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Ellen Spertus
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How to interpret my having ethnicities inconsistent with my parents?

According to MyHeritage's interpretation of our 23andme lab results:

  • My father is 93.7% European (90.5% Ashkenazi, 2% Baltic, and 1.2% Italian), 5.5% West Asian, and .8% Central Asian.
  • My mother is 90.7% European (consisting of 84.6% Ashkenazi and 6.1% Iberian), 5.1% West Asian, and 4.2% Central Asian
  • I am 96.8% European (95.4% Ashkenazi and 1.4% Italian), 2.4% Middle Eastern, and .8% West Asian (consisting of .8% Mizrahi Jewish - Iranian/Iraqi)

The subregions of West Asia and Central Asia are not reported for my parents.

DNA tests confirm that my presumed parents are my biological parents (not that I'd ever doubted it). These ethnicity estimates seem suspect to me for several reasons:

  1. I would not expect to have more European ancestry (96.8%) than either of my parents (93.7% and 90.7%). While I understand that 2 parents who are each 50% European could give birth to a child who is 100% European (if the child got each parent's full set of European DNA), this seems unlikely.
  2. Ditto for my percentage of Ashkenazi ancestry (95.4% vs. their 90.5% and 84.6%).
  3. I am shown as having 2.4% Middle Eastern DNA, while they have none.
  4. I am shown as having .8% Mizrahi Jewish DNA, while they have only generalized West Asian ancestry.

Do these results seem credible to you, or do they indicate flaws with MyHeritage's methodology?

Ellen Spertus
  • 2.2k
  • 10
  • 28