My Ancestry DNA results

[mixedkid]

My Ancestry DNA results came in last night. I am much more satisfied with the genetic ethnicity aspect of those results than I am with Population Finder. Having 2 Scandinavian great-grandmothers (Norwegian and Swedish) and 1 French-Canadian great-grandmother (a person with largely northern French ancestry) I was happy to finally see "Scandinavian." To also see "Finnish/Volga-Ural" as a percentage was also very encouraging. (There is no way that ancestry.com could have figured out my Finnish ancestry just by looking at my online family tree).

The basic results I received last night better reflect: (1) what I have been told over the years by older relatives; (2) what family members suspected -- especially the Finnish results -- and (3) what I have been seeing using the various calculators on GEDmatch.

I still love the communication with my Family Finder cousins, however, and the FTDNA forums.

The lab started to process my kit on November 27, so it did not take staff too long to get the job done.

[MFWare]

As a frequent contributor to this forum, I am sure that you are aware of the controversy surrounding AncestrDNA's identification of high percentages of Scandinavian and Finnish ancestry. I am an AncestryDNA testee who has been indentified as having about 22% of these Northern European heritages. However, 23andMe identifies only 0.8% Finnish. I believe the Finnish is real because I have very good genetic matches with at least two Finnish residents and an American of Finnish descent. However, there is a huge difference between 10% an 0.8%.

Many people discount AncestryDNA's Scandinavian findings as an artifact of oversampling of this population. AncestryDNA's findings imply that my maternal grandmother was half-Finnish. This is very difficult to reconcile with the woman I know. Perhaps, it is easier to reconcile in your family history. In any event, my advice is to maintain skepticism until you can confirm AncestryDNA's results.

[NYMark]

It's interesting to compare Ancestry's results with the new 23andMe feature, Ancestry Composition, which in my case seems to be the best and most accurate analysis going.

In standard mode, 23andMe has this breakdown:

99.8% European 0.2% Unassigned

49.4% Ashkenazi
25.2% German French (this goes up to over 39% in Speculative mode)
1.2% Scandinavian
12.6% Nonspecific Northern European
0.8% Eastern European
0.6% Nonspecific Southern European
9.9% Nonspecific European

Speculative mode bumps the European total up to 100%, probably overestimates the AJ slightly (because it's maternal and the x is counted) at 50.4% and teases out small percentages of Italian and British Isles.

Ancestry's results have some similarities and some major differences.

European Jewish 49%
British Isles 32%
Central European 13%
Finnish Volga-Ural 6%

Both do really well with the AJ (although I know Ancestry misses the AJ component in a lot of people.) 23andMe seems to be far more accurate about my non-Jewish background based on what limited information I have, which suggests recent origins are west-central European, not Isles. Ancestry picks up a Finnish component, and I do have several distant Finnish matches on my phased paternal DNA, but I think an estimate of 6% is probably very high, since the segments are all under 6 cM and could be Scandinavian (a Swede shares one of these segments.)

Despite the issues that have been raised about the new 23andMe product, I am very impressed with it. Ancestry, not so much.

As a frequent contributor to this forum, I am sure that you are aware of the controversy surrounding AncestrDNA's identification of high percentages of Scandinavian and Finnish ancestry. I am an AncestryDNA testee who has been indentified as having about 22% of these Northern European heritages. However, 23andMe identifies only 0.8% Finnish. I believe the Finnish is real because I have very good genetic matches with at least two Finnish residents and an American of Finnish descent. However, there is a huge difference between 10% an 0.8%.

Many people discount AncestryDNA's Scandinavian findings as an artifact of oversampling of this population. AncestryDNA's findings imply that my maternal grandmother was half-Finnish. This is very difficult to reconcile with the woman I know. Perhaps, it is easier to reconcile in your family history. In any event, my advice is to maintain skepticism until you can confirm AncestryDNA's results.

[southjerseygeni]

Question

If I have 7 generations born in the US on my mother's direct maternal line (back to 1774), and all of my Father's direct line was born in Quebec, Ca., from 1600's on then how do I tell my ethnicity percentages farther back than those times? Do the tests predict ethnicity past 5 generations back?

[NYMark]

23andMe says within 500 years. Ancestry says "hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of years ago." Population Finder says 100 to 2000 years (4-80 generations.)

Any one of them should give you indications that go back beyond five generations.

If I have 7 generations born in the US on my mother's direct maternal line (back to 1774), and all of my Father's direct line was born in Quebec, Ca., from 1600's on then how do I tell my ethnicity percentages farther back than those times? Do the tests predict ethnicity past 5 generations back?

[southjerseygeni]

Thanks!

Ok, thanks so much!

[mixedkid]

As a frequent contributor to this forum, I am sure that you are aware of the controversy surrounding AncestrDNA's identification of high percentages of Scandinavian and Finnish ancestry. I am an AncestryDNA testee who has been indentified as having about 22% of these Northern European heritages. However, 23andMe identifies only 0.8% Finnish. I believe the Finnish is real because I have very good genetic matches with at least two Finnish residents and an American of Finnish descent. However, there is a huge difference between 10% an 0.8%.

Many people discount AncestryDNA's Scandinavian findings as an artifact of oversampling of this population. AncestryDNA's findings imply that my maternal grandmother was half-Finnish. This is very difficult to reconcile with the woman I know. Perhaps, it is easier to reconcile in your family history. In any event, my advice is to maintain skepticism until you can confirm AncestryDNA's results.

Both my mother and I have many Finnish matches through FamilyFinder, some North American but the vast majority are citizens of Finland. Some are Swedish-speaking Finnish citizens of the south but most are not. One of my own North American matches had a Swedish father (former citizen of Sweden) and a Finnish mother (former citizen of Finland) -- his father had been serving in the Finnish army when he met his future spouse. Only a few months ago I learned that on my father's Norwegian branch, there were Finns, living in Norway before immigration. His Family Finder Scandinavian matches are almost entirely Norwegian-American or Norwegian citizens but he has started to collect Finnish ones only recently. All of his Norwegian matches pretty much come from the same southern counties of Norway. Several of my Swedish-related distant cousins actually still live in my home town. (I graduated with one from high school.) When I first moved back several years ago, a sister of the fellow I graduated with told me that the family had Finnish as well as Swedish ancestors.

I have 26 first cousins still living. Several on my mother's side have suspected Finnish ancestry for many years. Two first cousins on my father's side actually knew about Finnish ancestry in our Norwegian branch many years before I did. (We are all in our 50s and 60s now.)

My great-grandmother immigrated from Sweden when she was 14 years old; her parents also immigrated but possibly returned to Sweden or Finland with a younger daughter. Two of my great-great grandparents immigrated from the Olso, Norway area (then called Kristiana or Christiana). The husband first farmed here but later opened a business in a neighboring city -- he used the term "Norwegian" as part of his business's name. The information about Finnish ancestry initially came through his daughter, my great-grandmother, who I met several times as a young child. She is buried in the same cemetery as her parents (the actual immigrants from Norway). Cemetery records as well as obituaries all indicate that the couple originated from Norway and immigrated shortly after the American Civil War ended.

The self-reports of my own Family Finder cousins (as far as their ethnicities go) reflect (mainly) what Ancestry DNA told me about myself. Those reports also reflect what grandparents, uncles, aunts and great-aunts and uncles also told family members.

[Táltos]

I have to say I have tons of Finnish matches on Gedmatch. One of my closest matches on there I think is estimated at 4.4 generations. A lot of these matches are actually in Finland. I have not tried to email them as I'm not sure what to think. They all have very Finnish names and have the fi designation in their emails.

I can only guess how they are related. Perhaps through my father? Through his Lithuanian or Russian side? I also am amazed at the large number of right out of Russia matches that I have on Gedmatch. I know this too by their Russian names and what their email domains will show.

I have no Finnish matches here at FTDNA. I do have several Russian ones here. Really I have a lot of investigating to do with my matches on Gedmatch. But like I've said I find it very daunting as the number I have there is huge compared to here. I wish they had an easier format there. However I am not complaining , bless those guys at Gedmatch for bringing their site for free to us. I appreciate them much!
Anyway I have to say I did not test at Ancestry so I don't know if I would get that type of result. If I did I would not think it odd due to the matches I have at Gedmatch.

[mixedkid]

If I have 7 generations born in the US on my mother's direct maternal line (back to 1774), and all of my Father's direct line was born in Quebec, Ca., from 1600's on then how do I tell my ethnicity percentages farther back than those times? Do the tests predict ethnicity past 5 generations back?

From what I can see, the Ancestry DNA test does not predict specific ethnicity but narrows things down to region. I only have one great-grandmother who was French-Canadian (born in the U.S. of French-Canadian immigrants). The test through Ancestry DNA did pick up "Central Europe" and as far as I know, Central Europe through Ancestry DNA is largely France and Germany. I have a feeling that some of my Scandinavian percentage through Ancestry might have come from her genetic input since she was largely of northern French ancestry, with many ancestors from Normandy, especially (I am thinking of the Viking influence).

Here is how the French-Canadian part of my ancestry has been confirmed for me: Through Family Finder cousins of FTDNA -- Canadian and American cousins of my father especially -- people with ancestral ties to Quebec, old Acadia and to French people of the American South.

[mixedkid]

It seems that the DNA testing companies have both strong and weak points.

I remain convinced that FTDNA is the best as far as communication goes (with cousins, between customers and the company, forum readers, etc.). I also feel that I have learned a huge amount from my association with FTDNA.

Something new though that I like about Ancestry DNA: When examining information about a match, now and then a page will appear on the screen about a hint, a possible common ancestor. This has happened twice so far for me: once with my dad's French-Canadian line and once with my mom's New England colonial line.

[Jim Barrett]

But most to the trees at Ancestry have so much trash in them they don't even make good fire wood.

[EdwardRHill]

Genealogy is like Archaeology you dig through the layers sifting for what your looking for. Looking for information in trees at Ancestry is like that you look and determine whats junk and whats not. The same problems you encounter at Ancestry you encounter with old school researchers books at the library some of it good some of it is not.

[mixedkid]

It seems that the DNA testing companies have both strong and weak points.

I remain convinced that FTDNA is the best as far as communication goes (with cousins, between customers and the company, forum readers, etc.). I also feel that I have learned a huge amount from my association with FTDNA.

Something new though that I like about Ancestry DNA: When examining information about a match, now and then a page will appear on the screen about a hint, a possible common ancestor. This has happened twice so far for me: once with my dad's French-Canadian line and once with my mom's New England colonial line.

I just figured out that I already know one of my matches described above. She is related to my maternal grandmother's family (through New Englanders). Like me, she was raised in the Midwest, in fact, in the same county.

The ancestral families that are popping up from New England are the same as those one sees for both my mother and me with Family Finder.

[djknox]

Ok, thanks so much!

Don't waste your time, they don't have a clue other than to classify you as European, African, Asian etc... If that's what you after then all the commercial providers will meet your needs... but if you're looking for anything a little more refined... forget it. They don't even have a reasonable number of reference populations from which to choose from... never mind choosing them correctly.

[mixedkid]

Don't waste your time, they don't have a clue other than to classify you as European, African, Asian etc... If that's what you after then all the commercial providers will meet your needs... but if you're looking for anything a little more refined... forget it. They don't even have a reasonable number of reference populations from which to choose from... never mind choosing them correctly.

I wish someone would create a French-Canadian calculator and place it on GEDmatch. A while back, I was reading about a study where scientists were comparing a French-Canadian sample with those who were definitely Acadian, how much Native American genetic material was present, how much European, etc.