It's important to remember that ethnicity results are not everything, and definitely not 100% accurate. They are usually fairly accurate on the continental level, but it's hard to distinguish Swedish from English, for instance. However, I thought it might be interesting to compare the ethnicity percentages yielded by different companies. I have tested myself, all four of my grandparents, and some great uncles and aunts. This post will compare not only ethnicity but also match counts.
My FTDNA Results
Main Ethnicities
 |
| My FTDNA Main Ethnicity Results |
- 36% Scandinavian
- 33% British Isles
- 15% East Europe
- 9% Southeast Europe
- 6% West and Central Europe
It's important to note that the only one of these not consistent with my paper trail is 'Southeast Europe', more on that later.
Trace Results
Trace results are the results that you should nearly always ignore. A more accurate term would be "unlikely, but close enough that there is a tiny possibility they may be correct". I only have one of these trace regions.
 |
| My trace results |
- ~1% West Middle East
Match Counts
On FTDNA I currently have a total of 2,028 matches. Of these, ftdna identifies 852 as maternal matches, 305 as paternal matches, and 1 as both. You see, if you attach matches to your tree in ftdna and they triangulate on large enough segments with some unidentified matches, FTDNA will identify them as either maternal or paternal matches in the tabbed groups on top of the match list.
 |
| FTDNA Tab groups |
Since I have attached all of my grandparent's DNA to my tree, the number of triangulated maternal and paternal segments is quite large.
My Grandparent's FTDNA Results
Main Ethnicities
Grandparents
|
British Isles
|
East Europe
|
Scandinavia
|
West and Central Europe
|
Southeast Europe
|
Number of matches
|
Tim
|
18
|
3
|
28
|
47
|
2
|
4,183
|
Ken
|
55
|
18
|
24
|
0
|
0
|
1,339
|
Joan
|
59
|
0
|
23
|
11
|
2
|
1,968
|
Carole
|
3
|
84
|
10
|
0
|
3
|
540
|
Totals
|
135
|
105
|
85
|
58
|
7
|
8,030
|
Trace Results
Grandparents
|
Sephardic
|
Oceania
|
Finland
|
Northeast Asia
|
East Europe
|
North and Central America
|
West Middle East
|
Tim
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Ken
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Joan
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
Carole
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Totals
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
FTDNA Results Analysis
Determining the Total Amount of Each Ethnicity I Inherited as a Percentage
We can say that each percentage point is equal to 1/100 parts of a person.
So we see that the total value of all the British Isles percentages of all my grandparent's DNA is equal to 135/100 parts of a person (135%). My British Isle DNA is 33% or 33/100. 0.33 is 24.4% of 1.35, meaning I inherited 24.4% of all the British Isle DNA in my family. Using this same process I see that I inherited:
- 42.4% of my grandparent's Scandinavia DNA
- 24.4% of their British Isle DNA
- 14.3% of their East Europe DNA
- 128.6% of their Southeast Europe DNA
- 10.3% of their West and Central Europe DNA
Why is Southeast Europe's percentage over 100%? I assume that it's because Southeast Europe is a mistaken identity of one or more of my other ethnicities. Each of my grandparents only has 2-3% Southeast Europe in their results, and I have more than all of them combined. That's a fault of the specificity of ethnicity testing. Each percentage point is more a range, and my range is probably more like 0-7%.
Determining the Percentage of My Grandparent's Matches I Share
Its worth noting that this will probably not be an exact figure. I am not accounting for identical by state matches, so I may have some matches which none of my grandparents have. I suspect this number to be low enough, however, that I decided not to go to the trouble of finding how many of these I had. Not to mention, I am not sure how many of my grandparents' matches are identical by state so ignoring mine will keep the numbers used standardized.
2,028 is 25.3% of 8,030, so I share 25.3% of my grandparents' matches.
MyHeritage doesn't distinguish between trace results and main ethnicities so I will identify trace results as any ethnicity represented as <2% of the total genetic makeup. Also, note that MyHeritage subdivides the main country groups into individual or smaller amounts of countries.
2,028 is 25.3% of 8,030, so I share 25.3% of my grandparents' matches.
My MyHeritage Results
 |
| My MyHeritage Ethnicity Estimate |
Ethnicities
According to MyHeritage I am:
Using the same methods as before, I find that I inherited:
- 79.6% North and West Europe
- 48.2% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
- 25.5% Scandinavian
- 5.9% Finnish
- 20.4% East Europe
- 19.6% East European
- 0.8% Balkan (Trace result)
Match Counts
On MyHeritage I have 2,428 DNA Matches.
My Grandparent's MyHeritage Results
Main Ethnicities
Grandparents
|
North and West Europe
|
English
|
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
|
Scandinavian
|
North and West European
|
Finnish
|
East Europe
|
Baltic
|
East European
|
South Europe
|
Iberian
|
Greek
|
Italian
|
Number of Matches
|
Tim
|
90.1
|
0
|
42.9
|
33.6
|
13.6
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
7.9
|
7.9
|
0
|
0
|
5,521
|
Ken
|
78.9
|
0
|
70.7
|
0
|
0
|
8.2
|
18.4
|
18.4
|
0
|
2.7
|
0
|
0
|
2.7
|
2,237
|
Joan
|
95.6
|
0
|
28.7
|
65.2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4.4
|
0
|
4.4
|
0
|
2,014
|
Carole
|
9.6
|
6.6
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
79.8
|
0
|
79.8
|
8.7
|
8.7
|
0
|
0
|
916
|
Totals
|
274.2
|
6.6
|
142.3
|
98.8
|
16.6
|
8.2
|
98.2
|
18.4
|
79.8
|
23.7
|
16.6
|
4.4
|
2.7
|
10,688
|
MyHeritage Result Analysis
Determining the Total Amount of Each Ethnicity I Inherited as a Percentage
- 29% of my Grandparents' North and West Europe DNA
- 0% of their English DNA
- 33.9% of their Irish, Scottish, and Welsh DNA
- 25.8% of their Scandinavian DNA
- 0% of their North and West European DNA
- 72% of their Finnish DNA
- 20.8% of their East Europe DNA
- 0% of their Baltic DNA
- 24.6% of their Eastern European DNA
- 0% of their South Europe DNA
- 0% of their Iberian DNA
- 0% of their Greek DNA
- 0% of their Italian DNA
Determining the Percentage of My Grandparent's Matches I Share
2,428 is 22.7% of 10,688, so I have 22.7% of my grandparent's matches.
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