Indigenous Peoples

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Apitatán at STRAAT Museum. 12 May 2023.

In our locality schools are closed today recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. In our tree, there are traces of connection to native people in the Americas, and we've seen from the recent update to Ancestry's Origins there are definite signs of indigenous people from Canada to the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and northern Chile.

Source: Ancestry. Origins. Oct 2025.

Origins looks at your DNA compared to reference panels with deep, documented roots in specific geographic regions. Even looking back 300 years to 1725, that time frame roughly connects to the 7th-great-grandparent level. Doing the math without factoring in pedigree collapse or loops in the tree, at the 7xgreat level, that's 512 people. While I do have some 7xgreats in my tree, on the maternal side I only know one. Going back another level to the 8xgreat-grandparents, that's 1024 people (again assuming no loops or pedigree collapse).

The percentages for Indigenous Americas Bolivia and Peru are definitely connected to a branch from my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez, who was born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1838. Somewhere three or four generations back from Gabriel is an indigenous woman from the Andes region. On another mystery branch of the tree is likely a woman from the Yucatan, perhaps near the port of Campeche or Merida. Her distant family was perhaps Yucatec Maya. I feel a real connection to this region from past travels.

Another branch likely shows an enslaved woman or family tracing roots back to the Nigerian woodlands. She and this family perhaps were brought to Mexico in the 16th or 17th century.

Our largest area for indigenous ancestors is in Mexico and my Mom and her sisters all have 12% Indigenous Americas - Mexico in their origins. Our links from Sonora to Arizona and Southern California are quite strong.

Source: Ancestry. Journeys. Oct 2025.

Even looking at the Ancient Origins feature in MyHeritage shows a link to indigenous people in North & South America and in Central Africa.

MyHeritage. Ancient Origins.

The painting at the top of the post is by Ecuadorean artist Apitatán and is on display at the STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam.

Tennessee settlers

 

Source: Ancestry Journeys.

With all the excitement around this week's update to Origins on Ancestry, I thought it useful to look back at the Journeys feature within AncestryDNA. While origins are updated once a year, journeys can be updated anytime, and can show where family may have lived within the past 300 years. I know I have some deep connections to Tennessee on both sides of the family, but the focus today is on the Jones and Thornhill lines in Eastern Tennessee.

Above is an extract from Ancestry showing the Tennessee Settlers journey description. When I look at this and compare with some matches in common from my Dad's DNA results on Ancestry and on FTDNA, I see some patterns sticking out on previously overlooked Jones and Thornhill connections. With ThruLines, I have 50 DNA matches descending from two older sisters of Joseph Jones, my 3rd-great-grandfather. There are 20 matches to descendants of Catherine Jones Murray and 30 matches to descendants of Elizabeth Jane Jones Barbee.

Ancestry's ThruLines.

I know this isn't the complete field of matches connecting up to Robert Thomas Jones Sr and Elizabeth Thornhill, but it gives a useful hint of where to look on shared matches of matches for additional possibilities.

Maternal side Ancestry Origins 2025

 

Ancestry Origins for BAJ. Oct 2025.

After a webinar yesterday, Diahan Southard of YourDNAGuide wrote, "it's just a good reminder that our ethnicity results are best handled as a group project." There are enough changes in all the kits that I can access, I'm breaking up my posts reviewing the update. Previously I reviewed my own update, then my Dad's side of the tree. Now I'm switching to the maternal side, and this definitely is a group project as I have access to my Mom's update and updates for my Aunt Patty and Linda.

Last year, my Mom had 9 regions, and for 2025 those regions doubled to 18. My Aunt Linda now has 20, and my Aunt Patty has 19. I'm taking them as a group, and looking closer at three areas: Americas, then England, Celtic & Gaelic plus Western Europe, and separately at the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean and Africa. As Ancestry's Crista Cowan noted yesterday on Connie Knox's GenealogyTV YouTube channel, get multiple people in your family tested because "the aggregate of information is what will lead you to those brick wall breakthroughs that we're all looking for."

For the Americas, both Aunt Patty and Linda have 12% Indigenous Americas Mexico, 1% Bolivia and Peru, 1% Indigenous Canada and the United States (there's our shared A2d2a mtDNA), and 1% Yucatan Peninsula. My Mom only has the 12% Mexico, not the 1% amounts in South America, Yucatan or Indigenous Canada. The Bolivia and Peru percentages almost certainly come from Gabriel Vasquez' distant maternal side in the Andes.

For England, my Mom now has 28% Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe, and 5% East Midlands. Linda's update is 26% Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe, 3% East Midlands, and additional micro-regions: 9% West Midlands, 4% Cornwall and 3% Devon and Somerset. Patty has 23% West Midlands (that's a big difference from Mom and Linda), 9% Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe, 8% East Midlands, and 2% North East England. For Celtic & Gaelic, Patty has 9% Central Scotland and Northern Ireland, Linda has 6% plus 1% North East Scotland, and my Mom has 10% Central Scotland and Northern Ireland, 1% North East Scotland, 4% Hebrides and Western Highlands, and 4% Leinster, Ireland.

When I look at the paternal side of the tree for my grandfather Leo, the surnames are heavily English. The Read family came to America from Hampshire, England (Southeastern England). Other family names from England include Ballard, Carter, Gibson, Wheatley, Lawrence, Grinstead, Matthews, Davis and likely more. Thomas Key came to America from Lincolnshire (East Midlands). McKinley is a Gaelic surname that we also have on this side of the tree.

Shifting to the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean, here's where the 2025 update is really interesting when comparing between the sisters, and with known Campuzano and Amado cousins in Arizona. My Mom's 33% Spain changed to 9%, with with additional micro-regions 8% Northern Spain (Cantabria's in the middle of that), 4% Azores, 2% Madeira, and 1% Portugal. She also had 5% Northwestern Italy (centered around Genoa), 2% Sephardic Jews in Northern Africa, and 1% Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean. Linda has 11% Spain, 7% Northern Spain, 5% Portugal, 2% Basque and 1% Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean. She also has 5% France (Nicolas Martiau was French). Patty has 13% Northern Spain, 4% Spain, 3% Azores, 3% Portugal, 2% France, 2% North Africa, 1% Basque, 3% Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1% Sephardic Jews in Northern Africa.

Comparing with a cousin in Arizona, AA, he has 33% Mexico, 17% Spain, 15% Northern Spain, 5% Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean, 2% Sephardic Jews in Northern Africa, 2% Azores, 1% Portugal, 1% Madeira, 1% Northwestern Italy, 5% Basque and 4% North Africa. He also had 1% Ashkenazi Jewish in Central & Southeastern Europe. Comparing with a Campuzano cousin, she had 27% Mexico, 14% Spain, 9% Northern Spain, 8% Basque, 5% Portugal, 5% Sardinia, 4% Sephardic Jews in Northern Africa, 4% Sephardic Jews in Eastern Mediterranean, 3% Canary Islands, 2% Northeastern Italy, 1% Yucatan, 1% Crete, and 1% Ashkenazi Jewish in Central & Southeastern Europe.

My son & I inherited the Nigerian Woodlands trace percentage from the maternal side of the tree. My Mom has this too, so does Linda, along with a trace from Senegal.

A new region on this side of tree, likely from a distant maternal-paternal branch, is Germans in Russia (also known as Volga Germans; see also this collection from North Dakota State University). Linda has 1% from this new region, while my Mom has 2%. These people were living in the area of the present day war zone of Eastern Ukraine.

My big takeaway from this side of the tree is that we have a very diverse set of roots, from all over the map.

Paternal side Ancestry Origins update

 

Ancestry Origins for KDJ. Oct 2025.

On my Dad's side of the tree, his Ancestry Origins update for 2025 also shows a big change from 2024's four regions. His results now show nine regions, although centered in the macro-regions England, Celtic & Gaelic and Western Europe. Last year, his England and Northwestern Europe was 62%, now it's 59% but divided across four micro-regions within this larger area. Again, it's not a surprise to see both sides of the English Channel represented. It is very interesting to see new areas such as East Midlands (7%), West Midlands (3%) and Devon & Somerset (2%). Our son was interested to see the Midlands, as this area features prominently in the Netflix/BBC series Peaky Blinders.

When I compare this with LivingDNA for his results, they have England and Ireland at 85.4%, with Lincolnshire at 20.7%. Devon is 4.6%. North Yorkshire is at 7.1% For the new Ancestry Origins update, they have Central Scotland and Northern Ireland as 23%. Last year, Scotland was 3%, and Ireland as a whole was 12%. Leinster, Ireland is now 8%, and Munster, Ireland is 3%.

Comparing with my Dad's 1st cousin MO is really interesting as his Leinster is 7% and Munster is 7%. Maybe he inherited more of the O'Brien side from County Clare. MO also has 15% from Connacht, Ireland. This is northwest Ireland, covering major towns Galway and Sligo, also County Roscommon. This county borders Longford, and perhaps points to distant family on my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget's side of the tree. Looking at JM, a connection with the mystery Pennsylvania O'Briens, he has 13% Leinster and 11% Munster. EM, another member of this Pennsylvania O'Briens group, has 22% Leinster and 15% Munster.

The updated result for Western Europe shows 6% Southern Germanic Europe and 1% Northwestern Germany. Previously Germanic Europe was 23%. SideView shows this 7% as coming from my Dad's mother's side of the tree. The Felmey/Völlmi line came from Switzerland on Blanche Lamon's maternal side, and the Lamon paternal line was also Swiss/German. SideView also says 14% of the Central Scotland and Northern Ireland was inherited from Dad's maternal side, which tracks with John McIntosh being Scottish.

My Dad's 1st cousin on the Jones side, BJ, has more Welsh (15% Southern Wales), also 3% Devon, and very interestingly 3% Connacht, Ireland and 1% Donegal, Ireland. Maybe this points to a location for the McLaughlin family on that side of the tree. He also has 30% Central Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Comparing the new Ancestry Origins update with 2024

 

AncestryDNA Origins. Oct 2025.

Ancestry has started the global release of its 2025 update to AncestryDNA Origins (see this video on YouTube). There's a lot of new information to digest, with macro-regions England, Celtic & Gaelic, Western Europe, Indigenous Americas, Italy, Iberian Peninsula, Northern Africa and Western Africa appearing in my results, along with new micro-regions (Madeira as an example within the Iberian Peninsula macro-region). Compared with last year's update, this is definitely a big one, as I went from six regions to eleven this year.

Looking more closely, last year England and Northwestern Europe were grouped together, and my result was showing as 38%. Scotland and Ireland were separate, and my results were showing as 14%. For the 2025 Origins update, England is 52%, but now broken out for me as 50% Southeastern England and Northwestern Europe, and 2% Devon and Somerset. That's super interesting. On my Dad's side, I know the Oylers came to America from Kent, clearly in Southeastern England. Northwestern Europe also includes parts of northern France, Belgium and southern Netherlands. We also know my Walloon ancestors came from this region through Amsterdam and helped found Dutch New Amsterdam in 1624. 

Central Scotland and Northern Ireland is now at 18%, and when you add in the Scottish Highlands (2%) and Leinster, Ireland (4%), this whole macro-region is now at 24%. Between what I already suspect about my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget's family coming from County Longford, Ireland, and my 5th-great-grandfather John McIntosh coming to America from Scotland, this tracks as well.

Southern Germanic Europe is a new sub-region for me within Western Europe, although last year I did have Germanic Europe at 26%. Now it is 12%, but this area has been floating around the 5 to 7 to 10% range since 2021. When I think about my 3rd-great-grandmother Marianna Haiss, her family came from Hausen im Killertal in present-day Baden-Württemburg, Germany. This is directly in this Southern Germanic sub-region.

Indigenous Americas - Mexico is holding steady at 5%. Again, this is not surprising given what I know about my mtDNA haplogroup and indigenous Mexico connections.

It is a bit surprising to see Spain fall away for me, as last year this was 16%. In its place is 2% Madeira (still part of the Iberian Peninsula macro-region). These islands were settled by the Portuguese. I also have a new region, Northwestern Italy, centered around the port city Genoa. This gives me some hints to look at my Mom's results and compare to see how she and her sisters' results may have changed for Portugal and Northwestern Italy.

I have not had North Africa in prior results, but others in the tests I oversee have had trace amounts for this region. I now have 1% North Africa, and 1% Nigerian Woodlands remains. This Nigerian trace is passed down from my Granny's side of the tree, according to Ancestry's Sideview tool.

There's much more to unpack, and I'll have separate posts on changes in the percentages from tests on the maternal side and my Dad's updated results.