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Population Clusters

myOrigins® Version 3.0 was released on September 22, 2020. Most customers have received their updated results.

To see if you've received your myOrigins® 3.0 results, go to your myOrigins® page:

  • On the myOrigins® sidebar (on the left of the page), Version 3 is displayed in the heading when your results have been updated.
  • If your kit displays Version 2, your results will be ready soon. In the "updates" section (upper-left corner) of your dashboard, you will see a note that states when your Version 3 results will be ready. You will also receive an email once your results are updated.

Who are you?

That’s a question with many possible answers. You are the sum of a lifetime of experiences. You are the result of the choices you have made. You are the result of truths your parents instilled in you. You are the outcome of values drawn from your culture.

From a genetic perspective, however, you are the outcome of a long process of genealogical fusion. A man and a woman coming together, one of the millions on a vast constellation that explodes out across the earth and coalesces back to a few ancient progenitors.

The personal tree of life continues through you.

How can you summarize the shape of this tree and all of its branches? There is no one way.

myOrigins® attempts to reduce the wild complexity of your genealogy to the major historical-genetic themes that arc through the life of our species since its emergence 100,000 years ago on the plains of Africa. Each of our 90 Population clusters describes a vivid and critical color on the palette from which history has drawn the brushstrokes that form the complexity that is your own genome. Though we are all different and distinct, we are also drawn from the same fundamental elements.

The explanatory narratives that are displayed for each of your Population Clusters on your myOrigins® page attempt to shed some detailed light upon each of the threads that we have highlighted in your genetic code. Though the discrete elements are common to all humans, the weight you give to each element is unique to you. Therefore, each individual receives a narrative fabric tailored to their own personal history, a story stitched together from bits of DNA.

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Continent-level Populations, Super Populations, and Population Clusters

On your myOrigins® (version 3), your Population Clusters are grouped by Super Populations per Continent-level Population, and your results will be displayed in a hierarchical structure as follows:

  • Continental Region - The main region of the world in which one or more Super Populations are located.
    • Super Population - The region in which one or more Population Clusters are found. A Super Population may also illustrate a relatedness among the Population Clusters found in this region.

      Please note that for certain populations the name of the Super Population might match the name of the Continent-level Population
      • Population Cluster - A FamilyTreeDNA reference population to which a user matches. A Population Cluster can be one specific group or a few related but separate groups of people.

 The following lists our Super Populations for each Continent-level Population, and then our Population Clusters per Super Population. 

Africa

Central Africa 

Central Africa contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Atlantic Equatorial Africa
  • Northern Congo Basin
  • Southern Congo Basin

East Africa

East Africa contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Eastern Lake Victoria Basin
  • Western Lake Victoria Basin

Eastern Sahel

Eastern Sahel contains the following Population Clusters:

  • East African Savannah
  • Nile River Basin

Horn of Africa

Horn of Africa contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia & Somalia
  • Southern Ethiopia

Rainforest Forager

Rainforest Forager contains the following Population Clusters:

  • African Rainforest Forager (East)
  • African Rainforest Forager (West)
  • African Rainforest Forager (North)

San

San contains the following Population Cluster:

  • San Forager

South Africa

South Africa contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Southern Africa

West Africa

West Africa contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Ghana, Togo & Benin
  • Guinea & Sierra Leone
  • Liberia & Ivory Coast
  • Nigeria
  • Senegal, Gambia & Guinea-Bissau

Americas

Americas

Americas contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Amerindian – Amazon
  • Amerindian – Andes & Caribbean
  • Amerindian – Argentina & Chile
  • Amerindian – Central & South Mexico
  • Amerindian – Central America
  • Amerindian – North America
  • Amerindian – North Mexico
  • Amerindian – Yucatan Peninsula

Arctic

Arctic

Arctic contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Inuit
  • Northeastern Siberia

Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Mongolia
  • Southern Siberia

Central Siberia

Central Siberia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Central & Eastern Siberia
  • Taimyr Peninsula
  • Yakut

Indian Subcontinent

Indian Subcontinent contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Eastern India
  • Northern India
  • Southern India
  • Western India

Island Southeast Asia

Island Southeast Asia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Malaysia & Western Indonesia
  • Northern Borneo
  • Philippine Lowlands
  • South Wallacea Islands
  • Southern Borneo

Kalash

Kalash contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Kalash

Myanmar

Myanmar contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Myanmar

Northeast Asia

Northeast Asia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Japan
  • Korean Peninsula
  • Northern Han

Philippine Indigenous

Philippine Indigenous contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Philippine Austronesian
  • Philippine Melanesian

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Laos, Vietnam & Cambodia
  • Southern Han
  • Thailand and Southern China
  • Yao

West Central Asia

West Central Asia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Afghanistan & Northern Pakistan
  • Indus Valley

Western Siberia

Western Siberia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Northwestern Siberia
  • Western Siberian Plains

Europe

Baltic

Baltic contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Baltic

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe contains the following Population Clusters:

  • East Slavic
  • Magyar
  • West Slavic

European Jewish

European Jewish contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Ashkenazi Jewish

Finnish

Finnish contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Finland

Southern Europe

Southern Europe contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Basque
  • Greece & Balkans
  • Iberian Peninsula
  • Italian Peninsula
  • Malta
  • Sardinia

Western Europe

Western Europe contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Central Europe
  • England, Wales, and Scotland
  • Ireland
  • Scandinavia

Middle East & North Africa

Arabia

Arabia contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Arabian Peninsula
  • Yemenite Jewish

Caucasus

Caucasus contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Eastern Caucasus
  • Northern Caucasus
  • Southern Caucasus

Middle East 

Middle East contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Druze
  • Anatolia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia
  • Northern Levant
  • Sephardic Jewish
  • Southern Levant

Middle East Jewish

Middle East Jewish contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Mizrahi Jewish

North Africa

North Africa contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Bedouin
  • Maghreb & Egypt

Oceanic

Polynesian

Polynesian contains the following Population Cluster:

  • Polynesia

Sahul

Sahul contains the following Population Clusters:

  • Melanesia
  • Sahul
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