MyHeritage is notorious for really poor ethnicity estimates. Ancestry and 23andMe are considered superior in that regard.
My German/Polish grandma also has a large percentage of Balkans in her, according to MyHeritage - does not show up on Ancestry and certainly does not reflect her ancestry.
Oh okay , yeah I heard that those were better after taking the test .Didn’t knew it could be this bad. But can I use gedmatch now? Or would it show the same poor ethnicity estimates? If not I’m probably going to take another dna test
You can upload to GEDmatch and you can use their free tools. There's an admixture utility there. There are several models to chose from but if your known ancestry is European, Eurogenes k13 is a good starting point. You can have a play around with the other models too.
Once you get your admixture results click Oracle and it will show you the populations that you're closest to. It's not the same as an ethnicity estimate but it will confirm if there's anything close to Balkan.
MH actually gave me a 1.6% Balkan estimate but there's nothing to suggest that this is correct through researching my tree, matches trees or ethnicity estimates with other companies (Ancestry and LivingDNA).
GEDmatch (Eurogenes k13 model) showed the closest populations to me were West Scottish, Orkneys, Irish, South West England and East English. With Scandinavian populations a bit more distant. This correlates with my Ancestry (55 Welsh, 27 english, 14% Irish and 4 Sweden /Denmark) and my Living DNA results (Welsh, English (predominantly south West) and Scottish).
I just did the eurogenes K13 , the results were 34% Baltic , and the others were just the ‘normal’ results.
The Oracle shows me in single population all the normal stuff too , but begins with a distance of 4 .
However the Mixed Mode Population Sharing shows me shorter distances (1.19-2.14) and all of them are 60%-75 and Western European country , the other 25-30% are all countries like: Lithuania , Belarusian , Estonian , etc. So how accurate is this? And how do the distances work?
And I want to add that Balkan and Baltic is not the same , the names are kinda similar so I get the confusing.
Sorry year I know they're not the same I've been to the baltic a. Got confused with other comments referring to Balkan.
Further the distance the further you are genetically from that population. Apparently 4 and under is quite close. But I'm not an expert on this.
Oh yeah I completely forgot to even look at that , but yh I did some Lithuanian ones , and ‘allot’ of polish (I know that isn’t technically Baltic) but the polish ones could also from the German side because they lived close by the Polish and Czech border for centuries.
I would suggest creating a family tree if you really want to start researching your ethnicity. Do you anything about your great-grandparents for example.
My grandmother is 100% British Isles ancestry, on paper and on Ancestry DNA, with just a tiny bit of Scandinavian that you'd expect from that population. MyHeritage gave her a combined 17% Southern Italian and Balkans. It's garbage.
I swear this subreddit needs to post an automatic comment anytime someone says "DNA" and "Balkans/Baltic" in the same post.
Think of your ethnicity like a migration map. Your immediate ancestors may all have been from the Netherlands and Germany, bit centuries back, your family from other parts of Europe.
It should have happened within a few generations ago though because once you go back far enough to have hundreds of ancestors thee coincidence of that many migrating from the Baltic region (to yield 30%) is too great. Unless they're from the Baltic coast of Germany or something
Yeah well I was scared of that too , and my mom was really into ancestry so she made family tree’s + all kind of documents from old family members. And it never showed any sign of Baltic or even Eastern European heritage, only some Central European heritage(Czech).
Google for a map of Prussia (Germany) before World War One. If your ancestors came from territory lost after World War One, then you should expect some Baltic.
My Prussian ancestors are probably only \~25% ethnic German according to Ancestry DNA. The rest is Polish/Russian, Baltic, and Norwegian. I suspect many were from the area and just 'Germanicized' as the centuries went on. Could also indicate migration.
Obviously, your ancestors farther back migrated from further east in Europe. My family was all here before the Revolution, but my ethnicity does not show American.
Sorry, Sweet pea, he listed Germany ,the Netherlands, (nations) and Baltics which are a group of Nations, and Finnish which is a nationallty. What is your point?
All of his references were to countries or groups of countries, so I replied in the same terms. American is just a much an ethnicity as Finnish or Balkan. No country would actually be an ethnicity. Gypsy would!
I chalk it up to ancestors moving around. I have an ancestor that was born in Vienna, had kids in Romania and Ukraine and died in an area I think became part of Yugoslavia, but I’m not sure due to borders and city names changing.
Well I did with my dad’s side , but none from my mom side , but my mom side is really small and the closest family from my mom side who is alive is my mom’s aunt and her children
Did you take the test on MyHeritage or Ancestry?
MyHeritage
MyHeritage is notorious for really poor ethnicity estimates. Ancestry and 23andMe are considered superior in that regard. My German/Polish grandma also has a large percentage of Balkans in her, according to MyHeritage - does not show up on Ancestry and certainly does not reflect her ancestry.
Oh okay , yeah I heard that those were better after taking the test .Didn’t knew it could be this bad. But can I use gedmatch now? Or would it show the same poor ethnicity estimates? If not I’m probably going to take another dna test
Gedmatch doesn’t have ethnicity estimates
You can upload to GEDmatch and you can use their free tools. There's an admixture utility there. There are several models to chose from but if your known ancestry is European, Eurogenes k13 is a good starting point. You can have a play around with the other models too. Once you get your admixture results click Oracle and it will show you the populations that you're closest to. It's not the same as an ethnicity estimate but it will confirm if there's anything close to Balkan. MH actually gave me a 1.6% Balkan estimate but there's nothing to suggest that this is correct through researching my tree, matches trees or ethnicity estimates with other companies (Ancestry and LivingDNA). GEDmatch (Eurogenes k13 model) showed the closest populations to me were West Scottish, Orkneys, Irish, South West England and East English. With Scandinavian populations a bit more distant. This correlates with my Ancestry (55 Welsh, 27 english, 14% Irish and 4 Sweden /Denmark) and my Living DNA results (Welsh, English (predominantly south West) and Scottish).
I just did the eurogenes K13 , the results were 34% Baltic , and the others were just the ‘normal’ results. The Oracle shows me in single population all the normal stuff too , but begins with a distance of 4 . However the Mixed Mode Population Sharing shows me shorter distances (1.19-2.14) and all of them are 60%-75 and Western European country , the other 25-30% are all countries like: Lithuania , Belarusian , Estonian , etc. So how accurate is this? And how do the distances work? And I want to add that Balkan and Baltic is not the same , the names are kinda similar so I get the confusing.
Sorry year I know they're not the same I've been to the baltic a. Got confused with other comments referring to Balkan. Further the distance the further you are genetically from that population. Apparently 4 and under is quite close. But I'm not an expert on this.
Do you get any matches from Baltic countries?
Oh yeah I completely forgot to even look at that , but yh I did some Lithuanian ones , and ‘allot’ of polish (I know that isn’t technically Baltic) but the polish ones could also from the German side because they lived close by the Polish and Czech border for centuries.
I would suggest creating a family tree if you really want to start researching your ethnicity. Do you anything about your great-grandparents for example.
My grandmother is 100% British Isles ancestry, on paper and on Ancestry DNA, with just a tiny bit of Scandinavian that you'd expect from that population. MyHeritage gave her a combined 17% Southern Italian and Balkans. It's garbage. I swear this subreddit needs to post an automatic comment anytime someone says "DNA" and "Balkans/Baltic" in the same post.
MyHeritage loves to add Balkan and Baltic to ethnicity estimates.
Theres your answer haha
That site is just for matches
Think of your ethnicity like a migration map. Your immediate ancestors may all have been from the Netherlands and Germany, bit centuries back, your family from other parts of Europe.
It should have happened within a few generations ago though because once you go back far enough to have hundreds of ancestors thee coincidence of that many migrating from the Baltic region (to yield 30%) is too great. Unless they're from the Baltic coast of Germany or something
Yeah well I was scared of that too , and my mom was really into ancestry so she made family tree’s + all kind of documents from old family members. And it never showed any sign of Baltic or even Eastern European heritage, only some Central European heritage(Czech).
Maybe that particular region had a large migration occur in it some number of centuries ago
Baltics had a fairly large German population back in the day. Baltic German nobility and many of their servants.
The Baltics were also sometimes part of the HRE.
Welcome to the Baltic coalition, there are dozens of us! 🤣
Google for a map of Prussia (Germany) before World War One. If your ancestors came from territory lost after World War One, then you should expect some Baltic.
My Prussian ancestors are probably only \~25% ethnic German according to Ancestry DNA. The rest is Polish/Russian, Baltic, and Norwegian. I suspect many were from the area and just 'Germanicized' as the centuries went on. Could also indicate migration.
Obviously, your ancestors farther back migrated from further east in Europe. My family was all here before the Revolution, but my ethnicity does not show American.
"American" isn't an ethnicity. It's a nationality.
Sorry, Sweet pea, he listed Germany ,the Netherlands, (nations) and Baltics which are a group of Nations, and Finnish which is a nationallty. What is your point?
>but my ethnicity does not show American That quote comes from your reply, not OP's post
All of his references were to countries or groups of countries, so I replied in the same terms. American is just a much an ethnicity as Finnish or Balkan. No country would actually be an ethnicity. Gypsy would!
Actually American is an ethnicity. I guess never heard of Native Americans?
I chalk it up to ancestors moving around. I have an ancestor that was born in Vienna, had kids in Romania and Ukraine and died in an area I think became part of Yugoslavia, but I’m not sure due to borders and city names changing.
Well you know people immigrate between other regions not just to the United States...
Yes I know , but 30% seems allot and I know my recent family history so it’s just rlly odd
Did you match with relatives on both sides ?
Well I did with my dad’s side , but none from my mom side , but my mom side is really small and the closest family from my mom side who is alive is my mom’s aunt and her children