Introduction
The Country of Origin Charts page allows you to generate charts that display your project members’ direct paternal (Y-DNA) and direct maternal (mtDNA) ancestor’s country of origin and the number of project members who have that country of origin.
These locations are not determined by their DNA results, but are provided by the members themselves on the Genealogy Page of their Account Settings. These countries refer to the direct maternal and paternal ancestors, so the locations apply to the group member’s mtDNA or Y-DNA test results, respectively. A project member must have taken one of these tests as well as provided a country of origin in order to appear on these charts.
Applications
There are several filter options available for these charts. You can learn more about these filters and how to use them here.
The Subgroup filter may be of particular use for these charts as it allows you to select all group members of the project or a specific subgroup.
All Group Members
This option displays all group members who have a Y-DNA test if you have selected Y-DNA under Type, or who have an mtDNA test if you have selected mtDNA under Type. This can help you to see where all group members might be clustered.
Many Americans of European descent are able to trace their genealogy back to their first immigrant ancestors, but are unsure of where in the old world they may have emigrated from. This tool can help to make connections between those early immigrants as well as their connections to the old world.
Subgroups
By selecting a particular subgroup, you may be able to draw inferences about the common maternal or paternal ancestral country of that group. This can give you hints of where to focus research or to make inferences about migrations or family connections. In addition, if you have an ungrouped member, you may be able to use these charts to determine where they might fit in with the rest of the project.
Caveats
It is important to keep in mind that any of the tools that rely on project members self-reported information. These locations are not generated by FamilyTreeDNA or determined by the genetic information.
In some cases, test takers may confuse the direct maternal line with the maternal side. When filling out the “Most Distant Known Maternal Ancestor” some people may automatically think of the line on their maternal side that they have worked the farthest back. For example, their mother’s mother’s father. If this line is something other than the direct maternal line, this may be misleading information for your research goals.
It is also not uncommon for test takers to enter the name or location of an ancestor based on family stories that are not verified. If generations of family lore have told a person their ancestor (direct ancestor or not) is from a particular country, it is reasonable they might enter that information without verification.
While this does not mean that they should be discounted, it may be one explanation of anomalous genealogical information.