Received the myOrigins DNA Estimates from FamilyTreeDNA

I received the email from FamilyTreeDNA today that:
"myOrigins is here!

After months of development, myOrigins is finally here!  It's a FREE upgrade to everyone that has purchased a Family Finder test.  Get ready to dive into your ethnic origins like never before!"

I was ready!!  What surprises await me?

1)  My previous FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder results were discussed here:  My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 1 (posted 9 January 2012).  That said I was 89.15% West European  (Orcadian) and 10.85% Middle East.  

2)  I have tried to estimate my perceived ethnicity percentages before - see My Autosomal DNA Quandary (posted 22 August 2013).  My ancestral "homeland" about 500 years ago was distributed as follows:

68%  British Isles
24%  Germany
1%  Holland
1%  France
6%  Unknown (perhaps some are French, some are English)

3) Here is the myOrigins map I was presented with today:

100% European!  I kind of figured that...but when I clicked on the "Expand" link of the "Ethnic Makeup" box, I saw:

The "European" was broken down into:

*  European Northlands (light green, essentially southern Scandinavia) -- 45%
*  European Coastal Plain (dark blue, essentially France, Holland, Germany) -- 32%
*  North Mediterranean Basin (purple, essentially Iberia over to Greece) -- 19%
*  European Coastal Islands (light blue, essentially British Isles) -- 4%

Surprise!  It looks like all of my British Isles ancestors there in the 1500s were immigrants over the centuries from Scandinavia, western Europeans and Iberia.

There are some other interesting things to find - do you see the two colored pins in the lower right-hand corner of the screen above?  I clicked the orange pin and saw pins that "Show the location of the most distant paternal ancestors of your Family Finder matches:"

 I clicked the teal pin and saw pins that "Show the location of the most distant maternal ancestors of your Family Finder matches:"

I'm not sure why there are a total of 14 paternal and 9 maternal pins.  I can put all of them on one map.  Has FamilyTreeDNA been able to figure out which have of each chromosome is maternal and paternal?  

If I click on one of the pins, a name of one of my matches appears, with the dominant ethnicity of that person:

I don't know exactly what that means.  Are the pins precisely located at a specific ancestral location, or do they represent a broad region, like Switzerland or Ireland?  Why are some of my matches represented with more than one pin?

There is more information in the "Shared Origins" and "Ancestral History" box in the lower left-hand corner.  When I expand it, I see:

In the "Shared Origins" tab I can choose a number of match criteria - All Matches, Immediate Relatives, Close Relatives, Distant Relatives, Known Relationship, and X-Matches.  I only have Distant Relatives and X-Matches at this time.  

The column headings are Name, Relationship, and ethnicity percentage that matches my ethnicity.
I will have to go the "Advanced Matching" to see information about each match.

The "My Shared History" tab provides a limited discussion about "Who are you" and "What does this mean?"  

4)  The discussion just muddles things even more for me.  What conclusions can I draw from all of this?  

*  My genealogical ethnicity is significantly different from my "ethnic origins" estimated by this test.  Immigration happens!

*  The maps are beautiful but do not pinpoint ancestral locations - only ancestral regions.

*  FamilyTreeDNA ethnicity estimates are somewhat different from my AncestryDNA and 23andMe estimates.  Why am I not surprised?

5)  Not every one who has had a Family Finder test of their autosomal DNA has this myOrigins analysis yet.  If you tested with FTDNA, and don't have it yet, watch your email for your notification.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/05/received-myorigins-dna-estimates-from.html

copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver