Today I decided to check out the new chromosome browser in Ancestry. Looking at dad’s results these are his ethnicity on each chromosome:
Parent 1
- Irish – 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
- Scottish – 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 22
- English/NW Europe – 1, 13
Parent 2
- Welsh – 7, 13
- Scottish – 2, 3, 6, 16
- Swedish – 9, 17, 21
- English/NW Europe – 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22
But which parent is dad’s mother?
When we first began this journey with dad’s DNA, it was to find out if he had Samoan heritage. Most of his cousins were very dark as were one of their parents with the surname Smith. Yet dad’s mother, Irene, had an extremely pale complexion.
Maybe looking at Ruby’s DNA ethnicity and chromosome browser, I can work out which side is dad’s mother and which is his father.
Parent 1 has the Samoan DNA so this is definitely from Ruby’s mother. The Samoan DNA comes from her father Robert Smith who was one quarter Samoan. Some of the other DNA will be from his wife Nellie Smith nee Somers/Summers/Clark/O’Keefe/Charles who is the common ancestor to both dad and Ruby. Nellie is a problem ancestor as we are unsure of her parents.
What other ethnicities are from Ruby’s mother that match or are similar to dad’s mother?
- English/NW Europe – 2, 11, 13, 15
- Irish – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22
- Scottish – 7
- Welsh – none
- Swedish – 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 19, 21
Ruby’s other ethnicities from parent 1 include: Southern Bantu, Tonga, Nigeria, East Polynesia/New Zealand Maori, Benin/Togo and Southern Philippines.
Comparison
As dad’s parent 2 has no Irish at all, yet Ruby’s mum has Irish on 12 different chromosomes, this would suggest that dad’s parent 1 is his mother. Any chromosome ethnicity common to both dad’s mother and Ruby’s mother must come from their mother who is their common parent.
- Irish – 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 – Dad
- Irish – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22 – Ruby
- Scottish – 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 22 – Dad
- Scottish – 7 – Ruby
- English/NW Europe – 1, 13 – Dad
- English/NW Europe – 2, 11, 13, 15 – Ruby
I think this fits well as dad’s mother’s father has mainly Scottish and Irish ethnicity. So that would be the remainder of the chromosomes not fitting with Ruby’s mother.
My next step to continue using the DNAPainter program to paint dad’s chromosomes using results from other databases.