Questions about Autosomal Results

[Carmilla5]

Hi
had my father's autosomal done and not surprisingly there was Asian in there but the interesting result was there was no Ashkenazi/Jewish found or Italian and I'd love to know is it that we inherit only certain genes from family and not others?

His great grandmother (his father's paternal grandmother) was Italian and I'm wondering why this isn't showing. His great great great grandfather was Jewish from Poland and nothing shows up.

I'd love to know why this is? It will be interesting to get mine done and see if any of these show up in my results even though not my father.

I think also I'm a little disappointed that My Origins don't tell you exactly what country the results come from. Wondering if in the future this will change or can we upload our results to other companies to get more clear cut information?

Many thanks
Lisa :^)

[John McCoy]

Measuring ethnic origins is definitely not an exact science. One of the difficulties (one of many, it turns out), which you noted, is how much DNA you can expect to inherit from a particular remote ancestor, such as a great-great-great-grandfather. You would think it would be 1/32 of the total, or about 3 percent, but the random nature of recombination and inheritance of chromosomes means that the actual figure will vary -- and it is entirely possible that the actual amount will be zero! It is also clear from history and from the experience of genealogists in Europe that people have been moving around the continent as far back as we have historical records, with the result that it may not be possible reliably to distinguish say, French ancestry from German ancestry, based on genetic data. Some people find the results helpful, others feel they are contrary to the facts, and the rest of us find the results just uninformative.

[Carmilla5]

Thank you

Hi John
so appreciate your thoughtful reply. I guess we are in the L plate stage of DNA genetics and only time will tell if things become more clear cut but as you say, there is so much intermixing, marriaging over the millenia, we are ultimately "mixed breed" in many ways!

This is where getting other siblings tested would be interesting as I'm sure two of my dad's sisters who are definitely stronger genetically to his father's side (darker with dark eyes), compared to my dad who is fairer and green eyed like his other sister who bears strong resemblance to his mother. Then again its his mother's side that the Asian is on, go figure!

I am finding this added extra gold for our family tree research wonderful and FTDNA certainly makes it affordable!

Warm wishes
Lisa :^)

[khazaria]

there was no Ashkenazi/Jewish found [...] His great great great grandfather was Jewish from Poland and nothing shows up. I'd love to know why this is?

MyOrigins was programmed to never report Ashkenazic Jewish as a category when it finds it in an amount less than 5%. On average, your father would be expected to carry about 3.125% Ashkenazic DNA give or take. The real question to answer then is does he have any matches who appear to have fully Ashkenazic ancestry in their recent family histories? This can sometimes be determined by carefully browsing Family Finder, or if he's lucky he will have several matches of this kind show in his MyOrigins screen. If he has "full" Jewish matches, then he did inherit some of that Jewish DNA.

[josh w.]

Hi John
so appreciate your thoughtful reply. I guess we are in the L plate stage of DNA genetics and only time will tell if things become more clear cut but as you say, there is so much intermixing, marriaging over the millenia, we are ultimately "mixed breed" in many ways!

This is where getting other siblings tested would be interesting as I'm sure two of my dad's sisters who are definitely stronger genetically to his father's side (darker with dark eyes), compared to my dad who is fairer and green eyed like his other sister who bears strong resemblance to his mother. Then again its his mother's side that the Asian is on, go figure!

I am finding this added extra gold for our family tree research wonderful and FTDNA certainly makes it affordable!

Warm wishes
Lisa :^)

Lisa, agree with other comments. Note that your father is just as close to both parents as are his sisters. They may have inherited genes related to appearance and he may have inherited genes related less obvious traits

[josh w.]

Hi John
so appreciate your thoughtful reply. I guess we are in the L plate stage of DNA genetics and only time will tell if things become more clear cut but as you say, there is so much intermixing, marriaging over the millenia, we are ultimately "mixed breed" in many ways!

This is where getting other siblings tested would be interesting as I'm sure two of my dad's sisters who are definitely stronger genetically to his father's side (darker with dark eyes), compared to my dad who is fairer and green eyed like his other sister who bears strong resemblance to his mother. Then again its his mother's side that the Asian is on, go figure!

I am finding this added extra gold for our family tree research wonderful and FTDNA certainly makes it affordable!

Warm wishes
Lisa :^)

Lisa, agree with other comments. Note that your father is just as close to both parents as are his sisters. They may have inherited genes related to appearance and he may have inherited genes related less obvious traits

[Carmilla5]

Thank you

Josh and Khazaria
thank you so much for your informative posts. I feel understanding DNA is very much like learning a new language. I'm sure as time goes on, we will learn more and more from it. I've just had dad's YDNA completed (just Y37) obviously there's more but its the cost for me right now. Next I will get myself done!
Thanks once again!
Lisa :^)

[malchik]

MyOrigins was programmed to never report Ashkenazic Jewish as a category when it finds it in an amount less than 5%.

Where did you take this information from?

On average, your father would be expected to carry about 3.125% Ashkenazic DNA give or take.

How do you determine this average?

[rmm0484]

Hi
had my father's autosomal done and not surprisingly there was Asian in there but the interesting result was there was no Ashkenazi/Jewish found or Italian and I'd love to know is it that we inherit only certain genes from family and not others?

His great grandmother (his father's paternal grandmother) was Italian and I'm wondering why this isn't showing. His great great great grandfather was Jewish from Poland and nothing shows up.

I'd love to know why this is? It will be interesting to get mine done and see if any of these show up in my results even though not my father.

I think also I'm a little disappointed that My Origins don't tell you exactly what country the results come from. Wondering if in the future this will change or can we upload our results to other companies to get more clear cut information?

Many thanks
Lisa :^)

Another reason why no Ashkenazi/Jewish is found may be that your ancestors converted to Judaism.

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/10/08/ashkenazi-jewish-women-descended-mostly-from-italian-converts-new-study-asserts/

Another way to see your ancestry is through GEDMATCH - you can download from FTDNA and use a number of different tests to determine your ancestry.