How does this happen??!

[DanD]

So compared to my parents, my "my origins" results for me are
Me
----European 94%
Western and Central Europe 62%
Scandinavia 13%
Eastern Europe 12%
Finland and Northern Siberia 7%
----New World 5%
Native American 5%
----Central/South Asian 2%
Central Asia 2%

My Father
----European 97%
British Isles 38%
Scandinavia 33%
Southern Europe 14%
Western and Central Europe 11%
Finland and Northern Siberia 1%
----Central/South Asian 2%
Central Asia 2%

My Mom
----European 81%
Eastern Europe 41%
Scandinavia 31%
Western and Central Europe 7%
Southern Europe 2%
----New World
Native American 11%
----East Asian
Northeast Asia 6%
----Central/South Asian 2%
Central Asia 2%

How do I have more Finland and Northern Siberia than BOTH of them combined?

[John McCoy]

The methodology for ascribing ethnic origins to a DNA sample appears to be an extremely blunt instrument at this time. What's missing from the results, as far as I am aware, is any statement of the margin of error for the reported percentages. If the margin of error were known, I suspect this sort of anomaly would be found to be statistically insignificant.

[dna]

The methodology for ascribing ethnic origins to a DNA sample appears to be an extremely blunt instrument at this time. What's missing from the results, as far as I am aware, is any statement of the margin of error for the reported percentages. If the margin of error were known, I suspect this sort of anomaly would be found to be statistically insignificant.

And a large footnote, that said ethnic origins predate historical records for almost everybody (sans possibly some royal families) who tested at FTDNA.

W. (Mr.)

[DanD]

The methodology for ascribing ethnic origins to a DNA sample appears to be an extremely blunt instrument at this time. What's missing from the results, as far as I am aware, is any statement of the margin of error for the reported percentages. If the margin of error were known, I suspect this sort of anomaly would be found to be statistically insignificant.

This makes it a pretty big % of error of at least 6% give or take. I thought they were supposed to be closer than that since most people say to ignore the relevance of below 1% outcomes. Other than me wanting to believe their info is correct in some ways, FTDNA may as well just say "here is your info from many many years ago in prehistory...100% African"

Overall I am satisfied but saying that I have 7% of something compared to the 1% my father and mother combined is a bit more than a slim margin of error. Especially when there are large percentages of his other origins that didn't even show up with mine (given I know it is not all 50/50..just odd British Isles didn't even show).