AncestryDNA results from across Europe

[Don Felipe]

In order to improve correct interpretation of AncestryDNA’s regions i have been collecting AncestryDNA results of persons with a single European background.

Follow these links for more details:

• Online Spreadsheet with European AncestryDNA results
• AncestryDNA results from Europe (blog post)

Below my main findings:





A total of 175 samples with backgrounds from atleast 20 different European countries/ethnicities has been used for my main survey findings. This seems like a reasonably robust number to pick up on some preliminary patterns. Even when for some of the separate nationalities i was only able to obtain a minimal sample size. As can also be verified from Ancestry's own information as well as the above chart the prediction accuracy of the nine European regions reported by AncestryDNA is variable. The Western European regions (in particular “Iberian Peninsula” & “Great Britain”) being least predictive and the “Ireland”, “Europe East”, “Finland/NW Russia” and “European Jewish” categories being quite reliable (atleast for people of confirmed background!).

Afterall some types of European DNA are less complex to distinguish than others mostly due to historical reasons. But also the particular constellation of AncestryDNA’s reference panel and its algorithm being focused on detecting origins from possibly “thousands of years ago” are important aspects to take into consideration. The chart above featuring my main European survey findings is therefore best understood when you keep in mind overlapping geography/genetics and ancient migrations across the continent.


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[Don Felipe]

Separate page featuring Portuguese & Spanish results:

Iberian AncestryDNA results

Summary of Portuguese/Azorean survey findings sofar:

[Sikeliot]

The SSA in the Madeiran shows up as which African region?

Also of the Italians do you know which are southerners and from which region? How many Greek islanders do you have and how do they score?

[Jessie]

I'm 100% Irish so you can add my results if you wish.

Ancestry.PNG

[sktibo]

this is absolutely great work you've done. I've found that the Great Britain category in particular was problematic and that when the same individual tested more than once this percentage would fluctuate and some of it would go into Scandinavian, Ireland, or Europe West.
I wish I had some samples for you but none of my family or friends kits are pure, many are almost. Thanks for sharing your work here.. if he doesn't find you first i suggest hunting down Norfolk and adding his data

[Don Felipe]

I'm 100% Irish so you can add my results if you wish.

Excellent, thanks! Have you also been assigned to one of Ancestry's Genetic Communities? I'm curious to know if there's any correlation between ethnicity estimates & genetic communities. For several Irish & British results i have both but of course my sample size is quite minimal. Hopefully Ancestry.UK will publish something about this topic eventually.

[Don Felipe]

this is absolutely great work you've done. I've found that the Great Britain category in particular was problematic and that when the same individual tested more than once this percentage would fluctuate and some of it would go into Scandinavian, Ireland, or Europe West.
I wish I had some samples for you but none of my family or friends kits are pure, many are almost. Thanks for sharing your work here.. if he doesn't find you first i suggest hunting down Norfolk and adding his data

Thank you very much! I intend to create a separate page for British & Irish results eventually. I will also refer to that study which was done recently based on Ancestry's customer database. There were several news papers referring to that study and also publishing very useful regional averages which seem quite in line with what i found sofar even when based on a much smaller sample size



I have however not found anything yet on the original source of that study. Do you or anyone else perhaps have more details? I'm guessing it was just a in-house study by Ancestry which has not been published yet? I'm wondering exactly how many UK samples they used.

[Don Felipe]

The SSA in the Madeiran shows up as which African region?

Also of the Italians do you know which are southerners and from which region? How many Greek islanders do you have and how do they score?

I do not know for the Madeiran, i only have the screenshot (check the Iberian results page). However i'm doubtful if at that level (<1%) it will be reported with much accuracy.
I intend to create a separate page for Italian & Balkan results eventually. I will post the link here. I do not have the regional origins for any of the Greeks however for i do have about 10 confirmed Sicilians within my Italian sample group as well as atleast 2 from Central Italy, i suspect Northern Italian origins for another two samples (check the spreadsheet).

[Jessie]

Excellent, thanks! Have you also been assigned to one of Ancestry's Genetic Communities? I'm curious to know if there's any correlation between ethnicity estimates & genetic communities. For several Irish & British results i have both but of course my sample size is quite minimal. Hopefully Ancestry.UK will publish something about this topic eventually.

Yes I've been assigned to Irish in Southern Ireland.

Overview
Cradled by mountains and covered by a patchwork of inhospitable bogs, Munster was the perfect hiding place for rebels and outlaws who sought refuge from British authority. During the Great Famine, many Munster inhabitants fled their homes to escape poverty and starvation. The poorest made the short hop across the Irish Sea to Britain, while others traveled across the world to Australia or America, where they settled in New York, Boston, and urban centers across the Midwest.

[ArmandoR1b]

Great thread. The next step to determine if those components can truly be replicated is to find more than 5 family groups where both parents and at least one child of each parental group is available. If a child gets something at a large percentage that the parents don't or if a child is missing something that at least one parent has at a large percentage of then the calculator fails.

Also, the excessive amount of Iberian in French and Italy/Greece in Iberia and France is disappointing. Those components at 23andme can be very helpful when they exist in amounts of more than 10% at 23andme but not at AncestryDNA.