My Origins by FTDNA

FTDNA released an update to their population finder tool. My old percentage was 90% Orcadian and 10 % Mediterranean.

My new percentage is, 100 Percent European.

If I click on the + symbol next to European, I can expand this to four different reference populations.

My population breakdown is:

56% European Coastal Islands
European Coastal Islands is typical to the British Isles, especially Ireland. Its reach includes all European Islands from the far north and down south to the Azores Islands off the coast of Spain. The continuous mixing of European populations means that this group is also present in lesser amounts on the mainland. Genetically close to European Coastal Plain and European Northlands, European Coastal Islands has had an impact on the demography of the world because of the explosion of population in the Anglosphere over the past few centuries.
The farmers came to Britain late, but when they came they brought great change. The hunters were assimilated by the farmer. This admixture caused the European Coastal Islands as we know it to become a hybrid of farmer and hunter. Perhaps due to its isolation and strategic placement, the major powers in the world and throughout history have wanted to rule the islands. From Caesar to the Irish king Niall of the Nine Hostages, we see the wide variety of genetic influence from the Celts, Picts, Vikings, Normans and French.

29% European Coastal Plain
The European Coastal Plain combines nearly all of the threads of European genetic history into one. This cluster goes from the Bay of Biscay near Spain, toward the Pripet Marshes of western Russia, to the coastal plain of Northern Europe. The hunter-gatherer, farmer, and intruder from the steppes were forged together as one people. The French and the German were created by the intersection between the civilized and the barbarian during antiquity. With this diverse ancestry across the uniform plain, a relatively unified cluster was born.
European Coastal Plain represents the diverse groups brought together over the past 5,000 years, as Germans, Celts, and Slavs have moved in with their cattle, and the Romans brought their mills and cities. This cluster is common among many populations with Northern European heritage. Germanic migrations after the fall of Rome guaranteed its presence in the south. The people on the European Coastal Plain are at the heart of recent history. Being the engines behind the Great Powers of the age, they became the dominant actors in colonization of the world.

8% North Mediterranean
The North Mediterranean cluster is a distinct European cluster. It is situated in the southwest of Europe from Spain to Greece. Its people are a mix of the first hunter-gatherers to reach Europe and later migrations from Western Eurasia. There were two waves into the area: first the farmers of the Middle East and later the Roman Empire.
A long history of traveling merchants and seafarers shaped this group. The great empires of Rome and Greece brought it to distant lands. They also brought a second wave of Western Eurasian influence into the cluster. Its modern geography speaks to the history of those who moved, either willingly or in chains, under the Roman Empire. Because of this, the cluster’s signature is strongest in the western part of the Mediterranean. It is particularly strong on the isolated island of Sardinia. It reaches upwards to the British Islands, as well as east into modern Turkey.
They have the same genetic origin as those who reached north to what is now Sweden. While the culture survived there, the genetic signature was largely replaced by later migrations.


7% North Circumpolar
The world is not such a wide place at the top and the bottom. The North Circumpolar cluster began around the arctic as hunter-gatherer peoples. They have carried their genes down to the modern era. The North Circumpolar stretches from Lappland east to Greenland. Though genetically diverse, the root of many of these populations is a genetic signature found most often in Finnic peoples.
These are the descendants of hunter-gatherers who withstood the push of the farmers. They adapted, and flourished, in a new age. Like the Bering Expansion, this cluster goes beyond conventional divisions, and has clear connections with both east and west. Even the New World is connected to North Circumpolar due to their shared kinship with ancient Siberia.
Humans pushed into the deep north only within the last 30,000 years, going where no Neanderthal had dared. With connections to populations in the south, the northerners maintained long term lateral connections and developed a coherence as the ice retreated. North Circumpolar has its roots with Saami hunters and fishers, as well as Uralic, Russian, Swedish, and even Scandinavian ancestries.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the new product since it is an update to an existing product that I purchased several years ago.This is a good example of a DNA test providing results for a long time. This test matches my known ancestry from genealogy.

More info here:  https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/ftdna/myorigins-population-clusters/

1 comment:

Jim Owston said...

Glad to hear you had a positive experience Bill. Mine was somewhat off in what my known ancestry is.