Ancestry identifies Ulster-Scots DNA communities

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has made an interesting update to its DNA communities, further pinpointing where in Ulster your ancestral DNA may hail from.

In my results I now have the following breakdown:

Scotland 84%

- Northern Ireland & Southwest Scotland

• Western Northern Ireland
• Fermanagh & Southwestern Tyrone
• Eastern Northern Ireland & Southwestern Scotland

When examining my father's results the communities are even more promising:

Scotland 91%

- Northern Ireland & Southwest Scotland

• Western Northern Ireland
• Fermanagh & Southwestern Tyrone

And for my mother's brother:

Scotland 77%

- Northern Ireland & Southwest Scotland.

• Eastern Northern Ireland & Southwestern Scotland
• Antrim & Eastern Londonderry/Derry
• Central & Southwestern Antrim

Incidentally, all of the above are part of a wider Scotland category, although our mainland Scottish side has as yet to be broken down into communities (something which LivingDNA has successfully picked up on already). So we're looking here at immigrant Scottish DNA to Ireland, mainly from the Plantations and post-Plantations period, and it is remarkably accurate in the breakdown, from what I have so far managed to research. 

For all three of us the remainder of our DNA is from the Ireland community, with me at 16%, my father at 9%, and my uncle at 23%. None of our Irish profiles have been broken down further at this stage, although I know my uncle's and mother's lines include Catholic ancestors from Dublin. 

Very useful, and I look forward to seeing future community developments with my ancestry from Scotland itself, predominantly my father's Highland connections!

** Incidentally, I hosted a talk last night for Family Tree magazine with the wonderful Laura House from Ancestry - she confirmed to me that Ancestry will soon be increasing the potential number of DNA groups that we can create on our profiles, a MUCH needed development! 

Chris

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