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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2008-05 > 1211506296


From: "Lawrence Mayka" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] S21/S28 Split+m223 stuff
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 20:31:36 -0500
In-Reply-To: <ea3bd9560805221500m6328060ew978f9561d81765f@mail.gmail.com>


Myres used SMGF entries, which have self-reported ancestral origins, often
geographically incorrect with respect to modern national boundaries. For
example, an SMGF entry may name a town in modern Slovakia, but categorize it
as either Hungary or Austria because the town was under Austro-Hungarian
control at the time of the ancestor's birth. A discussion on this very
mailing list showed that many posters here would also make the same
categorization, despite the catastrophic confusion it causes for data miners
such as Myres.

Not long ago I made a quick survey of Ysearch R1b/R1b1/R1b1c/R1b3 entries
that listed Austria as the country of origin. Out of almost 30 entries,
only 5 were reliably of Austrian ethnicity and hence representative of that
country's current population. The rest generally used "Austria" as a
synonym for the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

> [mailto:] On Behalf Of David Faux
> I must point out that total R1b1c sample size was N=6 and of
> these who knows how many were relatives or from the same
> remote area - we know nothing of the sample except "Austria".
> It is dangerous to make large generalizations on very low
> sample sizes - unless it is of course a hypothesis which can
> be tested. It seems however that few Austrians have tested
> with FTDNA so we really need to wait to learn whether it is a
> true "hotspot" such as Switzerland is with S28.


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