New Anatolian DNA in 23andMe Results

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Hello Europhiles,

23andMe has had an update recently, which changes some of the calculations. This is of course one of many. However, some wider change seems to have taken place. I used to be about 99.8% European with around 0.02% peripheral East Asian DNA, with not much variation over the years. For example, when I first got my DNA taken in 2015, this was the result: 23andme 2015_LI (4).jpg




Now circa 2020, my DNA is apparently 97.9% European, 1.6% Western Asian/North African. 0.5% Unassigned: 23andme 2020.jpg

Why the drastic shift? Has anyone else noticed a similar change?
 
23andMe has updated a few times their autosomal calculator in recent years. They added new samples to improve the accuracy of their predictions. From what I have seen the new results appear to be much more focused on recent ancestry than on ancient one. For example the few percent of Italian (of Roman origin) among Belgians mostly disappeared. But if their aim is to determine ancestry in the last 200~300 years or so, it's not perfect yet (although certainly better than before).

In contrast Living DNA shows deeper ancestry, correlating more with the Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

It looks to me like 23andMe aims mostly at the American market, so that people with undocumented or very mixed ancestry can retrace their actual roots in the past few centuries. Living DNA is more for people who already know their recent ancestry and are interested in their ancient ancestry.
 
Nothing changed for me.
 
Why the drastic shift? Has anyone else noticed a similar change?

The drastic change probably comes from including Western Turks from around Istanbul into a separate "Anatolian" category. They share a lot of ancestry with people from Southeast Europe, with many of them having recent ancestry from there. 23andme might find a way to isolate that signal, as this and "Italian" are common issues.

Here are my results over time:

July 2015
9Xm8YC8.png


November 2018
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January 2019
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August 2019
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The drastic change probably comes from including Western Turks from around Istanbul into a separate "Anatolian" category. They share a lot of ancestry with people from Southeast Europe, with many of them having recent ancestry from there. 23andme might find a way to isolate that signal, as this and "Italian" are common issues.

I see, so it could be a Western Turk that's had recent Balkan ancestry in the last 200-300 years and is counted as "Anatolian DNA".
 
In contrast Living DNA shows deeper ancestry, correlating more with the Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

Would you recommend a purchase from them for better clarity? Would they be able to pinpoint Early Slavs, Illyrians, Goths, etc.?
 
23andMe has updated a few times their autosomal calculator in recent years. They added new samples to improve the accuracy of their predictions. From what I have seen the new results appear to be much more focused on recent ancestry than on ancient one. For example the few percent of Italian (of Roman origin) among Belgians mostly disappeared. But if their aim is to determine ancestry in the last 200~300 years or so, it's not perfect yet (although certainly better than before).

In contrast Living DNA shows deeper ancestry, correlating more with the Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

It looks to me like 23andMe aims mostly at the American market, so that people with undocumented or very mixed ancestry can retrace their actual roots in the past few centuries. Living DNA is more for people who already know their recent ancestry and are interested in their ancient ancestry.

When I look at my LivingDNA results it says, "Recent Ancestry". To me Recent Ancestry is not ancient or medieval ancestry.
 

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