About our British Isles Deep Ancestry Report
British Isles Deep Ancestry DNA Report
1) What is the British Deep Ancestry report?
A British-Isles–specific, ancient-first ancestry experience that combines (a) county-anchored regional breakdowns (modern place names used as map pins, not “modern ethnicity”) and (b) matches to real ancient individuals/sites from the Neolithic through the Medieval period.
2) How is this different from Deep Ancestry, AncestryDNA, or 23andMe?
- Deep Ancestry (our other product): global deep history; broad lineages and macro time-slices. British Deep Ancestry zooms in on the British Isles with fine regional anchors (25–30+) and named ancient site matches.
- AncestryDNA/23andMe: consumer “ethnicity” estimates for the last ~5–10 generations. The British Report targets ~10–20+ generations, avoids “modern ethnicity,” and pairs regional signals with ancient matches.
3) Is this “modern ancestry”?
No. It estimates ancient ancestry by region using modern county names as labels only.
4) Does it cover all of Britain?
Yes, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Ancient matches span the Neolithic → Medieval. Where historic vs. modern county names differ, we keep modern labels as anchors.
5) Are islands like Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, and the Isle of Man included?
- Anchors: Orkney and the Western Isles are dedicated regional anchors.
- Ancient matches: Shetland and the Isle of Man appear as site-level matches when relevant; the UI notes the nearest anchor if no separate county region exists.
6) What do the county percentages mean?
They show how your DNA clusters with county-aligned regional patterns that persist over time. They are not a census of recent relatives.
7) My family is from a county that shows 0%, how can that be?
Percentages reflect overall genetic similarity across your genome; you can have strong family ties to a place even if your DNA aligns more with nearby clusters.
8) Do the British-Isles percentages sum to 100%?
Yes, within the British-Isles anchor set. If you have substantial non-British ancestry, your British shares scale down accordingly.
9) What’s the difference between “Ancestral DNA Affinity” and “Shared DNA Segments”?
- Affinity = overall similarity (lower distance = closer).
- Shared segments (IBD) = specific stretches of DNA (higher % or cM = stronger).
They’re complementary: broad similarity vs. pinpointed inheritance.
10) What thresholds do you use for segments? Can I change them?
We report % and total cM and let you set a minimum cM filter. Higher thresholds reduce noise; lower thresholds reveal more candidates but need careful interpretation.
11) Is the 25 regional breakdown based purely on ancient DNA?
No. County anchors are built from living reference panels aligned to counties/sub-regions (stable fine-scale structure). We interpret them through an ancient lens using literature-based priors and validate against curated ancient genomes.
12) Why not build the breakdown purely from ancient DNA?
Ancient genomes are sparse and uneven (coverage, damage, sampling). No one can yet deliver county-level precision from aDNA alone.
13) How do you choose which ancient individuals to include?
We use peer-reviewed, well-dated British/Irish genomes from Neolithic → Medieval, prioritize quality/coverage, remove close relatives, and label by site, date range, culture.
