These are (1) Group A, (2) Group B, (3) Haplo E, G, J & more I Groups, (4) Haplo R Groups, (5) Group X1, and (6) Group X2. The primary data for the sets of results (now nearly 550) currently available are given in 6 tables. According to FTDNA, those marker sites shown in red in the table headings are ones that tend to mutate more rapidly. Results obtained from other companies were converted to the FTDNA conventions as given in the table at the SMGF web site. In the following tables the order of the 111 markers and the conventions used to define each of these markers are those used by FTDNA. Most of the analyses reported here were performed by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) but some participants had their DNA analyzed by DNA Heritage (DNAH, now no longer in existence) or by Ancestry and some of the data was extracted from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation ( SMGF) database. Which Groups are Derived from Well Established and Documented British Lines? Prepared by Gordon Hamilton, Project CoordinatorĨ. HAMILTON SURNAME DNA RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Gisele Grayson is a senior producer on NPR's Science Desk who runs the health reporting collaboration with member stations and Kaiser Health News.Hamilton DNA Project Results Discussion DNA Home Page The DNA is just a piece of what makes you you. No matter - Chakravarti, Levin and Smith all say let the results add to your life story. So, for now, my Italian grandmother doesn't show up in these tests. 'But in looking at the fact that you have some southern European and some French-German, the picture became a little clearer to me.' 'Based on some statistical measures, we'd decide whether to call that as British-Irish or French-German, or maybe we go up one level and call it northwestern European.' 'Let's say a piece of your DNA looks most like British and Irish but it also looks a little bit like French-German,' he says. Robin Smith, a senior product manager with 23andMe, says their computers compare the DNA with 31 groups. Gisele Grayson's Helix/National Geographic resultsĪnd the ancestry companies have to make judgment calls. To contend with that, the companies' analyses involve some 'random chance' as Levin puts it. The ancestry tests also have to take into account the fact that humans have been migrating for millennia, mixing DNA along the way. Move the setting up to 90 percent confidence, meaning your placement in a region is 90 percent certain, and that small 1.6 percent of my ancestry that is Italian disappears. The 23andMe reports results with a 50 percent confidence interval - they're 50 percent sure their geographic placement is correct. Levin says Helix chooses to not report some of those smaller percentages. But for now, the smaller the percentage of a population within a continent that is in the database, the less certain they are. 'We're able to look at, what are the specific markers, what are the specific segments of DNA that we're looking at that help us to identify, 'Those people are from this part of northern Europe or southern Europe or Southeast Asia,' ' Levin says.Īs the companies collect more samples, their understanding of markers of people of a particular heritage should become more precise. The samples come from some databases to which all scientists have access, and the companies may also collect their own. The companies compare customers' DNA samples to samples they have from people around the world who have lived in a certain area for generations. But how could I have an Italian grandmother and almost no Italian genes?Ĭarmen Grayson's Helix/National Geographic results And the Italian? Mom had 11.3 percent to my 1.6. But Mom came back as 25 percent southern European, me only 6 percent. This time, I at least had a category for southern Europe. We opened our results together and were just as surprised. We decided to get a second opinion and sent away to another company, 23andMe. How could I have 50 percent of Mom's DNA and not have any Italian? We do look alike, and she says there is little chance we were switched at birth. But my Helix results didn't even have an 'Italy and Southern European' category. That made sense because of her Italian mother. Mom's results: 31 percent from Italy and Southern Europe. Last fall, we sent away to get our DNA tested by Helix, the company that works with National Geographic. The author got her name from her Italian grandmother, Gisella D'Appollonia, but, according to two DNA ancestry tests, not a lot of genes.

My dna matches have different surname