MyHeritage Upgrades Its DNA Tests to Whole Genome Sequencing

[Romilly]

Steve, DNA is randomly assigned.

I have 9% Irish DNA, my sister has 32%! Same Parents.

Romilly.

[Steve3180]

Romily, that's the point. It's the randomness of the DNA process that makes the Ethnicities so inaccurate.
Even if the measuring of ethnicity was 100% accurate (which it isn't anywhere near) the overall process would still have a very big error rate because of the randomness inherent in the DNA inheritance.
The reality is our full siblings have exactly the same ethnicity as us regardless of DNA inheritance or Ethnicity assigment. Any differences between us highlight the error rate in the whole process.
So if you and your sister show a 23% error that applies to your whole ethnicity prediction.

[Zaphod99]

I'm looking on the Living DNA website, as I had uploaded some earlier test data but can't find the haplogroup estimate. Which menu options should I be following?

All I can find is this, ANCESTRY - FATHERLINE:

"Data unavailable
DNA upload files do not contain the necessary markers for processing member ancestry information information. To obtain the full story of your ancestors, purchase the Living DNA member ancestry test."

Zaph

[Zaphod99]

I have found it using a site called

https://cladefinder.yseq.net/

I uploaded my Ancestry and MyHeritage data and got two different choices.

It looks complex.  Work for tomorrow!

Zaph

[Biggles50]

My Half Sister and I share the same Father, our Paternal Ethnicities displayed by Ancestry are similar but not exact.

Such is the random nature of DNA inheritance and the partial DNA segment analysis that is currently employed by Ancestry.

[4b2]

The price does seem too low for it to give Y-dna and mitochondrial results, which is a shame as I'd love to know my mt haplogroup. But then I'd want to know the mt and y- haplogroups for all my ancestors.

I have been able to pick out a few (not many) of the Y-DNA haplogroups of my lines by looking through the groups on FTDNA and finding people who are obviously on the same line.

The FTDNA Y-DNA is grossly overpriced. That company is not looking to grow. Maybe it can't. They are just sitting on the cash flow of being the only real option for Y-DNA tests. Hopefully MyHeritage can offer a major breakthrough with full genome, and push Ancestry to get their act together rather than just trying to upsell us basic features.

You can get full genome tests from Nucleus for less than a less than full resolution DNA test from FTDNA. Nucleus say that within about ten years the price of full genome tests will be close to zero. It would be good to see them jump into genealogy, as it's the sort of company that is seeking huge growth and never making a profit, instead chasing dominance and equity value.

[goldfinch99]

The price does seem too low for it to give Y-dna and mitochondrial results, which is a shame as I'd love to know my mt haplogroup. But then I'd want to know the mt and y- haplogroups for all my ancestors.

I have been able to pick out a few (not many) of the Y-DNA haplogroups of my lines by looking through the groups on FTDNA and finding people who are obviously on the same line.

I joined a surname group on FTDNA with the hope that would work for me on the paternal line, but no luck on finding a previous test-taker who was definitely from the right line. It is a technique worth trying though.

Is Wikitree any good for doing this?  I've never joined it but if people add haplogroups there it could be a useful site for this purpose.

[Biggles50]

Only the ftDNA Big 700 y-DNA test will give a detailed Haplogroup.

Lesser tests will give a Haplogroup like R-M269 which originated about 10,000 years ago.

Upgrading say a 111 test to the Big 700 will result in a more recent Haplogroup Mutation.

For me the 111 gave me Matches that have the Surname that I was seeking and a probable MRCA to them in the 1650 to 1730 range.

I too joined a Surname group with the result “good luck” in one message.

At $450 US the Big 700 is certainly not cheap.

[Romilly]

Zaph, it’s very easy to find your Haplogroup on the Living DNA Site.
I’ve copied a little of it from my test pages, (see below) but it gives a lot more detailed information:

Your Motherline
Mitochondrial or MT DNA is found in the mitochondria cells. It contains 16,500 DNA bases, meaning it is much smaller than the autosomal genome (3 billion) or the Y chromosome (50,000). You will see this if you choose to download your raw data.
Your Mitochondrial DNA is passed directly to you by your mother, and to her by her mother and so on without undergoing any changes (recombination). This means your MT DNA information is identical to your mother, because of this we can tell you about your ancestral information from your mother.
Unlike Y Chromosome your mitochondrial DNA is found in both men and women so anyone who takes a test will be able to receive these results.
You and your maternal Haplogroup
Your mitochondrial test provides you with your maternal haplogroup, which is a code that describes a group of people that share a common ancestor. From this test you can confirm whether you share a maternal ancestor in the last 50 generations with someone with a high degree of confidence.
Your haplogroup can tell you the storey of your ancestors from 10,000s of thousands of years ago.
You can discover where they originated from, which migration routes they followed as well as their current distribution throughout the world.

Romilly.