Just received my DNA results from ancestry

[jnu]

Hi folks I have just received my results Great Britain 42%, Scandinavia 32%, Ireland 11%, Iberian Peninsula 8% ,Europe West 4%, Europe East 1%, West Asia 2% (middle east 1%,caucasus 1%).Could anyone offer any interpretation on these results. I wasn't expecting such a break down in percentages lol!.Any help gratefully received .

[davidft]

Bad news ahead so don't read on if you think you may be disappointed

I have come to the conclusion that the "ethnic" breakdowns from companies like Ancestry and familytree are pretty meaningless and only serve for curiosity value. I say this because in my opinion the science is not advanced enough and the reference populations used to determine your breakdown are too small. This particularly seems to be the case with Ancestry who have had a lot of criticism for overestimating people's Scandinavian ancestry.

In my particular case I have (via familytree) 67% Western and Central Europe and 33% Scandinavian. Apparently no British despite having a tree full of English born people for much of the last 400 years. What are the chances of that? Also when I upload my results to gedmatch I get a different ( well actually several different) analysis of my origins.

I must admit I am rather disappointed with the varying analyses that I can get and that several companies are marketing products that are not robust.

Just as a final thought the amount of your DNA that familytree tests to give your origins is just 0.024%. I assume Ancestry is about the same. I have seen nothing that says that 0.024% of your genes is representative of the rest or why they test that particular bit. Who is to say if they tested a different bit you would not come up with completely different results.

My conclusion is test for origins if you want but treat it as a curiosity and not incontrovertible fact

[jnu]

Thanks for the reply its given me something to think about. I definitely think the Scandinavian percentage seems high.

[DevonCruwys]

I agree that these admixture results have little meaning and are really for entertainment value only. You're just being matched against a random selection of reference populations. There aren't enough high-quality reference populations available to give meaningful results. I often see bizarre admixture results with Americans coming out with higher percentages of "British" than native Brits, Welsh people coming out with high percentages of "Irish", and French people being labelled as "British". If you test with different companies you often get very different results. You should take all these estimates with a very large pinch of salt.

It is possible to derive some meaning from the AncestryDNA results by doing a comparative analysis. Ancestry have done two interesting blog posts comparing the distribution of the different admixture components across the British Isles:

http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/04/10/exploring-our-dna-europe-west/

http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/03/16/what-does-our-dna-tell-us-about-being-irish/

The primary focus of autosomal DNA testing is on finding matches with genetic cousins. The AncestryDNA database is about 99% American at the moment because the test has been available in America for several years whereas it only launched in the UK in January this year. It will take time for the database to build up so that we start to get helpful matches with identifiable people in our family trees. When that happens it does start to get very exciting.

Do also make sure you take advantage of the Family Tree DNA autosomal DNA transfer programme:

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/imports/transfer-autosomal-ancestry/family-tree-dna-family-finder-transfer-program/

You get first 20 matches free but it's worth paying the very small fee to unlock the rest of your matches. You also got lots of extra tools at FTDNA that you don't get with Ancestry.

FTDNA have been selling their autosomal DNA test (Family Finder) in the UK for several years now and already have lots of people from the British Isles, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and many other countries in their database. The AncestryDNA test, in contrast, is only sold in the US, the UK and Ireland at present.

In case it's of any help you might like to watch the presentation I gave at Who Do You Think You Are? Live which is now available on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/aAYON4gxjiI

[davidft]

Thank you for posting the link to the Youtube presentation it was an interesting watch (I have seen similar by familytree before), and I learnt some new things. I found the question and answer session at the end particularly interesting as it brought up questions I would not of thought of.

I do think anyone considering a DNA test could profit from viewing this or one of the other similar ones that are hosted on Youtube.

The blog references you put up were interesting especially the first that included the lines

One of the biggest surprises we often see when people get back their results is just how high their Europe West estimate can be. It should be remembered that the estimates show influences of ancestors 500-1000 years ago. Your paper trail may go back 300 or 400 years showing all English ancestors. But your AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate is taking you beyond that and hinting that their ancestors in turn may have had Western European heritage.

ie saying think beyond the most recent past that you have researched to explain those unexpected admixtures.

Must admit I was not take much with the second blog that was trying to explain the high Irish percentages some people get. I don't think it stands up to historical fact of known Irish movement to and from the mainland UK and think it is skewed more in favour of the American market where having Irish ancestry has a higher cachet than maybe it does here, just a thought.

[DevonCruwys]

I'm glad the presentation was of some interest. I do think all these admixture tests are optimised for the American market. I rather think that some of the reference populations consist of Americans with Irish or British ancestry rather than native Brits or Irish, which might explain some of the problems we're seeing with these results.

[jnu]

Hi folks,
 I uploaded my test results to FTDNA the results were 71% British Isles,17% Scandinavia, 10% Southern Europe, 2% North Africa.
The Scandinavian result is a lot less than the ancestry prediction. I was wondering if the southern Europe/Iberian and North Africa percentage might be because I have a Sephardic Jewish grtgrt grandfather?

[weste]

My brother's DNA came back with high Scandinavian compared to the rest of us which we had less than 1%. Waiting to see what happens with the next lot of results, awaiting the next offer.

[BushInn1746]

Hello

I have read somewhere, that about only 10 million have taken an ancestral type DNA test.

If 10 million is approximately the correct figure and with a current World population estimated at 7.6 Billion, then any DNA Ethnicity result cannot be an accurate measure.

The ethnicity percentages are a gimmick and wouldn't sell a Test on their own, to me.

However, my Niece did a DNA Test and was in touch with a lady in Lancashire, who is a descendant of my late Grandfather's late Brother of the same Lancashire town.

But to know the surname she was displaying, you would still have to have an accurate linage going backward into the 19th Century.

I was interested to hear we both had the same 200 year documented line (with same Certificates, which corroborate with the E & W Census Forms).

The interest in family history for me, is not a DNA Test, but actually working back and finding some great finds about my families, but I'm like a dog with a bone,    searching, when others feel they have exhausted some possible additional records.

People were often recorded in other records besides Registers & Wills, but it is finding which record that might be and who holds it now, to check it.

Mark