It has been a while since my last post, but in addition to MyHeritage.com and FamilyTreeDNA I also received my Jamaican Ancestry.ca results. I am dedicating an entire blog post to these results because I have now made Ancestry.ca my main place for my DNA research.

Ethnicity Estimate

Full disclosure… I received these results months ago and my results have changed over time. As updated data comes in for each region, ancestry.ca updates the percentages to make these results more accurate. Additionally, ancestry.ca/com has the largest data pool from which to determine these results. The more data there is the more accurate the the estimate.

Jamaican Ancestry.ca Results – Ethnicity Estimate

DNA Relatives

Due to the large pool of data (users who submitted samples) there are much more relatives that I found in this system. As you can see there are even 2nd – 3rd cousins that I found. My wife found a 1st cousin. These results are very helpful when building a family tree especially for those with Jamaican ancestry.

Jamaican Ancestry.ca Results – DNA Matches

Comparison of Results

The table below represents the findings of each of the tests that I took. When we look at the numbers the results are quite similar with minor discrepancies. To see more detail of my MyHeritage.com and FamilyTreeDNA tests click here.

West AfricanEast Central AfricanEuropean
Ancestry.ca9064
MyHeritage.com88.47.83.8
FamilyTreeDNA9042

So what? Terrence you did all of this testing and analysis. You found out a little about your ethnic breakdown and you are now connected to a myriad of long lost cousins. What do you do with this information? What use is it to you? Well, it feels good to know. Slavery has destroyed Jamaican families. Studying our ancestry and genealogy and actually finding results is something that was impossible for generations of people like me. These modern tools have unlocked a door that can lead us to places that we cannot even fathom. My Jamaican Ancestry.ca DNA results, in addition to the DNA results from the other services, have made me even more determined to learn as much as I can about the amazing people in my family tree.

There are 3 main types of DNA testing used for genealogy: autosomal, mitochondrial (mtDNA), paternal yDNA. Each are great ways to find out information about yourself, but the collected data can lead you in multiple directions. Here I will try to briefly explain the differences.

yDNA – Paternal Line

First thing to know about this type of test is that it is only available to males. This test requires examination of the Y chromosome which only exists in males. However, if you are a woman there is still some hope for you. You can do the test on your brother, father, paternal uncles, or grandfather and the results will be the same. yDNA has been passed unchanged through your paternal male ancestors on your family tree for thousands of years, and due to this fact genealogists are able to use this information to determine where in the world your earliest ancestors lived.

For black people who are the descendants of slaves, using the paternal line when looking for their earliest male African ancestor has a lower rate of success than using your maternal line. According to AfricanAncestry.com paternal DNA test results in African ancestry 75% of the time while mitochondrial DNA tests result in African ancestry 92% of the time. Why is this? Sadly, it is because most white slave owners and overseers raped their female slaves. President of AfricanAncestry.com Dr. Gina Paige gives further explanation about this in the video below.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)– Maternal Line

As mentioned above there is also the mtDNA test. An unchanged portion of your Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from your mother, who in tern inherited from her mother and so on. This portion of DNA has also been passed down for thousands of years, just like yDNA on your paternal side. However, this test is open to both men and woman and is used find your earliest living maternal ancestor.

 

Autosomal DNA

As you can see the two previous tests miss out on everyone in the middle portion of your family tree. This where autosomal DNA testing comes in. This is the newest type of test and it covers everyone in your family tree going back around 5 generations and therefore picks up on all the people that were missed in the other two tests. With these results companies can compare the various portions of your DNA with others in their databases to determine what regions in the world your ancestors originated from and provide you with the percentage of DNA that you have that originates from those regions.

Personally, I’ve only done the autosomal DNA test, but hope to do both and mitochondrial and yDna test at some time in the future. As you have seen not all of the 3 types of DNA testing used for genealogy may apply to you, however I hope that this brief post helps if you are considering taking a test.

Reading through the birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates and baptismal records of my ancestors gives a small glimpse of what it might have been like in terms of just surviving. People had a lot of children in those days… I mean a lot. However, the flip side to all these births is the high infant mortality rate. Many mothers in my family tree lost babies between the ages of 0 – 2. My grandmother’s previous two siblings both died at birth. It’s a blessing to be alive.

I was able to go back pretty far on a couple of the lines of my tree, relatively speaking for a black person. (I’m still thinking about the best way to share this information on this site). However, I still wanted to back further, so my wife and I decided to test our DNA. I decided on myheritage.com. They were having a sale so I picked them. The test came in a couple of weeks. We swabbed our cheeks and sent it back. In a few months our results were in.

MyHeritageDNA

I was able to download my Raw DNA data and upload it to FamilyTreeDNA. These are the results.

FamilyTreeDNA