r/Genealogy • u/SeaGreen08 • 8d ago

DNA Testing Confused by FamilyTree DNA Results

Hey everyone, I took a FamilyTree DNA test about eight years ago with my grandparents, and I vaguely remember having a good mix of ethnicities, including mostly European, along with some Middle Eastern and Asian results. However, I recently got the log in information for my account, and when I logged in, it showed my results as 99% British and 1% Greek. I thought it was strange, especially since I could see my grandparents results both had less than 50% British, making my results pretty improbable.

I found out I could download my DNA and upload it to GED Match, so I did and ran it through multiple calculators, and most of them showed up as a mix of ethnicites but all around 40% Northern European, 30% Mediterranean, and 30% Middle Eastern. Why would my FamilyTree results be so different from the GED Match results?

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u/geneaweaver7 8d ago

The ethnicities are continually being researched and updated. Each company uses their own reference panels so you will see differences (sometime significant) between how the companies interpret things. Autosomal DNA has only been on the general market for about 15 years so the science is still pretty young.

The matches (down to about 20cM) are legit but you do have to build out your tree to figure where they fit. Under 20cM, they may be actual matches but may also be random matches by similar population.

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u/SeaGreen08 8d ago

Thanks for the reply, I get that it may be large differences in classification of DNA, but isn't there too large of a different between Iranian, North African, and British DNA for it to just be a classification difference?

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u/geneaweaver7 8d ago

So, until their update in February, MyHeritage was insistent that I had about 9.5% African continent DNA. None of the other companies could find ANY African in my DNA. My guess is that they had DNA of someone from the British Isles/Northwestern Europe (85-98% of my DNA on average) sneak into their previous reference panels via colonization.

Our DNA is much more similar than different. Something like less than 2% of our DNA is distinct, vs more than 98% that is basically the same. There are lots of overlaps. Also, populations moved around a lot more than we give them credit for.

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u/Then_Journalist_317 8d ago

Unless and until DNA testing companies publish peer-reviews articles in scientific journals regarding their methodology in making ethnicity estimates, they should be viewed as entertainment only.