I've taken only one DNA test. In 2012 I tested with AncestryDNA and then convinced my parents and husband to test. Later I uploaded the 4 AncestryDNA tests to MyHeritage and other DNA websites.
Last week MyHeritage released a new feature. "Ancient Origins" sets them apart from the other major DNA websites. (You'll find it in the DNA menu on MyHeritage.) I've traced my ancestors as far back as the late 1690s using a paper trail. They lived in one small section of Southern Italy from at least that time. Let's go back further. Here's my Ancient Origins Breakdown.
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| Trace your DNA origins through ancient times on MyHeritage. |
Bronze Age
In this most ancient time frame, MyHeritage says I'm:
- 50.4% Anatolian (3400 BC–1500 BC), which is modern-day Turkey.
- 29.2% European Farmer (6300 BC–2800 BC), which covers most of Europe. My highest concentration is in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.
- 13.4% Western Steppe (3300 BC–2600 BC), north of the Black Sea with the highest concentration in Russia.
- 7% Canaanite (1800 BC–1100 BC), along the Eastern Mediterranean shore. My highest concentration is in Lebanon.
Iron Age
In this still-BC time frame, MyHeritage says I'm:
- 46.6% Anatolian (780 BC–30 BC), modern-day Turkey.
- 44.2% Italic and Etruscan (900 BC–200 BC), hurray! Here's where my Italian roots begin. The highest concentration a bit north of my ancestors' paper trail.
- 9.2% Phoenician (1000 BC–330 BC), with the highest concentration in Lebanon.
Roman Era
Now we're coming out of BC times into AD times. This is where it gets exciting for me. MyHeritage says I'm:
- 94.4% Roman Italy (20 BC–600 AD). This covers the entire Italian peninsula with the highest concentration around Rome.
- 5.6% Roman Sardinia (400–500 AD), still Italy, but off the western coast on the island of Sardinia.
This pleases me to no end.
Middle Ages
No surprise for me here, but a lovely confirmation of my ethnicity. MyHeritage says I'm:
- 100% Italian (650–1450 AD). I was a blonde-haired blue-eyed baby, so people never suspected I was Italian, but holy cow am I Italian! I do know that my rare maiden name of Iamarino existed in my grandfather's hometown in the 1400s. This new MyHeritage feature confirms the absolute depth of my Italian roots.
My parents' DNA tests show very similar Ancient Origins in each era. They each have trace origins I did not inherit—Germanic and Sub-Saharan African.
Make sure you watch the Ancient Origins video clips. Most genetic groups have an AI video clip of a person from this area talking about their homeland. Mine all looked a lot more Italian than I do. Although, if I ignore their coloring, I do see a similarity in facial structure.
My husband is a different story. His parents' families came from Japan. His first AncestryDNA result said he was 100% Japanese. He still is, but now his test shows 3% Southern Japanese Islands and 97% Japan.
But the earliest inhabitants of Japan had to come from somewhere else, right? So what does MyHeritage show for my husband's Ancient Origin Breakdown?
By the Middle Ages, Paul was:
- 84.4% Japanese, without touching the Japanese islands in the south.
- 14.8% Sinitic, which is Chinese and doesn't quite reach North Korea.
- 0.8% Southeast Asian. This covers an area that touches Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Indonesia.
His breakdown was almost identical in the Roman Era, but going back to the Iron Age, China takes on a larger role.
- 60.4% Sinitic (Chinese).
- 20.4% Amur River, which is the part of China (and Russia) closest to northern Japan.
- 14.2% Jomon, which is Japan before they called it Japan.
- 5% Southeast Asian, covering the same territories I listed above.
In the Bronze Age, Paul's map looks much the same as it does in the every other era. But the concentrations are more specific.
- 52.6% Yellow River, which is an area of China west of Beijing.
- 15% Amur River, which is in his Iron Age breakdown in a somewhat higher percentage.
- 14.6% Liao River, which is the part of China west of North Korea.
- 14.4% Jomon. It seems some of his ancestors were always in Japan.
- 3.4% Southeast Asian, in a smaller percentage than he had in the Iron Age.
Taken altogether, Paul is overwhelmingly Japanese. But he does have ancient roots in China, and a few in Southeast Asia. He's almost as concentrated as I am.
MyHeritage Ancient Origins offers more than the Ancient Origin Breakdowns I've explored above. There's also a Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer Breakdown you may find interesting.
You can also explore the Sample Database to learn more about any of your genetic groups. For example, I looked into Phoenician, which came up on my map as Lebanon. It is in Lebanon, but also to a small extent in Sardinia, Italy. And Sardinia is in my Roman Era results.
The Genetic Distance Maps show where you are on a scatter plot of different DNA groups. My map is Southern Italian. But I have genetic similarity to Central Italians, Ashkenazi Jews, and Greeks. My parents' maps are almost identical to mine. Paul's map is Japanese with genetic similarity to Koreans, Chinese, and Tibetans.
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| Who else in the world has similar DNA to you? |
I would love to see your Genetic Distance Map if you're much more of a mixture than we are. What type of cluster are you in if your four grandparents came from very different places?
Another Option
Yes, Ancient Origins sets MyHeritage apart from all the big DNA competitors. But there is another website for ancient results. I never wrote about it because I didn't know how trustworthy its results are. I uploaded my DNA tests to mytrueancestry.com a long time ago. Now I can compare the results to MyHeritage to see if they're reliable.
My True Ancestry says I'm:
- 25.1% Roman, with origins that match the Italic and Etruscan group from MyHeritage. It even says the Etruscans were from Anatolia…Turkey!
- 12.9% Hellenic Roman, which is Southern Italians who came from Greece. No doubt.
- 9.06% Carian, which is a subset of Anatolian…again, Turkey.
- 7.5% Ancient Greek.
- 6.88% Byzantine Empire. The sprawling Byzantine Empire included Italy, Turkey, the Middle East, and Greece. That tracks with the MyHeritage results.
The information on MyHeritage is more robust, but My True Ancestry is a good option. It's easy to upload DNA kits. You'll need to make a separate account for each DNA test using different email addresses.
Paul's results on My True Ancestry are:
- 35.8% Tokugawa Shogunate. That's Japan.
- 28.2% Licchavi Kingdom or today's Nepal. This is the one I had doubts about, but it isn't far off the areas shown on MyHeritage.
- 17.4% Han Dynasty, covering parts of China that mesh with Paul's MyHeritage results.
- 14.9% Three Kingdoms of Korea (the bottom of South Korea). The MyHeritage Genetic Distance Map does show his genetic similarity to Koreans.
The percentages are different between the websites. But I now have a higher opinion of My True Ancestry than I did before. With a free account, you can also see Modern Populations. I'm all Italian and Greek. Paul is very Japanese and bits of Chinese. There's even a genetic distance map.
I do prefer how MyHeritage breaks down the time periods with such precision.
Tell me what you think of your results on MyHeritage or My True Ancestry.
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