Cheri, Thank you! Your clarification should help a lot of folks. It is a ‘process’.
Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 16, 2018, at 9:44 AM, Cheri Mello <[email protected]> wrote: > > And Rosemarie didn't mention that she also got some DNA matches that she > doesn't have on FTDNA. New cousins to connect with! That's why we do this :) > > Now that ethnicity ESTIMATE thing...... > > Each company has contracted with population geneticists who have gone out and > taken samples from various locations. Have they sampled the ENTIRE country or > region? NO. So then they write the algorithms to calculate your ethnicity. > Supposed you don't match their population samples? The algorithms has to take > a guess to make you fit. EACH company does this. No one shares population > samples. Therefore, they are all different. And this ethnicity ESTIMATE thing > is still a developing science and will probably never get down to a country > level since those are political boundaries. But there's no crystal ball. > FTDNA tests more STR markers because of us genealogists. We have more SNPs on > the tree of mankind because of us genealogists. We have pushed the > geneticists further than they thought. They thought we were a bunch of old, > bespeckled, retired senior citizens, rolling reels of mircofilm. We were > searching and searching for answers and would use whatever technology we > could to answer our questions. And we asked questions and pushed the > geneticists. So the geneticists nicknamed us "citizen scientists." All the > companies will continue to improve their ethnicity estimates. The > genealogists will continue to push them. > > Now let me take Susan Vargas Murphy's results (100% Azorean, at least on > paper): > FTDNA > 48% Iberian > 23% SE Europe (this is probably Portuguese and this part of her sample didn't > match the population sample, so the algorithm guessed) > 10% Scandinavian (this could be something other than Portuguese and the > algorithm didn't know what and took a guess; or some Viking type dude leaving > DNA) > 8% British Isles (possibly true, as some British did settle in the Azores; > however, not all of the British Isles have been sampled yet) > 8% North Africa (this is probably close to true; lots of Azoreans have North > Africa - probably crossed the Straight of Gibraltar to Portugal and then to > the Azores) > 2% Jewish (probably close to true; we did have Jews in the Azores and it's an > FTDNA estimate which has a REALLY GOOD Jewish population sample) > > AncestryDNA: > 99% Iberian (they may have some samples from the Azores that Susan matches > VERY well) > 1% Senegal (this may be a guess for the North African; maybe it's a French > influence. It's only 1% so I don't dwell on it). > > My Heritage: > 45.2 % Iberian (Susan matches about 45% of their Portuguese population > samples) > 13.6 % Ireland, Scotland, Wales (possible true; some British empire types > went to the Azores; not all have been sampled yet) > 12.5 % Scandinavian (could be something other than Portuguese; could be an > ancient Viking type dude who left his DNA in the Azores after being lonely at > sea) > 10.2 % Ashkanazi Jewish (This may be Sephardic. However, My Heritage was > based in Israel and probably has a good Jewish sample too, although it's > probably not Sephardic) > 18.5 % “three more ethnicities”.... and if you look at their map it is mostly > Northern Africa (N. Africa = Portuguese because of the Straight of Gibraltar > thing) > > We are a bunch of things. Let the ethnicity ESTIMATES continue to develop and > improve. Don't sweat it too much at this time. It's not there yet. > > Bill Seider said something about getting differences with his same raw data. > Remember, it's your raw data against their population samples. How well you > fit their samples. Or it will make a best fit type guess. So it has nothing > to do with your data, it has to do with their population samples. > > Liz M mentioned paternity testing. Ethnicity ESTIMATES is a different part of > DNA testing. Paternity testing is looking for amounts of shared centiMorgans > between two people (3330 – 3720 cMs with 3487 cMs being the average for a > parent child). They aren't looking for that ethnicity type DNA. They are > looking for the AMOUNT of DNA shared. > > Susan asked which company has the biggest database. For ethnicity ESTIMATES, > it doesn't matter. Which company has the MOST EXTENSIVE Portuguese (including > all 9 of the Azores) in their population samples to compare us against for > the most accurate ESTIMATE? No one at this time. I know with FTDNA, the > previous version (not the current one) had a whopping 25 Portuguese > population samples in it. That was to cover Portugal, the Azores, and > Madeira...and it just didn't do it justice. The largest population sample was > 147 Japanese. Japan is comprised of 6,852 islands. Their sample size doesn't > do them justice either. FTDNA has since revamped it and I don't know the > current numbers for their population samples. The latest company to revamp > their ethnicity ESTIMATES was Ancestry. Which means 23 and Me or FTDNA are > next. These companies want to have the most current information. So give them > some time to go collect the population samples, analyze the data, and write > algorithms and see how your new ethnicity ESTIMATES change. > > But if you want to know who CLAIMS to have the largest amount of DNA > CUSTOMERS, it's Ancestry. I believe it's an inflated number. They bought out > many DNA companies and did nothing to convert their DNA over to their own > system. So I think they may be full of linguiça. LOL > > Here's what some genetic genealogists think about the various ethnicity > ESTIMATES from the various companies (taken from the ISOGG wiki): > <image.png> > > > Looking at that, I would say that FTDNA is due for an update. It's been 2-3 > years already and in the DNA world, it's time. And I have no idea who put > that in the Wiki. A wiki has many contributors. If that's a British Isles > type person who got better estimates at one company than another, that may be > why you see those scores. If it's Blaine Bettinger and one of his surveys, > then it may depend on the people who decided to answer his survey about how > accurate their ethnicity ESTIMATES are. So I think it's still subjective. And > this chart is missing Living DNA (based out of England and working on > branching out across Europe). > > And if you noticed I was typing ethnicity ESTIMATE....yes, I am emphasizing > ESTIMATE because it's just that - it's still an estimate and no one company > is there yet. > > I think I got everyone's questions. Time to figure out a line that I'm stuck > on and time to contact someone to take a DNA test to help out with that line > - regardless of the ethnicity ESTIMATE. > > Cheri Mello, Family Tree DNA Admin (volunteer) > Listowner, Azores-Gen > Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, > Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada > > >> On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 8:33 AM Michael Giffin >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> I just got back from my first trip to Sao Miguel and my family village, >> Porto Formoso. My family left there in 1883 for Hawaii. Our guide said the >> archipelago began to be settled sixty years before Columbus sailed for the >> New World, the first settlers included the Flemish, and some were from >> Brittany (and spoke Portuguese with a French accent). Complicating this, my >> genealogical research of the US censuses of 1900 and 1910 tells me that the >> Portuguese were not regarded then as Caucasian. So the DNA experience is >> indeed complex. >> >>> On Thu, 15 Nov. 2018, 7:29 pm Rosemarie Capodicci <[email protected] wrote: >>> Hi List, >>> I transferred my FTDna raw data over to MyHeritage with Cheri's >>> instructions, on Nov. 12th. I just now was notified that my ethnicity >>> breakdown was available. Quite a few differences from FTDna! On FTDna I >>> have zero Iberian ethnicity showing, on MyHeritage I show 47%! I show 84% >>> Europe with 47% Iberian (Spain/Portugal) and 28% Greek (don't show this at >>> all on FTDna. I'm showing 12% N. Africa and 1.8% Middle East which is >>> basically what I show on FTDna. So, if you want to check out another DNA >>> Company transfer your raw data over and take a look! >>> >>> Rosemarie >>> [email protected] >>> Researching Sao Jorge, Terceira, Graciosa, Faial and Pico, Azores, >>> Isola delle Femmine, Sant' Elia, Sicily >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "Azores Genealogy" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Azores Genealogy" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
