[Sonsowey]

I have done genetic testing with 23andme. It cost $100 and I think it was very much worth it. This Data Sheet will be about understanding your results and how to delve deeper into them if you like.

One thing to understand is that, looking at your DNA and saying "this is clearly a Scottish segment" or "this is clearly an Hmong segment" is guesswork. Very educated guesswork, but guesswork all the same.

A company, or software, looks at certain SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) in your DNA, and compares them to a reference set of the DNA of other people. If yours and someone else's are identical, it declares that you must have the same ancestry. So they have samples of pure-blooded Han Chinese, pure-blooded Yoruba, pure-blooded Norweigens, etc. and compare the bits of your DNA to theirs and see if yours looks like theirs.

But not every organization, 23andme included, has all groups. So let's imagine a simple example. Say I only have references from English people, Japanese people, and Nigerian people.

Say I analyze a Mexican person who is half Spanish, and half Native American.

His results would come out saying that he is half English and half Japanese. Because the Spanish are closest to the English of my three reference groups, and Native Americans are closest to the Japanese of my three reference groups. That does not mean he's English or Japanese, just that this is the best guess my method can come up with.

So 23andme may tell you you have ancestry from a specific country, and another method may not tell you that. It all depends on what groups they are comparing you to. You can download software or use web services that have different ancestry groups to get a general picture. It seems like the most sensible thing to do is get several opinions and understand they're all well-educated guesses.

For instance, I have a small amount of African ancestry. Different methods have told me that it's between 2 and 6 percent of my ancestry. It depends on which African groups I'm compared to, and which segments of my DNA they're looking at. Generally results seem to be around 3-4% but some results have been higher or lower. So I guess I'm basically 1/32nd African.

More on this later...

Step 1

http://www.23andme.com

You buy the kit, spit in it, mail it off, and in about a month you have your results.

They will tell you your ancestry in broad terms, but you may be left wanting more. You download your "raw data" which is a huge text file, and with that... oh the places you'll go.

Getting more results the easy way
If you want someone else to do the work for you and talk you through it, you can email this fine gentleman: Dr. McDonald, a Ph.D from the University of Utah, for reasons unbeknownst to me, will accept emails from random strangers asking for help interpreting their 23andme raw data. You download your raw data from 23andme, email it to him, and he sends you a few charts helping you understand your results. He even talked with me a bit helping me understand further.

[email protected]

He sends you 3 things.

One is "chromosome painting" where is labels each chromosome's ancestry visually. It looks like this:


You see this individual is mostly mid-eastern, with significant bits of African and European ancestry as well. Again, this is a speculation based on comparing his DNA to a select few groups. Different analyses may give different results.

Getting more results the DIY way with GEDMatch

GEDmatch is a free website where you create an account upload your data and get access to a range of tools online. Go here and register. http://v2.gedmatch.com/login1.php

This lets you analyze your DNA in reference to a bunch of different sets of populations. You can split up populations in a ton of different ways. Are all Europeans the same? Hell no. So how do you split them up? You could just say "North" and "south" or you could get a bit more specific. Here is an analysis of my DNA using only 3 reference populations:

Here's an analysis using the Dodecad V3 calculator:



So here's how I interpret this. Mediterranean for me is "southern europe" where I have a lot of ancestry. "West Asian" essentially means Middle East, which I take as a proxy for Jewish ancestry.

Here's an analysis of my DNA using the Eurogenes 13 population calculator:



So I am basically of European descent, with some Sub-Saharan and Northeast African descent. I am not sure what "red sea" really means. With this you would need to read into the actual population set and find more info to fully understand.

Here's an analysis showing which ancestral groups you come from. This one is a trip:


You see there is no real "simple answer" here. If you want a simple answer, just take what 23andme says and accept it as a "more or less" answer.

How to understand this

There are two websites I have read to help understand all of this.

http://www.dienekes.blogspot.com
http://www.unz.com/gnxp

Search within each of those sites for groups that interest you, maybe related to your own ancestry, and you will find good results that can help you start understanding this.

I hope this helps some people figure out their ancestry and have fun.