Interpreting my Results

[bradleybrand]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to this. I have done the Family Finder test and also in the past I did the Y-DNA12 test. I discovered that the Family Finder only goes back 6 generations I believe.

I am a bit curious of how much the Family Finder can discover. I know every human has a percentage of African, but I cannot see that percentage on my results. I will share some screenshots of my results.

Apparently I'm 40% Scandinavian, 35% British Isles and 25% Southern Europe.

I've read topics of people getting a percentage of Middle Eastern Jewish, etc. I do not seem to have anything else. I have been reading all about the groups - Scandinavian, British Isles and Southern Europe.

What do my results reveal to you?

[MMaddi]

It looks like your ancestry is 1/4 southern European (Italian, Spanish or Greek/Balkan) and 3/4 northern European, with perhaps most or nearly all of it from the British Isles. How does that compare with your known ancestry?

[ShellyH]

I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that it only goes back 6 generations. The truth is, when you have a good paper trail, you will find many matches that go back further than that. But, you also may find that some people with whom you share a paper trail 5 or 6 generations back may or may not match your DNA at all. It all depends on what was inherited from each generation and what was shed along the way.

[1798]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to this. I have done the Family Finder test and also in the past I did the Y-DNA12 test. I discovered that the Family Finder only goes back 6 generations I believe.

I am a bit curious of how much the Family Finder can discover. I know every human has a percentage of African, but I cannot see that percentage on my results. I will share some screenshots of my results.

Apparently I'm 40% Scandinavian, 35% British Isles and 25% Southern Europe.

I've read topics of people getting a percentage of Middle Eastern Jewish, etc. I do not seem to have anything else. I have been reading all about the groups - Scandinavian, British Isles and Southern Europe.

What do my results reveal to you?

I think that family finder only shows those that are related to us within the last 5 generations but we have autosomal SNPs from thousands of years ago. The European Coastal Islands autosomal dna is estimated to be between 2000 and 4000 ybp.

[T E Peterman]

My understanding is that Family Finder maintains that it will find all or most relatives out to the 3rd cousin degree. Beyond that, the numbers begin to drop off; maybe only 25% of 4th cousins will show up; maybe only 10% of 5th cousins will show up, etc.

But since each person's family usually has maybe a 10 fold gain in the number of cousins at each added degree: something like 3,000 3rd cousins, 30,000 4th cousins, 300,000 5th cousins, etc, the vast majority of all matches are in the 5th to remote category.

Family finder has a standard for reporting a match that appears to be quite a bit higher than the standard at AncestryDNA; something like a minimum total of 20 centimorgans of shared DNA, with the minimum longest shared segment being 7.7 centimorgans (cms).

First cousins share about 845 cms on average.
Second cousins share about 211 cms on average.
Third cousins share about 52 cms on average.
Fourth cousins share about 13 cms on average.

The mean for third cousins is still above 20 cms.
The high mean for fourth cousins is almost at the 20 cms level. Thus, about 25% of 4th cousins should be above the threshhold.

Timothy Peterman

[bradleybrand]

From what I've tracked by family tree, my family can be found in England even during the 1600s. There are many immigration records to England of Brands, but I have not found any within my family. The Brand surname has different origins and is found across Europe, Scandinavia, etc.

Is there anything for a more accurate ethnic percentage? I know my cousin is marrying a lady whos family moved to England from Germany during WW2 (her family was Jewish). That must mean she has Middle Eastern DNA.

[MMaddi]

From what I've tracked by family tree, my family can be found in England even during the 1600s. There are many immigration records to England of Brands, but I have not found any within my family. The Brand surname has different origins and is found across Europe, Scandinavia, etc.

Remember that Family Finder is an autosomal DNA test. That means that it's testing the DNA you received from every line in your ancestry. It's not just testing the DNA received from your Brand paternal line ancestry; a yDNA test would do that.

So, unless you know for certain that all the lines in your tree were British, it seems that the myOrigins results are indicating that about 1/4 of your ancestry is southern European. Do you have any line in your tree that you have reason to believe is non-British?

[bradleybrand]

Remember that Family Finder is an autosomal DNA test. That means that it's testing the DNA you received from every line in your ancestry. It's not just testing the DNA received from your Brand paternal line ancestry; a yDNA test would do that.

So, unless you know for certain that all the lines in your tree were British, it seems that the myOrigins results are indicating that about 1/4 of your ancestry is southern European. Do you have any line in your tree that you have reason to believe is non-British?

Not that I know of. I have only been focusing on the Brands within my family tree manly. I'll have to look into it one time, thanks.

[prairielad]

Although 25% Southern Europe is high, could it be due to the Roman influence on the British Isles? I haven't really seen other peoples MO results who are 100% British(on paper) to see how many have Southern Europe and Middle Eastern results

My maternal side is on paper 50% British, 25% Norwegian, and 25% Swedish.

My maternal Uncle comes up 88% Scandinava, 7% Southern Europe, and 5% Eastern Europe.

I assume this indicates roughly, the 5% Eastern Europe to tie into Swedish line (Pomerania), approx. 45% Norwegian/Swedish (Scandinavia), and the 7% Southern Europe (Roman influence) and remaining 43% Scandinavia (Viking influence) to represent British.

My Aunt also has 4% Middle Eastern, which again I assume is a result of the Roman influence on the Isles.

Attached is a picture of my Mother's and her 2 siblings MO results.

[MMaddi]

Not that I know of. I have only been focusing on the Brands within my family tree manly. I'll have to look into it one time, thanks.

If you're mainly interested in your Brand paternal line, yDNA testing would be a more direct way to get information about it. The Family Finder test is giving you your overall genetic ancestry. It's not separating out your paternal line from the rest.

[mixedkid]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to this. I have done the Family Finder test and also in the past I did the Y-DNA12 test. I discovered that the Family Finder only goes back 6 generations I believe.

I am a bit curious of how much the Family Finder can discover. I know every human has a percentage of African, but I cannot see that percentage on my results. I will share some screenshots of my results.

Apparently I'm 40% Scandinavian, 35% British Isles and 25% Southern Europe.

I've read topics of people getting a percentage of Middle Eastern Jewish, etc. I do not seem to have anything else. I have been reading all about the groups - Scandinavian, British Isles and Southern Europe.

What do my results reveal to you?

Your Scandinavian? Somewhat high but some is to be expected in a person with British or Irish ancestry because of the Vikings but also because of later Norwegian immigration to Great Britain. Your British Isles? Expected. Your Southern European? Possibly could be coming from French immigrants to Britain, perhaps Huguenots. Such ancestors could be contributing Italian, Greek or even Iberian DNA to your genome -- especially if they originated in the south of France.

[bradleybrand]

Your Scandinavian? Somewhat high but some is to be expected in a person with British or Irish ancestry because of the Vikings but also because of later Norwegian immigration to Great Britain. Your British Isles? Expected. Your Southern European? Possibly could be coming from French immigrants to Britain, perhaps Huguenots. Such ancestors could be contributing Italian, Greek or even Iberian DNA to your genome -- especially if they originated in the south of France.

So what about Anglo Saxon? I thought Saxons came from Eastern Europe (like Germany). It says I have Southern Europe (Normans from France). So do I have 0% Saxon?

[Peppino]

Sure, but not 25%??? His other familymembers score quite normal Southern European to be called distant ancestry..I'd be more interested to see some gedmatch results instead of leaning on ''myorigins'' for a good estimation.

Your Scandinavian? Somewhat high but some is to be expected in a person with British or Irish ancestry because of the Vikings but also because of later Norwegian immigration to Great Britain. Your British Isles? Expected. Your Southern European? Possibly could be coming from French immigrants to Britain, perhaps Huguenots. Such ancestors could be contributing Italian, Greek or even Iberian DNA to your genome -- especially if they originated in the south of France.

[bradleybrand]

Sure, but not 25%??? His other familymembers score quite normal Southern European to be called distant ancestry..I'd be more interested to see some gedmatch results instead of leaning on ''myorigins'' for a good estimation.

Are the gedmatch results all the matches I've have gotten? I could maybe share some of them. I am not fully experienced with FamilyTreeDNA. I know my surname has multiple origins so that made me want to explore more about my family. It is a Christian and Jewish surname.

What do you recommend I do? The Southern European was a surprised, but I don't know how long ago it is. I saw the Southern DNA had the area round Italy selected. I have family members with quite dark features (like hair), but I don't think that really means anything. Famous comedian Russell Brand has full black, dark, curly hair.

There are evidence of Brand arrival records (ancestry.co.uk) from Southern Europe in 1800s and before. I never found any foreign family members in my family tree. I wish I knew how distant the Southern European DNA was, reading about it, it said it could be Greeks or ancient tribes from the Middle East.