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Based on what I know about my ancestry, I'm inclined to believe that I'm higher on the Ghana/Ivory Coast range.
For the rest of us, I've seen Ivory Coast/Ghana be as low as 1 or 2% to topping out at 20-25%, and the the majority of the time I see the high end(adjoined by high Mali) in those of us with a more recent Gullah background. Ivory Coast/Ghana being your top region by far is definitely reflective of much more recent Ghanaian heritage. Also, it's interesting you have 3 ethnicity regions with a low range above 0%. For me, only Nigeria is like that with a range of 23-46%, but I did have Scotland ranging 1-9% two updates ago.
My England and Northwestern Europe disappeared but my Germanic Europe came back. I know for a fact that I am about 1/8 German, so it was good to see my DNA results reflect that (at 9%). I also gained more Welsh and Scottish. Before I had a lot of England and Northwestern Europe, so I'm guessing that it went there.
The numbers are shifting around pretty dramatically for some people based on the parts of the world that their ancestors came from, pretty clearly. As the databases grow, the results get more specific.
I'm just gonna compare the most recent Ancestry update with the results from another tester, 23andMe, which has had a reputation for more granular ethnic breakdowns...
I'm intrigued by what to make of the "big buckets" of European ethnicity.
As I mentioned awhile back, I'm part Acadian and part Irish, with some remote German, I know that much:
Ancestry DNA now has me at:
54% France
30% Ireland
15% England and Northwestern Europe
1% Indigenous Americas - North
Whereas 23andMe has me at:
56% British and Irish
10.9% French and German
15.2% Broadly Northwestern European
16.6% Southern European (with further breakdowns into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese)
1% Indigenous American
Takeaway: 23andMe places far less in the bucket "French." And my Acadian DNA ended up showing as much Southern European ancestry (which would've originated pre-1600s) as French at any rate. No Southern European in Ancestry.
Ancestry DNA seems to be using more extensive databases with many more samples that would be related to me... And the main difference I see is that the Southern European traces disappear, while much more is identified as "French," so that's interesting.
Geography is the other big difference, for recent ancestry. And as I mentioned earlier, Ancestry did pinpoint my grandparents' and great-grandparents' communities... Not to specific villages, but they did zone in on to specific river valleys, in eastern and central Canada and New England, which was striking to me.
You could take my DNA, see where my mother's and father's ancestors came from, and make a pretty decent guess as to where I grew up. Brave new world. These are sub-sub region levels. Sub-regions that are within provinces. Intriguing! And maybe a bit scary, and only possible if a large number of people within the regions have their DNA tested and included in the databases.
As more clients have their DNA tested and link up family trees via Ancestry, there may be more possibility of pinpointing geographic locations for ancestors, in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere...
We are doing a dive into new territory here with DNA ancestry testing.
For the rest of us, I've seen Ivory Coast/Ghana be as low as 1 or 2% to topping out at 20-25%, and the the majority of the time I see the high end(adjoined by high Mali) in those of us with a more recent Gullah background. Ivory Coast/Ghana being your top region by far is definitely reflective of much more recent Ghanaian heritage. Also, it's interesting you have 3 ethnicity regions with a low range above 0%. For me, only Nigeria is like that with a range of 23-46%, but I did have Scotland ranging 1-9% two updates ago.
It is very interesting. I was looking at an ancestry project that someone was compiling on one of the Ancestry forums sometime ago. I was surprised that more of those with Jamaican ancestry didn't have higher Ghana/Ivory Coast results given that a lot of Akans were supposedly shipped to that part of the world during the slave trade. I wonder if that's changed for folks with these new updates . . . my Ghana/Ivory Coast percentages drastically changed over time, but I think a big part of this is because how how Ancestry has refined things.
More specifically (and going to your point about me having more recent Ghanaian ancestry), my paternal grandfather was from Ghana. He was born in the Volta Region, but my family identifies as Fante and my ancestors migrated to the Volta Region from Anomabo in the Central Region several generations ago. When I saw that my Benin/Togo percentages were previously as high as they were, I was thrown off, but then looking more closely at Ancestry's DNA map, I saw that much of Western Ghana (where the Volta Region is) overlapped with the Benin/Togo profile. So I guess my updated results are just Ancestry getting better, which I'm appreciative of
Meh, the test swapped out a chunk of my English for Scottish.........says I am like 42% Scottish now, which doesn't match the family tree. The chrom. browser paints entire 1/2 chromes of mine as Scottish, which is impossible.
The test nailed my grandmother though. 2 grandparents from Scotland, the other side of the family all German, she comes back nearly 50/50 between those regions. Chrome browser shows one parents is Scottish, the other German, so kudos to Ancestry for that one.
Meh, the test swapped out a chunk of my English for Scottish.........
The test nailed my grandmother though.
I'm coming at it all from the other end ... being adopted.
I have zero emotional reasons to care how it all lays out
but the current estimates align pretty well with the tree I've built.
The newest 23&Me estimates align pretty well with the Ancestry results;
but with more vague/fuzzy at the edges.
btw... I have a long ago link into the Garrett family; 8thGGF b1650 in Baltimore.
His father landed near Jamestown ~1635. I think an indenture.
I'm coming at it all from the other end ... being adopted.
I have zero emotional reasons to care how it all lays out
but the current estimates align pretty well with the tree I've built.
Same here, also adopted, but I care about how these things work because other adoptees and people with unknown heritage can be led astray by inaccurate results. My first DNA test came back saying I was all Russian and French. That was interesting, but made me scratch my head because my DNA matches mostly had WASP-y looking names, no Russian or French. Over time the estimates improved, and as I pieced together my genetic tree going from the 1800's forward and identified my birth parents, I then had a good idea "what I was made of."
MyHeritage still says I'm 1/4 Italian (the only company that says I have any Italian at all), and if I were just starting out as an adoptee I would assume I had an Italian grandparent, which I would use to explain my love for Italian food, etc. And I would be wrong. Instead I have a German grandparent, which is far less sexy.
I'm coming at it all from the other end ... being adopted.
I have zero emotional reasons to care how it all lays out
but the current estimates align pretty well with the tree I've built.
The newest 23&Me estimates align pretty well with the Ancestry results;
but with more vague/fuzzy at the edges.
btw... I have a long ago link into the Garrett family; 8thGGF b1650 in Baltimore.
His father landed near Jamestown ~1635. I think an indenture.
Yeah, I think the 23andMe method of having those fuzzy edges is better in many cases. Much of my ancestry probably is best described as "Broadly British Isles" or some sort at this point. I maxed out as 72% English/NW Euro on one update.......down to 20% now..........of course both can't be right. At some level I remind myself that these are customer driven sites, and with all the complaints about the test assigning "too much English" to many people is going to mean a knee jerk reaction back the other way. So, meh, the consistent part is that if you add up all the British Isles regions, it is nearly always 75-80% of my results, 10-12% Jewish which has not varied update to update, and the rest as various Germanic regions...
Garrett was a big man, RR owner. I don't think anyone that notable in my tree other than maybe the guy Frostburg is named after, Josiah Frost.
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