Credibility of FTDNA

[castelleone]

In your opinion,
how credible is FTDNA's results concerning identification of ethnic groups?

[binx]

Low credibility

[Carl Graham]

I'll be honest I thought my original MyOrigins was reasonably decent and in line withe the general trend of tests , but the new "upgrade " is pretty lousy.

[castelleone]

I'll be honest I thought my original MyOrigins was reasonably decent and in line withe the general trend of tests , but the new "upgrade " is pretty lousy.

Did you get any reasonable answer from their forum? It seems 100% amateurish.

[Carl Graham]

Their forums are so mediocre I don't bother with them.

[castelleone]

Their forums are so mediocre I don't bother with them.

I had the same impression,
since they seem to allow for so much delusional misinformation to spread.
What bothers you the most?

[murad1234]

I think it is better then ancestry in my opinion, as I stated I think it did a better job of break down the Balkan and Eastern Europe areas then Ancestry does.

[AbdoNumen]

As far as Middle/Near Eastern populations go, FTDNA is one of the only companies out there brave enough to break the region down into sub-regions. Though from the samples I've seen, it is heavily weighted toward Asia Minor.

My hope is that myOrigins 3.0 will introduce other regions and modal populations such as Caucasus (Nakh, Georgian, Adyghe), Persia, Arabia, and will incorporate ancient DNA for regions that were desolate for much of modern history like southern Levant.

[I1a3_Young]

In your opinion,
how credible is FTDNA's results concerning identification of ethnic groups?

They inflate Scandinavian percentages to unbelievable levels for me.

[backdrop12]

Very low credibility . I have english in my Ancestry ( lee, Green , Downes,etc) and I got zero percent Great britain and irish.

[mwauthy]

Mom(French Canadian)
West And Central Europe: 99%
East Middle East: 2%

Dad(Wallonia Belgian)
West And Central Europe: 80%
Southeast Europe: 13%
Scandinavia: 6%
Finland: 2%

Me
West And Central Europe: 90%
Southeast Europe: 10%

[OkTex]

Pretty happy with my FTDNA calls...myself, an uncle and a double-cousin all seem accurate... I did not have pre-conceived ethnicities based on guesses or surnames.

[castelleone]

Pretty happy with my FTDNA calls...myself, an uncle and a double-cousin all seem accurate... I did not have pre-conceived ethnicities based on guesses or surnames.

is this equivalent to say, you didnt need the test because it suffices to look at yourselves in the mirror?

[Mich Glitch]

Show me the best company please.
Any results concerning identification of ethnic groups are low credible. That's all.

[castelleone]

Show me the best company please.
Any results concerning identification of ethnic groups are low credible. That's all.

Thank you for enriching this thread with generalization and inductive fallacy.

[mwauthy]

My wife is half Italian (Naples and Northern Italy). Here are her Southern Europe scores from various companies:

23andMe:
Italian: 32.5%
Iberian: 5.2%
Broadly Southern: 8.9%

DNA Land:
South/Central European: 33%
Southwestern European: 4.6%


FTDNA:
Iberian: 32%
Southeastern Europe: 14%
Sephardic: 14%

Is the FTDNA algorithm really that off or does this mean it’s just really hard to differentiate Southern European alleles?

[davef]

In 23 and me she's 45 percent southern, DNA land she's 37 percent southern, ftdna she's 60 percent Southern. What did she get in the other categories (each test listed)?

[mwauthy]

In 23 and me she's 45 percent southern, DNA land she's 37 percent southern, ftdna she's 60 percent Southern. What did she get in the other categories (each test listed)?

To be more precise my wife is half Italian (Naples/Amalfi and Northern Italy), and half American (mostly British Ancestry). Full scores listed below with the addition of Myheritage.

23andMe:
Southern European 46.5%
Italian: 32.5%
Iberian: 5.2%
Broadly Southern: 8.9%
Northwestern European: 43.6%
British and Irish: 20.9%
French and German: 6.3%
Broadly Northwestern: 16.5%
Broadly European: 9%
Native American: 0.5%


DNA Land:
Northwest European: 41%
South/Central European: 33%
Ashkenazi: 8%
Central Indoeuropean: 4.8%
Southwestern European: 4.6%
North African 4.4%
Native American: 1.8%
Arab/Egyptian: 1.1%


Myheritage:
Italian: 59.3%
English: 17.3%
North and West European: 10.7%
Irish, Scottish, And Welsh: 6.1%
Ashkenazi Jewish: 5.6%
Native American: 1%


FTDNA:
British Isles: 33%
Iberian: 32%
Southeastern Europe: 14%
Sephardic: 14%
West and Central Europe: 3%
South Central Asia: <2%
Asia Minor: <2%
Ashkenazi:<1%
Oceania:<1%
East Europe: <1%
North and Central America: <1%

[Angela]

To be more precise my wife is half Italian (Naples/Amalfi and Northern Italy), and half American (mostly British Ancestry). Full scores listed below with the addition of Myheritage.

23andMe:
Southern European 46.5%
Italian: 32.5%
Iberian: 5.2%
Broadly Southern: 8.9%
Northwestern European: 43.6%
British and Irish: 20.9%
French and German: 6.3%
Broadly Northwestern: 16.5%
Broadly European: 9%
Native American: 0.5%


DNA Land:
Northwest European: 41%
South/Central European: 33%
Ashkenazi: 8%
Central Indoeuropean: 4.8%
Southwestern European: 4.6%
North African 4.4%
Native American: 1.8%
Arab/Egyptian: 1.1%


Myheritage:
Italian: 59.3%
English: 17.3%
North and West European: 10.7%
Irish, Scottish, And Welsh: 6.1%
Ashkenazi Jewish: 5.6%
Native American: 1%


FTDNA:
British Isles: 33%
Iberian: 32%
Southeastern Europe: 14%
Sephardic: 14%
West and Central Europe: 3%
South Central Asia: <2%
Asia Minor: <2%
Ashkenazi:<1%
Oceania:<1%
East Europe: <1%
North and Central America: <1%

This is what I mean when I say that I don't trust FTDNA at all.

Let's assume that someone was adopted, and was half Italian. FTDNA would steer this person totally in the wrong direction.

My Heritage isn't bad, but it overstates the percentage. DNA Land understates it, and uses the term "South Central European". Do they tell people that means Italian?

23andme needs one little bit of explanation, which is that if someone gets a large percentage of Italian and then minority bits of Iberian and Southern European, they should add all of that together, because that's very close to the percentage. Is this the v5 result? If it isn't, v5 might get even closer. It did for me.

[mwauthy]

This is what I mean when I say that I don't trust FTDNA at all.
Let's assume that someone was adopted, and was half Italian. FTDNA would steer this person totally in the wrong direction.
My Heritage isn't bad, but it overstates the percentage. DNA Land understates it, and uses the term "South Central European". Do they tell people that means Italian?
23andme needs one little bit of explanation, which is that if someone gets a large percentage of Italian and then minority bits of Iberian and Southern European, they should add all of that together, because that's very close to the percentage. Is this the v5 result? If it isn't, v5 might get even closer. It did for me.

I agree with your analysis. It was 23andMe V4.
They do mention on DNA Land that South Central European is for central/northern Italy because the samples they use are from Tuscany and Bergamo.

[davef]

How much % north Italian and % south Italian is she?

Oh and cute kitty avatar Angela :)

[mwauthy]

How much % north Italian and % south Italian is she?

Oh and cute kitty avatar Angela :)

Her Grandma is from Naples/Amalfi area and her Grandpa is from Northern Italy. So 1/4 Northern. It depends on whether or not you consider Naples closer to central Italy or Southern Italy for the other 1/4. On DNA Land she did not get any Mediterranean Islander which has samples from Sicily or any Sardinian. If you add her South Central European 33% with Southwestern 4.6% with Central IndoEuropean 4.8% with North African 4.4% with Arab/Egyptian 1.1% you get 47.9% or almost half Italian. This is also close to 46.5% Southern Europe score from 23andMe.

[davef]

Her Grandma is from Naples/Amalfi area and her Grandpa is from Northern Italy. So 1/4 Northern. It depends on whether or not you consider Naples closer to central Italy or Southern Italy for the other 1/4. On DNA Land she did not get any Mediterranean Islander which has samples from Sicily or any Sardinian. If you add her South Central European 33% with Southwestern 4.6% with Central IndoEuropean 4.8% with North African 4.4% with Arab/Egyptian 1.1% you get 47.9% or almost half Italian. This is also close to 46.5% Southern Europe score from 23andMe.

Naples is without a doubt in southern Italy, so that makes her 1/4 southern Italian.

[Amerijoe]

Didn’t vote due to lack of paternal info., but here are the results and some comparisons. Maternal side paperwork traces back through Scot/Irish Ancestry to around mid 1700’s. Family surnames are mentioned as far back as Dal Riada, so I should have a high degree of British. FTDNA breakdown is at 98% British Isles and 2% Ashkenazi. Ancestry 49% I/S/W, 47% GB, 1% European Jewish. 23andMe 90.8% B&I, Scandinavian 1.4%, Broadly NW Eur. 6%. Geno2 B&I 97%, 2% Arabian. Other tests taken all fall within the same percentage framework. Not a great amount of variation for me between the various testing companies.

[mwauthy]

Didn’t vote due to lack of paternal info., but here are the results and some comparisons. Maternal side paperwork traces back through Scot/Irish Ancestry to around mid 1700’s. Family surnames are mentioned as far back as Dal Riada, so I should have a high degree of British. FTDNA breakdown is at 98% British Isles and 2% Ashkenazi. Ancestry 49% I/S/W, 47% GB, 1% European Jewish. 23andMe 90.8% B&I, Scandinavian 1.4%, Broadly NW Eur. 6%. Geno2 B&I 97%, 2% Arabian. Other tests taken all fall within the same percentage framework. Not a great amount of variation for me between the various testing companies.

What are your DNA Land scores?