If you have tested your DNA at Ancestry . com, you need to check in with the recently added “Sideview” display that breaks your ethnicity estimates down by your parents, without testing your parents! It is really intriguing and potentially useful for improving the accuracy of your own paper research. I for one didn’t know my maternal side had Welch DNA floating around. I knew about the Irish. When you realize that Wales is only about an hour boat ride from Ireland, you begin to realize that some wily sailor could have joined my ancestors a few generations ago! To see your Sideview, follow these steps.
Go to DNA in the menu bar and select DNA Story
In the Ethnicity Estimate section, select See What’s New
Select View Breakdown
Notice that the two sides are labeled Parent 1 and Parent 2. They can’t tell which half of your genome is which, but maybe you can. Play with the ethnicity sections at the bottom and se if you can decide which side is Mom and which is Pop.
If you can determine “Sides”, like my Maternal has the Irish genes, then select Edit Parents below.
You pick for the Left side. You can always change this later, or even clear and start over.
Once you have chosen sides, you get a nice breakdown like this. Looked at like this, you can see there are subtle differences in my background.
I just wish I knew where that Aegean Islander snuck in from!
Ethnicity Estimates often change, but when they do it is because they are becoming more accurate. I like this new breakdown. When I share this type of data with my family, they seem understand it better than just seeing what my Personal breakdown was. This is meaningful to siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles.
Monterey County Genealogy Society 