BritainsDNA: Chromo2

[DavidCoutts]

I received an email from BritainsDNA; my EthnoAncestry results have been moved to their site after they absorbed EA. I was offered an upgrade to Chromo2 for a reduced price of £149.

Has anyone used Chromo2? Apparently it's driven by Illumina which reads over 15,000 Y Chromosome Markers and 3,000 MtDNA Markers.

[Sile]

I have heard very bad to very good reports of this Scottish company. Most tests are not that good apart from chromo2.
The chromo2 is very good revealing more new markers than most other companies. Especially since Thomas Krahn has been dismissed by FTDna for not keeping "company findings" of new sublades hidden from competitors.
But Britains DNA are pricey.

The other good report is the accuracy of origin of subclades and their naming of these origins , like
I-S333 is Thracian
I-S392 is Illyrian
I-S165 is caledonian etc

[DavidCoutts]

Thank you for replying. I've ordered the test, and will post my results.

[Maciamo]

I have heard very bad to very good reports of this Scottish company. Most tests are not that good apart from chromo2.
The chromo2 is very good revealing more new markers than most other companies. Especially since Thomas Krahn has been dismissed by FTDna for not keeping "company findings" of new sublades hidden from competitors.
But Britains DNA are pricey.

The other good report is the accuracy of origin of subclades and their naming of these origins , like
I-S333 is Thracian
I-S392 is Illyrian
I-S165 is caledonian etc

That's good to know that they attempt to link subclades to ancient ethnic groups. However I disagree with some of their assumptions.

I can't imagine how they got to the conclusion that I2c-S333 (or L596) was Thracian. It has an wide distribution across Europe, the Caucasus and West Asia, but is absent from Romania and Bulgaria, the homeland of the Thracians. Sparkey, who is a member is this haplogroup has posted about it here and the highest diversity is found north of the Alps. Since it is a very old haplogroup it is surely linked to many ancient ethnic groups, like the La Tène Celts or the Greeks.

I2a1a-S392 (aka L621) could be Illyrian, but also Thracian, Dacian and Slavic, as I have explained here.

I2a2a-S165 could be Caledonian as it is found mostly in the British Isles and appears to date from the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. Caledonian is a bit restrictive though. I'd say ancient Briton.

[Maciamo]

I've just had a look at the example page for Y-DNA results at BritainsDNA. The big problem with their denominations of haplogroups and subclades is that they mix all kinds of historical periods, and often they do not even match the haplogroup age. For instance they list R1b-S116 (aka P312) as being "hunter-gatherer" when this subclade arose during the Bronze Age with Proto-Italo-Celtic people. Likewise I2a2a-S185 (aka L161.1) is listed as "deer hunter", which is completely ludicrous since it could apply to any haplogroup and doesn't give any geographic or ethnic indication. Overall the associations are less fanciful than at iGenea but the absurd examples that I pointed out make them lose a lot of credibility.


On the plus side, their Chromo2 Raw YDNA test has 15,000 Y-DNA markers more than the Geno 2.0 (12,316 markers) for the same price. So if you are interested only in very deep Y-DNA subclades that might be the test to purchase. I wonder what markers they test.

[Sile]

I've just had a look at the example page for Y-DNA results at BritainsDNA. The big problem with their denominations of haplogroups and subclades is that they mix all kinds of historical periods, and often they do not even match the haplogroup age. For instance they list R1b-S116 (aka P312) as being "hunter-gatherer" when this subclade arose during the Bronze Age with Proto-Italo-Celtic people. Likewise I2a2a-S185 (aka L161.1) is listed as "deer hunter", which is completely ludicrous since it could apply to any haplogroup and doesn't give any geographic or ethnic indication. Overall the associations are less fanciful than at iGenea but the absurd examples that I pointed out make them lose a lot of credibility.


On the plus side, their Chromo2 Raw YDNA test has 15,000 Y-DNA markers more than the Geno 2.0 (12,316 markers) for the same price. So if you are interested only in very deep Y-DNA subclades that might be the test to purchase. I wonder what markers they test.

from what I read ( on another forum) , the name is suppose to indicate the origin of the marker example I-S183 ( chauci) is northern germany. I assume hunter-gatherer just means unknown, but very early.
But I have to agree, their origin placing would be as accurate as any other company ...about 50%

The extra markers would be very interesting especially for big haplogroups