Population Finder Question

[JoeDublin]

My population finder results show 6% middle east and rest Western European. My family is from the British Isles. My cousin (my father and his mother are siblings) shows 100% Western European. Can I assume that the Middle East connection is through my mother?

Thank you for any info.

[NYMark]

I don't think you can with 6%. I understand it's not at all uncommon for people of Isles ancestry to show that kind of percentage.

My population finder results show 6% middle east and rest Western European. My family is from the British Isles. My cousin (my father and his mother are siblings) shows 100% Western European. Can I assume that the Middle East connection is through my mother?

Thank you for any info.

[mkdexter]

I second NYMark. 6% for one and not any others of the same family is not uncommon at all in PF. My own kids have differences like this in PF and they are all full siblings.

[Bertp]

I had the same exact question.

My father showed 100% Western Europe (Orcadian)
but my results show 94.85 Western Europe + 4.84% MiddleEast

So I had my mother tested:

Her population Finder results - 100% Western Europe (Orcadian)!

[N21163]

I had the same exact question.

My father showed 100% Western Europe (Orcadian)
but my results show 94.85 Western Europe + 4.84% MiddleEast

So I had my mother tested:

Her population Finder results - 100% Western Europe (Orcadian)!

Might be an idea (if you haven't already) to test your raw data with Dr. Doug McDonald from the University of Illinois - [email protected]

Dr McDonald has developed Biogeographical Analysis software that is currently more accurate than what Family Finder has. His service is complimentary.

I have extracted an excerpt (below) from Dr McDonalds Blog that may explain your results:
http://dna-explained.com/2012/09/09/...ical-analysis/

1) If a person is shown as mostly Orcadian and just a few percent Mideast, the Mideast probably means that they are, as mentioned above, on average from a few percent of the way from the Orknies to the Mideast. If the Mideast percentage is getting up to 15% or more then one must start considering that the Mideast is real and recent.

2) If a person is listed as mostly from somewhere in France or Spain, then the first thought for Mideast is that it is real. Small bits of African listed make it likely that there is North African.

3) People from far southern Italy (Calabria), Sicily, Malta, Greece, etc. should expect large amounts of Mideast listed along with Spanish/Italian/Tuscan. Part or all of the Mideast in these cases is usually listed as Jewish, for two reasons: these people derive from the same ancestral populations as the Jews, and large numbers of Jews moved to Sicily after the Inquisition.

Also …

4) Native American is listed as just that. It is quite uncommon for it to be listed in error … except for genuine people from Siberia and Saami. FTDNA does not mistakenly show American as Asian. “Mayan” is the usual listing for any Native American north of Panama, through all of Mexico, and east of the Rockies in the USA and Canada.

5) South Asian also sometimes appears in otherwise near-pure Europeans for the same reason as Mideastern.

6) People who are highly mixed on a continental level are generally fairly accurately represented. However, FTDNA does have a fairly high threshold for listing small components, like Native American in Europeans or Afro-(European)Americans.

Hope this helps.