Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Both my daughters had their's tested before I did. Three different DNA sites. Basically, I wanted to do mine to confirm their's. Having done my own research for decades, including with no Internet, I more or less agree with the majority of the results, exception being Iberia (their's and my maternal 2nd cousin from older Ancestry test) and none for me. Greece instead.
Don't the results have to add up to 50/50 of each parent? As an example I got 40% Italian (my Mom). Daughters got 30% and 23% Italian. Nothing wrong about that. I got 27% Ireland/Scotland, 22% England/Wales, 5% Greece, 4% Turkey, and 1% Sardinia. One daughter got a higher percentage of Ireland than her sister. One got a percentage of English and her sister got none. They both got small percentage of Iberian, lesser Middle Eastern. Their results did add up to 50% of my background. I have researched my husband's ancestry, so I do know what their results were from their Dad.
I did not know that you could download results from Ancestry to other sites. Since my younger daughter got her results from FTDNA, I should download mine to compare it. How do you do this? I am curious to see what FTDNA gives me for Iberia versus Greece.
I highly doubt any DNA test can show a specific town or city where ancestors were from, which my results showed. That has to come from Ancestry searching family trees. Database? Migrations? Same. You can find when your ancestors migrated from Ships Passenger Lists. In addition, early Census asked the question, "what year did you immigrate to the US." Naturalization Papers also have this information.
This "old school" person definitely agrees you really should do at least some of your own research before taking a DNA test.
That link has how you download your raw data from Ancestry. You can upload to other sites that will process it for free (MyHeritage, GEDMatches, DNA.Land). FTDNA will process it for $19
For example, Italy does not allow AncestryDNA to operate in the country. So they can only process data gleaned from persons of expat Italian heritage living in countries where they do operate.
That's not the case. AncestryDNA may not sell their consumer DNA test in Italy, but the reference panel is collected separately. There is no reason they have not collected reference panel samples direct from Italy.
Quote:
If your Italy results fluctuate when the algorithm or population group is updated, its hardly a surprise. I can't imagine its a very large population.
It's actually one of their larger populations at 1,000 samples. The smallest appears to be 22 in Basque. The largest is 2,072 in Germanic Europe but most are under 1,000. Only 5 populations (including Italy) have 1,000+ samples so it's definitely one of their largest ones.
DNA might not lie, but Ancestry is making themselves look bad at the moment. The new updated results are far different from the previous for many. They say that often times the results are more refined. But for me, it was completely different. So this makes Ancestry look bad. Because even IF these new results are more accurate, it still shows how completely wrong they were to so many people the first time. So best case scenario, Ancestry still showed how much they goofed up either the first time or the second time.
I was 16 percent Italian and now 9 percent. But my father went from 35 percent to 0 percent. How could I be 9 percent if he is 0 percent? That doesn't make any sense at all. You really can give me an explanation for that? I'd love to hear it!
And if the answer for all this is that the more Ancestry goes back and can track migration, the more the results will change.... Then at some point our ancestors ancestors also migrated and their ancestors migrated. If you back far enough, then we all come from the same place. So at this point, the results will always change until we all are traced back to the same point of origin.
They have lost my trust and like I said at best case, they only showed how much they messed up, even if only for the first time.
I see your point but don't blame ancestral DNA results. Just to get DNA results the populations of ALL countries in the world have to be gathered from the spit of residents of these countries otherwise we could not match your test results with a certain ethnicity.
It is up to you to learn some history about ancient civilizations. And check to see what foreign powers annexed and occupied the country along the way.
So your father went from 35% to 0. But to which ethnicity was the total of that 35% transferred to? Just to give you an example of what I mean ..the Italian peninsula was inhabited by ancient civilizations in the 6th century by Greeks, Carthaginians Umbrians, Celts, Estruscans, Samnites, Romans, Messapians and Apulians. This will change over the next few centuries usually many times. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Italy_400bC_en.svg/747px-Italy_400bC_en.svg.png
"The Etruscan civilization developed on the coast of Southern Tuscany and Northern Latium. In the 5th century Gauls settled in Northern Italy and parts of Central Italy. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, different populations of German origin invaded Italy, the most significant being the Lombards". So now you research what is Gaul, who were the Lombards, when did Germans invade Italy, and where was Northern Latium? You get my drift? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_Italyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_Italy
I think DNA results help genealogists focus their research especially when they are up against a brick wall with one lineage and can shift their focus to another track.
Last edited by kitty61; 09-21-2018 at 11:20 AM..
Reason: clarification
Ancestry is not a GPS device, that will track places and regions with latitude and longitude.
The way I see this, is by Regions. If your great grandparents are Southern Europeans, they are probably from Italy, Greece, Spain or Portugal. If they are Northern Europeans they are from the Scandinavian Region, Baltic Region or the British Islands.
I have seen people mad, because their family is from Ireland and they don't see Ireland in their DNA report, only Scandinavian or Baltic.
Again, you need to understand this is an estimate, and is not as accurate as a GPS device. Period.
That's not the case. AncestryDNA may not sell their consumer DNA test in Italy, but the reference panel is collected separately. There is no reason they have not collected reference panel samples direct from Italy.
It's actually one of their larger populations at 1,000 samples. The smallest appears to be 22 in Basque. The largest is 2,072 in Germanic Europe but most are under 1,000. Only 5 populations (including Italy) have 1,000+ samples so it's definitely one of their largest ones.
The reference panel methodology described absolutely does not mean it was collected from persons living in that region. It is described primarily as being collected from persons stating they have family roots in that region. Not at all the same thing!
The reference panel methodology described absolutely does not mean it was collected from persons living in that region. It is described primarily as being collected from persons stating they have family roots in that region. Not at all the same thing!
No, and I am not saying some of the samples couldn't be from people who live in other places but with 100% Italian ancestry. My point is, there are very probably also samples from Italy, since the reference panel has nothing to do with where AncestryDNA sell their tests. Additionally, your assumptions about the size of the population in the reference panel are incorrect.
Ancestry is not a GPS device, that will track places and regions with latitude and longitude.
The way I see this, is by Regions. If your great grandparents are Southern Europeans, they are probably from Italy, Greece, Spain or Portugal. If they are Northern Europeans they are from the Scandinavian Region, Baltic Region or the British Islands.
I have seen people mad, because their family is from Ireland and they don't see Ireland in their DNA report, only Scandinavian or Baltic.
Again, you need to understand this is an estimate, and is not as accurate as a GPS device. Period.
This.
And lol at my results. I'm not German. I'm mostly Irish. The lol is because family lore said German. My paternal grandfather was German.
One of my brothers finally got the adoption papers for my father. We have his mother's name, but not his fathers. Both are listed as Irish. So the story told that the maid was the mother and grandpa was the father was just that. A story. The icing on the cake for me was when I found out (at age 68 for crying out loud!) that my father's sister was also adopted. Grandma and grandpa couldn't have children.
My mother's family was from Western Germany. Mostly.
Ancestry just changed my results as shown in the attached pictures. Seems logical to me.
The first estimate. Remember these are estimates. They can't be anything else. My wife's is almost the same. Percentages vary. We have decided that we are 40th cousins.
Ancestry is not a GPS device, that will track places and regions with latitude and longitude.
The way I see this, is by Regions. If your great grandparents are Southern Europeans, they are probably from Italy, Greece, Spain or Portugal. If they are Northern Europeans they are from the Scandinavian Region, Baltic Region or the British Islands.
I have seen people mad, because their family is from Ireland and they don't see Ireland in their DNA report, only Scandinavian or Baltic.
Again, you need to understand this is an estimate, and is not as accurate as a GPS device. Period.
Yes, I think despite AncestryDNA's attempts to narrow down the populations, I feel that in many cases, we still need to view the results on a broader level. My mom has a lot of German/Swiss ancestry, but in the update she gets no results in Germanic Europe at all. I could throw a hissy fit, rant about how unreliable the update is and what a joke that makes AncestryDNA, or I could look at the rest of her results and see that she gets very high amounts in two neighboring regions - one in particular she gets much higher results in than should reasonably be expected for her known ancestry. So it seems her Germanic ancestry is just showing up in a neighboring region, which was common for many people before the update too, and at other companies, and will continue to be common for the foreseeable future. This is not exclusive to AncestryDNA. If you feel that this makes the ethnicity estimate (in general, from any company) a waste, then fair enough - I've always maintained that the ethnicity estimate is fun to explore, but the true value of the test is with the DNA matches.
Yes, I think despite AncestryDNA's attempts to narrow down the populations, I feel that in many cases, we still need to view the results on a broader level. My mom has a lot of German/Swiss ancestry, but in the update she gets no results in Germanic Europe at all. I could throw a hissy fit, rant about how unreliable the update is and what a joke that makes AncestryDNA, or I could look at the rest of her results and see that she gets very high amounts in two neighboring regions - one in particular she gets much higher results in than should reasonably be expected for her known ancestry. So it seems her Germanic ancestry is just showing up in a neighboring region, which was common for many people before the update too, and at other companies, and will continue to be common for the foreseeable future. This is not exclusive to AncestryDNA. If you feel that this makes the ethnicity estimate (in general, from any company) a waste, then fair enough - I've always maintained that the ethnicity estimate is fun to explore, but the true value of the test is with the DNA matches.
That's what I feel.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
