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So I used the above site but am not best pleased and I plan to use this FT for my next one, basically my results for ethnicity came back with 99% Welsh/Scots/Irish and 1% Middle Eastern which means nothing, there are no non Northern European in my family at all, no info in between, no mention of Scandinavia which I have connections to, when they showed me my dna matches there were no Middle Eastern but mostly Skandi, I paid a reduced price as it was on offer and my results were about two weeks late, I hope this makes sense, tia.
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MyHeritage uses the FTDNA lab, so do the cheaper test and do a free transfer to the other company.
MyHeritage is known for very bad ethnicity results. I am 25% Danish, 25% Irish and 50% Polish and MyHeritage gives me 12.3% Iberian, 1.6% North African and 1.0% Nigerian.
My matches at MyHeritage are far superior to FTDNA. I have far more Danish matches at MyHeritage than Ancestry and FTDNA combined.
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I got a big laugh out of our ethnicity results after I uploaded the DNA of all my family members to MyHeritage - we're all Greek!!! Even my mother! No other DNA company ever said that any of us had any Greek ancestry, though I would accept that my father probably could have a little Greek mixed in, as he is Italian. But my mother's ancestors were all from north of the Alps for as far back as I can go. She's about 75% French and German, and 25% UK with some Dutch (New Netherland).Comment
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The various DNA genetic genealogy testing companies are continually improving their ethnicity estimates, but some do it more often than others. Currently, I think among the four (23andMe, Ancestry, FTDNA and MyHeritage), many customers seem to feel that 23andMe or Ancestry give results closest to their known ancestry, with FTDNA and MyHeritage at the lower end. As jimbirk mentioned above, there have been many reports disagreeing with the estimates from MyHeritage. For many, the accuracy of these estimates will vary, depending on your genetic mix and the reference populations and algorithms used by each company.Originally posted by ThomP View Post
I know that 23andMe and Ancestry have most recently updated their reference populations and/or estimates, whereas FTDNA and MyHeritage haven't updated theirs in a while (to my knowledge). Any population shown as being 2% or smaller is generally described as just a "trace," and may be erroneous.
It is best to rely more on your matches to show where your ancestors were from, as you've seen. Those of us who are more interested in the DNA matches part of DNA testing are only mildly interested in any ethnicity prediction. It's all a developing technology, and not something to get too worried about. They don't call them "estimates" for nothing!
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This makes sense thank you, I just can’t understand why they threw in 1% Middle Eastern, is this a blatant mistake or as some folk have said elsewhere it’s the “current year” or am I just not reading the results correctly, you can see the pic above hopefully.Originally posted by KATM View Post
The various DNA genetic genealogy testing companies are continually improving their ethnicity estimates, but some do it more often than others. Currently, I think among the four (23andMe, Ancestry, FTDNA and MyHeritage), many customers seem to feel that 23andMe or Ancestry give results closest to their known ancestry, with FTDNA and MyHeritage at the lower end. As jimbirk mentioned above, there have been many reports disagreeing with the estimates from MyHeritage. For many, the accuracy of these estimates will vary, depending on your genetic mix and the reference populations and algorithms used by each company.
I know that 23andMe and Ancestry have most recently updated their reference populations and/or estimates, whereas FTDNA and MyHeritage haven't updated theirs in a while (to my knowledge). Any population shown as being 2% or smaller is generally described as just a "trace," and may be erroneous.
It is best to rely more on your matches to show where your ancestors were from, as you've seen. Those of us who are more interested in the DNA matches part of DNA testing are only mildly interested in any ethnicity prediction. It's all a developing technology, and not something to get too worried about. They don't call them "estimates" for nothing!
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You are reading it correctly. The 1% Middle Eastern may be a mistake (meaning that the areas that their algorithm labels as ME for you may be mistaking something else for ME), or, less likely, it might indicate an ancestor in the distant past from that region. I suppose it's not beyond the realm of imagination to suppose that some traveler/soldier/slave found his/her way to Scandinavia or elsewhere in Northern Europe, from a time before any genealogical records you could find. But I would advise that you ignore that 1% for now, and see what other ethnicity predictions give you. While you wait to test at FTDNA or elsewhere, you could download your data file from MyHeritage, then upload to GEDmatch, and see what their tools show for your ethnic makeup there.
If you or a relative have done a lot of traditional genealogy, using paper records, how far back do you know your ancestors? 5 generations? 8 generations? I know that Swedish church records, for example, can go back into the 1600s. If you are connected to nobility on any line, you may be able to find a well-researched and documented tree and go back to the 1200s or 1300s. But, autosomal results are supposed to cover the last 4 to 6 generations for your matches, although they can show connections further back in some cases. For the ethnicity reports, I've read where some companies have said that they are meant to show ethnicity within a thousand years. It is confusing, since we assume the ethnicity is reporting for our known ancestry (mostly within the last 250-500 years).Last edited by KATM; 1 March 2019, 10:33 AM.Comment
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It has been some time since I watched the video, but when a pair of identical twins tested ...
They had weird ethnicity estimates at MyHeritage, but they at least had the similar ones. They also didn't differ significantly from each other at FTDNA and Ancestry, though there were some differences (there shouldn't have been any).
But ... at both 23andMe and LivingDNA the twins differed quite a bit from each other. "According to 23andMe's findings, Charlsie has nearly 10 per cent less "broadly European" ancestry than Carly. She also has French and German ancestry (2.6 per cent) that her sister doesn't share."
For those of you who take ethnicity estimates seriously - please read https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/d...lace-1.4980976 and find the full video.
(Note - our identical twins' estimates at FTDNA differ by 1 percentage point. I would like to know if they differ more at 23andMe, but not enough to spend all that money to find out.)
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Thanks for the replies people, I had myself classified by folk who can tell your phenotype from pictures and other info and it was 99% Norwegian/Nordic in response so I probably should have been happy with that.Comment
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ThomP: Where can one get their phenotype from pictures and other information? That is interesting, and I am interested. Thanks!Comment
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Hi, there are several forums on the web, pages on social media sites, type in your browser “classify my phenotype” basically you offer pictures of your head, from four angles, age, body type, eye colour etc etc. I myself used to give classifications and my mail box was full most of the time, it’s actually quite easy to get it right after doing it for a while, age and experience are a must though if you want to get it spot on, someone over 40 who has travelled the world will be better than an 18 yr old trying their hand at it, if you get me.Originally posted by Biblioteque View Post
Just to add you’ll need to do some reading on the subject and study some academic work on it.Last edited by ThomP; 1 March 2019, 05:55 PM.Comment
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Thank you! And I am guessing from your picture, you are a Celt, and green-eyed?Comment
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Nordic/Celt, blue eyes, no Celt or “Irish” phenotype though apparently, Norwegian looking with no Sammi traits, indications.Originally posted by Biblioteque View PostComment
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