Sample Populations and Family Finder Results

[Andiralenira]

Why do sample populations not appear in the Family Finder results when you know you have ancestry from a particular sample population?

My Family Finder results say French, Orcadian, Spanish and Middle Eastern (Jewish, Druze and Adygei.)

On paper, I am 50% Italian, 25% Irish and 25% Polish and have documentation for all three. The Italian does not show up in Family Finder (even though it is listed in the sample populations as Southern European: Italian, Sardinian, Tuscan) neither does the Polish. Polish is not among the sample populations either but Russian is and I would think that the Polish would show up as Russian but it doesn't. The Irish shows up as Orcadian, so that is easy to figure out. The Middle Eastern result I know is valid as that definitely would come from the Italian side and it appears clearly in every test and admixture calculator that I have used.

Family Finder shows this result:

FTDNA RESULTS:
67.37% European (French, Orcadian, Spanish) +/- 9.57%
32.63% Middle Eastern (Jewish, Adygei, Druze) +/-9.57%

I still can't figure out why I got French and Spanish and why the Polish does not appear. Maybe someone out there could explain it to me?

[prairielad]

http://www.familytreedna.com/faq/answers/default.aspx?faqid=22#1039

[Andiralenira]

Yes, I have looked at that link but I was hoping for a little more help in understanding the sample populations and why what shows up in the Family Finder results, shows up in the Family Finder results, but thank you.

[Nijuurasen]

Speaking of which, when is PF supposed to be upgraded? I thought it was happening at the beginning of 2014?

I've never seen something take so long to come out of "Beta". 23andme's Ancestry Composition makes PF look like a joke.

[WCoaster]

PF upgrade

I'm wondering about that, too. It does seem like a long wait.

[Táltos]

Speaking of which, when is PF supposed to be upgraded? I thought it was happening at the beginning of 2014?

I've never seen something take so long to come out of "Beta". 23andme's Ancestry Composition makes PF look like a joke.

Great question. When they had mentioned the update they had made it sound like it would happen soon after the release of X chromosome matching. Not the same week mind you, but the impression that I got (from what people were writing that went to their conference), was it seemed like it should be within a month of it. So please, where is it? I am certain we are not the only ones who are excited for an update.

[benboy]

Update has been taking a long time? Population results could do with being a bit more specific like Ged or Dr McDonald both seem to be different from my FT results. roll on the update

[Miss Blue]

I am half Italian on paper, too. More specifically, southern Italian and Sicilian. The rest is just a mixture of various western and northern European. I received almost the same result as you: 70% European (Orcadian, French, Spanish) and 30% Middle Eastern.

What a sophisticated algorithm, huh?

[Táltos]

I am half Italian on paper, too. More specifically, southern Italian and Sicilian. The rest is just a mixture of various western and northern European. I received almost the same result as you: 70% European (Orcadian, French, Spanish) and 30% Middle Eastern.

What a sophisticated algorithm, huh?

Southern Italians and Sicilians do actually share a lot of genes with Middle Eastern populations due to old migrations. The problem with this that becomes very misleading is how they will give people a primarily Orcadian result and then a few percent Middle Eastern one. Then they expect people to intuitively know that they have to estimate how far east say into Germany the algorithm is trying to place them.

Hmm, so this question was asked about 10 hours ago in regards to the update. We have not heard from Rebekah yet. I hope this does not mean bad news. In this case I do not consider no news to be good news. Unless of course they unveil it tomorrow morning! One could wish.

[Zaru]

After familiarizing myself with PF it has become abundantly clear that their sample populations are out of date. With no samples for the British Isles it sends the data reeling, as most of the testers have ancestry in the BI.

There also seems to be a great deal of us with "Middle Eastern" results as well. On the Gedmatch calculators I am getting about 35-40% Middle Eastern across them all, and with PF it is much lower. This is very frustrating to say the least.

[Andiralenira]

Yes, I too am wondering when Population Finder will be out of beta stage. I hope we hear something soon.

[Rebekah Canada]

Hello,

The news is not bad. We are simply doing a good deal of Q/A and testing at each step along the way. You may expect:

• A completely new matching algorithm
• A completely new user interface

...

Hmm, so this question was asked about 10 hours ago in regards to the update. We have not heard from Rebekah yet. I hope this does not mean bad news. In this case I do not consider no news to be good news. Unless of course they unveil it tomorrow morning! One could wish.

[Andiralenira]

Thank you Rebekah!

[Táltos]

Hello,

The news is not bad. We are simply doing a good deal of Q/A and testing at each step along the way. You may expect:

• A completely new matching algorithm
• A completely new user interface

Thank you Rebekah, very exciting. One more question though. Does FTDNA think that the update will occur within days, weeks, or months?

[Zaru]

I second this question Rebekah!

Thank you Rebekah, very exciting. One more question though. Does FTDNA think that the update will occur within days, weeks, or months?

Will the updates also include actual population samples, and if so, will they be culled from the database here at FTDNA (which would not be too reliable given the high degree of ambiguity regarding our genealogies), or are they samples taken from the actual populations?

Cheers!