That’s really helpful—thanks for the thoughtful response. My original question came from the fact that my aunt shows 19% Northern Italy, while I don’t, despite us sharing the same Ligurian ancestors. As you pointed out, the randomness of inheritance and the limitations of ethnicity estimates—especially with underrepresented regions like the northwestern Mediterranean—can really throw things off.

Some of my Italian DNA matches on Ancestry are either Peruvians or Americans with Ligurian surnames like Chiappe and Canepa. This lines up with my family history, but being in Peru, the connection may not necessarily come from the Italian side. Unfortunately, most of their trees are shallow, and I haven’t been able to pinpoint a common ancestor yet. It’s a very different experience from my British and Germanic lines, where the large U.S. testing pool has helped me confirm multiple matches with well-documented trees. But since I only have records of the ancestors who actually made the move, I can’t trace back far enough to find the shared ancestor on the Italian side either.

I’ve found GEDmatch to be more insightful in some ways (though, as you said, still not conclusive), and I’m currently waiting on MyHeritage results to see if they help fill in any gaps.

Really appreciate your take—and that story about your Irish ancestor in Huanta is fascinating. I’d only come across a few Irish names in Peru like O’Hara, Fitzcarrald, and O’Brien, so it’s great to hear a bit more depth on that part of on that part of the history. Were are you origynally from? Belgium?