Disparate results with Ancestry/23andMe/FTDNA

[raschau]

I started off with an Ancestry.com DNA test, then did 23andMe a bit later, then transfered my 23andMe to FTDNA. The results are quite disparate; thankfully I have a well-documented family tree with which to compare. I am mostly English and Scottish, perhaps less than a quarter German, and 1/8th Croatian.

AncestryDNA:

Great Britain 64%
Ireland 8%
Europe East 7%

Low Confidence Region(s):

Italy/Greece 6%
Iberian Peninsula 5%
Europe West 4%
European Jewish 3%
Scandinavia 2%
West Asia 1%

23andMe:

Northwestern European 84.4%

British & Irish 35.0%
French & German 16.9%
Scandinavian 1.7%
Broadly Northwestern European 30.7%

Eastern European 2.9%

Southern European 2.3%
Sardinian 0.4%
Broadly Southern European 1.9%

Broadly European 10.2%

Ashkenazi 0.0%

FTDNA:

European 95%
Jewish Diaspora 5%

Scandinavia 44%
Iberia 25%
West and Central Europe 11%
British Isles 10%
East Europe 5%

Of the 3, 23andMe is the most accurate. I can see how these tests would lump my German ancestry in with Great Britain, Scandinavia and Ashkenazi, but FTDNA's 44% Scandinavian and 25% Iberian - I have no Iberian ancestry - seems like wildly inaccurate algorithms to me. I don't think I'll be paying for their Y or MTDNA services unless someone can convince me these results are worthwhile. I just don't see it. :suspicious:

[randwulf]

I believe Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA are what FTDNA does best.

[Mike_G]

but FTDNA's 44% Scandinavian and 25% Iberian - I have no Iberian ancestry - seems like wildly inaccurate algorithms to me. I don't think I'll be paying for their Y or MTDNA services unless someone can convince me these results are worthwhile. I just don't see it. :suspicious:

You're not the only one. If you have some time, read through some of this thread. Results were all over the place.
http://www.anthrogenica.com/showthread.php?10199-My-origins-2-0-is-released

But I agree with Randwulf that their Y and MTDNA services are the best right now.

[sktibo]

23andme is the most accurate autosomal test as far as I'm concerned. FtDNA does a good job for few people but many if not most get downright strange results

[Sikeliot]

Each calculator has a different timeframe they are looking to (23andme is roughly 500 years, Ftdna is roughly 2,000). This will cause results to differ a bit.

[nuplix]

Each calculator has a different timeframe they are looking to (23andme is roughly 500 years, Ftdna is roughly 2,000). This will cause results to differ a bit.

23andme is 300 years; My Heritage is 500 years.

[ArmandoR1b]

FTDNA myOrigins is trash. A lot of people are missing an ethnicity that shows up at a high percentage in both parents and is also in the genealogical record. Since ethnicities can't skip generations the missing large percentage being swapped for another can't be explained away by a testing of a time period of 2,000 years as opposed to 300 years.

Ethnicity calculators are very different from Y-DNA and mtDNA testing. FTDNA does a great job with those tests regardless of how abysmally bad of a job they do with myOrigins. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Go with 23andme for the ethnicity calc and FTDNA for y
Y-DNA and mtDNA testing.

[raschau]

Thanks for your input, everyone! :)