This is what happens when you upload your SNPs online

Perhaps you've noticed lately that, amongst the myriad of anonymous IDs featured in my Eurogenes Genetic Ancestry Project updates, there are also 12 full names doing the rounds? Nope, I haven't outed some members by error. Those names belong to a bunch of scientists who, apparently, have nothing to hide as far as their genome-wide SNPs are concerned, since they've made their raw data zip files from 23andMe freely available online.

It's a good decision, I say, because it shows there's little to fear from releasing such data to the public. And these 12 should know, because they're experts in their fields, which include personal genomics. Feel free to check out their own project website : Genomes Unzipped.

Anyway, like I said, I co-opted their genomes into my work, and this is how they come out on my map of Europe + Caucasus (dimensions 1&2)...








So yeah, most of them are, at least genetically, fairly generic Northwestern Europeans, not that there's anything wrong with that. However, Vincent Plagnol looks like he comes from southern or western France (since he's with the French, but kind of pulling towards the Iberians), while Joe Pickrell probably has some Southern European ancestry. Dan Vorhaus is definitely either Jewish or Southern Italian, but which exactly?

In order to get a closer look at Dan's results, I check out dimensions 1&3, where the Ashkenazi individuals largely pull away from both the Southern Italian and Sephardi Jewish samples.




Yup, Dan is definitely of Ashkenazi descent. Joe, on the other hand, could pass for a Spaniard on that particular plot. So to investigate Senor Pickrell's ancestry a little further, I take a look at a few different combos of dimensions. In the end, he basically comes out like some of my American project members, who are largely of Western European descent, but with some Jewish and/or Southern European ancestry.