DNA disappointment
The headline to the star letter in your July issue in the magazine was ‘DNA tests can be useful!’. And so they can be, and also very revealing. My wife and I had tests taken about a year ago, and we have both since been contacted by relatives that we didn’t know we had.
However, my wife expected her results to show mainly a Great Britain ethnicity, and was surprised to see that 50 per cent turned out to be West Europe and only 7 per cent Great Britain. While her recent antecedents would appear to be solidly English, this will require further research which may or may not be revealing.
I was born and still live in Jersey and have always understood that my surname, Gallichan, derived from Galicia in Spain, and this seems very likely as my test showed a 16 per cent Iberian Peninsula ethnicity. However, there was a great shock as I was declared as having 45 per cent ethnicity from Ireland. I considered that this was impossible as my father’s side of the family has been in Jersey for centuries, and my mother’s side is solidly Breton coming from Brittany in France.
I have recently discovered that DNA tests in France can be considered a paternity test and therefore illegal, with the person ordering such a test risking a year in prison and a fine of ¤15,000. This means that there is no database on which the DNA-testing company can base its conclusions with any accuracy, and certainly should not assume a certain ethnicity. Luckily, I knew that my mother’s family members came to Jersey in the late 1800s as part of a large migration from France (mainly Brittany) that was then being undertaken. I therefore have not wasted any time consulting Irish records to research my non-existent ‘Irish’ ancestors.
I would, however, have been content if the DNA test had revealed a 45 per cent Celtic ethnicity.
I was disappointed that the testing company made an assumption, and this makes me wonder if their results
contain further such assumptions and therefore inaccuracies. My advice to your readers would be to be very careful to treat DNA testing as an additional tool that, as ever, cannot take the place of diligent research. Richard Gallichan Editor replies: Ethnicity results can be confusing. We will be covering it in a later issue.