Problem with COUNTRY OF ORIGIN...

[jdchess]

I really wish there was a way to keep people from entering the wrong information into Country of Origin. People that are NOT native american are constantly entering USA as country of origin. It states on the site, NOT to do this, but people simply do NOT read everything before jumping in head first. Who knows, maybe it's too much of a blow to the ego to pick "Unknown Origin."

Take a look at Ysearch. The problem is even worse on there. There are people who have their country of origin listed as modern day CITIES and STATES.

I just wish there was a way to contact everyone and say "HEY...FIX THIS!"

I'm sorry, I'm done ranting now...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

[Noaide]

Must be hell to be native american and try to find relatives among the tribal brothers around with this kind of system or?

[jdchess]

Am I the only one who noticed this or was bothered by it?

[Eternitat]

I am quite bothered by it.

I put the place where my earliest maternal ancestor lived in the Mitosearch profile.

However, it IS now part of the USA. And it is in the New World.

So I may have put the mother country in FTDNA. For my father and his family I have to do so anyway. And I know which part of it my maternal grandmother's family came from.

[Jim Denning]

I really wish there was a way to keep people from entering the wrong information into Country of Origin. People that are NOT native american are constantly entering USA as country of origin. It states on the site, NOT to do this, but people simply do NOT read everything before jumping in head first. Who knows, maybe it's too much of a blow to the ego to pick "Unknown Origin."

Take a look at Ysearch. The problem is even worse on there. There are people who have their country of origin listed as modern day CITIES and STATES.

I just wish there was a way to contact everyone and say "HEY...FIX THIS!"

I'm sorry, I'm done ranting now...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

WELL THEY ARE PUTTING THE PLACE THEY KNOW THEIR PEOPLE WERE!!
so you are a native american and by your standards you need to choose where your ancestors came to the us from siberia or europe by the north atlantic
because supposedly no one came from the americas
if you people know where you ancestors first walked why test. these people are looking at their trees and like me ardagh longford is in the block
i believe they were in scotland and england but i dont know that and cant prove it. so i cant put it there .

[cobra]

Am I the only one who noticed this or was bothered by it?

Actually after reading your posts you convinced me to go ahead and change my information . I live in Canada, and I had put "Canada" as my origin on ysearch and mitosearch. But I changed to "Armenia", where my grand-parents and their ancestors are from. What you say makes sense. It also applies to people from Latin America, as they are likely of Spanish or Portuguese origin, but you can not tell unless they specify it in the "Additional information" section.

[jdchess]

WELL THEY ARE PUTTING THE PLACE THEY KNOW THEIR PEOPLE WERE!!
so you are a native american and by your standards you need to choose where your ancestors came to the us from siberia or europe by the north atlantic
because supposedly no one came from the americas
if you people know where you ancestors first walked why test. these people are looking at their trees and like me ardagh longford is in the block
i believe they were in scotland and england but i dont know that and cant prove it. so i cant put it there .

That would be the case where you would have to swallow your pride and list the apparently dreaded "Unknown Origin." FTDNA even states that if you are not of Native American ancestry, then you should NOT list the US as your country of origin. You are right in that by my standards, the country of origin should be the country from which your ancestors migrated to America, and I believe this to be accurate.

My real reason for posting this is that I see this becoming a MAJOR problem as more and more people are tested. If non-Native Americans continue to list their country of origin as the US and if others continue to list "educated guesses" for their origin, then some features of FTDNA, such as "Recent Ethnic Origins" will become absolutely USELESS. Just think about it!!

Moral of the story: It's OK to use the "Unknown Origin" tag...

[Noaide]

Its a difference between migration 100 years ago and 10 000 years ago.

so you are a native american and by your standards you need to choose where your ancestors came to the us from siberia or europe by the north atlantic
because supposedly no one came from the americas

[mananea]

Newbie country of origin question

OK, so do I put in Germany, which is where my earliest known ancestor came from, or do I put India, which is where my closest DNA match shows as being from? I don't know of any ancestors from India, but I do know my great great grandfather came from Germany.
Some of us new folk are really clueless, please don't be upset if we don't get it at first. I am reading all I can, but even the first steps aren't as clear to some of us as they are to some of you.
Thanks
Mary

[Noaide]

Regarding Y-DNA, it is the origin of your fathers father and so on until you come to a certian country. mtDNA its your mothers mother and som until you come to a certain country. I would go for the country outside the American continent you first encounter.

I myself have plenty Y-DNA matches in Finland, but I still use Norway because my homecounty is close to Finland and as far as I know my family is Saami, not Finnish or Norwegian and have lived there in the core Saami homeland that stretches over four countries.

[jdchess]

OK, so do I put in Germany, which is where my earliest known ancestor came from, or do I put India, which is where my closest DNA match shows as being from? I don't know of any ancestors from India, but I do know my great great grandfather came from Germany.
Some of us new folk are really clueless, please don't be upset if we don't get it at first. I am reading all I can, but even the first steps aren't as clear to some of us as they are to some of you.
Thanks
Mary

I don't mean to come across as being mad. Actually your situation is exactly what I am talking about. People listing inaccurate info for country of origin only leads to confusion among new test takers. I was in the same boat you were in, when I first tested and noticed "Recent Ethnic Origin" matches from countries that made no sense at all. FTDNA even states that you should list the country from which your earliest known ancestors migrated to the US. If you do not know for absolute certainty, you should list it as unknown.

Personally I think you should list Germany, because you know for certain that your GG grandfather came to the US from there.

[Jim Denning]

That would be the case where you would have to swallow your pride and list the apparently dreaded "Unknown Origin." FTDNA even states that if you are not of Native American ancestry, then you should NOT list the US as your country of origin. You are right in that by my standards, the country of origin should be the country from which your ancestors migrated to America, and I believe this to be accurate.

My real reason for posting this is that I see this becoming a MAJOR problem as more and more people are tested. If non-Native Americans continue to list their country of origin as the US and if others continue to list "educated guesses" for their origin, then some features of FTDNA, such as "Recent Ethnic Origins" will become absolutely USELESS. Just think about it!!

Moral of the story: It's OK to use the "Unknown Origin" tag...

ok so your native american what i think you want is to say the alqonquin nation or sue nation. hey i have no problem with that but you have to understand most people aren't of an indian tribal heritage and they have no reason to say it. do you want jews who were from a family with american records stating they were born in russia but the town is polish to say russia because that year it was russian or even that month. alsace loraine my god it changed daily. i am a firm believer that i am from the hebrew house of israel one of the 10 tribes . what do i put down?

the best they can do is say where they have found them in their tree

Now this might come as a shock but alot of testees dont have trees they aren't genealogists to them they were born here maybe as a miller what do they put down. boston ma. they havent a clue if before ireland they were german or jews. they simply wanted to be part of this
sorry all things dont work perfect

[Jim Denning]

Its a difference between migration 100 years ago and 10 000 years ago.

you still didnt come from america

[Jim Denning]

OK, so do I put in Germany, which is where my earliest known ancestor came from, or do I put India, which is where my closest DNA match shows as being from? I don't know of any ancestors from India, but I do know my great great grandfather came from Germany.
Some of us new folk are really clueless, please don't be upset if we don't get it at first. I am reading all I can, but even the first steps aren't as clear to some of us as they are to some of you.
Thanks
Mary

you put germanyfor gods sake

closest match will change as whe approach 9 million testees

[jdchess]

I still hope more people are aware of the problem with listing inaccurate countries of origin. Bottom line is that more people should be using "Unknown." I see way too many listings for modern day cities here in the US. I think people are missing the whole point of the listing. You should list the country from which your earliest known ancestor came to the US from. If you are not 100% certain...list it as unknown.