Tuesday, August 14, 2018

More Finds with DNA

When I did my husband's DNA it was a pretty big shock to us. This man who is 100 percent Portuguese was 34 percent Southern European (Italian Greek), 27 percent Iberian which is Portuguese, 24 percent Great Britain and some other things. But the 24 percent Great Britain was the most shocking. My grandmother is from England and I am only 4 percent Great Britain. 

We really had no idea where this came from. Al's father once told me that one of his sisters had blond hair and blue eyes which is pretty interesting. I have had contact with a DNA relative of Al's, their great-grandfathers are brothers, so they are 3rd cousins, I shot Danny off a message to ask him if he had any Great Britain in his DNA and he responded immediately, not one drop!!

I then contracted Trinda who is related to him on his mother's mother's side and asked her if she has any English. Not a drop but they do have Irish and Scottish, which Al also has.

Since their matches are on Al's mother's side, this tells me that Great Britain comes from his father's side. Now, of course, I still have no idea where and who but it at least is the first step in identifying this one aspect of his genealogy. 

DNA can tell us things about ourselves that we never knew. Al was quite stunned by all this, he identifies as Portuguese and finding out that his roots are more Italian and Greek than Portuguese has confused him, to say the least. What I will do with this information I can't tell you yet but hopefully something.  

Update: In the two years since I wrote this Ancestry has changed his DNA summary and he is now 100% Portuguese which is good news for him but I am 8% Welsh which has confused me. I think I will just wait and no doubt it will change again.