Help with FTDNA Autosomal/Family Finder DNA Results?

JFWR

Banned
Messages
305
Reaction score
8
Points
0
Location
New York City
Ethnic group
Irish, English, French, German, Swedish, and Finnish
Y-DNA haplogroup
I-m223
mtDNA haplogroup
H64
Dear everyone,

I just got back my FTDNA Autosomal/Family Finder DNA test results. I could use some help understanding precisely how I should interpret the test and what it implies for my background. If you could chime in and assist me in anyway possible, I'd be most obliged. If any of you need further information, I'd be glad to supply it, including any sort of data that might be necessary.

My overall results were:

European: 85%
Jewish Diaspora: 14%
East Asian: 1%

European breaks down to:

Scandinavian: 32% - Which makes sense, as my grandfather's ancestry is Swedish and Swedish Finns. In fact, I found a cousin with the same surname as my grandfather in Sweden, indicating no doubt an actual relationship. - VERY Interestingly, his Y-DNA is also I M-253, even though I am related to him my mother's father's side, not my father's side at all. This is an interesting close-ish connection to my paternal side through my maternal side.
Western/Central European: 25% - Also makes sense. My maternal grandmother's father's side come from Otterberg in Rheinland-Plafz with some nearby Alsatians.
British Isles - 19% - I am actually surprised this is so low, as my father's side is exclusively from Cornwall in the last several generations, and more broadly England in general. Plus, I have Irish ancestry on my maternal side as well.
Finnland/Northern Siberia: 5% - Makes sense. Swedish side had people born in Finnland. So it makes sense that some ethnic Finns would be in there.
Southern Europe: 4% - I know of no Italian, Spanish, or Greek ancestry at all. Perhaps some relatives sharing Norman ancestry?

I suspect that some of these ethnic breakdowns also reflect the fact that my Y-DNA is associated with Germanic peoples. As a consequence, the lower British isles, and higher Scandinavia/Central Europe could reflect the fact that my genetic, as opposed to ethnic, breakdown trends towards Germanic?

In respect to Jewish Diaspora, the group that comes up is Ashkenazi Diaspora at 14% (the whole bunch) with the area highlighted being Eastern Germany, Poland, Lithuania, et cetera.

I know of no actual Jewish ancestors I've ever had. In fact, my Y-DNA and M-DNA has no Jewish connections, and my ancestry doesn't seem to be linked to the Jewish people at all. However, there is some Jewish woman coming up as potentially a 5th cousin or more distant, with 70.20 CM, and another with 64.48. It doesn't appear any Jewish person has a closer relationship than 5th cousin to me. Which means, if my calculator is accurate, that we could share a great, great, great, great grandfather/mother? - Which is 6 generations back. The Jewish woman with the 70.20 CM has M-DNA haplogroup H7E, and mine is H64. My maternal side is Irish and differs from hers, so I don't think we are related maternally on a direct line.

So the relationship is either: My great great great great grandfather/mother was Jewish (on a non-mainline maternal/paternal line), or we share a g g g g gp? In other words: Does this level of ancestry imply that I have Jewish blood, or that some Jews share my blood, or potentially both, or what? If we're 6th cousins, that means that 1/64 people related to me in that generation are shared ancestors.

To account for this: Is it possible that an ancestor on the German or Scandinavian side had a relationship with a Jewish man/woman and this could account for the admixture? I am not sure how much genetics of Ashkenazi are shared with Europeans. I would assume it's substantial enough due to long proximity.

As for the last thing: 1% East Asian. I have no friggin' clue about this one. Maybe some Hun/Magyar raped one of my ancestors in some war? I know that's somewhat cliche, but that is about the only thing I can think of in respect to this. I don't think this indicates American Indian ancestry, especially at that level of dillution.

----

Somehow, I don't imagine actually DLing the raw data would help, given that I doubt anyone here is such a profound geneticist that they can make sense of individual strands of DNA.
 
Last edited:
The calculator results have to be taken with a grain of salt. My FTDNA results were so weird, that they made very little sense. I think they're pretty useful at finding relatives, but the calculators really are not very reliable in most cases.
 
But I do recommend downloading the RAW files and uploading them to GEDMatch.com. The calculators--especially the Eurogenes ones--are actually pretty decent. They are much better than Ancestry, FTDNA, etc.
 
But I do recommend downloading the RAW files and uploading them to GEDMatch.com. The calculators--especially the Eurogenes ones--are actually pretty decent. They are much better than Ancestry, FTDNA, etc.

Yep. Still a bit confusing, but I've done it.
 
The calculator results have to be taken with a grain of salt. My FTDNA results were so weird, that they made very little sense. I think they're pretty useful at finding relatives, but the calculators really are not very reliable in most cases.

Yeah. The autosomal tests seem a bit odd. I am not so sure their analysis is amazingly accurate, though I am having a hard time matching my genetics in general.
 
I'm having problems on two lines. On one, I understand, because my surname is not actually my surname, it was chosen by my great-grandfather. There is another, however, where nothing is making any sense with genetic matches.
 
I'm having problems on two lines. On one, I understand, because my surname is not actually my surname, it was chosen by my great-grandfather. There is another, however, where nothing is making any sense with genetic matches.

Think you got the wrong thread?
 
FTDNA results look very generic for me try to upload your raw data and submit at gedmatch. Then in this website at "admixture" try Eurogenes or Dodecad, this could maybe give you a more clear look
 

This thread has been viewed 5748 times.

Back
Top