New Results are Alternative Facts

[Kay1]

My previous DNA results on Family Tree were rather parallel to other testing companies. The admixture results with these companies do vary in ratio. However, these latest results from Family Tree are so far off the mark! Now I'm showing only British, some Finnish and Italy/Greece. I don't disagree, but where's the rest of it?

My Scandinavian heritage has been completely wiped off the map. That obliterates well over 3/4 of my family lines on my Dad's side and 1/2 of family on my mother's side. What I find funny is that on Family Finder my highest DNA matches are with cousins with whom we share most recent common ancestors that are Scandinavian. These are DNA matches! How can I show no Scandinavian? On Gedmatch my DNA matches ancient Swedish samples.

For those of us who clearly do have Scandinavian family and are suddenly showing 0% Scandinavian, we're not stupid. The results are wrong.

[prairielad]

Mine go the other way, my Grandfather is half Norwegian/half Swedish, he shows 98% Scandinavian.

My Grandmother is English (she shows 59% Scandinavian)

my mother and her siblings (half English half Scandinavian) all show 70% to 90% Scandinavian.

My mother is 90% Scandinavian, 4% British Isles, 6% Southeast Europe

[Rosemiriam]

My new Family Finder results completely contradict the known genealogical research and family background; from being 48% European(my dad's 100% Flemish, going back centuries), I become 59% European. The 30% Scandinavian heritage that I never knew I had has now disappeared and is replaced with half British and half Southeast European. I thought Flemish would mean Western European, but no trace of that left now.

To make matters worse my 100% Baghdadi or Iraqi Jewish grandmother's heritage is nowhere to be found: from 13% Middle Eastern I'm now down to 8% and the Ashkenazi Jewish heritage of 5% is completely gone. Still my closest DNA matches are all Jewish.
I'm 31% South Asia(India), which is more or less consistent with my grandfather who was from Goa, India.

These results are completely inconsistent with my genealogical research, so all I can say is I'm deeply disappointed.

[kilrush98]

New Results are Alternative Facts

My heart goes out to new testers who test with Family Finder as their first autosomal test. These testers may believe their myOrigins results are accurate and that all they know about their family is wrong. In my case, I am a man with three grandparents born in Ireland and one grandmother born in Quebec (French Canadian).

Old results:
Isles - 71%
Scandinavia - 8%
West & Cent Euro - 0% (yes, 0%)

New results:
Isles - 4% (yes, a drop of 67%)
Scandinavia - 0%
West & Cent Euro - 96% (yes, from 0% to 96%!)

Just suppose this was my first autosomal test.
I will NEVER recommend FTDNA Family Finder.

[mlcarson]

It's still good if you want additional testing. It's just that their "My Origins" is crap. I think that Ancestry might be better for basic genealogy matches but it requires a subscription. FTDNA basically has a unique service with it's Y-DNA and mt-DNA matching plus they'll keep your DNA samples for 25 years for future testing. That's where I see the value. This latest My Origins has been very disappointing.

[The_Contemplator]

I will NEVER recommend FTDNA Family Finder.

If you are taking an autosomal DNA test like Family Finder for the ethnicity estimates, you are doing genetic genealogy wrong. The real value is in the matches. The ethnicity estimates are just a gimmick for those looking for only that. It is the honey that brings us testers that don't know yet if they want to really research their genetic genealogy.

Just look at all the different ethnicity estimates from the different DNA testing companies and the Gedmatch tools. They all vary. The reference samples they all use matters a lot. How do you know the reference samples were right about their family origins? It just takes a few generations to forget a family's origins.

With more research and a bigger reference database FTDNA can better refine it. Telling people not to come here, doesn't help get FTDNA to fix this any quicker.

[DaveInGreece]

My new results are totally crazy too. The previous results here, and the results using all tools at other companies, are entirely consistent with my British/Irish ancestry. Now I've suddenly developed 22% Scandinavian and 29% Iberian! And my cousin who used to have 13% Asian from her Chinese great-grandfather (which is incredibly close to the 12.5% you'd expect as an average) is now just European.

Since ethnicity is not why I tested, I'm not too bothered. In the last couple of days (i.e. after the fiasco with this useless "upgrade" of MyOrigins) a friend who is interested in ethnicity asked me to recommend a test company, and I still recommended FTDNA. I just made it clear that this company is currently bottom of the heap for ethnicity but he'll be able to transfer his data to other companies, free, to get believable ethnicity results. Maybe FTDNA will pay attention to customers and adjust their algorithms before my friend gets his results.

[Chrisinhouston]

Mine also have changed quite dramatically and are now not as in line with my known and well sourced family tree.

As per my research my ethnic origin breakdown is:
25% Scandinavian (Swedish)
62.5 British Isles and Benelux region
12.5 Japanese

Old FTDNA My Origins results:
88% European (46% British Isles, 34% Scandinavian, 8% Eastern Europe)
13% East Asian

New FTDNA My Origins:
86% European (79% British Isles, 7% Finland)
12% East Asian/Northeast Asian
<2% East Europe
<2% Asia Minor

My FTDNA Y-DNA testing suggests I am from I-M253 halpogroup so my paternal English ancestors most likely were Viking or Anglo Saxon invaders. But that doesn't explain how my Swedish ancestry all but disappeared and was replaced by Finish and a greater percent of British Isles.

[RMAC]

My Tribe is completely changed!

My Jewish roots have changed from Ashkenazi out of Poland, to now Sephardic out of Spain and the percentage also went down. I know I had both Spain and Polish roots, but I do not understand this new results especially since it changed my Jewish lineage outcome completely.

[Tara613]

New Results are So Much Better!

All of my life my mother said we were "English, Irish, and Scotch." The last results of my DNA family finder test said we were only 5% British Isles. It stated that I was 38% Scandinavian, and I am not that light complexioned. And 48%. central and Western European. None of my DNA matches were Scandinavian or German or French, etc. It also said I was 4% Asia Minor, which made no sense whatsoever.

Now with the new results I tested at 84% British Isles, which confirms everything my mother always told me, and the matches with English surnames. Also, it said I am 2% Sephardic Jew, instead of Asia Minor. This makes much more sense to me, because I am O negative blood type, which is most common among sephardic Jews. Also, I am 10% Scandinavian, which makes more sense than the former 38%. I am very happy with my results because they are more along the lines of what I have practically experienced in real life.

[BBA64]

Pretty accurate for me

It may be that I'm lucky, but the My Origins prediction is pretty much on target. I have a trace amount from my rare mtDNA haplogroup, the British Isles (Ireland) is right on, the Volhynia east european is there, as is some Scandinavian. But, I don't know far back the predictions are supposed to go.

The ethnic German in Volhynia is really German if you go back before that immigration east. It all depends on the timeframe and the totality of your matches (not just that a paternal line is been centered in the same place for a couple or few centuries - they could have had wives from other parts of the world).

Know your family history (not just a direct line, but across the spectrum), that'll clarify the results, too.

Anyway, my two cents.

[bourgja]

Since ethnicity is not why I tested, I'm not too bothered. In the last couple of days (i.e. after the fiasco with this useless "upgrade" of MyOrigins) a friend who is interested in ethnicity asked me to recommend a test company, and I still recommended FTDNA. I just made it clear that this company is currently bottom of the heap for ethnicity but he'll be able to transfer his data to other companies, free, to get believable ethnicity results. Maybe FTDNA will pay attention to customers and adjust their algorithms before my friend gets his results.

I don't think that you can transfer FTDNA data to other companies at all, but you can transfer data from other companies TO FTDNA.

[Boudicca1]

Know your family history (not just a direct line, but across the spectrum), that'll clarify the results, too.

I do know most of mine but it doesn't explain why I get population results that neither of my parents get! That's got nothing to do with a family tree that's just odd!

[The_Contemplator]

I don't think that you can transfer FTDNA data to other companies at all, but you can transfer data from other companies TO FTDNA.

He means transfer to a place like Gedmatch where it has its own ethnicity estimation tools.

[MtnJim]

My New Results

have added <2% South Central Africa, I'm guessing that goes back, oh, I don't know, about 150,000 years?