Experiences with Family Finder and PF

That's not always the case. Sometimes it's possible to get mtDNA samples from hair. Of course, that presumes you have a hair sample, but keeping them was popular in the 19th century.

And sometimes into the 20th Century. My mother's sister died as an adolescent from cancer at age 14 in 1934. My grandmother saved them. My mother ended up with them when she died and now my sister has them.

[dawer]

Reference populations

Here's a note from dienekes' blog on reference pops for admixture tests; his basic premise is that the more admixed the ref pops are, the more skewed the results will be, his example is if you used the maya as a ref pop for Nat Amer you will get a higher % of NA than if you use the less admixed pima. Thoughts?

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2011/03/note-of-caution-on-admixture-estimates.html

[ahernandez]

I'm fully Algerian anf here is my population finder results :

North Africa (Mozabites) 53,58%
Middle Eastern (Jewish) 40,06%
Europe (Finnish, Russian) 5,64%

and I don't have any Jewish nor Finnish ancestors within 5 generations !!

They don't have to be within 5 generation per se but all your ancestors within 5 generations could have some Middle Eastern (Jewish) that adds up to your amount.

For example I'm about a quarter Mozabite, but I don't have a North African grandparent, so all my grandparents have some North African percentage and it adds up (from back in the Middle Ages) to a quarter for me.

Also just because it's saying Jewish doesn't necessarily mean Jewish. That's just the closest population that's in the database. It could very well be Phoenician/Carthaginian, which genetically are very similar to Jews. You're thinking that's too ancient, but if all your ancestors, to a certain extent, carry Phoenician/Carthaginian genes and they're swapping it back and forth without significant dilution it'll show up in your test same as my Moorish genes.

[swimmingly]

I had 3% South Asian with Affy, and now I have 100% Orcadian. I thought the South Asian was pretty intriguing.
Why would it now be gone?

[mkdexter]

it fell into the English Channel.

[JPHutchins]

[QUOTE=
Where is the remaining 0.80%?[/QUOTE]

Martian????

[aidan]

I'm now 99.20% Western European (Orcadian).

http://i52.tinypic.com/10ojmg1.jpg

Where is the remaining 0.80%?

[mkdexter]

Lots of ME readings have been changed for those in my project. My own ME now shows just North African which lines up better with other tests like Dr. McDonald results.

[Daniel72]

Oh, I got an update on PF...

Meanwhile I am 92% Orcadian and 8% Middle Eastern

Seems like it refined the French,Orcadian, Spanish into Orcadian alone and the Tuscan, Finnish into Middle Eastern.

[Silfur]

I'm fully Algerian anf here is my population finder results :

North Africa (Mozabites) 53,58%
Middle Eastern (Jewish) 40,06%
Europe (Finnish, Russian) 5,64%

and I don't have any Jewish nor Finnish ancestors within 5 generations !!

[Yaffa]

So, I've posted before that I hold the fact that PF showed results for South Asian (Indian) consistent with family tradition as proof of how effective it is. I still do. My Illumina results still show about 3% South Asia (India). According to family tradition this comes from our father's side; keep that in my mind, because that's the key to my confusion.

Our mother's side is Mestiza, of mixed race, mostly European (Spanish/Portuguese) and Native American (Purephecha); her mtdna is likely North African (L2a1c); there is a tradition of deep sephardic heritage from her Portuguese side of the family, which also happens to be her mtdna roots. My mother's family is more documented than my father's, for whom I have only family traditions.

So Illumina upped my Native American from 48% to 52%. Unless I'm mistaken that means one of my parents, plus 2% from the other. See the problem here? If my mother is documented to have had Spanish/Portuguese ancestors within the last 5 or 6 generations, then it would be my father who is fully Native American, but then he can't be 3% South Asian (India), can he?

I think the truth lies somewhere in between both the Affy and Illumina results, that is, that my family heritage is Native American, European/Middle Eastern, African/North African, and South Asian/Indian.

I won't throw out PF completely, but I will say, Really, Population Finder? Really?

I spoke to FTDNA today and they are aware PF is a work in progress and it's results are "OFF". They told me they are working on it. Hopefully it gets better with time

[c_thompson_68]

New Illumina Beta results

I just received the results from the Illumina Beta PF:

Europe (Western European): French, Orcadian: 73.12% +/- 8.67%
Native American (Central American): Pima, Maya: 17.52% +/- 0.75%
Middle East: Adygei, Iranian, Jewish: 9.36% +/-8.37%

The Beta questionnaire asked if I was:Jewish, Caucasus, Iranian, or None of the above. Being an adoptee, whose birth-father is from Mexico, I answered None of the above since his ancestry is unknown. However, I suspect possible Anousim Sephardic Jewish, and although the Native American Indian percentage decreased by less than 2%, the Middle East component decreased by approx. 9% while the European component increased by approximately 10%. If I had answered Jewish, I think the middle eastern component would have been higher based on the previous results of the Affy PF questionnaire when I had answered Jewish before resetting it back to none of the above (unknown).

Interesting that I have no matches to the Spanish Population as my birth-father is a Mexican citizen, although my non-ID from the orphange indicated that my father may possibly have French-Candian ancestry. I had thought that was an error in their records, but maybe it is not.

[Daniel72]

OK, so now I have my "new" PF results too.

It claims me

French, Orcadian, Spanish: 90.64% (margin of error: 9.36%)
Tuscan, Finnish: 9.36% (margin of Error: 9.36%)

Hm.

[dawer]

finally new PF results in...not quite happy though...

So, I've posted before that I hold the fact that PF showed results for South Asian (Indian) consistent with family tradition as proof of how effective it is. I still do. My Illumina results still show about 3% South Asia (India). According to family tradition this comes from our father's side; keep that in my mind, because that's the key to my confusion.

Our mother's side is Mestiza, of mixed race, mostly European (Spanish/Portuguese) and Native American (Purephecha); her mtdna is likely North African (L2a1c); there is a tradition of deep sephardic heritage from her Portuguese side of the family, which also happens to be her mtdna roots. My mother's family is more documented than my father's, for whom I have only family traditions.

So Illumina upped my Native American from 48% to 52%. Unless I'm mistaken that means one of my parents, plus 2% from the other. See the problem here? If my mother is documented to have had Spanish/Portuguese ancestors within the last 5 or 6 generations, then it would be my father who is fully Native American, but then he can't be 3% South Asian (India), can he?

I think the truth lies somewhere in between both the Affy and Illumina results, that is, that my family heritage is Native American, European/Middle Eastern, African/North African, and South Asian/Indian.

I won't throw out PF completely, but I will say, Really, Population Finder? Really?

[Yaffa]

I'm expecting Illumina to refine (lower) my NA results and refine my European results.

My Pima results went slightly higher with Illumina and I lost my Middle Eastern % I had with Affy. It was replaced by more European all classified French which is not accurate. I have no known French. I also have no known Middle Eastern in my family. My ancestors in Mexico listed Indian and only have record of them being in Mex from 1790's to 1870.

My Illumina also made my FF matches closer (close relatives on both affy and Illumina) to me than some of them were before and I know this is probably not accurate either since I could not connect to them on paper being classified as close relatives on affy