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My Great Gran was Eliza Cuneo and Maria Garibaldi was my Great Great Grandmother. Andreas was my .Great Great Granddad. Three of us have had our DNA tested and the result came back that the Cuneos  were not Italian ,but north western Europeans. In all three DNA checks it recognised all three of us as being fourth cousins, but showed our DNA to be of north  western European . So I do not know what has happened. Perhaps my family moved to Northern Italy from  Switzerland or even Austria. And my great gran Maria  had the name Garibaldi prior to marrying Andreas. Anyhow my family love them and as my wife says,'You look like your Italian Grandma'. I have a few photographs of them and I will get my sons to post them up. I am sure that Andreas was born in Italy ,but the problem is that if his family had moved  to Italy from Switzerland or Austria then his DNA would show up as western European and not Italian. My Great Grandad George married Eliza in Sheffield in 1875. They eventually had lots of kids, grand kids and settled in Goldthorpe. And might I add that my aunt Rose looked more Italian than the Italians.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

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Wouldn't north western Europe be the Scandinavian countries or do they have their own classification when it comes to DNA testing?

I heard on the radio that his type of DNA testing isn't reliable and a few companies doing these tests were discredited when the same samples were sent to different firms with wildly conflicting results.

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I have also heard that this DNA testing may not be reliable. Here is a link to my own "map": https://postimg.cc/z3fM7j2v   Although I know I have some distant French ancestry (a Huguenot couple who settled in Lincolnshire in the 1620s) I was surprised to see that I am (apparently) more West/Central European than anything else. The DNA test seems better at identifying relations - my cousin Barrie in Australia also had his DNA done and it correctly identified that we are cousins.

 

kjgezza - if you are not familiar with this website you may find it interesting as it has a lot of information on Italians in Sheffield. http://www.west-bar-italians.co.uk/

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Kjgezza  …..  not sure why your details are coming up like that as according to records as far as I can see (back to early 1700s)  the family Cuneo came from northern Italy

Coreglia  Ligure  & Cicagna  Genoa

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On 03/02/2019 at 17:01, Jim Hardie said:

Wouldn't north western Europe be the Scandinavian countries or do they have their own classification when it comes to DNA testing?

I heard on the radio that his type of DNA testing isn't reliable and a few companies doing these tests were discredited when the same samples were sent to different firms with wildly conflicting results.

And you can read all about it here in this Guardian report

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/11/question-ancestry-does-dna-testing-really-understand-race

 

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On 02/02/2019 at 22:16, kjgezza said:

My Great Gran was Eliza Cuneo and Maria Garibaldi was my Great Great Grandmother. Andreas was my .Great Great Granddad. Three of us have had our DNA tested and the result came back that the Cuneos  were not Italian ,but north western Europeans. In all three DNA checks it recognised all three of us as being fourth cousins, but showed our DNA to be of north  western European . So I do not know what has happened. Perhaps my family moved to Northern Italy from  Switzerland or even Austria. And my great gran Maria  had the name Garibaldi prior to marrying Andreas. Anyhow my family love them and as my wife says,'You look like your Italian Grandma'. I have a few photographs of them and I will get my sons to post them up. I am sure that Andreas was born in Italy ,but the problem is that if his family had moved  to Italy from Switzerland or Austria then his DNA would show up as western European and not Italian. My Great Grandad George married Eliza in Sheffield in 1875. They eventually had lots of kids, grand kids and settled in Goldthorpe. And might I add that my aunt Rose looked more Italian than the Italians.

 

Thanks

 

My father in laws grandparents were Cuneos and hes always thought they were Italian descendants ,he certainly looks southern Italian  ,I believe they were based around the Pitsmoor and then Wybourn areas of Sheffield ,I think ice cream came into the mix at some stage 

 

 

 

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On 03/02/2019 at 17:01, Jim Hardie said:

Wouldn't north western Europe be the Scandinavian countries or do they have their own classification when it comes to DNA testing?

I heard on the radio that his type of DNA testing isn't reliable and a few companies doing these tests were discredited when the same samples were sent to different firms with wildly conflicting results.

I think the OP is putting too much faith in "DNA testing", and that very few people really understand what is being tested and what the results - assuming them to be accurate - actually means.

 

First of all, you correctly remember that various DNA testing companies were tested - and found to be producing different results for the same individual.  So the accuracy of testing is in question.

 

But it's worth understanding what is going on, because it's not just a question of them getting the testing or analysis wrong (although, how would anyone know if they were?).

 

Firstly none of these companies just "tests DNA".   They test part of your DNA: maybe just a couple of percent.     A conclusion based on that may not hold true for the remaining percentage.

 

Secondly, each company has its own proprietary database based on the DNA of their customers.   Since companies may have bigger or smaller databases, or different demographics of customers, that may lead to different results.

 

Because, thirdly and probably most importantly to understand, these DNA tests are not tests of ancestry.   These companies do not have databases of the DNA of people from the 1800s or the 1700 or the 800 BCs or whenever.   They have databases based on the DNA of people living around about now.    They are comparing current populations, not ancestral populations.    They tell you what you have in common with other living (or recently dead!) people.  They tell you where your "relatives" (in some abstract sense) live not where your ancestors lived.

 

So the OPs discovery that their DNA was "north Western European" just means that the small percentage of DNA actually analysed was most commonly shared (in the company's database, and note that "most commonly" doesn't mean exclusively) among contemporaries living in north Western Europe.    

 

Which isn't very specific - so maybe the company hasn't analysed enough DNA from enough of a variety of people to make a more specific claim.

 

But this is important, because it's confusing the OP who believes their family to be Italian, which would presumably be Southern European.   

 

But just because the OP's test found that the small percentage tested was most commonly found among current north western European customers of the company, that doesn't logically mean that they're not of Italian ancestry.     What would happen if you tested Italians?   Maybe the same!

 

There's also the point that if you go back far enough, simple maths tells you that you will have ancestors from whom you have inherited no DNA at all.   And if you think about it,  if you go back enough generations, eventually everyone shares ancestors (maths again - 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, 32 great great great grandparents and so on), so there's in principle a bit of everything in all of us.

 

A guide to all the issues which might be worth a read is here:  http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/img/Ancestry-DNA-Testing-and-Privacy-Guide.pdf

 

And a debunking guide:  https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/debunking

 

And this: https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford

 

 

Edited by Dannyno

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Hello,

 

Sorry I think I might  be late to the party, but my ancestors were Andrea/Andrew Indeco Cuneo (1827-83) and Maria Garibondi or Garibaldi (1834-1904). Andrew and Maria (she later Anglicised her name to Mary) were both born in Coreglia Ligure in Italy.

 

Andrew and Maria are my great great great grandparents. Andrew was a gardener, and Maria was a dressmaker. They also had an income from lodgers (mainly Irish ones) living in their house.

 

In 1881, for example, they had a lodger called "John O'Donnell" living with them. John was 60 in 1881, and worked as a "boot and shoe maker."

 

I have done some research on my family tree. So, please feel free to ask me a question on my tree, and I will do my very best to answer it.

 

I would be very happy to know if anyone has some information to share with me, or any pictures of Andrew and his family.

 

Thank you very much.

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Did you look up Andrea or Andrew Cuneo in old newspapers? I can see three articles with that name, though they can’t all be the same person.

 

Kentish Independent - Saturday 26 July 1845 page 2.

Giovanni Bartorelli, musician, 23 years of age, was charged with nicking Andrea Cuneo’s piano. Guilty. Six months with hard labour. In 1845 it could have been a square piano, much more portable and easier to nick than a modern iron-frame piano which you can’t exactly carry very far.

 

Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 24 August 1861 page 3.

Andrew Cuneo, travelling musician, charged John Hague of Stavely, a miner, with assaulting him (in Bolsover on the 12 August). Case dismissed. Andrew Cuneo also charged Hague with maliciously damaging his hardy-gurdy. Hague was found guilty of that, and had to pay a fine of £1, and 18/6 costs plus the repairs to the instrument (or one month in the slammer with hard labour).

 

Sheffield Independent - Friday 05 June 1936 page 7. Andrew Cuneo, 10 years of age, skidded on his bike in Nursery St. and got a cut over his left eye. Taken to the Children’s Hospital.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew P.

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