How many of you have taken a DNA test? Or several? My first test was with Ancestry. I must admit that my DNA is probably one of the most boring on the planet – 46% England and Northwestern Europe, 40% Scotland, 12% Ireland and 2% Wales – my ancestors were all concentrated in the British Isles. I read that my Carrico’s probably came from Portugal. That was my mother’s maiden name. A lot of my ancestors carry that name, but no Portuguese shows up in my lineage. Perhaps Carrico’s were from England?
Ritchey, on the other hand, has a good variation – 44% Germanic Europe, 29% England and Northwestern Europe, 10% Scotland, 9% Norway, 3% France, 3% Sweden and Denmark and 2% Ireland. This fits in with his Swiss and German great-greats, as well as his Ritchey and McKee families.
If you have purchased your DNA kit through Ancestry and look at the map showing your results, you can enlarge the area to get a better idea of where your ancestors were from. If you take Ritchey’s 3% French ancestry, it is located in the area that includes Limoges, Clermon-Ferrand, Nimes, Montpellier and Marsaille.
My Scottish ancestry includes the Shetland Islands – quite interesting since we enjoy the Britbox Shetland series! I love their accents.
This year our children were tested. Which parent would they take after most?
| Area | Ritchey | Phyllis | Linton | Kate |
| England and Northwestern Europe | 29% | 46% | 41% | 38% |
| Scotland | 10% | 40% | 31% | 20% |
| Ireland | 2% | 12% | 8% | |
| Wales | 2% | 2% | 3% | |
| Germanic Europe | 44% | 5% | 29% | |
| Norway | 9% | 2% | ||
| France | 3% | |||
| Sweden & Denmark | 3% | 21% |
It seems that Linton and Kate are a good combination of both of us. Kate has a good chunk of my England and Northwestern Europe, but also a hefty amount of Ritchey’s Germanic Europe. Linton has close percentages to my England and Northwestern Europe and Scotland heritage. But note that he has no Irish DNA, or it is such a small amount that it doesn’t show up. BUT he has 21% Sweden and Denmark whereas Ritchey has only 3% – not sure how that happened! Both children share my Welsh DNA.
I’m so glad we’ve all been tested. It makes for interesting conversations and gives me a true (true-ish) idea of how much our children inherited from each parent.
What do your DNA results say?
Categories: Family Stories
Phyliss,
I’m sure you find me under your DNA around 4th cousins. You and I match in percentages pretty closely on Scotch & Irish! That fits since both of us share Isaiah Hill as a great grandfather several times removed. I just worked on a women’s DNA that also has Carrico’s in KY in her line. It’s so interesting to see how closely some some families intertwine. I also have a close friend who’s family was also in Garrard Co and she has Hill’s in her DNA too!
My DNA is similar to yours…as it would be since my paternal ancestors are Carricos too. Oddly enough, there’s one difference – I have 3% of my DNA coming from Mali in Africa. I rather think this bit comes from my maternal line, as I have many relatives on that side who have rather dark skin, dark eyes, and tons of hair that is very very curly or frizzy. My granny used to complain about her “bushy frizz” hair. Mine is baby fine and way too thin. I’d have given my right arm for Granny’s hair!
Phyliss
This was such a interesting read. I have also heard our Carrico relatives came from Portugal. I was so surprised it didn’t show up at all. Thanks.
DNA is very weird – My sisters and I have mostly English and Germanic Europe DNA but we share one great-great grandfather who is Swedish. They each have a percentage of Swedish DNA and I have none – that was so surprising to us!!
I just love your posts!! I’m constantly looking for ‘names’ of my husband’s mother’s family. (Talbott and Lancaster) They migrated from Maryland to Kentucky.
Your DNA looks very similar to my husband’s! 🙂
His Great Great Grandfather, Benjamin Wharthen Talbott (1828-1916) married Elizabeth Carrico (1828-1893). Her parents were Reason Carrico and Elizabeth Engle. They had
twelve children.
Please keep posting!! Marlene Roth
Sent from my iPhone
Before I start, I come from a family with diverse back grounds. I’m majority white. My dad’s father was born and raised in Appalachia. My dad’s mother I found is multiracial mainly being of Native American and white decent. My mother comes from a small American German farm town community in rural Indiana. Being said, my ancestry results did not match my ethnicities at all! I did research into my family tree and they do not correlate. The only people my DNA has to compare to that I am related to are my grandfather and a bunch of his people on his side of the family. With that being said, my results looked very Appalachian. Keep in mind my mother is basically 100% German. My father also has ancestry from all over Europe and even is slightly European Jewish. Here are my results.
Scotland: 35%
England: 32%
(No Irish even through I have quite a few Irish ancestors from my Appalachian roots…odd…)
German: 19%
Norway: 8%
Sweden and Denmark: 6%
Moral is AncestryDNA did a horrible job at guessing my ethnicity. I even have recent indigenous American ancestry in the last 100 years! Not to mention my mom’s sister and my father also took the test and I am related to them. The German percentage is off. I am a triplet and my two sisters took the test as well. Their results are so different than mine that it is insane. Moral is I have a lot of ethnicities and even ancestry did a bad job at guessing around the correct percentage of my largest ethnicity (German). My second largest ethnicity is Scottish as my Appalachian grandfather is mostly Scottish. The fact it couldn’t guess my many more ethnicities and just threw it into the Scottish and English percentage is sad to me. Do not recommend if you have a lot of ethnicities or in general! Can’t even get my largest ethnicity right and it also didn’t give me any Appalachian communities too! My father however got a ton of Appalachian communities. Makes me sad. Waste of money…I learned more about my ancestry by just making a family tree…
My family is a DNA match to you. I match you at 23 cM, My mom at 21cM, My 1C1R at 9 cM, My 1C1R at 34 cM, My 1C1R at 17 cM, 1C at 21 cM. Family from Marion County, Washington County Kentucky.
How interesting. Do you know which of our family members are the same?
I am also from the Carricos in Ky and in some of my research years ago I ran across a story on how Peter Carrico Sr. went from Italy to France and his son Peter Carrico Jr. moved the family from France to America. I also have heard the very first record of the name Carrico was recorded in Bologna, Sicily.
Very interesting. My mother was a Carrico and I have no Spanish, Portuguese or Italian in my DNA. We need to search further!
Your DNA results are very much like mine. I too descend from the Carrico line as well as the Rush line in Kentucky.
I just did a DAR application for a woman also related to the Carrico’s in KY