My DNA Ancestor

I had been waiting with anticipation for my test results and here they are.

They are a bit of a surprise. I knew I was Irish and had some English but I never dreamed Scandinavia. Also, I thought my German ancestry would have shown up.

On my father’s side there is Irish and a little bit German.

My surname immigrant (my 2^nd great grandfather) came from Ireland to the United States in 1848. He married in the US to another Irish Immigrant. Their son married the daughter of a German Immigrant couple. Their Son is my grandfather and thus I figured he would have been 50% German and 50% Irish.

Now on my paternal grandmother’s side, looks 75% Irish and 25% English.

So my Dad would be 62.5% Irish, 12.5 percent English and 25% German. So shouldn’t I be half of this and have 31.25% Irish, 6.25 English and 12.5 German and then the rest from my mother’s side?

On my mother’s side there is German, Irish, English and perhaps Polish. My mother was adopted by her step-father and all I know about her biological father is from her non-identifying adoption papers that state her father was Polish. However, this information didn’t come from her father but from her mother. Plus my mother wasn’t adopted until she was 18 years old and my grandmother was giving information on what she knew about him, 18+ years after meeting him. See the flaws?

Plus, my maternal grandmother’s side has been in the US since the 1700’s. So breaking down the percentages is a little more difficult, especially since I don’t know who the mothers are for many of the generations.

However, if the DNA percentages are accurate, I would have gotten 24.75% Irish and 6.25% English from my mother. I don’t know who I received the 23% of Scandinavia from. Perhaps this came from my mother’s biological father’s side? Perhaps this came from my maternal grandmother’s side from all those unknown female branches. But the big question is where did the 12.5% German that I should have received from my father’s side go? Where?

All this DNA stuff is so interesting but also very confusing. However, I do have a very unique family. I have six half siblings that we share DNA on our mother’s side. So if I have their DNA tested and no Scandinavia shows up, then it came from my father’s side. Also, my mother has one living half-sister and if I have her DNA tested and she doesn’t have Scandinavia but my half-siblings do, then the Scandinavia comes from my mother’s biological father. However, if my aunt also has Scandinavia then perhaps it comes from unknown branches on my maternal grandmother’s side.

So in typical genealogy fashion, I get one question answered and have many new ones to find answers for.