Hi - the LostCousnis newsletter is valuable and much work is put into it.
However, it is not always correct and there is a need for a disclaimer as
to their financial interests which pushes selling certain products
(commission off the links). Whilst sometimes the newsletter mentions it,
it needs to be more direct. Disclosure is standard good practice online,
it is important as impacts how people evaluate information.
On Ancestry, if you look at the map that comes with the DNA results, then
Ireland covers all of Wales too. Great Britain covers some of Northern
France, etc. Ethnicity models are variable because they are just that:
models. As I have said previously, don't just rely on what Ancestry, etc
tells you. Upload your kit to GEDmatch (free) and have a look there too.
There are various ethnicity models on there (the Eurogenes is more accurate
for people from the British Isles) and take a look. You can even upload
your Ancestry results to FTDNA and be in more databsaes (more databases =
more matches). With GEDmatch, the ethnicity models can tell you the
percentage of your roots being Early Hunter Gatherers, European Early
Farmers, etc. I found these models far more interesting and far more
powerful than the generic ethnicity mixes that come with Ancestry, FTDNA
and 23andme.
As for siblings, they do not inherit the same segments of DNA from parents,
as autosomal DNA remixes. Thus it follows their mix from both parents is
different and ethnicity percentages.
I have to say DNA has greatly enhanced my research. I have helped adoptees
find their biological families (at 4th cousin level) through my paternal
lineage. DNA has also thrown a major curveball in respect of one part of
my tree and I am now on a quest to figure it out. DNA has also given me
partial answers for an unknown father (not mine) in my tree, I now know the
area and I am even related to someone on this list via this line but I've
yet to figure out how. I need more people out there to test.
As Brian Swann said on another list:
'Of course, it is everyone's call whether they want to verify their
documentation research this way [DNA testing]. This is the downside, if you
do not. You can build paper trails in the air, which may be very gratifying
to you, but may also be ultimately shown not to be who you really are. They
are creative fiction which can stand modern-day comparison with some of the
descent trees in Burke's Peerage in the 19th century before the advent of
researchers like John Horace Round.'
Never a truer word spoken.
Alison