New Pop Finder?

[mkdexter]

I like the heat map approach however, I'm not sure I would go for modern country names as a background map. It would be neat to see a version with the matching region names instead.

The famous "Orcadian" is now gone replaced with European Costal Islands, with some of it being separated out to include what they call European Northlands and European Costal Plain as well. So if you had "Orcadian" before, you will probably have "European Costal Islands" now with some added amounts from the neighboring locations.

Overall I would call it definitely an improvement. It certainly lines up with what I know from other tests and reporting. My 8% North African (PFv1) is now more accurately depicted as 2% African like the other company and McDonald reports show.



Matt.

[Osiris]

I do like it a lot. The only part that I was disappointed in was my mother's Polynesian DNA. It still reads as East Asia. Only Ancestry.com calls it Polynesian, 23andme also calls it East Asian. The story talks about the East Asians migrating out into Madagascar, Oceania all the way out to Easter Island but the Heat Map is centered on South China and Madagascar. My ancestors haven't lived there in several thousand years so there's still lots of room for improvement in this group. I assume it's just their samples are wanting in this group but I was hoping the map would stretch out into the Pacific at least.

The Middle East % did drop a lot.

[MorrigensCrow]

It is nice.

I am so jealous right now! So, if you don't mind me asking Engisdene, is the whopping 74% ME accurate for you? I have read a lot of complaints from people about their small amounts of unexpected Middle Eastern DNA in the PF, but yours is quite high, so I assume you have actual ME ancestry?

Personally, I have 12+% ME and 87+% Orkney (Old PF), and while I have yet to find any documentation of ME ancestry, I actually look like I could be part Middle Eastern or maybe Mediterranean, and that is very odd. My mom's DNA tests (through another company) pointed her to India, so we are baffled about that too. Supposedly, we have some distant Native American ancestry, but there is no proof, yet my mother looks very Native American, so does has anyone ever heard of Native Americans having ME DNA markers?

[MoberlyDrake]

After seeing the "new improved", I've developed a greater appreciation for the old Population Finder.

I think you may be right!!!

[MoberlyDrake]

As a member of the Sicilian project who was always aggravated with getting a questionnaire asking which Middle Eastern population my family members belonged to every time I tried to look at Population Finder, I still see a considerable amount of Middle Eastern for my family members.

[MMaddi]

It seems that only project admins have access at the moment.

That's right. The new myOrigins data is available to project administrators for members of their project, through the Group Administrator Page. As Sicily Project administrator, I can view the new myOrigins results for the approximately 190 members who've tested Family Finder.

Since this is in beta, it seems FTDNA is wisely seeking the input of project administrators about any problems with the results or opinions about the accuracy of or any possible weaknesses in the percentages given. I plan to look more closely over the next several days at the results and offer my opinion of their accuracy or inaccuracy.

I'll also post here if I find any interesting trends, at least as far as it relates to Sicilian ancestry. I'm particularly interested in what myOrigins gives to project members who were given 100% Middle Eastern (Jewish) in Population Finder. That was a major problem in Population Finder for Sicily Project members. Hopefully, the myOrigins algorithm will give those members more plausible admixture percentages.

[rod]

Indeed! As author of the original Pop Finder, I'd sure love
a peek. I promise not to blab anything to anybody, even FTDNA.

Doug McDonald
[email protected]

After seeing the "new improved", I've developed a greater appreciation for the old Population Finder.

[MoberlyDrake]

It says "Secret beta". Are we allowed to make any comments at all? To what extent and what kind of things should we report?

[LynCra]

It seems that only project admins have access at the moment.

[Germanica]

I had a look at the new "myOrigins" thingy this morning, and I like it. IMHO, it is a BIG improvement over Population Finder.

I am "100% European" now: 53% European Coastal Plain, 43% European Coastal Isles, and 4% North Circumpolar.

The myOrigins display is much more appealing than the old PF, too.

I am interested in finding out more about the populations that were used for comparison.

Where are you seeing this? I see nothing new or different in my FTDNA dashboard/homepage. Nothing that says myOrigins, it still says Population Finder and when I click on it, it's still the same display. Sounds like they are maybe rolling it out slowly in batches, so not everyone has the new display yet.

[engisdene]

So does this mean ftdna will still use 4% and above confidence for giving one a population match in their criteria?

1% exist someones results.

[bbmoon]

So does this mean ftdna will still use 4% and above confidence for giving one a population match in their criteria?

[engisdene]

Could be Turkish or from the Caucasus, depends on what that green spot in Turkey represents in the breakdown. The Mediterranean/Northeast Europe/East Asian looks about right for someone from the Turkey-Caucasus region, maybe even Ukraine.

Yes, it is a Turkish individual result.

[Stevo]

Looks Good

I had a look at the new "myOrigins" thingy this morning, and I like it. IMHO, it is a BIG improvement over Population Finder.

I am "100% European" now: 53% European Coastal Plain, 43% European Coastal Isles, and 4% North Circumpolar.

The myOrigins display is much more appealing than the old PF, too.

I am interested in finding out more about the populations that were used for comparison.

[McNinja]

Would be interesting to know the ancestry/ethnicity of that person.

Could be Turkish or from the Caucasus, depends on what that green spot in Turkey represents in the breakdown. The Mediterranean/Northeast Europe/East Asian looks about right for someone from the Turkey-Caucasus region, maybe even Ukraine.