I wrote about it briefly here). The results (see below screenshot) said my DNA was 79% “Europe West” — an illustrative map showed this region as an enlarged Germany. A fraction of German DNA would not be surprising, since my mother’s father was born in Pennsylvania to German immigrants… but my other three grandparents were not German so it seemed high. Was it possible that my Germanic genes simply overpowered my English and Scottish genes? It was a bit confusing, but maybe genetics are complicated. Or my family history is complicated. What gave the test results credibility in my eyes was how it pinpointed that my family settled in America in Pennsylvania.
Old DNA Results (2017)
Then this week I got an email from Ancestry.com saying that my old DNA results had been updated based on new reference samples: “Your DNA doesn’t change, but genetic science does.”
New DNA Results (2019)
Things I found interesting:
- “Europe West” has been renamed “Germanic Europe” and reduced from 79% to a mere 15%. It turns out Germanic genes are not as strong as all that.
- My Great Britain DNA is now a whooping 48%. Granted, there is generous overlapping on the map with the other regions.
- “Ireland” has been expanded to include Scotland and increased to 28%
- The 5% Italy/Greece just disappeared, as apparently Ancestry.com has since gathered sufficient data to realize what anyone who’s ever seen the starkness of my untanned skin can verify: None of my ancestors ever left their caves.
- 6% Norway is not entirely a surprise, as my father once got an DNA test that said he was mostly genetically from Finland/Russian
Honestly, the biggest surprise was that Ancestry.com gave me the updated results without making me pay or join anything, but I guess it’s only fair considering how far off they were two years ago. I spent two year thinking I am 80% German, and thus feeling an inordinate amount of interest in and empathy for the German people. The 2018 World Cup was not fun.
