DNA Validation for my wife

My wife’s DNA results from ancestry.com show the following percentages:

·       Europe West – 44%

·       Great Britain – 30%

·       Europe East – 17%

·       Ireland/Scotland/Wales – 3%

·       Europe South – 3%

·       Caucasus – 1%

·       Scandinavia – <1%

·       European Jewish – <1%

Let me look at the family tree I’ve constructed for her to see how much of this can be validated.

·       Europe West

o   The VanDeCar family is from the Netherlands and over the time they have been in America (since 1630), primarily married others of similar background, with a few exceptions as noted below.

o   Her great-grandfather, John Duba, was from Canada and both his parents were of French ancestry (Debeau and Dion)

o   Estimate = 50%-12% exceptions+6% from Europe east exceptions = 44% (right on!)

·       Great Britain

o   Her maternal grandfather’s surname was Wright and nearly all of his ancestors were English (via New England)

o   A few of the marriages on her father’s line were to individuals of English descent, such as her great-great-grandmother, Nancy Kitchen

o   Estimate = 25%+6%=31% (within 1%)

·       Europe East

o   Her maternal grandmother’s surname was Cincush, which is the anglicized version of Czenkus. Her family was from an area that is now part of Poland. However, some of the Czenkus ancestors came from a bit further west in Germany which would be counted in Europe West, and others seem to be a bit further south which would be counted as Europe South.

o   Estimate = 25%-6% exceptions to Europe West-2% exceptions to Europe East=17% (right on!)

·       Ireland/Scotland/Wales

o   One of her great-great-grandfathers was Christopher Swaney. His parents were John Swaney and Rosanna McFadden, both from Irish immigrant families

o   Estimate 6% (over by 3%) – since early Irish records not available it appears that some of them may have originally come from other regions

·       Europe South

o   Estimate = 2% exceptions from Europe East = 2% (within 1%)

The other DNA regions are at the 1% or less level, so would be very difficult to confirm. But just on a rough basis, each of the other regions above have been confirmed on a rough basis.

I am pleased that my research into her ancestors has been pretty well confirmed by her DNA results. The only real unknown is from far back in her Irish ancestors where they appear to be from other regions and I have no way of confirming it.