Genetic Journey: Ancestry Composition

When I first submitted my DNA to be analyzed through 23andMe, I wondered if I might uncover something surprising through its ancestry composition tools. Perhaps there was something from my family’s history that had fallen out of memory. There wasn’t much that was unexpected in the results, nevertheless I found them interesting.

Just shy of a quarter of my ancestry is linked to Irish and British origins, which matches with what I know of my family’s history. Smaller portions of my heritage that combined make up less than 3% of my background are Scandinavian, French, German and Finnish. Nearly 60% of my ancestry can be placed in the category Nonspecific Northern European and another 15% into Nonspecific European.

I’ll record details of my maternal and paternal lines in a future entry and those actually held fascinating information about how my distant ancestors might have migrated through the world.

Ancestry Composition tells you what percent of your DNA comes from each of 22 populations worldwide. The analysis includes DNA you received from all of your ancestors, on both sides of your family. The results reflect where your ancestors lived 500 years ago, before ocean-crossing ships and airplanes came on the scene.

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