Eastern European at 23andMe, Ancestry, and FTDNA

[Augustus27]

Hey all,

After having my autosomal DNA analyzed at 23andMe, Ancestry, and FTDNA I've had fairly consistent results across the board from all three companies. Now I know each company has different population samples and other methods of analyzing autosomal DNA, so I know it's to be expected that different results will occur. My main question here is regarding the Eastern European component of the three companies. I posted my results from all three down below and it seems that 23andMe detects the least Eastern European autosomal DNA, while Ancestry and FTDNA seem relatively close (8%-13%), which also follows in line with my paper trail of being 1/8th Polish.

Does 23andMe tend to underscore for Eastern European or is it just me? Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before, I am just really curious to what guys think.


Thanks


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[Sockorer]

From my personal experience its hard to say.

I know I'm at least 1/8 Polish and I get 11.3% Eastern European on speculative. If I go on standard mode it drops to 4.2% and if I go onto conservative I get none at all.


When using Eurogenes Mixed mode population sharing on Gedmatch I'll usually get something like,

56.4% Orcadian + 43.6% South_Polish @ 3.91

or

77.5% North_German + 22.5% Ukrainian @ 4

It shows me as way more Eastern European than 23andme does.


FTDNA seems a bit weird, but still generally gets my ancestry right,

I get 56% for the British Isles, 20% Eastern European,

The rest is like 5% per of the other European populations + Turkey.


I have found that these genetic calculators tend to get the whole picture right. But there seems to be quite a bit of variation between them. I imagine this is because they're using different populations to compare you with, different samples, and different methods for calculating ancestry. And also because there's a great deal of overlap between Europeans.

[Sockorer]

To directly answer your question, I think it does a little bit.

[Augustus27]

From my personal experience its hard to say.

I know I'm at least 1/8 Polish and I get 11.3% Eastern European on speculative. If I go on standard mode it drops to 4.2% and if I go onto conservative I get none at all.


When using Eurogenes Mixed mode population sharing on Gedmatch I'll usually get something like,

56.4% Orcadian + 43.6% South_Polish @ 3.91

or

77.5% North_German + 22.5% Ukrainian @ 4

It shows me as way more Eastern European than 23andme does.


FTDNA seems a bit weird, but still generally gets my ancestry right,

I get 56% for the British Isles, 20% Eastern European,

The rest is like 5% per of the other European populations + Turkey.


I have found that these genetic calculators tend to get the whole picture right. But there seems to be quite a bit of variation between them. I imagine this is because they're using different populations to compare you with, different samples, and different methods for calculating ancestry. And also because there's a great deal of overlap between Europeans.

So it seems like your 1/8th Polish ancestry is showing up much more than mine is at 23andMe, and a bit more at FTDNA. I'll have to try Eurogenes tests at Gedmatch to see what I get and if it's comparable to yours.

[Petalpusher]

In my observation 23andme underestimates it, especially when someone still plots in a very West Euro countries. It might look unsure so it ends up mostly in broadly, even in spec.

[Jana]

I don't think it does. I score 25% Eastern European on 23andme, and Croatian samples are included in ''Balkan'' group.

[Augustus27]

I don't think it does. I score 25% Eastern European on 23andme, and Croatian samples are included in ''Balkan'' group.

Perhaps maybe Polish can sometimes have some Germanic, Scandinavian, or Baltic influences, thus making it not always "Eastern" in population samples.

[Jana]

Perhaps maybe Polish can sometimes have some Germanic, Scandinavian, or Baltic influences, thus making it not always "Eastern" in population samples.

Very probable. You should seek pure Poles 23andme layout, and see how much non-eastern European they score. (it they were not taken as reference sample ofcourse)

[Augustus27]

Very probable. You should seek pure Poles 23andme layout, and see how much non-eastern European they score. (it they were not taken as reference sample ofcourse)

I might have to do that. It might shed some light. Have you taken autosomal DNA tests at Ancestry or FTDNA and received high Eastern European results, as you did with 23andMe?

[Jana]

I might have to do that. It might shed some light. Have you taken autosomal DNA tests at Ancestry or FTDNA and received high Eastern European results, as you did with 23andMe?

Nope, I only did 23andme. Bit on GEDmatch I score quite high