Autosomal DNA

In January 2021 I received autosomal DNA (auDNA) results from Living DNA's Full Ancestry test. That test uses People of the British Isles data, obtained from a study of 2039 living people across Britain whose four grandparents lived in broadly the same region. It is therefore probably the best autosomal test for those from the British Isles. My family has lived in rural/coastal northeast England for many centuries and the results reflect this. Most of the auDNA is from North East England (63.1%) - i.e. 49.7% in Living DNA's 'North Yorkshire' section and 13.4% in their 'Northumbria' one. Those two regions broadly represent the old Kingdom of Northumbria (Deira and Bernicia respectively). Of known ancestry outside this region, my maternal great great grandparents moved from Cornwall to North Yorkshire in the 1860s and I have inherited 6.5% from Cornwall. After NW England (4.7%), the rest of the results from other regions were at much lower percentages. As with other chip-based panel tests, our DF27>ZZ12 yDNA subclade was not recognised (I just got a R1b-P312 result), but overall the autosomal breakdown matches the paper trail and the history of the region that my ancestors lived in.

Autosomal DNA only endures 5-6 generations. It has no connection after many centuries and many dozens of generations with ancient 'y' DNA - it reflects the population we live in now. In contrast, the y chromosome is handed down from father to son almost unchanged over dozens of generations. Autosomal DNA comes from all our near relatives. The y chromosome picks up occasional mutations over time, but does not experience substantial recombination like autosomal DNA.

Maternal DNA is U5b1d1c. FTDNA Haplotree Country Report (July 2021) shows most U5b1d1c kits have origins in England, n=16 (33.33%). 9 kits (18.75%) from Ireland, 2 from Wales (4.17%), 1 each (2.08%) from Germany, Slovakia, Scotland, France and Hungary. Female burial OTTM_142 from Oberottmarshausen - Kiesgrube Lauter, Lech Valley, Germany, dated 1687-1502 calBCE was found to be U5b1d1a.

Europe: 100%

Great Britain and Ireland: 92.2%

Europe (North and West): 7.8% (Scandinavia 5.3%, Northwest Germanic 2.4%)

Great Britain and Ireland:

North Yorkshire 49.7%

Northumbria 13.4%

Cornwall 6.5%

Cumbria 5.1%

Northwest England 4.7%

East Anglia 3.3%

Ireland 2%

Central England 1.6%

N Ireland and SW Scotland 1.5%

Aberdeenshire 1.5%

Orkney and Shetland Island 1.5%

South Central England 1.2%