What Does British DNA mean?

[DarkWater]

When I see that 54% if my DNA comes from th British Isles according to Ancestry, what does it mean?

Does it mean 54% Germanic Anglosaxon

Does it mean 54% percent Celtic Briton?

Or does it mean something else? A certain type of mixture of British Celts, Germans, Romans, Normans, etc.?

[DarkWater]

Nobody knows?

[de Burgh II]

Both; English people are mostly native Celtic Briton w/ approximately 10% to 20% Germanic/Anglo-Saxon autosomal dna input depending on the county/locale.

[Jack_vorobey]

British = Irish = Scottish genetically. There's no real difference. Alngo-saxons came and merely imposed the language

[J. Ketch]

When I see that 54% if my DNA comes from th British Isles according to Ancestry, what does it mean?

Does it mean 54% Germanic Anglosaxon

Does it mean 54% percent Celtic Briton?

Or does it mean something else? A certain type of mixture of British Celts, Germans, Romans, Normans, etc.?
Ireland/Scotland/Wales means exclusively British Isles. Great Britain means broadly NW European, centred on Southern England. Europe West also encompasses England, but not the Celtic fringes. Most of my English ancestry is taken up by Europe West.

[Peterski]

Of course true British DNA is Celtic and Romano-Briton DNA.

[Jägerstaffel]

https://qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/xcheddar_man_for_web-pagespeed-ic-1mwojrtngm-2.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1000

Some would have you believe.

[DarkWater]

Ireland/Scotland/Wales means exclusively British Isles. Great Britain means broadly NW European, centred on Southern England. Europe West also encompasses England, but not the Celtic fringes. Most of my English ancestry is taken up by Europe West.

I have alot more western German heritage that doesn't show up as Europe West but as British. MyHeritage and Familytree dna said only 18% British. Gedmatch compares me to South Dutch, South Germans, Belgians, French, Germans, British

[J. Ketch]

I have alot more western German heritage that doesn't show up as Europe West but as British. MyHeritage and Familytree dna said only 18% British. Gedmatch compares me to South Dutch, South Germans, Belgians, French, Germans, British
The categories are poorly defined, and due to the genetic overlap between NW Europeans the algorithms can appear pretty random. Europe West and Great Britain seem fairly interchangeable from what I've seen of other people's results, only Europe West doesn't include the Celtic fringe specific to the Isles. Great Britain is more associated with Southern English, who are closer to the South Dutch, West Germans etc. My ancestry is more Northern English, so perhaps that's why my Great Britain is so low. Maybe Europe West represents more North Germanic populations like Frisians and Lower Saxony, as my mother gets closer to North Dutch and Danish rather than South Dutch, West Germans and often South English on Gedmatch calculators, but that's speculation. I cluster closer to North Germanic populations as well. MyHeritage is not reliable at all for detecting English ancestry, my mother gets 0% English and 46% Scandinavian in it.

[DarkWater]

The categories are poorly defined, and due to the genetic overlap between NW Europeans the algorithms can appear pretty random. Europe West and Great Britain seem fairly interchangeable from what I've seen of other people's results, only Europe West doesn't include the Celtic fringe specific to the Isles. Great Britain is more associated with Southern English, who are closer to the South Dutch, West Germans etc. My ancestry is more Northern English, so perhaps that's why my Great Britain is so low. Maybe Europe West represents more North Germanic populations like Frisia and Lower Saxony, as my mother gets closer to North Dutch and Danish rather than South Dutch, West Germans and often South English on Gedmatch calculators, but that's speculation. I cluster closer to North Germanic populations as well. MyHeritage is not reliable at all for detecting English ancestry, my mother gets 0% English and 46% Scandinavian in it.

The main reason I trust MyHeritage is because that 18 percent is about what my family tree would suggest. I think you’re right about what you said bough.

[Slavic Italian]

There is nothing more boring than Anglo Saxon.

[alnortedelsur]

I score 12% British and 5% Irish/Scottish/Welsh on Ancestry DNA, which is within the common range among Spaniards and Portuguese.

I think it has something to do with Celts, if I am not wrong.

[Gwydion]

My father's score on AncestryDNA was certainly baffling in this regard. He is 100% of British descent excluding minor Dutch lines in the 17th and early 18th centuries, yet AncestryDNA gave him Great Britain 3%. His Ireland/Scotland/Wales is 28%, but it seems the majority of his British DNA is subsumed under "Europe West" at 52%.

Though strangely if "Europe West" tends to imply Southeastern England and a more Anglo-Saxon component as some have suggested, GEDMatch calculators seem to consistently plot him in "Southwest England" which I assume includes Wales and hence the more Celtic part of Britain. This is further confirmed by his MDLP K11 results, which has "British_Celtic" at number 1 with a distance @ 2.869660. Contrast this with "British_AngloSaxon" with a distance @ 9.123333.

[frankhammer]

There is nothing more boring than Anglo Saxon.

Agreed. Plain boring euromutts so mixed, it's nigh on impossible to determine anything of value.

[DarkWater]

There is nothing more boring than Anglo Saxon.

There’s not much Anglo or Saxon to me.

[DarkWater]

Agreed. Plain boring euromutts so mixed, it's nigh on impossible to determine anything of value.

I’m really not that mixed according to gedmatch

[frankhammer]

I’m really not that mixed according to gedmatch

Buddy, that comment wasn't directed at you. More at what is Britishness. IMO, mongrelisation. Little of value. And that is how I see my ancestry...

[redeyednewt]

Both; English people are mostly native Celtic Briton w/ approximately 10% to 20% Germanic/Anglo-Saxon autosomal dna input depending on the county/locale.

What exactly would 'Germanic/Anglo-Saxon autosomal DNA' show up as on an autosomal DNA test?

[DarkWater]

What exactly would 'Germanic/Anglo-Saxon autosomal DNA' show up as on an autosomal DNA test?

I would think that the anglos and the saxons would probably show up as Scandinavian and Europe West