Family Finder

I tested my Family Finder category at FT DNA about six months ago and discovered they have added a new category "Population Finder." This is a continental percentage listing and they look at the seven continental groupings:

Africa

America

East Asia

Europe

Middle Eastern

Oceania

South Asia

Each of these categories are further subdivided into region and then into representative populations. Given the out of Africa theory I expected to find in my test Middle East and Africa since that is the path that my ancestral line shows in my original testing in the Genographic Project. However, my results showed:

Continent Percentage Margin of Error
Europe (Western European) 82.50% ±11.05%
Europe 17.50% ±11.05%

Reading through the text my margin of error is high because there is overlap between Western European and European but where are my deep ancestral results? That was my first thought. The category of Europe (Western European) shows region and representative population:

Europe
Northeast European (Finnish, Russian)
Caucasus (Adygei)
Southeast European (Romanian)
Southern European (Italian, Sardinian, Tuscan)
Western European (Basque, French, Orcadian, Spanish)

Since I test 82.5% Western European that gives me the representative populations of Basque, French, Orcadian and Spanish) for 82.5% of my ancestry with the remaining 17.5% from the five regions and since the error is large that would mean a portion from Western European included in the Europe classification.

I have only known British ancestry as far back as I can trace with my ancestors being born in the counties known as England back into the 1700s and much earlier for some (1400s). These counties include a fair cross section of England: Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire being one rather large geographic area and then London including Surrey, up then to the Midlands and including Birmingham, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, over to Yorkshire (east) and then the last group from Cumberland (Bewcastle/Lanercost area). My mtDNA pinpoints to Argyll Scotland as the likely resting spot for my mutations but also County Antrim Ireland. Our yDNA shows us to be a small group I2a2b localized in the Wiltshire/Hampshire area and the suggested time frame is 8000 to 10000 years in this area (arriving as the ice sheets departed!). However, Family Finder looks at the autosomal not mtDNA or yDNA and this is, of course, the accumulated genetic story passed down to you by your parents/grandparents/great grandparents etc. Since mine are all English as far back as I can trace the results are not particularly surprising except I wonder where are my really deep ancestral rooots out of Africa and the Middle East? Is the more recent discussion on the Neanderthals in Europe also my story? Always something new and fascinating coming out of the DNA testing.

I want to test my brother next to see the story that his results will tell for Family Finder. I was beginning to wonder if my maternal great grandmother was Romano but it would appear that that is not the case since there isn't any southern European ancestry. Also the case with my paternal grandmother's line in the Enford Downs area. They would also appear to be very old English. Since the X chromosome which I received from my father would be his mother's X chromosome given that he received a Y chromosome from his father, in the combining I should have a strong showing of her genetic history.

Continuing on with the Andover Parish Registers and I am on the second fiche of Parish Register 6. There are only 38 pages on the second fiche and the first 17 pages are baptisms. I have now reached 8288 baptisms as of April 1712. The baptisms end early in 1714 and I have 11 more pages to transcribe of baptisms before I begin the marriages from 1700 to 1714. Then I want to transcribe Parish Register 7 which brings me up to the mid 1740s where I wanted to be before starting to transcribe the wills from Kew.

There is now a Farmer family at Andover which is most interesting. Isaac Farmer married Elizabeth Lambden at Andover 6 Aug 1789 and I do not have his parents for sure. It could be that he was baptized at Collingbourne Kingston and the son of John Farmer but it would be nice if more solid proof appears. The priest records that Isaac is of the parish in the marriage lines at Andover. Isaac Farmer signed the register with a very neat hand and on his burial he is listed as 44 years of age 18 Mar 1808 which would see him born around 1764 and the baptism of an Isaac Farmer 6 May 1764 at Collingbourne Kingston is certainly very interesting.

I am also hoping that the Lambden family at Andover will also appear in the next 40 years as I have Henry Lambden of Stock marrying Mary Beckly of St Mary Bourne at Andover 3 May 1698. Stock could be Stoke Charity which is 4 miles south east of Barton Stacey and 5 miles south east of Longparish. Both of these parishes are close enough to Andover that marriages are common from these parishes at Andover. St Mary Bourne is also found in the marriages at Andover.