Wonderful answer Cheri and thank you for the personal analysis on my Dna 
results!!

Susan

> 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>
> <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
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