Journals of a Time Traveller

This photo of A Capela dos Ossos (the bone chapel) in Évora, Portugal.  Taken by myself.

I'm English by ethnicity, birth, upbringing, known family history, and by record.  That record, I've researched on and off for more than 25 years, primarily in record offices, but in more recent years also online.  On my personal database I presently have 207 direct ancestors recorded.  All lived in Southern England, with the majority in East Anglia.  All appear to have English surnames.  All recorded religious denominations, English.  The majority were rural working class.  I have a typical English ethnicity and phenotype.  My recorded genealogy stretches back at the furthest to the 1680's.

I'd expect some admixture in there.  I know from my Y-DNA that I have Asian admixture from between 500 and 1,800 years ago on my paternal lineage.  Surely some Hugeonauts, Strangers, Romany, or others at some point.  However, a rare and single event on one line of ancestry doesn't hang around very long in autosomal DNA.  It can be washed out very quickly by genetic recombination - as my Asian, as detected by my Y-DNA, has been.  You should only really see significant traces of admixture, when it is either recent (within the past few hundred years at most), or entered on multiple lines of ancestry.

Therefore, I'd have expected a commercial Autosomal DNA test for ancestry to come fairly close to 100% for British, or even English.  But instead, so far, I've received:

From 23andMe Ancestry Composition in Speculative mode, before any phasing with mother alone:

32% British & Irish

27% French & German

7% Scandinavian

29% Broadly NW European

2% Broadly Southern European (including 0.5% Iberian)

and after phasing with one parent:

37% British & Irish  (23% from father, 14% from mother)

22% French & German  (12% from father, 10% from mother)

1% Scandinavian  (from mother alone)

36% Broadly NW European  (23% from father, 13% from mother)

2% Broadly Southern European (1% from father, 1% from mother)

From FTDNA Family Finder My Origins, I recently received:

36% British Isles

32% Southern European

26% Scandinavia

6% Eastern Europe

Wegene using my 23andMe raw data gives me:

81% French

19% British

DNA.land using my 23andMe raw data gives me:

77% Northwest European

19% South European broken into 13% Balkan and 6% Central/South European

2% Finnish

1% ambiguous West Eurasian.

GEDmatch Eurogenes K13 on Oracle using my FT-DNA raw data gives me as my nearest Genetic Distance:

Southeast English 3.75 GD

On Oracle 4 I get as my nearest single population Genetic Distance:

Southeast English 4.28 GD

Best three way on K13 Oracle 4 mix is:

50% Southeast_English +25% Spanish_Valencia +25% Swedish @ 1.86 GD

Eurogenes K13 does often suggest Iberian references for admixtures on my results further down the proposal list.  Still, thumbs up for Eurogenes K13!  It gets me as Southeast English correctly!

So... 23andMe claims that I have 2% Southern European and that it comes from both parents, although before phasing, it hinted at Iberian.  FT-DNA claims that I have a whopping 32% Southern European!  DNA.land claims that I'm 19% South European, but Balkan with some Italian, rather than Iberian!  Eurogenes K13 Oracle 4 suggests that if I do have admixture, that it most likely includes Iberian.  My family tree has no evidence of any Southern European people, names, or any Catholicism, etc.  Confusing or what?

I haven't posted much coherent lately, because, well, my Life changed, and consequently I've been pretty busy, in a very good way.  However, my exploration into genetic genealogy hasn't ceased at all.  Indeed, I took advantage of the Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) Summer sale, and bought the USD $79 Family Finder test.

No need to send a fresh sample, this was the third test from the sample that I sent to FT-DNA's US lab earlier this year.  FTDNA Family Finder is an autosomal DNA test only, without haplogroup results - but I've tested my Y-DNA to death already, and I know my mtDNA haplotype.  The services supplied include relationship matching, raw file download, and an Ancestry analysis named My Origins.  Hey, for that price, in GBP £, that is el cheapo good value.  And it's a good test, with about 690,000 SNPs tested, against 23andMe's current 577,382.  Smoking.

My prime interests was in 1) comparing the raw data with 23andMe on GEDmatch, and 2) seeing what FTDNA My Origins has to say about my autosomal DNA for ancestry.

So what did I find.

The former, comparing raw data files, I've done.  But briefly, the calculators DO vary for the two files, but not by very much - except maybe, that on Eurogenes K13, the nearest GD on my FT-DNA file is closer to correct - putting SE English closer this time than South Dutch.

The latter?

Family Tree DNA reported My Origins as:

100% European.

Broken into:

36% British Isles

32% Southern Europe

26% Scandinavia

6% Eastern Europe

This is a pretty bizarre result.  36% almost hits dead on my 23andMe Ancestry Composition (spec) result for British Isles (32% before phasing, 37% after phasing with one parent).  Perhaps they are using a similarly biased reference?  I'll blog on that soon as well.

26% Scandinavian is massive.  23andMe AC spec reported 7% before phasing, and 2% after phasing with one parent.

That's pretty much my first report for Eastern European, except for DNA.land's claim of some Balkans (hence my excuse for the above photograph).

but .... 32% Southern Europe, really?  Let's go there next, off to Southern Europe now: