(or at least it feels that way)

A year ago, I wrote about discovering that my ethnicity estimate at ancestry.com had changed yet again. I’m a little thick-headed because I don’t fully understand why it keeps changing. I need to read more.

At any rate, it’s December, and I just learned that the ethnicity estimate was updated in July.

I’m beginning to understand things better, although I still don’t fully grasp all the details. Comparing the August 2023 report with the one from July 2024, the biggest difference that jumps out at me is that my estimate for Scottish heritage has decreased from 40% to 6%, and my Germanic inheritance has gone from 8 to 18%. While “England and Northwestern Europe” have gone from 12 to 41%. It appears that I have lost my Welsh ethnicity, which was at 3%, and there is no longer this unaccounted-for mysterious connection to Sweden and Denmark, which was at 3%

Without going into too much detail… On the surface, I think the difference between my Scottish heritage and the Irish portion is that they now denote that I have a connection not only to “Ulster” but to “Ulster and Northern Ireland.” I don’t know why they call out “Ulster’” as separate from Northern Ireland. Unless it is a reference to the Ulster Plantation. Many of my ancestors from that region of Northern Ireland originated in Scotland around the beginning of the 18th century. One part of this I find intriguing is that I am somehow connected to the extreme Northern Isles through DNA.

Ancestry says: “We now connect you to even smaller, more specific ancestral regions. These connections can be very old-from over 1,000 years ago; so, they may include places or populations not yet recorded in your family tree. Click to learn more.”

Clicking on learn more, I learn that “[Ancestry has] added subregions using cutting-edge science. Your subregion results can add an even greater level of granularity to your existing ancestral regions.”

Wikipedia says:
“The Northern Isles (Scots: Northern Isles; Scottish Gaelic: Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; Old Norse: Norðreyjar; Norn: Nordøjar) are a chain (or archipelago) of islands of Scotland, located off the north coast of the Scottish mainland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney.”

This may explain my recent interest in the January annual celebration of Hogmanay and Up Helly Aa!