RootsTech 2022

 From FamilySearch.org:

Join us at RootsTech

The World’s Largest Family History Conference

100% Virtual, 100% Free

3–5 March 2022

Sign up for RootsTech so you can enjoy:

• Inspiring keynote speakers
• Unlimited access to over 1,500 sessions
• Expo Hall with companies from around the world
• Playlists, chat, and much more

From me:

If you are interested in taking your genealogy to the next level be sure to register for the RootsTech Family History Conference by FamilySearch.org -- it's FREE.  And it's virtual, so you can attend in the comfort of your own home!!  

I have been attending RootsTech from it's inception in 2011.  In past years, I would need to pay a registration fee, travel to Salt Lake City, and stay in a hotel -- a lot of time and cost involved.  But, it was always worth it!  Over the years of attending RootsTech I learned so much to help me in my family history.  

Sign up for RootsTech 2022.  Learn from your favorite family history experts, listen to inspiring keynote speakers, attend the virtual Expo Hall, and participate in Relatives at RootsTech to see how you may be related to other RootsTech attendees.  Over a 100,000 participants have signed up for Relatives at RootsTech.  Maybe you will find out that we are related😊

Relatives at RootsTech 2022

Register for RootsTech 2022  

A Guide to Navigating the RootsTech 2022 Website

DNA Communities

 According to AncestryDNA, a DNA community is a "group of people who share DNA because their relatives recently lived in the same place at the same time."  Whereas ethnicity regions (shown in previous post) go back 500 years or more, DNA communities are more recent - 50-300 years.  MyHeritageDNA also offers something similar called "Additional Genetic Groups".  Both AncestryDNA Communities and MyHeritageDNA Genetic Groups align with my known ancestral locations.

AncestryDNA Communities

MyHeritageDNA Additional Genetic Groups 

Since most of my ancestors have been in this country for 200-300 years, these Communities/Genetic Groups represent places my ancestors lived once they were in America.  In 2017, I compiled a list of my known immigrant ancestors and where they were from.  My ancestors who came over in the 1600s came mainly from England and settled in New England.  By the early 1700s, they were also immigrating from Ireland. A lot of those ancestors settled in Pennsylvania.  Then all of those early New England ancestors started moving south and west during the later part of the 1700s.  During the 1700s, a second wave of immigrant ancestors started arriving in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  This last group then moved into Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi.  

The following pedigree is of the birth places for four generations of my ancestors.  Most of my ancestors in the fourth generation back (excluding my German lines) were born in the southern states during the first half of the 1800s.  One generation farther back (not shown on the pedigree), most of the ancestors were from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. 

4 Generations of Birth Locations of Ancestors

Related Posts:

2013 Ethnicity Estimates

2022 Ethnicity Estimates 

Our 'First Families' in America 

DNA Ethnicity Estimates 2022

 Back in 2012 I started testing my DNA at AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, and 23&MeDNA.  In a 2013 post, I compared the ethnicity estimates given by the three companies.  Click here to view the 2013 post.  Since those initial results, my ethnicity results have changed a little but not much.  Below are my current estimates given by the four major DNA companies that I now work with.

AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimate

Last Updated September 2021

Family Tree DNA myOrigins 

23&Me Ancestry Composition

MyHeritage Ethnicity Estimate

As seen in the ethnicity estimates from the four DNA companies, I am basically 100% European.  Each DNA company breaks the ethnicity percentages down a little differently.  AncestryDNA combines England and Northwestern Europe, but has separate percentages for Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.  FamilyTreeDNA combines England, Wales, and Scotland into one percentage.  23&MeDNA combines England (including Scotland) and Ireland.  Then MyHeritageDNA separates England but then combines Ireland, Scotland, and Wales into one percentage.  A majority of my DNA is from the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.  

I know who some my English, Scottish, Irish, and German ancestors are, and have a pretty good guess which of my ancestors came from Wales. Although I know where a few of my other immigrant families came from, most of my ancestors are still stuck in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia in the early 1700's, Northwest Territory in the late 1700's, or east Tennessee in the early 1800's.😞😞  HELP WANTED -- Get me across the pond!

My paternal grandfather was German - 100% German. Or, so I have always believed and the research supports. My grandfather's father was born in Germany and his mother was born in America to German immigrants.  The genealogical records for both of my Grandfather's lines can be traced through parish records in Germany back to the 1600's. So basically my DNA should show German Ethnicity at about 25% (+/- a few %).  My German ethnicity shows up at both FamilyTreeDNA (35%) and 23&MeDNA (53.9%), but not at AncestryDNA or MyHeritageDNA.  Why the discrepancies??  My Dad should show 50% German at Ancestry but he only shows 34%.  It's puzzling to me just why my ethnicity does not show any German!?!?

Another one of my more puzzling ethnicities is Scandinavian - mainly Sweden. I show anywhere from 18% at AncestryDNA down to 5.40% at MyHeritageDNA.  I have no clue which of my ancestors may have come from Sweden/Scandinavia.  Hopefully someday I will find this mysterious Scandinavian ancestor(s).😉

***UPDATE: AncestryDNA New Ethnicity Inheritance April 2022***

Related Posts:

2013 Ethnicity Estimates

Our 'First Families' in America 

AncestryDNA New Ethnicity Inheritance April 2022