For Crying Out Loud Ancestry

As it has done several times since I first did a DNA test in 2014, Ancestry has updated my profile. 

May 2022

Ireland - 39 % (still strong Donegal roots)
England and Northwestern Europe - 29%
Scotland - 28%
Sweden and Denmark - 4%

But this update offers a radical change since the update last September.

September 2021

Scotland - 57%
Ireland - 33% (with ties to Donegal)
England and Northwestern Europe - 10%.

How do I go from 57% Scotland to 28% Scotland??? In just eight months??  And my mother was from Scotland - as were her mother and father. I know they likely had some Irish in them, but really ... 

Previous results:

2020 - 

Scotland - 54%
Ireland (with strong links to Donegal) - 29%
England and Northwestern Europe - 13%
Wales - 3%
Norway - 1%

2018 -

Ireland/Scotland/Wales - 58 %.

Great Britain - 36 %.
Scandinavia is now Sweden, and dropped to just 4 %.
Germanic Europe - 2 %.

2014

Ireland - 56 %
Scandinavia - 16 %
Great Britain - 10 %
Iberian Peninsula - 8 %
Western Europe - 5 %
A few odd traces - 3 %

I understand that as they get more people testing they are able to refine the results, but some of the jumps seem too big. And they've changed the names of the regions over the years making it hard to compare. 

Even before I took the initial test, I knew Irish and Scottish would dominate. I thought it would be Irish on top with Scottish close behind. 

Except for the weird lumping of Ireland with Scotland and Wales in 2018, Ireland had been reasonably consistent after a drop from earlier results - 56% to 58%  (combined with Scotland and Wales) to 29% (a weird big drop) to 33% to 39%.

Scotland went from no mention to 58% (combined with Ireland and Wales) to 54% to 57% to 28%. 

I started out primarily Irish, with some Scottish, to primarily Scottish with some Irish. Now I'm back to primarily Irish with some Scottish. 

So much for my joining the local Scottish Heritage Society!

The combined Irish/Scottish - which, as I said, I've always considered myself -  has gone from 56+% to 58% to 83% to 90% then back down to 67%. 

The most recent results with England and Northwestern Europe at 29% actually fits in with recent discoveries about my family tree that has one branch going back to Shropshire England and even further back to Northwestern France  (Bretagne - or Brittany) around the time of the Norman Conquest.  

The switching back and forth between Irish and Scottish is frustrating. And it's frustrating that the "Viking" roots were there, disappeared, and then came back. 

Will the next update further confuse the picture? Maybe it will reveal some Neanderthal, or Martian.  

Pax et bonum