If you have Europe South in your Ancestry DNA ethnicity results, you might be interested in learning more about the region. As it turns out, to really get a good understand of the full meaning of our ethnicity results, we have to do a little exploration of geography and history.
It’s worth the effort, however, since it can give us a good understanding of our family’s true history.
In this post, you’ll learn:
- Where the Europe South DNA ethnicity is located, in a geographic sense
- In which countries you can typically find the Europe South DNA ethnicity
- Whether or not you will be able to trace your Europe South ancestry
The Europe South region is the home of some of the most powerful influences on modern Western culture, and is a fascinating region with a rich history.
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Where is the Europe South DNA ethnicity located?
The Europe South DNA region is slightly different than the geographic region of Southern Europe. Southern Europe is generally considered to include Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, parts of France, and countries in the southern part of Eastern Europe, like Croatia and Albania.
For the purposes of DNA, however, the Europe South region is defined slightly differently. Spain and Portugal are generally not included, since they are located on the Iberian Peninsula, which has its own unique genetic makeup.
Main countries where Europe South DNA ethnicity is found:
- Greece
- Italy
The average person living in the middle of the Europe South geographic area has about 72% Europe South DNA. A native to this region is also likely to have DNA from neighboring regions.
For example, about 47% of the natives of the Europe South region will have DNA from the Caucasus, 41% will have DNA from the Middle East, and 25% will have DNA from the Iberian Peninsula, though the exact amounts that each individual will have of any ethnicity will depend on their family’s unique ancestry.
Other countries where Europe South DNA ethnicity can be found
People in Southern Europe didn’t always just stay in one place, and neither did their DNA. For this reason, Europe South DNA is commonly found in people who live in the following countries:
- France
- Switzerland
- Portugal
- Spain
- Serbia
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
- Austria
- Croatia
- Bosnia
- Turkey
- Romania
- Slovenia
- Turkey
- Tunisia
- Montenegro
What is the Europe South DNA ethnicity?
As you might have concluded by now, if you have Europe South ethnicity in your DNA results, there is a good chance that you have ancestors from the region. Generally speaking, the higher percentage of Europe South DNA ethnicity that shows up in your results, the higher the probability is that the result is correct.
Additionally – also generally speaking – the higher the percentage of Europe South DNA ethnicity that you have, the more recent the ancestor is who you inherited this ethnicity from.
It should be noted that you could have inherited Europe South DNA ethnicity from more than one line of your family, and this can add up to a higher percentage.
Keep this in mind when trying to determine how far back on your family tree you need to look to find your Europe South ancestor.
Is my Europe South DNA recent?
Some of you might have more recent Europe South ancestors. There is a chance that your DNA matches one of the more specific regional DNA profiles that Ancestry DNA has been able to identify.
There are 17 total regions that contain these profiles, and they are broken down into these four categories:
- Greece, Turkey, and Albania
- Sicily
- Southern Italy
- Northern Italy
If your DNA does match any of these sub-regions, it will show up under the “Europe South” on your ethnicity profile. This can be an indicator of relatively recent Europe South ancestry, though you will still have to do more traditional family tree research to determine where your recent ancestors were born, and where their parents and grandparents came from.
Tip: One of the most reliable ways to determine if your Europe South ancestry is recent is to check carefully through your DNA matches. If you have parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents who were born in the Europe South region, you should have DNA matches who either live there now, or have recent ancestors from the region, as well.
Is my Europe South DNA distant?
If you have distant ancestors from the Europe South region, you might have inherited some Europe South DNA. This DNA is likely to show up on Ancestry in the more general “Europe South” category.
The reason that Ancestry DNA can’t “tease out” anything more specific (like a particular region in Italy, for example) is because if you inherited Europe South DNA from several distant ancestors, your Europe South DNA won’t match the profiles that they have developed for the sub-region.
I was expecting more Europe South DNA!
A really common occurrence for people with European ancestry is disappointment that a particular country or ethnicity is not as represented in their ethnicity estimate as it is their family tree. It’s not at all unusual, however, for someone who truly is “from” a certain country to have DNA ethicities from surrounding regions.
European countries are located very near each other, and political boundaries have shifted dramatically over the years. For this reason, it is not at all uncommon to have, for example, two Italian grandparents, and not have 50% Europe South DNA.
As I mentioned earlier, the average person who is native to the Europe South region, which does include Italy, of course, has about 72% Europe South DNA. This amount is only the average, however.
Some people who are native to the region will have 100%, but it is also possible (and common) to find people with significantly less amounts Europe South and larger percentages of other nearby regions. In fact, there are natives to the region that have almost no Europe South DNA.
This doesn’t mean that your grandparents weren’t really Italian. Their families might have lived in Italy for centuries, and you might be able to trace their ancestry back centuries without finding any sort of evidence that they had family from any other place.
You might have inherited other ethnicities from your Italian grandparents (like Middle Eastern DNA, or ethnicity from the Caucasus, for example).
Can I trace my Europe South ancestry?
The ease with which you might be able to trace your Europe South ancestry depends on how recent your Europe South ancestor came into your family line, and whether or not you are interested in building a family tree.
If you really want to explore your Europe South ancestry, I would recommend taking the following steps:
1. Start building a basic family tree, using the information that you already know about your family. I use Ancestry to build my tree, since it’s free to start and keep a tree on that site.
2. Talk to your family members and try to learn as much as you can about your parents, grandparents, and if possible, your great-grandparents. Details like dates and places of birth are great, if you can find them out.
3. Using the records available on Ancestry, you should be able to locate your grandparents and/or great-grandparents on the 1940 US Federal Census (if they lived in the US during that time), and this will provide you with a great deal of information about them that should help you build your tree a generation further back, and determine which line likely contains your Europe South ancestry.
Note: You will need to have a subscription to access Ancestry’s records.
Conclusion
I hope that this post helped you understand a little bit more about the Europe South DNA ethnicity and how it might have ended up in your DNA results. Keep in mind that as the ethnicity testing technology improves, your results might change or update.
If you have any questions about something that you read here, or if you would just like to share your own personal story about your Europe South DNA, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
Thanks for stopping by!