How does autosomalDNA calculators calculate what ethnicity you belong to?

[Konpirike]

How does autosomalDNA calculators calculate what ethnicity you belong to?

Let me give you an example about what I mean through admixture percentage:

Let's say I am british and there is a K3 calculator that has 3 components. One is North European,one is South European and one is East Asian.

Let's say a typical british person gets 80%North European,20%South European and 0%East Asian on this k3 calculator. But eventhough I am British person I get 85%North European,10%South European and 5% East Asian which looks more closer to the average Finnish person.

Will the calculator in this way try to figure out what ethnicity I belong to(through admixture percentage), or will the calculator still make me come out as British, then I suppose , if the latter,then it uses some kind of a relative matching tool which in this way figures out your ethnicity I guess.


So is it through admixture percentage or is it through calculating what ethnicity most of your "relatives" belong to?

Anybody that knows?

[Sokoli]

How does autosomalDNA calculators calculate what ethnicity you belong to?

Let me give you an example about what I mean through admixture percentage:

Let's say I am british and there is a K3 calculator that has 3 components. One is North European,one is South European and one is East Asian.

Let's say a typical british person gets 80%North European,20%South European and 0%East Asian on this k3 calculator. But eventhough I am British person I get 85%North European,10%South European and 5% East Asian which looks more closer to the average Finnish person.

Will the calculator in this way try to figure out what ethnicity I belong to(through admixture percentage), or will the calculator still make me come out as British, then I suppose , if the latter,then it uses some kind of a relative matching tool which in this way figures out your ethnicity I guess.


So is it through admixture percentage or is it through calculating what ethnicity most of your "relatives" belong to?

Anybody that knows?

Genes have no idea about ethnicity. Genetic tests measure how genetically close ore distant are any two individuals. Because marriages are more frequent within an ethnicity than among different enthicities, people that share ethnicity will share genes as well and will plot close to each other. Your ethnicity is the ethnicity reported by other people that have taken the test genetically close to you. The same way is calculated how close you're with other North / South Europeans, Asians, etc.

[Konpirike]

Genes have no idea about ethnicity. Genetic tests measure how genetically close ore distant are any two individuals. Because marriages are more frequent within an ethnicity than among different enthicities, people that share ethnicity will share genes as well and will plot close to each other. Your ethnicity is the ethnicity reported by other people that have taken the test genetically close to you. The same way is calculated how close you're with other North / South Europeans, Asians, etc.

Hmmm, that's also what I thought was the most logical. But then here is why I got doubts about it. For example on GEDmatch I have seen people that belong to one ethnicity, but get grouped with another ethnicity just because they don't match with the average scoring of that ethnicity which they actually belong to. But then when we look at that persons relatives, most of his relatives belong to the given ethnicity which he claims. That is why I find it confusing. I have seen it more then a couple of times. It is abit strange.

[Dr. Robotnik the Subbotnik]

Excellent question. I also would like to know about this.

On some calculators my top pop. is Hungarian (I think this makes sense if they are basing it purely off WHG/ENF/etc. levels - as I have as much ENF/WHG as a typical Hungarian person, probably from my stupid fucking Rhenish ancestors that gave me too much woggy ENF - plus Hungarians have a little dash of East-Asian like I do, it makes them the perfect fit for me).

However, to my knowledge I haven't a single drop of Hungarian in me, so, this calc. must have been basing it off of percentages of WHG-ENF-East Asian, etc.

On other calculators, I get North-German as my closest pop. which I don't really understand.

[Konpirike]

Excellent question. I also would like to know about this.

On some calculators my top pop. is Hungarian (I think this makes sense if they are basing it purely off WHG/ENF/etc. levels - as I have as much ENF/WHG as a typical Hungarian person, probably from my stupid fucking Rhenish ancestors that gave me too much woggy ENF - plus Hungarians have a little dash of East-Asian like I do, it makes them the perfect fit for me).

However, to my knowledge I haven't a single drop of Hungarian in me, so, this calc. must have been basing it off of percentages of WHG-ENF-East Asian, etc.

On other calculators, I get North-German as my closest pop. which I don't really understand.

Exactly you are a very good example!

I have seen people that are 50/50. For an example 50% Greek and 50%Swedish but get German as the the closest pop.

[Damião de Góis]

They just compare your results to their set of samples. The key is to look at several calculators and pay attention to distances.

I would say that if you have the same consistently the same population at a distance lower than 5 on several runs such as Eurogenes EUTest, Eurogenes K13 or Dodecad V3 then there's a big chance you're from that ethnicity. At least it works for me.

[Antimage]

Excellent question. I also would like to know about this.

On some calculators my top pop. is Hungarian (I think this makes sense if they are basing it purely off WHG/ENF/etc. levels - as I have as much ENF/WHG as a typical Hungarian person, probably from my stupid fucking Rhenish ancestors that gave me too much woggy ENF - plus Hungarians have a little dash of East-Asian like I do, it makes them the perfect fit for me).

However, to my knowledge I haven't a single drop of Hungarian in me, so, this calc. must have been basing it off of percentages of WHG-ENF-East Asian, etc.

On other calculators, I get North-German as my closest pop. which I don't really understand.

With the nordic ancestry you have, how can you have same ENF/WHG as a hungarian person?

[Dr. Robotnik the Subbotnik]

They just compare your results to their set of samples. The key is to look at several calculators and pay attention to distances.

I would say that if you have the same consistently the same population at a distance lower than 5 on several runs such as Eurogenes EUTest, Eurogenes K13 or Dodecad V3 then there's a big change you're from that ethnicity. At least it works for me.

Using your approach, I am either Orcadian (top pop. on Eurogenes EUTest, distance is 3.27), North German (top pop. on Eurogenes K13, distance is 4.16) or CEU (HapMap) (top pop. on Dodecad V3, distance is 2.97).

I don't know what CEU (HapMap) is lol

[Dr. Robotnik the Subbotnik]

With the nordic ancestry you have, how can you have same ENF/WHG as a hungarian person?

As I said because of my Rhenish ancestry. I am not fully Nordic. I am mixed Irish, Nordic, Rhenish, maybe Austrian, English..

[Antimage]

As I said because of my Rhenish ancestry. I am not fully Nordic. I am mixed Irish, Nordic, Rhenish, maybe Austrian, English..

Still all of those have more whg than hungarians.