Every year or so the DNA-for-genealogy companies update their admixture readings. You can see for years I have written about the admixture portion of DNA testing results and I feel today like I did from my first result in 2012 (I tested autosomal quite late). I love it – I love them all – even though each company gives me somewhat different results from the others, and even a single company’s results can change with each update.

This previous blog needs updating – especially with new results as of this week. I have added a screen shot of my new results alongside the previous two versions – I let the reader see the differences for themselves and decide what those different results might mean to them for how they view their own results from any company.

Admixture: A Comparison – One Person’s Admixture At Eight Companies – Plus Gedmatch

https://cherielynnsherstory.com/2018/09/13/admixture-a-comparison-part-2/

For the DNA – No company names will be mentioned today – you guess who has new results and check yours and tell me what you think! This note is NOT! – Not about new results at any named company – that is a secret for this blog – you will just have to know that you got new results from ‘some company’! Silly I know.

But this is a note to say that too many people put too much stock in their admixture results – sometimes even getting very emotional about what they see in their heritage.

I cannot wait for the prices to come down for DNA from artifact testing for ancestors. I wish I had more pieces that could be tested from my own family. Admixture testing is truly still in its pioneer stages and we must remember the limitations so all of us taking an interest in artifact testing is the next solution to reading the genes of our ancestors from ancestors!

https://www.totheletterdna.com/

Read more about artifact testing here in Are You A Lick Away From granny’s DNA…

https://cherielynnsherstory.com/2018/08/10/forensic-dna-for-genealogy-artifact-testing-a-mouthful-to-say-are-you-a-lick-away-from-grannys-dna/

 

We must remember – we only get readable genes from a limited number of our ancestors (this is why testing siblings and cousins can provide a more complete picture) so we must enjoy admixture results and see them for the limited use they provide. With our new results this week, I got a smidgen more of Native, and my husband lost his, but now he is a bit African.

I did read a man of African descent mention his reaction to this new admixture this morning and he was terribly disappointed. There has been so much work on European SNPs and we see the Africans of the world — our cousins of origin — are still left out in the cold.

I hope everyone will go and check their new results and tell me how yours differ and are we happy.

Several African Americans are pleased with the results AncestryDNA is offering and so I would say again, because they are also the largest database and likely to remain so, AncestryDNA is still the winner for happy testers.

I sit myself down and remind myself – with every new admixture result from whatever company. We all must remember these differences and changes – come – in large part from the companies adding new people’s DNA to their database of comparison called their reference populations.

This is why in Gedmatch – Oh do i ever still and will always love Gedmatch – they have many different admixture readers and you can keep running your DNA through to each of their databases until you like one – like two or three – like them all.

Each of those “readers” have different reference populations. – Here is my old notes about how much i love gedmatch: Gedmatch Baby Baby Baby I Love You…

https://cherielynnsherstory.com/2018/08/16/gedmatch-baby-baby-baby-i-love-you-its-so-easy-jump-in-the-water-is-fine-and-the-matches-are-too/

So every company must make one see the reference populations first! I read of a family who sold all their belongings and went around the world, with their family, to where they had ancestry – I held my breath when i read this and just hope and pray that not much changes for them for the future – I hope the companies got theirs perfect the first time and/or they truly understand the possibility of changes.

If you are adopted or for any of the many reasons you would be searching for any ancestry information – then certainly the admixture is so comforting to know. For years there have been no North American Native Americans in most reference populations of companies – so they cannot say if there is Native or not. Because of this failure to report to me – I fibbed to others, to myself – to my now deceased mother.

I am also distressed over how little can truly be separated for all of Western Europe and The British Isles – and yet more and more – companies are offering definitive answers of where are you from. The same is true in Africa. How long have the genes in the reference populations been in X country that a company is defining as this or that country. Is this where populations are today? – Is there where populations were 400 years ago?

There are of course many reasons why we want and love admixture results and, in searching for answers when one has none, it is important to look at every scrap of information. As more is learned and more people test, the companies are updating their databases and increasing their accuracy as quickly as they can. Competition is keeping this data fluid and moving.

• I want happy talk and it must be truthful, so on top of happy reactions to new DNA results – Ancestry.com is also still the leader for databases of goodies and their pictures are still the tops.

I thought I was going to stump them in searching for pictures of dart boards to illustrate this blog but they did not disappoint. I want to bring peoples and places to life and illustrating with some kind of picture or drawing or something is a wonderful addition for your family history stories as you share them.

The pictures databases on ancestry.com have wonderful ideas for you to enhance the family history stories.

All folks know I love finding music and movies for genealogy on YouTube, life stories for family history from newspaper databases, and also pictures to tell your ancestry from Ancestry.com are so very special.

 

Photo Credits:

Library Of Congress Photo Collection, 1840 – 2000

Stratford upon Avon, England. American servicemen practicing at a traditional dart board in an old hotel, the White Swan, taken over by the American Red Cross. Left to right: Private First Class Michael Ryan, of Edgewood, Pennsylvania; Private First Class Paul Smith, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Private Matthew Stampfl, of Pittsburgh 1942

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1028&h=414207&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=VTP747&_phstart=successSource

UK, Historical Photographs and Prints, 1704 – 1989

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61171&h=10806&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=VTP748&_phstart=successSource