Who Do You Think You Are

[MAINEPORTS]

I noticed that Emmett Smith on the WDYTYA TV Series was able to take a test that Pinpointed his origins to a specific geographic location. What is this test? Has anyone taken it? Where Do I Sign Up?

[mkdexter]

23andme.com FTDNA has Family Finder coming.. Not sure if % of origins like you saw on the show will be included with FF.. we shall see. Autosomal DNA tests are required to provide it - which is what FTDNA Family Finder and 23andme Relative Finder are.

[rainbow]

I didn't see it. If he has an African ydna or mtdna there is a FTDNA related company that does try to pinpoint DNA to specific regions and even to African tribes that exist today. The company is called African Ancestry. I heard about it years ago when Dr. Gates did that pbs tv show with Oprah Winfrey and others. I don't remember if the name was mentioned on that show, but I think it was on the pbs website. And there was another investigative tv show that compared results from various dna companies that did for certain mention it.

[MAINEPORTS]

Who Do You Think You Are

23andme.com FTDNA has Family Finder coming.. Not sure if % of origins like you saw on the show will be included with FF.. we shall see. Autosomal DNA tests are required to provide it - which is what FTDNA Family Finder and 23andme Relative Finder are.

Hi and Thanks for the info.
I am positively interested in finding and taking this test wherver it is available; obviously my first choice would be with FTNDA. However, I do not think that their Family Finder test provides this information. That test is only a hook up with cousins through their dna database, and some of which are distant cousins at best.

[MAINEPORTS]

Who Do YOu Think You Are

I didn't see it. If he has an African ydna or mtdna there is a FTDNA related company that does try to pinpoint DNA to specific regions and even to African tribes that exist today. The company is called African Ancestry. I heard about it years ago when Dr. Gates did that pbs tv show with Oprah Winfrey and others. I don't remember if the name was mentioned on that show, but I think it was on the pbs website. And there was another investigative tv show that compared results from various dna companies that did for certain mention it.

Hello and Thanks for the info.
I am white so African Ancestry will not be able to help me - I don't think.
I am hopeful that this test or kind of test will soon be available for everyone, and also, not be prohibitively expensive.

[MMaddi]

Hello and Thanks for the info.
I am white so African Ancestry will not be able to help me - I don't think.
I am hopeful that this test or kind of test will soon be available for everyone, and also, not be prohibitively expensive.

If you are of European ancestry and expect that either 23andMe and FTDNA will be able to identify a specific geographic location for your ancestry, you will probably be disappointed. As someone else has posted out, FTDNA's new Family Finder test will not give any estimates for ethnic/geograhic ancestry as part of their results. Perhaps they will add that type of analysis in the future.

As for 23andMe, they do include some analysis of estimated ethnic/geographic ancestry (biogeographic ancestry or BGA), but only in the most general sense. Their ancestry painting tool assigns percentages for European, Asian and African based on your results. They are very conservative in their estimates, so as to avoid false positives. So most people with European ancestry are given an estimate of 100% European.

23andMe has another ancestry tool called Global Similarity. This compares your results to various regional populations (Basic View) and more specific populations from around the world (Advanced View). In the Basic View, you will see which regional population you're closest to, with numbers assigned. For most Europeans, they will have either Northern European or Southern European first or second with Near Eastern usually third. In the Advanced View, your results will be used to plot you against specific populations and you'll see in a graphical way where you sit in a plot that has Italians, French, German, English etc. If there is more than one ethnic group in your family tree, you'll end up sitting in several boxes, not just one.

Dr. Doug McDonald, a genetic genealogist, does a BGA analysis of his own of 23andMe results for those who send him their results. Many people regard his analysis as more enlightening than that provided by 23andMe. There is a public Google spreadsheet which combines his analysis and what 23andMe has for their analysis. You'll see the Basic View Global Similarity numbers given by 23andMe to each person in the spreadsheet, plus McDonald's percentages for ethnic/geographic ancestry. The spreadsheet is at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...AZVfiDAcyF6QsQ

Looking at that spreadsheet will give you an idea of what can and can't be determined from 23andMe results. You won't see much in the way of assigning a specific location for someone's ancestry; it's more like an analysis of what ethnicities/geographic ancestry someone is closest to and may be part of their ancestry. That's why I wrote above that you may be disappointed if you expect more than that.

Here's an example from the spreadsheet of the difficulties of determining the geographic ancestry of someone with mixed ancestry, in this case 50% southern Italian and 50% British Isles (see column AD/row 29): "On a World scale you appear in France, which is of course just the average of Italy and England, in all dimensions. On a Euro scale you actually don't quite do that ... you are between England (Orkney) and Italy ... but a bit east. This is uaually a sign of Mideastern or Jewish ancestry."

[rainbow]

23andme has me within the boxes for France and Germany. And I am at the lower left corner of Orcadian. My pre-USA genealogical paper trail is 1/4 Czechoslovakian and 3/4 British Isles (mixed with Dutch from my paternal grandmother. And a smattering of French, Belgian, and German).
23andme says I am Europe > 99%, Africa < 1%, Asia 0%. AncestryByDNA says I am 83% European and 17% Native American. It is possible that my Dutch-English paternal grandmother was adopted and was actually at least half AmerIndian.

I sent an email to McDonald the other day asking for his take on my biogeographical ancestry.

[mkdexter]

I probably wasn't clear . Ancestry.com did Emmett's DNA test - but they use 23andme as their lab and testing partner.

That information is taken from the autosomal DNA loci values as they have found certain ethic groups will have certain values differing from other groups.. It's all statistics and it is going to be in general terms not specifics but... that's better than nothing.

Since FTDNA FF will be testing the same thing 23andme tests it would be easy to generate the same types of reports. Since we (some of us anyway) have not seen the FF test reports yet who knows what they will provide those tested. Guess we shall see in April.

[MAINEPORTS]

Geographic Locations

Hi Folks,
I am rushing around a bit this morning, and will not have time to check out the numerous links you have provided - but I will tonight! This DNA business is Very Interesting Stuff!

I am still learning HOW to post here so being a newbie is an understatment.
I did notice that some folks provide their Haplogroup (or is it Haplotype?).

As info mine is: R1b1b2a1b4c.

I am hopeful that I will find at least approximate geographic locations within Countries as to the origins of my ancestors. As mentioned, it doesn't seem that the Family Finder results will provide that, so I am holding off on that test for now.

Thanks for all your help on this!

[darroll]

Did you check with National Geographic?
They will tell you where you came from.

[CWF]

The test Emmett Smith took did NOT positively identify which African tribe or place his ancestors came from. The autosomal test gave global similarities and possible connections. Emmett CHOSE to go to Benin, Africa because that was one of the major well- known slave ports from which African slaves were loaded onto ships and taken to the Americas. It was a symbolic visit to Africa.

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.

[MAINEPORTS]

Origins

Did you check with National Geographic?
They will tell you where you came from.

Do you mean the National Genographic Project which Spencer Wells
heads up. All told, that project has me as Northern European well last
time I checked, I should check again. Northern European does not tell
me much. I can look in a mirror and figure out that part. Its the where
in Northern Europe that I am after and I suspect it may be a while before
I ever find out. I will take another look. Thanks.

[MAINEPORTS]

Emmett Smith

The test Emmett Smith took did NOT positively identify which African tribe or place his ancestors came from. The autosomal test gave global similarities and possible connections. Emmett CHOSE to go to Benin, Africa because that was one of the major well- known slave ports from which African slaves were loaded onto ships and taken to the Americas. It was a symbolic visit to Africa.

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.

Yes it does, Thank You.

If you, or anyone here on the Board should come across dna tests
that can pinpoint I (and probably a few million other people) would
be very interested. Thanks Again.

[MAINEPORTS]

SNP's et. al

I spent most of yesterday and this morning trying to decipher SNP testing as provided by FTDNA. I must say that I am not having much luck. There does not seem to be an Index of any sort that tells what each SNP will reveal for information.

For example, apparently, SNP L165 provides for Scandanavian heritage.
There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of known SNP's, but there
isn't anything to inspire me to take a test on any one of them - without
knowing what I am going to learn beforehand.

If anyone can recommend some reading on this subject, or knows of an
Index of SNP's, please let me know.

Sometime today, I hope to explore some of the links and suggestions that were provided in earlier posts. Thanks to All for your help.

[mkdexter]

If you run a Google search on SNP L165 you will find all kinds of references. Wikipedia has a good article regarding SNPs, Haplogroups and Family Tree DNA.. The Emmett Smith test was not based on these.. it was based on Autosomal DNA not yDNA but you knew that I expect....