We're all Scottish now!

So Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has now rolled out its new DNA ethnicity estimates, and the good news is that we're all Scottish now - at least, as far as Twitter is concerned today, it seems that everybody has had a sudden revelation of Scottishness. Well, you can't beat perfection I suppose...!

This is my new ethnicity estimate, to the left, and my father's beside it:

Overnight I am now a whopping 82% Scottish, 16% Irish, and errrr, 2% French, which is a new one. And by the looks of things, my Belfast born father's lot must have fought at Culloden and Mons Graupius...

Actually, in some ways it does make some sense. In previous estimates I have had my estimate defined as being in a community that straddles the Irish Sea to encompass Lowland Scotland and Ulster, which had a substantial settlement of Scots in the 17th and 18th centuries - and this seems to be further reflected with my association with the 'Scottish Lowlands, Northern England & Northern Ireland' community. And yes, I do have very specific lines from Dublin which are clearly not Ulster Scots or Lowland Scots.

However, the new maps are certainly some craic. 'Ireland' now seems to include the Western Isles and the west coast of Scotland, and the map for 'Scotland' now includes Antrim, Down and the far north of England. Credit where it is due though, France is still in France.

In many ways not a lot has actually changed. All that I have found out in the last 20 years from my research can be interpreted both by this result and the previous version, if we accept that I am now also miraculously 1/50th French and my believed Yorkshire line has now seemingly been quashed by the Jacobites.

As ever folks, enjoy the new results, until they change again.

But do take the Scottish bit seriously - we're all Jock Tamson's bairns....!
 
Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.