Almost exactly 3 years ago, I received the results of a consumer DNA test linked to my sloth-like family tree research. I posted about it at the time. Shortly after that, in March 2017, I posted a map produced by the company showing my genetic markers within the UK. In the latter post I commented that
Also, because the company that did it doesn’t have good reference data for Ireland yet, I have reason to believe the map might change on later re-examination when that reference data becomes available.
I got the update results through today, and I was right: addition of Irish data has made a difference. I knew it would because of the Heaney family in the mid-nineteenth century. What I didn’t expect was the new North and West Europe markers (tagged Northwest Germanic), and the reshuffling of the British regional markers.
Autosomal Me
On the face of it, this is a refreshed set of data for the last 10 generations or so, to the extent that the markers have been shuffled up and passed to me via Mum and Dad. I daresay it is accurate in that sense. The problem is I only have paper records for some of it and, in most cases, only back to around 1800 (1745/6 in the best). This puts some of these markers safely before I have evidence, and without the other evidence they don’t get me very far.
From a genealogical perspective, without a paper trail, this is just a curiosity, as is my mtDNA and yDNA make up. From a much broader and more political perspective, it helps give the lie to the petty nonsenses of nationalism. Like every other human being on the planet, what links me to everyone else is overwhelmingly more than the supposed divisions between us.
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