23andMe vs. AncestryDNA

[Boudin]

Am I the only person who found them equally accurate and useful? I prefer 23andMe's results, but they both provided information the other did not.

For example, 23andMe says I'm 86% French, with Brittany as my only region. Ancestry says I'm only 3% French but 48% Acadian, 25% "Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe" and 10% Devon/Somerset, which sums to 86% ancestry consistent with France/Brittany. That 35% "England/NWE/Somertset/Devon" could be Ancestry's way of depicting my Breton ancestry.

Both Ancestry and 23andMe gave me 7% Spanish/Portuguese.

23andMe gave me 0.6% Amerindian, while Ancestry (hacked results) gave me 0.72%; not much difference here either.

Basically, 48% Acadian means I am only half Cajun in the strict sense of the word. The remaining ~30% French must be Creole (again, in the strict sense of the word).

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=145261&stc=1

[calxpal]

Thanks for sharing, the comparison is interesting. Since I have a very low opinion of the 23andme update and new features, and their current direction I may not share my results from them here but I will say that while I do still find the confidence levels on 23andme useful and the timeline (although very inaccurate for me post update), I would like to say that I find it equally accurate but after the v7.0 there are so many anomalies and impossible phasing attributions/ancestry assignment inconsistencies between family members and region assignments that should be impossible based on inheritance and the parental phasing was my favorite feature since it used to align my results and clarify them impressively well, but after the update it is basically broken for me and surprisingly inaccurate for a 23andme feature. It is very disappointing for me as well since my dad who is unphased and only has v5 data got super impressive results while mine are kind of trash in comparison. This new "most likely" setting is also very lazy IMO and in my results it just tries to dump as much into the ultra bloated English category which is ridiculously high on my results at the expense of other legitimate ancestry. Like hell AncestryDNA and MyHeritage at least identify my Northwestern European regions distinctly much better than 23 does post update, which frustrated me since I used to value 23 for their precision and accuracy. 23andme also removed a few accurate genetic groups for me with the update, while they still can't identify some very recent regions for me and my parents. Although yes both websites provided info the other did not, and both Ancestry and 23andme pinpointed a few regions the other didn't whether correct or possible or not which is good for comparison.

AncestryDNA's features though are more accurate for me post-update including Sideview and the chromosome painting, and they correctly identify a good number of subregions including some 23 v7.0 fails miserably at so I give them credit for that, however the overall numbers are a tad less accurate than pre-update but still consistent with past versions. I also do not like they way 23 and AncestryDNA grouped and designed certain new regions post-updates, but I won't go into that. Ancestry is also more precise
for me currently, I feel funny saying this though because I used to not really like Ancestry lol. I do wish though that Ancestry considered adding a chromosome browser
or showed all trace amounts. Also 23andme really needs to bring back the raw data and chromosome browser with their sites improved security...considering that they also stopped working on almost all Premium features such as the predictive health reports and relatives filters I feel ripped off fir getting Premium.

They did add Reconstructed Ancestors however I would highly NOT recommend it as after they made "improvements" the predicted results were obviously insanely incorrect for my French Canadian/Acadian grandfather and inheritance doesn't line up well with my father anymore either like they were just grasping at straws and rushing out an experimental feature. Very disappointed as I was hoping this was one way 23andme could redeem themselves for me but unfortunately not. It is in Beta still but considering it's a paid feature I expect better. I also I really want to see a detailed scientific paper for the update like old ones.

One area I do think 23andme is still good im though is that they give fair estimates of South/East/North Euro ancestry compared to Ancestry which I think has too much of a tendency to Northern Euro ancestry in general and falsely assign it in many groups/people. Also Ancestry still has bad genetic group detection abd my current genetic group from them has the correct group (French Canadian) but a region nowhere to be found in my tree. Though otherwise, I will say Ancestry tree design and features are quite good.

Also it's nice that you at least don't need a subscription to see 23andme's chromosome painting, but after the update its almost impossible to read with the new color choice and the new UI is inferior to me. Also my painting and other family members' too have obvious glitches/bugs in it that should be statistically impossible (I know others who noticed the same thing in their reports) I have never seen this from 23andme, and to me this shows poor quality control and that the update was obviously indeed rushed or used AI which makes me trust it less tbh. If you are really interested I could share my 23andme results and all relevant screenshots by PM at some point to explain my opinion.

Also the 23andme update was shockingly bad for certain ethnic groups compared to v6.0.

It's still good to have both for comparison I guess.

I did also notice some other stuff when comparing, also between kits, such that for example 23 says that I inherited about 15% English/Irish/Scottish from my dad when he has 0% on his own 23 results lol and those corresponding chromosome locations are only labeled as French or Spanish and Portuguese for him (chromosome copy that isn't Eastern European or Balkan) but interestingly I still have a good chunk of Spanish/Portuguese at 2% assigned to the Southern Spanish category. I also have a good chunk of South Italian now which is amusing lol.

Also my Indigenous trace on 23 which I had since 2017 and shows up in the Ancestry hack still disappeared in the "most likely" setting but my sister and my dad still have those same corresponding segments but not me somehow in the "most likely"...very bizarre. But it still shows up for me on the new v7.0 23andme at 50% confidence and above when I go into the settings in the same spots at v6.0 and is assigned to "North American". Surprisingly despite being excluded from the lower confidence level, a new segment of indigenous ancestry is being shown for me and allow it appears even up to 80% confidence which is more confident than on v6.0. Why it would be smoothed only in "most likely" is beyond me though especially considering I'm phased with my father with lol. For more clarity on this you can see my older results lol.

Also it is especially frustrating since I was just able to confirm the Indigenous ancestors genealogically despite it no longer showing on the default setting, whether you believe me about this or not LOL if you want to accuse me of lying about this or faking this well go ahead and waste your energy....I've never claimed it on here lol.

Also I have to mention this too but my mom was laughing so hard at her new 23andme results lol...especially the 1.0% Irish (I also only have 1% Irish yikes) and super bloated English and also because she suddenly got Italian and French but also almost no Dutch when she has a great-grandparent lol, now she says she wants to try AncestryDNA though so I guess that's good! XD she lost Irish genetic groups though which is a bummer.

I will also note that while AncestryDNA does not currently assign Italian or Spanish for me like 23andme does, they do assign more French than 23andme and out most of it in Acadian and Quebec with a small bit of regular French. Both updates also gave me a tiny amount of Nordic huh.

Also Ancestry gives me a decent sized Mongolian segment which 23andme labels just as Russia, although my grandma has it assigned as Mongolian on 23andme and 23andme used to label it as such on my report many versions ago, huh.


I have more to say but that's probably enough for now. I DO really wish 23andme was more immediately upfront about the beta program and old ancestry versions being put
into Premium though.

But yeah I'll be honest I currently recommend AncestryDNA and MyHeritage but not 23andme anymore. Though 23andme is still good for some things.

I would like to recommend them but the new phasing issues and the poor quality new paid feature were just the nail in the coffin for me personally.



I think that's enough for now but I would have to say that for some the current 23andme is better and provides better detail, while for others including me AncetryDNA may give better insights but they do give less for free lol. But specifically I think 23andme is better for Eastern/Southern Europe while I think Ancestry is better for Western and Northwestern Europe. And for other groups I think it really depends a lot. I think 23andme v6.0 though was golden and better for just about everyone over AncestryDNA.

Honestly I'm also going to be doing more comparisons with Gedmatch and IllustrativeDNA after these updates which I personally felt were both overhyped.

But yeah not sure anyone is going to read this all haha, I have even more thoughts but thats enough blabbing. If you disagree with me that's fine but please be respectful and don't try to put me down.

[calxpal]

Also it's interesting to see I suspect Ancestry's new Southeastern England category is hiding a good amount of French, I've seen it show up in a lot of people who are confused about their French ancestry shrinking with the update. Devon also seems to be appearing a lot for people with French ancestry and in general lol.

I'm also curious though how do you feel about v6.0 versus v7.0 for 23andme? Are AncestryDNA's genetic groups ok for you?

[leachim_x]

Am I the only person who found them equally accurate and useful? I prefer 23andMe's results, but they both provided information the other did not.

For example, 23andMe says I'm 86% French, with Brittany as my only region. Ancestry says I'm only 3% French but 48% Acadian, 25% "Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe" and 10% Devon/Somerset, which sums to 86% ancestry consistent with France/Brittany. That 35% "England/NWE/Somertset/Devon" could be Ancestry's way of depicting my Breton ancestry.

Both Ancestry and 23andMe gave me 7% Spanish/Portuguese.

23andMe gave me 0.6% Amerindian, while Ancestry (hacked results) gave me 0.72%; not much difference here either.

Basically, 48% Acadian means I am only half Cajun in the strict sense of the word. The remaining ~30% French must be Creole (again, in the strict sense of the word).

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=145261&stc=1

In my experience, 23andme is best for "Central Europeans" or Western-CE. In comparison tests, it gave consistently the closest and most logic results to the respective family tree backgrounds of the testers.

I don't want to judge on the 7.0 update yet (I think it's possible that a patch will be released soon). IMO the fragmentation and regrouping of German-speaking regions and the partial merging with other neighboring countries is somewhat illogical.

[calxpal]

In my experience, 23andme is best for "Central Europeans" or Western-CE. In comparison tests, it gave consistently the closest and most logic results to the respective family tree backgrounds of the testers.

I don't want to judge on the 7.0 update yet (I think it's possible that a patch will be released soon). IMO the fragmentation and regrouping of German-speaking regions and the partial merging with other neighboring countries is somewhat illogical.

Interesting thoughts, I am also really hoping for a patch they made a post on Reddit a bit ago saying that they would accept ancestry composition feedback and bug reports but Its been a few months and no updates on this regard. I also do not like the way they merged and separated certain regions.