DNA has become the buzz word for finding one’s ancestry. However, is it as accurate as some claim? The bottom line is if not using good quality testing, its accuracy it seems is so minimal it becomes worthless beyond a few generations.
Whatever the results however, they need to be supported with accurate and robust genealogy, in fact it is for this reason that the Lord Lyon requires documented proof of ancestry, before granting arms to any individual. Interestingly and traditiionaslly to date, Carruthers are the only Scottish family where all the armigers have chosen to use an angelic crest on their arms, and long may it continue.
Here is an excellent piece on DNA kits, which was researched by the British Broadcasting Corporation television programme, Watchdog, giving the companies mentioned, the right to respond which they chose to do.
DNA Ancestry Kits
Home DNA testing kits promise to tell us who we are and where we’re from- but are the answers they give us really as conclusive as the marketing encourages us to believe? Watchdog Live investigates.
We bought DNA ancestry kits from three prominent companies- 23andMe, Ancestry.co.uk and MyHeritage, to test the DNA of presenter Nikki Fox. The results differed for each service.
• MyHeritage told Nikki that her Ethnicity Estimate was 80% English, 20% Iberian (Spain/Portugal).
• 23andMe told Nikki that her Ancestry Composition was 99.9% European (including 61.8% British & Irish, 19.4% French & German) with Trace Ancestry of Broadly Sub-Saharan African.
• Ancestry.co.uk told Nikki that her Ethnicity Estimate was 82% England, Wales and NorthWestern Europe, 15% Ireland and Scotland, 3% Norway.
While there were some similarities, we couldn’t explain why, for example, only MyHeritage identified Iberia in the results; only 23andMe identified Sub-Saharan Africa, and only Ancestry identified Norway.
Our investigation found that the reason for the discrepancies between the results Nikki received are down to the fact that ancestry DNA testing kits can only provide an estimate of what your ancestry may be, based on comparing your DNA to the records of other people held by that company, and mapping where those people are from. This will be different depending how many peoples’ records are in the database, where they are from and who they are. There is nothing intrinsic in your DNA which allows a DNA ancestry service to give you concrete answers about where you are from, and the results cannot be taken at face value as giving a conclusive insight into your heritage.
Genetic genealogist told Nikki that the percentages given by these tests are generally accurate at a continental level, but are less reliable at national level- and that trace ancestry (such as Nikki’s Sub-saharan African result) simply isn’t meaningful. But she said that DNA testing can be a useful tool- when it’s used in conjuction with historical, family tree research.
Statement from MyHeritage:
“MyHeritage used a statistical procedure called Principal Component Analysis to ensure that each founder population is well-clustered, removing outliers and people who were mistaken about their own heritage. The end result became a very rich and consistent reference of 42 Founder Populations, considered to be the best of its kind in the world. MyHeritage DNA uses this reference when analyzing your own DNA, to identify your ethnicity breakdown among these 42 ethnicities, with percentages. This is your Ethnicity ‘Estimate’.
MyHeritage strongly advocates DNA testing in combination with the traditional arsenal of genealogical tools, such as personal and historical records, to draw a complete picture of the family relationship between individuals. Family trees are invaluable for understanding the relationship path to DNA matches and ethnicity estimates. Creating a family tree is recommended for anyone taking a DNA test, to make the most of the DNA results and to uncover the full story behind them. Over 107 million users worldwide have used MyHeritage to build over 46 million family trees and access 10 billion historical records.”
Statement from Ancestry:
Ancestry is the global leader in family history and consumer genomics – with a 30-year history of empowering journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. We harness the information found in 100 million family trees, more than 20 billion records, and the largest consumer DNA network in the world to help people gain a new level of understanding about themselves and their connection to the world.
Consumer genomics is a new and evolving field and Ancestry is at the forefront, consistently revealing new ways to learn about yourself through DNA. Ancestry’s industry-leading reference panel leverages thousands of DNA samples from around the world. Each sample in the reference panel has a long family history in one place. We compare our customers’ DNA to DNA samples from the reference panel to create their ‘estimate’.
With the largest consumer DNA network and continued investment in cutting edge science, Ancestry is able to determine our customers’ ‘ethnic’ breakdown with a high degree of precision.
Through ongoing innovation in DNA science, digitizing historical records and automating research, we enable our customers to continually learn new insights. The more historical records added, the more DNA samples taken, the more family trees built – the more meaningful connections and discoveries customers can make.”
Statement from 23andMe:
“We strive to make a compelling product that is easy for customers to understand, while at the same time providing many additional layers of detail within the product experience to help them interpret their results. For example, within the Ancestry Composition feature we built an interactive tool that allows customers to explore their ancestry prediction at different confidence thresholds, ranging from a speculative prediction to conservative (50% to 90% – see graphic below). In addition, our Ancestry Composition algorithm errs on the side of conservatism, so when we are unable to match a DNA segment to a specific reference population with confidence, we assign that segment of DNA to a broader region.
Our Scientific Details and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are clearly signposted within the report – across the top banner – and offer customers a breadth of information and additional clarification about how we provide our ancestry estimates. While the Ancestry Composition results give a snapshot of your genetic ancestry prediction, each Ancestry Detail report goes into more depth about your genetic similarity to each of these reference populations, and includes language that makes the nuance of this estimate clear.
At 23andMe, over the past several years we have focused our efforts on improving equity and diversity in our reference datasets driven by programs such as our African Genetics Project and Global Genetics Project. These programs provide free kits to people who have four grandparents born in a variety of countries with underrepresented populations around the world). As a result of these efforts, we currently have more reference populations in both Africa (12) and Asia (22) than we do in Europe (10).”
The Official Carruthers DNA Research Project
Our Society, Clan Carruthers Society (International) in its search for our past, tries to ensure accuracy in all its findings. For this reason our Official Carruthers DNA Research Project only use BigY-700, the world’s most comprehensive Y-DNA test, but always in conjunction with our proven genealogy. This ensures that we do not make false claims and that we correctly embrace our historical and genetic information, allowing us to map a robustly accurate family tree.
As such our DNA programme is supported by our genealogists, all of whom are recognised for their hard work and are fellows of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland.
About
Since the turn of the millennium, many Scottish Clans have launched surname studies, Carruthers is no exception.
As a Clan, our priority was to support a Chief being confirmed by the Lord Lyon. As of 2019 and after a deep analysis if his genealogy and proofs, our Chief, Dr Simon Peter Carruthers of Holmains was confirmed as Chief of the Name and Arms of Carruthers, allowing him sole rights to the Carruthers Chiefs Arms (see above). This closed one of the the first phases of our journey. The other, as we now had a chief in place the Carruthers tartan was finally listed as the official clan/family tartan by the Scottish Register of Tartans, a Scottish government agency based in Edinburgh.
The Clan Carruthers yDNA Project is part of the next phase and is fully supported by our Chief and the Clan Carruthers Society (International), our parent organisation based in Scotland. It is administered by the Clan Carruthers Society -United States of America and will always be a work in progress but open to Carruthers worldwide. This Project has been set up to:
- Advance our family knowledge base.
- Offer the opportunity to have DNA tests taken and analysed within the clan setting.
- Allow comparisons within the database to establish genetic relationships.
- Assist with circumventing genealogical ‘dead ends’.
- Identify family lines and interconnections within the clan itself.
- Offer clarification of the derivatives of our surname as an indicator of our ancestral ties.
- Offer only factual information on our family supporting and dovetailing in with our our clan genealogists and historians to form as accurate and evidenced based picture of our ancestry as possible.
It is important to remember that genetic genealogy is only part of the whole, and can be used as a valid tool to enhance and augment the work done by robust genealogical investigation but must be reconciled with the same.
But what is so special about the Big Y-700 test, well according to yourdnaguide.com:
‘Big Y-700 explores two different kinds of genetic markers: STRs for more recent DNA connections and SNPs for more distant connections.
STRs are short repeating sections of DNA that can have a lot of variability between generations, making them good for identifying genetic relationships within the past 10 generations or so. So while the 67 marker Y-DNA test looks at 67 STRs, the Big Y-700 test looks at 700 STRs (hence the name of the test!).
SNPs are single changes in the DNA, and lots of times they change SUPER slowly (like, over thousands of years), so they point to your paternal ancestors’ ancient populations and migrations. However, there are lots of SNPs that may have changed in more recent generations, but just haven’t been well documented yet.
The Big Y test is helping us build a database of those newer SNPs. It does that by finding unique Y DNA SNPs specific to your paternal line for the time frame of about 10 – 20 generations back—effectively filling part of the genetic gap between what STRs can reach, and the more commonly reported deep ancestral SNP markers that tell you about ancient migrations.’
However, accepting that we feel our research has located the snp of the first recorded Carruthers, that being William of Carruthers in the 1100’s, which is backed by sourced genealogy and further to augment our previous comments about linking accurate genealogy and documentation with dna profiling, yourdnaguide continue with……
‘The Big Y-700 test is most useful when you have solid paper trails for a paternal line and traditional YDNA testing with good matches going back at least 8 generations. This test can help you make genetic connections in the shadowy, pre-genealogical timeframe most people encounter at 10-20 generations, where records often don’t survive, surnames didn’t exist, and autosomal testing isn’t helpful.
The “700” part of Big Y-700 can help make greater distinctions between lines you know are related: for example, help you distinguish your ancestor from among his three brothers. Lower-marker Y DNA testing (even at the 111-level marker level) may not be able to answer that question for you. However, it will only be helpful if you can get you matches to take the test also.
Having just your own Big Y results won’t be very insightful’
For this reason and because our name, rich history, heritage and reputation are of paramount importance to us as a clan and Scottish Border riding family, our DNA research project is the only one offering this level of accuracy and protection of the facts, based on the best evidence available.
Out Chief, Peter Carruthers of Holmains, 22nd of his line, which can be traced back to the 1100’s, has asked us to ensure we carry the torch of truth with regards our family, and accepting we always try to challange the blatent falsehoods some try perpetrate, we feel we do that to the very best of our abilities and will continue to do so.
Promptus et Fidelis (Ready and Faithful)
Nice report, but I think an explanation of autosomal (the companies reviewed) and what it does vs. Y DNA would have been helpful for those who haven’t a clue. It takes both to get a clear picture, especially if you are tracing between the lines and filling in the generatonal blanks.