Sunday 17 May 2015

Three generations of FTDNA MyOrigins admixture results

I wrote last week about comparing my admixture results from Ancestry, 23andMe and Family Tree DNA. At Family Tree DNA I have now tested three generations of my family so I thought it would be interesting to compare the MyOrigins results across the generations. I've provided below a summary of the ancestry for each person tested together with a screenshot of their results. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Debbie's dad
Four grandparents born in England: Bristol, Gloucestershire, London (x2).

Eight great-grandparents born in England: Bristol (x2), Devon, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, London (x2).

Fifteen great-great grandparents born in England: Devon (x2), Bristol, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire (x 2), London.
One great-great grandparent born in Scotland (location not known).
The birthplace of seven of his English great-great-grandparents is unknown. Four were probably born in Bristol or in a nearby county. Three were Londoners who could have moved to London from anywhere in England.


Debbie's mum
Four grandparents born in England: London (x2), Hampshire (x2).

Eight great-grandparents born in England: Berkshire, Hampshire, London (x3), Somerset, Wiltshire. The birthplace of one great-grandparent is not known but he was probably born in London.

Fifteen great-great-grandparents born in England: Bedfordshire, Berkshire (x2), Gloucestershire, Hampshire (x2), Hertfordshire, London (x2), Somerset (x2), Wiltshire.
One great-great-grandparent born in Ireland: County Kerry.
The birthplace of three of her English great-great-grandparents is unknown. One was probably born in Hampshire. The other two were probably Londoners who could have come from anywhere in the country.


Debbie
Four grandparents born in England: Bristol, London (x3).

Eight great-grandparents born in England: Bristol, Gloucestershire, Hampshire (x2), London (4),

Sixteen great-great-grandparents born in England: Berkshire, Bristol (2), Devon, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, London (x 5), Somerset and Wiltshire.
The one great-great-grandparent with an unknown birth location was probably born in London.

Twenty-four great-great-great grandparents born in England: Berkshire (x2), Bristol, Devon (x2), Essex, Gloucestershire (x2), Hampshire (x2), Hertfordshire (x3), London (x5), Somerset (x2), Wiltshire.
One great-great-great grandparent born in Ireland: County Kerry
One great-great-great grandparent born in Scotland (location not known).
The birthplace of the remaining eight English great-great-great-grandparents is unknown but they were probably born in Bristol, London and Hampshire.


Debbie's husband
Four grandparents born in England: Cambridgeshire (x2), Cumberland, Devon.

Eight great-grandparents born in England: Cambridgeshire (x3), Devon (x2), Dorset, Somerset, Surrey.

Sixteen great-great grandparents born in England: Cambridgeshire (x3), Devon (x4), Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire (x2), Somerset (x2), Surrey (x2). 

Twenty-six great-great-great grandparents born in England: Cambridgeshire (6), Devon (x8), Hampshire, Herefordshire (x2), Huntingdonshire, Somerset (x4), Surrey (x3), Sussex.
The birthplace of his remaining six  English great-great-great-grandparents is unknown. Three were probably born in Cambridgeshire, two in Hertfordshire and one in Surrey.


Debbie's eldest son


As can be seen, there is considerable variation between family members. This is only to be expected because of the random nature of DNA inheritance. However, some of the differences are somewhat more extreme than might be intuitively expected. For example, 57% of my DNA matches the British Isles cluster whereas only 40% of my dad's DNA matches the British Isles and only 7% of my mum's DNA.

My dad, my husband and my son all come out with smaller percentages of "Middle Eastern" DNA. My husband and son's "Middle Eastern" DNA appears on the map over Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan whereas my dad's supposedly Middle Eastern DNA is centred over Egypt and Jordan. I've noticed that a significant proportion of the members of my Devon DNA Project with predominantly British ancestry are coming out with these small percentages of "Middle Eastern". Clearly this does not mean that any of them have recent ancestry from the Middle East, and it is probably related to the limitations of the available reference populations. I hope to look at the Middle Eastern issue in more depth in a subsequent blog post.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, these admixture results should really only be used for entertainment value at present. However, the results are likely to change over time as more reference populations become available and as the methodology improves. Admixture tests should really be regarded as a bonus feature of an autosomal DNA test and should not be the primary purpose for testing. While your admixture results will not tell you whether your great-great-grandfather was Scottish or Irish, you might find instead that you match with a cousin who is descended from the ancestor of interest who will be able to fill in the blanks in your family tree. Cousin-matching tests will become increasingly useful as the databases continue to grow in size.

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© 2015 Debbie Kennett

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