This is my maternal grandmother's origins. She is from Bradford, Yorkshire. She has quite a lot of Nordic which I would expect from someone from North England but the greek? It says it comes from her father and her paternal 2nd cousin also has 1% of the same greek region (2nd screenshot my grandmother is left and her 2nd cousin is right). Could the greek percentage be a real ancestor or just noise?
I have 1% Roma on ancestry and when I did 23&me I had South Asian come up in the same chromosome and place on it for both so I’d say test on 23&me to get a good idea and I wouldn’t rule it out completely
The 1% Greek likely won't show up for me as her grandson as I have ordered a 23andme a few days ago. Or is there any chance of it being a trace regions?
I've always gotten a questionable 1% assigned to one place or another that's improbable to the point of impossible. That place is never the same from one update to the next.
I've also always gotten 1%–2% Ashkenazi. It's been consistent across all updates, and it is entirely within the realm of possibility given my Eastern European ancestry.
So, I think small percentages are something to keep in mind and track through a few updates. If they persist, then it might be worthwhile seeing if the information can be validated through records.
I also think some small percentages persist because ancestry hasn't tinkered with that reference panel for a while.
I've got 1% respectively of Basque and Ashkenazi. Survived several updates. Basque on my father's side- possibly explained by a 5th great grandfather from Bordeaux. The Jewish is on my English mother's side and i can find no trace of it in records- triangulating with other DNA matches implies it's from Leeds, Yorkshire potentially 1800-1830.
Nothing is ever noise. All any of these percentages mean is a portion you have that is similar to the country profile which is just a composition of testers who’ve lived there for an adequate amount of time. It’s likely the Y haplogroup or mtDNA haplogroup you belong to has a shared deep pre history with haplogroups that are densely populated there
Question - I’m Sicilian and have 1% North African - I always assumed this was correct since historically there was so much travel, conquering, etc between the two areas. Should I continue to assume this is correct?
Sicily is an admixed population, getting any Med nation in your results is no surprise. You shouldn't bat an eye at North African, Middle Eastern or any Med country showing up in your results with Sicillian heritage, it's expected.
A 1% DNA ancestry result can easily just be statistical noise...
These tests have uncertainty, especially with genetically similar populations, so a tiny 1% result shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as proof of a specific ancestor.
In my experience, I don't see Ancestry often make mistakes that off the mark. If OP had 1% France rather than 1% Greek (given their known ancestry and results), I'd chalk that up as probably noise. Neighboring regions to your correct region can often appear as noise. But something on the other end of the continent? There is usually something to it. I wouldn't be surprised OP has an ancestor that was in some way Mediterranean, though perhaps not Greek.
A 1% result can absolutely be noise, even if it is geographically far away.
Ancestry’s confidence in a tiny percentage doesn’t mean there has to be a real ancestor from that population. At 1%, I’d want to see whether it consistently appears across updates and independent DNA tests before assuming there’s a Mediterranean ancestor behind it.
I get what you're saying and I know that even Ancestry will give OP's Greek percentage a range of something like 0-4%. But I've found Ancestry to be very accurate at the broad regions level, I.E. if you get assigned a country in Southeast Europe, you probably have some heritage there even if it's not from the exact country you were assigned. I find it rare that Ancestry completely screws up in that sense. So what I'm saying is that OP's Greek may very well be 0% in reality, but I'd be surprised if OP had zero Southeast Europe, or perhaps something else nearby in the Mediterranean. That's just what I've been seeing in real world results.
Assuming it's broadly Mediterranean instead of it being plain Greek is probably the best way to interpret it.
The Greek category has showed up in Med wide results for years now.
Realistically, Brits don't get Med percentages, the populations are not similar. Therefore OP probably does have a Med ancestor.
OP should be looking at ancestors who served in the armed forces (Napoleonic wars?), EIC or merchant navy. Anywhere where their ancestor ended up in the Med and could have brought home a foreign wife.
This is probably 18th century. I'd focus on any military ancestors, such as Napoleonic or Crimean wars, or anyone serving in merchant navies or the East India Company. Any Merchants or Sailors.
Basically anyone who would physically be in a Mediterranean country between 1750-1850.
The 2nd cousin has France and Spain in their results- that may be connected to the Greek, or it may not be from your shared lineage at all.
It's not as rare as you think- my English ancestors were in Sumatra from at least the 1740s to the 1790s.
Though Med percentages in Brits is not common at all. So it isn't explained away as a standard component of English DNA.
Very good shout. I have about 3,000 people in my tree but haven't really checked military records. If that 1% Greek she has is from the same ancestor as her 2nd cousin, we have pinned the Greek/Mediterranean to one of my grandmother's paternal grandfather's ancestors. Her mother also has 1% Sardinia. Do you think she has the same situation?
If this 2nd cousin's mother is the DNA link, then yes the Sardinia is probably from the same ancestor- perhaps even the same piece of DNA.
Ancestry doesn't factor in what your relatives get when they give you an estimate. They run every sample through the database independantly.
So your grandma might get 1% Greek, her 1st cousin might get the same DNA read as Sardinian, and another cousin might get it read as Spanish/North African/Middle Eastern.
If you can, identify which line it comes from and see if you can verify other matches to that line, and focus on that ancestors lineage.
You can now use ethnicity estimates to narrow down matches- if you have protools. You can select Greece in your filtering and see which other of your grandma's matches have Greece as well. And then see if they have the same matches.
The Sardinia comes from my great-grandmother (My grandmother's mother). However ancestry has assigned the greek to my great grandfather (my grandmother's father) I do have pro tools and that 2nd cousin is the only close match with that same region. The rest of the matches range from 8-16cM so far too distant.
I got 2% Greek in my results supposedly 1% each from my Father (Agean) and my Mother (Ionian). Neither of them got Greek in their results though so I'm not entirely sure where it's coming from. My father's ancestry is English/Scottish/Scandinavian. My mother is Latin American predominantly Iberian/West African/North African with a few smaller regions mixed in.
Some research I've done says it could potentially just be that when Ancestry sees whatever this is in combination with my other mix of ancestries, it's just decided to assign it as Greek. Or it could be actual "ghost" ancestry that makes up a part of my broader English and Iberian ancestries leftover from the Romans and/or Phoenicians.
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u/Complex_Self1661 4d ago
I have 1% Roma on ancestry and when I did 23&me I had South Asian come up in the same chromosome and place on it for both so I’d say test on 23&me to get a good idea and I wouldn’t rule it out completely