Ethnicity Estimates are calculated based on founder populations that can trace their roots to a specific place or ethnic group going back 6–15 generations, or roughly 100–400 years ago. You can learn more about how MyHeritage estimates ethnicities based on DNA in the following article: What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities
When you review your Genetic Groups, you may notice that the Group Timeline below the map goes back to the year 1600. The heatmap indicates the concentrations of people belonging to this group around the year 1600, showing you where your ancestors likely lived around 400 years ago.
Why does MyHeritage not provide haplogroups?
The MyHeritage DNA test is an autosomal test, and haplogroups can only be identified through mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-DNA) tests. Haplogroups are combinations of unique genetic sequences that tend to be inherited together from a single parent. Because mtDNA and Y-DNA are both inherited more or less intact from the maternal or paternal line, these sequences, or haplotypes, are also passed down more or less unchanged from mother to child (in the case of mtDNA) or father to son (in the case of Y-DNA). That’s why haplogroups can give you information going back hundreds of thousands of years.
Autosomal DNA, by contrast, is inherited in random combinations from both parents, which means the DNA from a specific ancestor will become mixed and “watered down” from generation to generation. So instead of comparing your DNA to that of a single common ancestor, the autosomal ethnicity estimate compares your DNA to that of a founder population: a group of people who have proven ancestry going back at least 6 generations in a given region or ethnic group. Your Ethnicity Estimate is based on how much your DNA is similar to the DNA of the people in those groups.
While haplogroups can potentially take you back much further than autosomal DNA results, they can only tell you where one specific line of ancestors was from. If your goal is to achieve a broader understanding of your heritage and your unique mix of origins from both sides of your family, an autosomal DNA test like the MyHeritage test will provide more relevant information. Furthermore, DNA ethnicity results are most reliable when combined with genealogical information, and autosomal DNA tests are the best kind of test for genealogical research — as we’ll explain below.
Are MyHeritage DNA test results reliable?
The MyHeritage DNA test is extremely accurate and reliable for identifying DNA Matches. The Ethnicity Estimate provides very accurate results for most people, but it’s still just an estimate and must be taken in context and with its inherent limitations in mind.
Ultimately, the most accurate way to identify your origins is through solid genealogical research — and DNA Matching is more important than the Ethnicity Estimate in helping you with that. DNA Matching helps you confirm relationships with relatives you know and find relatives you may not have met before. So for example, let’s say your Ethnicity Estimate says you are 15% Scandinavian and you never heard of any Scandinavian ancestors. Through DNA Matching, you might be able to find a second cousin who can provide good evidence that the great-grandparent you have in common was from Scandinavia.
This is another reason the autosomal DNA test is generally more useful than mtDNA and Y-DNA tests for understanding your origins. With an mtDNA or Y-DNA test, in the example above, you would only have matched with that second cousin if both of you had an unbroken maternal or paternal line tracing back to the same ancestor. That significantly narrows your chances of discovering important connections. Click here to learn more about tracing your maternal and paternal lines using MyHeritage DNA.
Got more questions about the MyHeritage DNA test? You can check out this blog post: MyHeritage DNA: Everything You Wanted to Know About the MyHeritage DNA Test.
So instead of comparing your DNA to that of a single common ancestor, the autosomal ethnicity estimate compares your DNA to that of a founder population: a group of people who have proven ancestry going back at least 6 generations in a given region or ethnic group.
Ethnicity estimates can only go back so far: Ethnicity Estimates are based on locations and ethnic groups going back 6–15 generations. It may accurately estimate where your ancestors were located in 1750, but not necessarily in 1350.
However, it's important to remember that, although your Ethnicity Estimate is generated by a highly accurate statistical algorithm, they are still estimates. Also, DNA is not the same as heritage, and that the further back in your family tree you go, the less likely you are to inherit DNA from your ancestors.
Part of this is an estimate—reported as a percentage—of how much of your DNA looks like the DNA of people in different parts of the world. It can reflect the family history where your ancestors lived hundreds of years ago, and even as far back as 1,000 years ago.
MyHeritage calculates Ethnicity Estimates by comparing your DNA to that of the 5000 participants in the Founder Populations project, whose family trees show consistent ancestry from the same region or ethnicity going back many generations.
Curiosity about ancestral origins: An autosomal DNA test kit is highly suitable for people who are curious about where their ancestors might have lived. It can give you insights into their origins in the distant past—500 to 1,000 years ago—and the communities they were a part of more recently—50 to 300 years ago.
The range of inheritance for your grandparents is about 20 to 30 percent. As we go down even further back in time, we see that that range extends quite a bit. As shown in the video, the ranges began to overlap. For instance, an inheritance between 3 and 7% could represent your 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th great-grandparents.
The best ethnicity test is Ancestry because it offers all that and more. It can identify your ethnicity percentages down to as little as 0.1% and covers many regions that other tests don't.
Looking at your communities results can give you a more granular understanding of where your ancestors may have come from—sometimes down to the region of a country or even a county. These results also reflect the more recent past, about 5-20 generations ago.
Even though it's possible to be 100% of one ethnicity, this is not a common phenomenon due to the nature of humans to migrate and connect with groups of people outside of their own, which leads to the mixing of DNA.
MyHeritage scores 3 out of 5 stars in our comprehensive review. While MyHeritage's DNA test provides autosomal genetic data and a wide range of genetic genealogy tools, their DNA test misses out on important ancestry and health data from the mitochondrial chromosome and Y chromosome.
Most people can trace some of their lineage back to the 1700s or beyond, but how far back family trees can go depends on the availability of the records, how common the surname is and the family's social status.
If you're using an autosomal test such as AncestryDNA, 23andMe, or MyHeritage, you'll generally go back 6 to 8 generations. Assuming 25 years per generation, you can expect 150-200 years of DNA information by taking an autosomal DNA test.
Either option can help you learn a lot about your ancestry and build your family tree. Both have very similar ancestry reports, though MyHeritage DNA has a few more features. MyHeritage DNA is less expensive, both in the cost of its DNA test and the price of its monthly genealogy subscription.
DNA tests may be used to trace your lineage up to 10 generations back. The tests may also help you learn more about where your ancestors lived, though it may be at the level of a region, not a specific city.
Most people can trace some of their lineage back to the 1700s or beyond, but how far back family trees can go depends on the availability of the records, how common the surname is and the family's social status.
AncestryDNA ® genetic ethnicity estimates go back hundreds to more than a thousand years, when populations and the boundaries they claimed were often very different. This might lead to a different genetic ethnicity estimate than you expect.
Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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