My Origins Results......

[MoberlyDrake]

I just received my mother's results at 23andMe last week. It's very reasonable given her known ancestry. MyOrigins is way off on my family members (I have one double cousin who is 10% Jewish Diaspora, though neither her brother nor the rest of us are Jewish. That's just about equal to one great-grandparent?)

So, how did they do it? The key may be that 23andMe states "The results reflect where your ancestors lived 500 years ago" How do they manage to restrict it to the last 500 years? That is precisely the time frame that most genealogists are interested in.

Here are Mom's results:

23andMe:

37.4% British and Irish
15.4 % French and German
2.9% Scandinavian
38.6% Broadly Northern European
1.5 % Italian
1.2% Broadly Southern European
< 0.1 North African
< 0.1 Unassigned


MyOrigins:

72% European Coastal Islands
19% North Mediterranan Basin
9% European Northlands


Ancestry.com's DNA test shows her as:

36% Great Britain (range 7% to 65%)
33% Europe West (range 6% to 60%)
17% Ireland (range 2% t0 33%)
6% Scandinavia (range 0% to 19%)
4% Italy/Greece (range 0% to 10%)
3% European Jewish (range 0% to 6%)
<1% Europe East (range 0% to 4%)

If I were to guess based on known ancestors:

25% UK (with a little Dutch from New Amsterdam ancestors) - one grandparent was basically Colonial American mix
75% French and German (with a little Swiss)

[PDHOTLEN]

I am still confused by the 20% Southern Europe that FTDNA gives me. Ancestry only gives me 4% Iberian and 1% Italy/Greece. Even that confuses me. FTDNA gives me 48% Scandinavian, while Ancestry only gives me 28% Scandi. And on and on. Anyway, I'm more interested in my family tree over the last few centuries than I am about ancient deep DNA.

OK, now that I went over to check my post office box and went to the grocery store, I'll get back to this. If I assume that there was no NPE with my maternal grandfather, born in Austria circa 1891, then I'll ascribe those trace percentages of Italy/Greece (Balkans?), Caucasus (Avars?), South India (Gypsies?) and East Europe (Slavs?) to him. The South Indian could also be connected to the British in India and brought to North America in the 1700s. As for the trace 4% from Iberia, that requires more thought. It is not Mestizo; I have no Native American or African in my genetic makeup. That Iberian could conceivably have snuck in with my direct maternal line in the Carolinas. I have one thread that is blank from down there, although some people on Ancestry have inserted a, most likely phony, Anglo name in their trees. Portuguese are reported to have settled down there in Colonial times.

[PDHOTLEN]

Correction ^: I meant South Asian, assumed to be Indian; not South Indian. And all of the above is from Ancestry.com; not FTDNA.

Ciao! (is that how it's spelled?)

[PDHOTLEN]

Correction ^: I meant South Asian, assumed to be Indian; not South Indian. And all of the above is from Ancestry.com; not FTDNA.

Ciao! (is that how it's spelled?)

I saw while Googling that there was a Portuguese presence on the Pee Dee River (My NC connection was along that river). This has been attributed to mixed bloods., i.e. Melungeons. But since I don't have Native American or African in my DNA, either this is a false trail for me, or there were indeed at least a few pure Europeans among them. Since early Portuguese explorers had colonial outposts in India, that could explain where my <1% South Asian came from. On the other hand, my 4% Iberian could have come with the English colonists, or some other way.

[Lappen]

Strange results

Hi, I just want to share my myOrigins results in this thread. My results and my mother´s differs a lot and i would like to have some ideas about how it´s possible. My mother is of mostly north-Swedish heritage and my father of only Saami.

My results:

Finland and Northern Siberia 59%
Western and central Europe 30%
Scandinavia 4%
Northeast Asia 7%

My mother´s results:

Scandinavia 88%
Finland and Northern Siberia 8%
Western and Central Europe 3%

How is this possible? My father should have little or no "Western and Central Europe" at all due to the fact that he´s of only Saami heritage.

[1798]

Hi, I just want to share my myOrigins results in this thread. My results and my mother´s differs a lot and i would like to have some ideas about how it´s possible. My mother is of mostly north-Swedish heritage and my father of only Saami.

My results:

Finland and Northern Siberia 59%
Western and central Europe 30%
Scandinavia 4%
Northeast Asia 7%

My mother´s results:

Scandinavia 88%
Finland and Northern Siberia 8%
Western and Central Europe 3%

How is this possible? My father should have little or no "Western and Central Europe" at all due to the fact that he´s of only Saami heritage.

This result shows that their methods are far from perfect.

[Lappen]

This result shows that their methods are far from perfect.

Yes! It seems like this method is having a hard time to separate the Scandinavian cluster from Finland and North Siberia.

[Mars]

Can you help me interpret my results? I'm of full northern italian heritage. I should fall into the southern Europe +western/central Europe category, anyways my results are 69% southern european (regular), 16% Asia minor (I think it's quite regular for a southern european, and for a native european in general), and 16% scandinavian. Is the latter a signal of "barbaric" (early Middle Ages) input in my family? I have no scandinavian relatives, as far as I know... A swedish user of FTDNA is a "distant relative" of mine (5th grade cousin), along with many brits and some other northern italians. Here is my "map", have your say...
[IMG][/IMG]

[PDHOTLEN]

/Users/PDHOTLEN/Desktop/Screen Shot 2014-06-26 at 12.28.54 AM.png

I give up...

[Gemmy42]

Don't trust the results "My Origins" spits out. The "Population Finder" was more accurate. In my case, it had me as mostly Western European, and "Broadly" European(whatever that was supposed to mean). My Origins shows British Isles, Eastern Europe, as well as "Middle Eastern(3%)": North Africa and Eastern Middle East. I knew there was something wrong with these results, as I have no known Middle Eastern or Eastern European ancestors. I sent it off to another lab, and they produced the results I expected(according to family surnames, and what I've been told of their countries of origin). FTDNA is WRONG in their computations and what are apparently shot-in-the-dark assumptions. They're just ripping people off, from what I can tell. GET A SECOND OPINION!

[gatty]

I think it's best to treat admixture results with a pinch of salt. For example Geno 2 North European 45 Mediterranean 36 SW Asian 17 Native American 2(accept probably noise) which contrasts with My origins 69 British isles 30 Scandinavia 1 North Africa .
Dr Mcdonald gave me French= 0.292 Irish= 0.708 or
Irish= 0.865 Tuscan= 0.135 or
English= 0.875 Russian= 0.125 or
Irish= 0.844 Italian= 0.156 or
English= 0.867 Finland= 0.133 or
French= 0.669 Finland= 0.331 or
English= 0.932 Chuvash= 0.068 or
Irish= 0.418 English= 0.582 or
Irish= 0.928 Sardinia= 0.072
Gedmatch also gives me sizeable east European and Mediterranean which is not reflected in My origins . As things stand they should be treated as amusing/interesting guesstimates.

[Armando]

I think it's best to treat admixture results with a pinch of salt. For example Geno 2 North European 45 Mediterranean 36 SW Asian 17 Native American 2(accept probably noise) which contrasts with My origins 69 British isles 30 Scandinavia 1 North Africa .
Dr Mcdonald gave me French= 0.292 Irish= 0.708 or
Irish= 0.865 Tuscan= 0.135 or
English= 0.875 Russian= 0.125 or
Irish= 0.844 Italian= 0.156 or
English= 0.867 Finland= 0.133 or
French= 0.669 Finland= 0.331 or
English= 0.932 Chuvash= 0.068 or
Irish= 0.418 English= 0.582 or
Irish= 0.928 Sardinia= 0.072
Gedmatch also gives me sizeable east European and Mediterranean which is not reflected in My origins . As things stand they should be treated as amusing/interesting guesstimates.

Your Geno 2.0 shows you to be close to Germans which is western European with a small amount of another component.

See https://genographic.nationalgeograph...e-populations/

Your MyOrigins shows you to be western and northern European with a small amount of another component.

Dr. McDonald shows you to be western European with a mix of another group.

They all agree that you are mostly western European but mixed with another group.

That shows we can't take the results literally from any company. We can only make general statements about the results.

[Germanica]

Don't trust the results "My Origins" spits out. The "Population Finder" was more accurate. In my case, it had me as mostly Western European, and "Broadly" European(whatever that was supposed to mean). My Origins shows British Isles, Eastern Europe, as well as "Middle Eastern(3%)": North Africa and Eastern Middle East. I knew there was something wrong with these results, as I have no known Middle Eastern or Eastern European ancestors. I sent it off to another lab, and they produced the results I expected(according to family surnames, and what I've been told of their countries of origin). FTDNA is WRONG in their computations and what are apparently shot-in-the-dark assumptions. They're just ripping people off, from what I can tell. GET A SECOND OPINION!

They are not necessarily "wrong", 3% is only a trace amount which could just be statistical noise, something ALL DNA companies are subject to.

Also, the 3% Middle East could be coming from a different region which has some similar DNA to Middle Easterns. My results come up with 17% Middle East (which is much lower than what the original Population Finder said it was) even though I have no known Middle Eastern heritage. But I know this is coming from my Italian/Sicilian side, who often share DNA with Middle Easterners, making it difficult or impossible to tell apart sometimes. That is not FTDNA's fault, it's just the nature of DNA right now. The same thing might be happening with the Eastern European results - you don't say what percentage they gave you for that - is it another small number or higher?

All ethnic percentages from ANY DNA company are estimates and subject to interpretation.

I do agree that getting a second opinion can be very beneficial, regardless of what company you first tested with.

[grahcom]

Why oh why can't folk get it!!!! Treat admixture results with a pinch of salt and that we shouldn't take the results literally from any company. We can only make general statements about the results. The results are skewed to the database sample used.

[Táltos]

Don't trust the results "My Origins" spits out. The "Population Finder" was more accurate. In my case, it had me as mostly Western European, and "Broadly" European(whatever that was supposed to mean). My Origins shows British Isles, Eastern Europe, as well as "Middle Eastern(3%)": North Africa and Eastern Middle East. I knew there was something wrong with these results, as I have no known Middle Eastern or Eastern European ancestors. I sent it off to another lab, and they produced the results I expected(according to family surnames, and what I've been told of their countries of origin). FTDNA is WRONG in their computations and what are apparently shot-in-the-dark assumptions. They're just ripping people off, from what I can tell. GET A SECOND OPINION!

When you say "Broadly European" that is actually a renaming of the "Nonspecific" category at 23andme. No for me, the old PF was not better. It is essentially the same, but the new can call me almost half Eastern European instead of predominately Western European (French and Orcadian) in the old PF which was not true.

Sure take them with a grain of salt like grahcom suggested, but then I guess these companies should not even bother to offer this as part of the product. Really I do find the admixture part to be fun, but I want it to help me a little bit with the brick walls that I have.

Let's say you find you never knew you had a certain ancestry. You get a bunch of matches on a certain chromosome that are of the same ancestry. Then hey the admixture test gives you a percentage for that ancestry, and then lo and behold that chromosome where you have those matches is painted with that same ancestry. Pretty cool, and does happen....at 23andme. Could maybe happen for you here if your Dr. McDonald analysis also can show this in a chromosome painting. Shame this update did not have chromosome painting. But then again this left a lot to be desired.....