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It is irrelevant whether you agree with me or not. Your experience doesn't negate the fact that many other people have gotten significantly different results from different companies. In fact as you said above, the results you got from MyHeritage were significantly different from what the other companies reported and stands as evidence that my previous statement is correct.
Since I'm being referred to here, I do want to point out that since that post, FTDNA have updated their ethnicity report. It is now very similar to AncestryDNA's report for me, but still very different from 23andMe, MyHeritage, etc. And more importantly, my mom's, dad's, and paternal grandfather's results still vary much more wildly between AncestryDNA and FTDNA. So your point still stands that just because one person gets similar results between companies, doesn't mean most people will.
I never suggested we were identical in terms of DNA. But siblings descend from the same people, and thus have the same ethnic background.
But because inheritance and recombination is random, siblings do not get the same DNA or the same amounts of DNA from each ancestor.
Here's an example. Let's say you had one grandparent from Italy, one from Britain, one from China, and one from India.
That doesn't mean you should expect your DNA ethnicity report to be exactly 25% Italian, 25% Britain, 25% Chinese, and 25% Indian, because although we inherit 50% from each parent, we do not inherit exactly 25% from each grandparent.
So the 50% you got from your dad may have included:
32% from your Italian paternal grandmother
18% from your British paternal grandfather
And the 50% from your mother:
20% from your Chinese maternal grandmother
30% from your Indian maternal grandfather
Meanwhile, your sibling might have got:
24% from your Italian paternal grandmother
26% from your British paternal grandfather
34% from your Chinese maternal grandmother
16% from your Indian maternal grandfather
The further back your last "full blooded" ancestor was on your tree, the more these amounts can vary. Sometimes you can inherit nothing from one 3rd great grandparent, for example, yet inherit a solid 8% from another 3rd great grandparent. Meanwhile, your sibling could have inherited from that 3rd great grandparent that you didn't, meaning your sibling got a DNA result in a category you didn't.
It's true the DNA ethnicity report is also an estimate, and on a sub-continental level, is not necessarily accurate because people within continents share so much DNA. That does play into the varying reports for siblings too. But even if this wasn't an issue and the reports were totally accurate, siblings would still expect to have different percentages for the same categories, and even sometimes find one sibling has small results in a category the other doesn't.
Also, DNA ethnicity reports are much more accurate on a continental level. And since we do inherit 50% from each parent, using the above example, both siblings could reasonably expect to be 50% European and 50% Asian.
Quote:
While DNA estimates ethnicity, it in no way defines ethnicity. Researchers have long sought out their ethnic backgrounds, long before DNA testing was available. In today’s battle between DNA companies, ethnicity estimates have become a marketing tool more than anything else.
Yes, ethnicity is not defined by DNA alone. And it's true that companies heavily market the ethnicity part of the DNA test even though it's only an estimate. But it can still be very interesting with the understanding of how it works.
I have 1.3% Balkan but I have no known Balkan ancestors. 23andme says, on my timeline, that I have a 100% Balkan ancestor in my family tree sometime between 1680 and 1800. I have a tiny bit of Ashkenazi (.8%) that they say is also traced back to 1680-1770. I have a "mysterious" Ukrainian gr-grandfather who probably lived near Odessa or some other port near the Black Sea. Maybe he's the source. I have even more Scandinavian ethnicity (1.5%) but they say this is from a 100% Scandinavian ancestor during the period 1680 to 1770. I have no known Scandinavian ancestors but the Baltic region where my family lived was invaded and temporarily controlled by Sweden during the 1600s so that might be it.
Maybe that's an explanation of these ethnicities -- but does this have to be one person or several persons maybe another 100 years earlier? The fact that they can assign a likely date to a tiny chunk of DNA, as small as 0.8%, is pretty amazing.
I have 1.3% Balkan but I have no known Balkan ancestors. 23andme says, on my timeline, that I have a 100% Balkan ancestor in my family tree sometime between 1680 and 1800. I have a tiny bit of Ashkenazi (.8%) that they say is also traced back to 1680-1770. I have a "mysterious" Ukrainian gr-grandfather who probably lived near Odessa or some other port near the Black Sea. Maybe he's the source. I have even more Scandinavian ethnicity (1.5%) but they say this is from a 100% Scandinavian ancestor during the period 1680 to 1770. I have no known Scandinavian ancestors but the Baltic region where my family lived was invaded and temporarily controlled by Sweden during the 1600s so that might be it.
Maybe that's an explanation of these ethnicities -- but does this have to be one person or several persons maybe another 100 years earlier? The fact that they can assign a likely date to a tiny chunk of DNA, as small as 0.8%, is pretty amazing.
It could be from one ancestor, or it could be from several further back and added up. But also, such small amounts can very well just be noise (like a false positive). I would not put much stock in anything under about 3%. Try not to take it too literally.
I have 1.3% Balkan but I have no known Balkan ancestors. 23andme says, on my timeline, that I have a 100% Balkan ancestor in my family tree sometime between 1680 and 1800. I have a tiny bit of Ashkenazi (.8%) that they say is also traced back to 1680-1770. I have a "mysterious" Ukrainian gr-grandfather who probably lived near Odessa or some other port near the Black Sea. Maybe he's the source. I have even more Scandinavian ethnicity (1.5%) but they say this is from a 100% Scandinavian ancestor during the period 1680 to 1770. I have no known Scandinavian ancestors but the Baltic region where my family lived was invaded and temporarily controlled by Sweden during the 1600s so that might be it.
Maybe that's an explanation of these ethnicities -- but does this have to be one person or several persons maybe another 100 years earlier? The fact that they can assign a likely date to a tiny chunk of DNA, as small as 0.8%, is pretty amazing.
I have a Finnish ancestry, which continues to shows up on every test:
Population
Western European 21.49
Siberian 14.48
East African 2.92
West Central Asian 1.66
South Asian 1.57
West African 7.96
Caucasus 6.56
Finnish 2.34 <============ finnish
Mediterranean 14.99
Southwest Asian 5.32
North European 14.25
East Asian 6.47
Scandinavians colonized a great many places from England to France to Germany, the Baltic States and Russia. Once settled, they did what everyone else did for hundreds and hundreds of years, and that is marry within their own ethnicity, typically someone from within their village.
It's not unusual for people with English ancestry to have Scandinavian DNA.
The ISOGG site gives Ancestry a low rating for it ethnicity report, a 4.5 on a scale of 1-10, and says this about it:
"Overall rating: 4.5
The Genetic Ethnicity Summary consistently overestimates the Central European and Scandinavian ancestral components for people whose ancestors were from the British Isles. The ancestral component from the British Isles is overestimated for people whose ancestors were from continental Europe. Overall, the European ancestry predictions tend to be inaccurate."
The ISOGG site gives Ancestry a low rating for it ethnicity report, a 4.5 on a scale of 1-10, and says this about it:
"Overall rating: 4.5
The Genetic Ethnicity Summary consistently overestimates the Central European and Scandinavian ancestral components for people whose ancestors were from the British Isles. The ancestral component from the British Isles is overestimated for people whose ancestors were from continental Europe. Overall, the European ancestry predictions tend to be inaccurate."
Yeah but to be fair, that's their second highest rating, and also, it can vary greatly depending on the individual.
There is 2% Scandinavian dna in Scotland/England/Wales, 2% !! The highest is Shetland/Orkney, with Yorkshire in England .They left place-names and part of the English language ( Old English) but NO dna. lol
thank you OzarkNation. This is helpful! I'll put my order in the coming days and will report back then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ozarknation
They do.
Here is my K13 results from Gedmatch Eurogenes:
Population
North_Atlantic 19.97
Baltic 7.56
West_Med 17.63
West_Asian 2.81
East_Med 9.84
Red_Sea 3.16
South_Asian -
East_Asian -
Siberian 1.84
Amerindian 26.94 <===== I am 26% Native American
Oceanian -
Northeast_African 1.18
Sub-Saharan 9.08
Results from FTDNA:
European 46%
New World 28% <=====28% Native American
Middle Eastern 13%
African 8%
Jewish Diaspora 2%
Results from Ancestry.Com:
Native American 29% <===== I am 29% Native American
Iberian Peninsula 26%
Europe South 17%
Africa North 6%
Scandinavia 5%
Senegal 4%
Europe West 4%
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