23andMe V3 Chip Ancestry

23andMe provides many ways to figure out your ancestry. Here are a few of the tools they provide using my results as an example. This data is from the new V3 chip.


Global Similarity

Here is my "Global Similarity" provided by 23andMe.  I'm closet to English, French, German, and Norwegian. I've included screen shots of each level of detail. I'm the red bar and then I'm the green dot as it gets more detailed.

Ancestry Painting

Here is a high level "painting" of my chromosomes. They only use three populations in this tool and it's pretty conservative. My results were 100% Europe.

Ancestry Finder

Ancestry Finder allows you to see where some of the people that match your chromosomes are from. Of course you have to complete the survey to have your data included, and many have not done this or any of the surveys. Since 23andMe have a large user base in the United States, many of my matches are here. Next highest are Ireland then the United Kingdom. This isn't surprising to me considering my known genealogy.

23andMe decribes the tool by saying "Let the 23andMe Community help you discover what countries your ancestors might have lived in. This lab is fueled by your responses to the "Where Are You From?" ancestry survey."

Digging Deeper

I also sent my data to Dr. Doug McDonald who analyzed my Family Finder data last year. Dr. McDonald uses a higher resolution process so you can find things that the 23andMe tool might miss. I have a little American Indian, some African, and some South Asian. These could all just be ancestral pieces of DNA that exsist in the general population.

Dr. McDonald : The "spot on the map" is in France, near Charleville-Mezieres

So even if you are adopted or know very little about your ancestry, these new tools can give you a lot of insight into who you are genetically.  I posted last year about my Family Finder results from FTDNA here: FTDNA Biogeographical Ancestry