DNA results

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

Had my DNA done through Ancestry.com and have a question regarding the findings. I'm 63% Finland/NE Russia, 23% Scandinavia No surprise here. The 7% Ireland, Scotland, Wales and 1% Iberian Peninsula was unexpected. No idea where that came from.

[Hasse Admin Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Hasse]

Dna

As you all probably have read many times before...

The percentages "this-and-that" nationalities should always be taken with a truckload of salt. Of course we people like the answer but liking the answer seldom make the answer any more accurate at all. The bigger percentages probably contain more valuable and believable information but the small percentages probably easily can be neglected.

These results have been calculated against quite small reference populations (maybe 47 individuals within the "Finnish" population used as one example) - and often also different reference populations in different testing companies. The calculated results are often from a so called factor analysis test where the resulting defined number of factors ie. "sets" or populations are given more or less arbitrary names by the company marketing the testing product. There thus are no single spot in our dna that is marked "Finnish", "Scandinavian" or "Ashkenazi" that can be seen from the answers we get from 23andme, FTDNA or the others.

Every tested person is checked how well his/her DNA result can be explained by the results from the factor analysis of the reference population. The result of this we get as "63% Finland/NE Russia, 23% Scandinavia, 7% Ireland, Scotland, Wales and 1% Iberian Peninsula, ... etc."

Instead of looking too deep into the percentages I'd say that generally one can get much better indications of one's own deeper ancestry by browsing through one's matchlist. The marketing people of the FTDNA, Ancestry and 23andme probably do not agree with me... -
The percentages derived from our DNA results are more marketing information than ancestry information...

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

Thank you, Hasse. I totally agree. Thus far in my direct ancestry I find only Finn and Swede genes.
Karen

[Sandie Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Sandie]

Love your answer. My distant cousin asked me to take the Ancestry.com test so she could compare. Since my siblings and I are the only ones with parents whose family emigrated from Finland, I know who I am. This particular cousin's mother we now know has very mixed ancestry. I have a copy of one side my family back to 1500s and I can see only Finnish names and on the other side my Dad said his parents were Finns period. I wrote to ancestry about them putting Russian in my findings. I told them when my grandparents lived in Finland the part of the country they show as Russia was Finland and they should expand their knowledge. I also told them that a Russian may have some beautiful Finn DNA but I do not have Russian. Surprise...no answer. I thought they should consider we may not know the whole family (I have to search again) but we know a Finn is a Finn. One plus, cousins who were sent to Sweden as babies in 1939 to save their lives were not taught Finnish and did not even know who their Finnish family is. My research showed them relatives and area where they were born. Ancestry.com did help.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

I know who I am, but everyone nagged at me to have my dna tested... I used FTDNA and they sent me 144 pages (over 4,000) names of people related to me... I recognized some of the names, having seen them on Finlander Forum and Facebook, plus from my genealogy research... but I'm not going to start contacting those people. A few of them have contacted me. The test results showed what I already knew: I'm about half Finnish and half Scandinavian ... but no Russian, oriental, African, etc. connections..

[Roger Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Roger]

Hasse, I will never have my DNA tested. I have information on both my paternal and maternal ancestors back to the 1500's. It is all from church records and personal information from my second cousins in Finland where I have visited twice. I am very confidant that the information I have is correct. I think that the sudden surge of commercials advertising DNA tests is simply a way to make money by these companies.

[Sandie Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Sandie]

DNA test

I agree DAN is money making for companies. There was never anything they could tell me I didn't already know about who I am. My help has come from the amazing help Finlander Forum reading the records in Finland and letting me know the most important first...my Dad and his brother's and sister's didn't know their parents real names. All their records were burned so I was at a loss. So grateful for the help I receive at this website. It led to other facts I could find after they emigrated.

[Anteroinen Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Anteroinen]

DNA research is not really about the nationality percentages. I mean, that's the popular hook, but the real meat is in confirming/disproving relationships from the times where records are sparse but suggest a link. That and providing a possible way to find relatives from cases where something happened that did not get written into the records.

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

Thank you, Anteroinen.
Karen

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

DNA testing has helped a lot of genealogy newbies who haven't a clue as to their heritage. The Finnish Genealogy group on Facebook has several queries each day from people who have lists of names of possible relatives, but don't know how to find them. I haven't kept track of the number of people I've helped, but recently I have supplied 5-6 people with an ahnentafel of their ancestors in Finland. And this past week I've helped one of them make contact with a living relative in Finland.

[D J Granlund Registered Find all posts View Profile Close D J Granlund]

My wife encouraged me to get my DNA tested. I went with My Heritage and did the male and female DNA tests. The result came back 91.0% Finnish, 7.2% Baltic, and 1,8% Irish, Scottish and Welsh. I suspect the third part is due to spurious DNA analysis. I am not terribly sure of the Baltic result either. Do any of you have a sense of what percentage becomes statistically significant at the 95 or 99% level?
David

[Plain Ann Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Plain Ann]

I vote for DNA testing as a valuable tool, with the understanding that commercial DNA testing is in its infancy, and the results are based on the pool of people participating in that vendor's testing. Not proof, that would apply in another pool of participants. Or, that would give the same results via another vendor's method. Or, via the same vendor at a future date, given that DNA Researchers are continually improving testing methods. For now, as Hasse said, the larger percentages are more reliable. And for some of us who chose to be tested, the results provided answers to questions that were unanswerable before. For those whose family had access to accurate information, and were willing to share it, you likely would only have what you know confirmed. But, your participation would be helpful to many who aren't so lucky, as you could help them fill in the blanks in their family history, while helping improve DNA Research as a science at the same time.