Have you seen your Ancestry SideView Ethnicity Inheritance results yet? In this post, learn how to understand ethnicity breakdown by parent and gain more from your DNA results.
Discover: * How to identify Parents 1 and Parent 2
What you should do if an unknown parent exists Accuracy of percentage breakdown between Maternal vs Paternal sides. And more… keep reading now…
I know I’m not the only one who appreciates this feature, which was introduced in 2022. One of the first questions that crossed my mind when first using it was: which of my grandparents passed down her European Jewish DNA to her daughter.
Ancestry SideView results provide the information we need for us to gain this understanding. Below, find out exactly how I used them to find an answer – and how you too can view those details revealed by your results.
How does Ancestry DNA SideView show information from Your Parents’ DNA? Each person inherits 50% from each parent. Using information contained within your DNA passed down from both parents, the SideView feature allows Ancestry DNA to show you which regions might have come from both.
SideView utilizes a traditional DNA analysis strategy with some high-tech advancements and the benefits of the largest consumer DNA testing network to perform something called “phasing” of our genomes. Phasing is simply sorting all our genes to their respective maternal or paternal chromosomes.
My mom’s DNA can be seen on the right and her parents (my grandparents) on the left; or at least 50% of each is represented here.
My mother’s Ethnicity Inheritance graphic shows my two parents. Each color in the circle corresponds to an estimated region from her ethnicity estimate.
As previously stated, I was curious to determine the source of my DNA matching European Jewish regions. Our family had always had tales of Jewish ancestry on her side of the family but nothing definitive could be established until now.
Ancestry does not know what my grandparents’ DNA would reveal were they here now to take a DNA test; SideView results cannot reflect 100% of their genome since my mother only inherited 50%.
However, this does demonstrate that only one parent (Parent 2) had passed on DNA that matched European Jewish region DNA to my mom; although other grandparent may have had some matching that region in other 50% of their DNA that wasn’t passed along to her.
Even though it may not be exactly like having my grandparents take a DNA test, this is still the “next best thing”. It is almost like possessing their DNA.
As you may have observed, SideView results do not specify “Mother” and “Father”. This is because Ancestry DNA testing relies on autosomal DNA, which can equally come from both parents without distinguishable gender markers to differentiate it.
Autosomal DNA differs from the mitochondrial DNA we all inherit from our mothers, the Y-DNA males inherit from their father, or the X-DNA that females inherit from both parents.
At this stage, our SideView results only indicate how our results are divided between our parents. AncestryDNA still is not capable of telling us which parent is mother and which father; however there are several straightforward research strategies we can employ in order to ascertain this crucial information on our own.
How Can I Determine Who My Parents Are One simple way of determining whether a particular parent is Parent 1 or 2 is by looking at the detailed breakdown provided in SideView results. Here you may find important clues that point towards which ethnicities correspond with your inherited DNA from each of your parents.
Unlock Your DNA Matches
One effective method to quickly establish who your parents are is by reviewing your DNA matches grouped by parent. By knowing who is related to you through DNA matches, this should enable you to quickly determine who belongs on each of your maternal and paternal lines.
If after looking through your DNA matches you still aren’t certain who your parent(s) are, don’t fret: There may still be more that can be done to try and ascertain them.
Once you know which parent each DNA match represents, it becomes much easier to establish how additional relationships may exist between yourself and more of your matches.
Begin with looking for an ethnicity region your one parent likely had and the other didn’t, such as 15% Sardinia in your mother’s lineage and all of your father’s being from Southern Italy; that would indicate who might be your paternal side of origin.
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