I was finally able to check the new Ancestry Timeline on 23andMe after my account was migrated to the new 23andMe experience.
The verdict will be brief. It is a fraud. I have a complete paper genealogy for the last 7 generations in every line, and many lines go back over 400 years. All my ancestors were always in the same region. Within the last 8 generations they were all in a 30 km radius and could not possibly have come from anywhere else.
Yet, according to 23andMe I or my close relatives have British/Irish ancestors 1 or 2 generations ago, Italian ones from 4 or 5 generations ago, Balkans, Sardinian and Iberian ones from 5 generations ago, and Finnish/Scandinavian ancestors from 6 generations ago.
One report even claims that a relative is British & Irish in the last 3 generations, but only French & German from the 2nd to 4th generation! Belgium is included in French & German, so that is nonsensical.
23andMe claims on its website that the Ancestry Composition looks at ancestors in the last 500 years. However this is a terrible estimation on their part. I have analysed the Ancestry Composition of over 50 people with all recent ancestors from the Benelux and many others from all over Europe, and it is fairly clear that the Italian, Sardinian, Iberian, Balkans and Scandinavian components are all fairly ancient in Belgium, probably in the range of 1000 to 2000 years before present, and maybe much older for the Sardinian (Neolithic leftover?).
The Scandinavian and Finnish components almost certainly came to the Benelux and the British Isles with the Vikings. If it was older, going back to the Iron Age Germanic expansion out of Scandinavia (Frisians, Saxons, Franks), the percentage would be much higher (over 40%). Since there was no mass migration from Scandinavia to these regions after the Viking Age, nothing else could account for percentages of up to 10% of Scandinavia in some individuals from Britain or Belgium. Besides, the only high Scandinavian percentages in Belgium are found in coastal areas like Bruges that were settled by the Danish Vikings. Many Walloons and East Flemings have 0 to 2%, as is the case for most British people outside the Danelaw.
Likewise, the Italian component can only be explained by ancient Roman ancestry. This is very clear in the Benelux, where the percentages correlate with the density of Roman settlements. In the most Romanised parts of Wallonia, the Italian component reaches up to 4%. In coastal Flanders and the northern half of the Netherlands, it is almost always 0%. Dutch people in the Meuse-Rhine region, that was lined with Roman settlements and forts (Maastricht, Nijmegen and Utrecht were all founded by the Romans) might get up to 2% of Italian, while than other Dutch people typically have 0%.
As for the 'British & Irish' component, it obviously includes a strong Anglo-Saxon part of ancestry in common with Danish and Dutch people. I have seen one Dutch guy from Holland and a Flemish guy from Antwerp with 40% of 'British & Irish'. The average for Danes, Dutch and Flemings is 20-25%. It lower in the eastern and southern parts of the Benelux (15-20%). So 23andMe apparently failed to realise that their "500 year-old British & Irish" component was in fact a blend of ancient Insular Celtic (Gaelic, Brythonic) and ancient Anglo-Saxons.
When you know how to read the Ancestry Composition (what's hidden behind the component names) the percentages can be quite useful to compare populations. But I cannot stand that 23andMe would lie to their customers about how old these components are, and especially make them believe that they have ancestors from such and such region a few generations ago based on ancient admixtures. This is highly misleading, deceitful and even unethical. I have held 23andMe in high regard over the years, but this, combined with the decisions to remove health reports and updates for customers in most of the world (outside North America and parts of northern Europe), even those who paid a high price for the original test 10 years ago, is definitely a shift in policy in the wrong direction.
While we are at it, their Relatives Finder is also a scam, as are most similar services by other companies. Thanks to my detailed paper genealogy and very secluded ancestral region, I could easily verify if any of the dozens of "3rd to 5th cousins" listed in my results were really related in genealogical times. I contacted a few of them and it turns out that none had ancestry in Wallonia, ever. Most didn't even have any known Belgian ancestor. I think that the only reason they launched this tool is to get a share of all the naïve (mostly American) customers from Family Tree DNA and AncestryDNA who really believe that they are connecting with 3rd or 4th cousins based on what the site tells them. I have never understood why people would want to connect with a 3rd or 4th cousin anyway. I barely see my first and second cousins.
The verdict will be brief. It is a fraud. I have a complete paper genealogy for the last 7 generations in every line, and many lines go back over 400 years. All my ancestors were always in the same region. Within the last 8 generations they were all in a 30 km radius and could not possibly have come from anywhere else.
Yet, according to 23andMe I or my close relatives have British/Irish ancestors 1 or 2 generations ago, Italian ones from 4 or 5 generations ago, Balkans, Sardinian and Iberian ones from 5 generations ago, and Finnish/Scandinavian ancestors from 6 generations ago.
One report even claims that a relative is British & Irish in the last 3 generations, but only French & German from the 2nd to 4th generation! Belgium is included in French & German, so that is nonsensical.
23andMe claims on its website that the Ancestry Composition looks at ancestors in the last 500 years. However this is a terrible estimation on their part. I have analysed the Ancestry Composition of over 50 people with all recent ancestors from the Benelux and many others from all over Europe, and it is fairly clear that the Italian, Sardinian, Iberian, Balkans and Scandinavian components are all fairly ancient in Belgium, probably in the range of 1000 to 2000 years before present, and maybe much older for the Sardinian (Neolithic leftover?).
The Scandinavian and Finnish components almost certainly came to the Benelux and the British Isles with the Vikings. If it was older, going back to the Iron Age Germanic expansion out of Scandinavia (Frisians, Saxons, Franks), the percentage would be much higher (over 40%). Since there was no mass migration from Scandinavia to these regions after the Viking Age, nothing else could account for percentages of up to 10% of Scandinavia in some individuals from Britain or Belgium. Besides, the only high Scandinavian percentages in Belgium are found in coastal areas like Bruges that were settled by the Danish Vikings. Many Walloons and East Flemings have 0 to 2%, as is the case for most British people outside the Danelaw.
Likewise, the Italian component can only be explained by ancient Roman ancestry. This is very clear in the Benelux, where the percentages correlate with the density of Roman settlements. In the most Romanised parts of Wallonia, the Italian component reaches up to 4%. In coastal Flanders and the northern half of the Netherlands, it is almost always 0%. Dutch people in the Meuse-Rhine region, that was lined with Roman settlements and forts (Maastricht, Nijmegen and Utrecht were all founded by the Romans) might get up to 2% of Italian, while than other Dutch people typically have 0%.
As for the 'British & Irish' component, it obviously includes a strong Anglo-Saxon part of ancestry in common with Danish and Dutch people. I have seen one Dutch guy from Holland and a Flemish guy from Antwerp with 40% of 'British & Irish'. The average for Danes, Dutch and Flemings is 20-25%. It lower in the eastern and southern parts of the Benelux (15-20%). So 23andMe apparently failed to realise that their "500 year-old British & Irish" component was in fact a blend of ancient Insular Celtic (Gaelic, Brythonic) and ancient Anglo-Saxons.
When you know how to read the Ancestry Composition (what's hidden behind the component names) the percentages can be quite useful to compare populations. But I cannot stand that 23andMe would lie to their customers about how old these components are, and especially make them believe that they have ancestors from such and such region a few generations ago based on ancient admixtures. This is highly misleading, deceitful and even unethical. I have held 23andMe in high regard over the years, but this, combined with the decisions to remove health reports and updates for customers in most of the world (outside North America and parts of northern Europe), even those who paid a high price for the original test 10 years ago, is definitely a shift in policy in the wrong direction.
While we are at it, their Relatives Finder is also a scam, as are most similar services by other companies. Thanks to my detailed paper genealogy and very secluded ancestral region, I could easily verify if any of the dozens of "3rd to 5th cousins" listed in my results were really related in genealogical times. I contacted a few of them and it turns out that none had ancestry in Wallonia, ever. Most didn't even have any known Belgian ancestor. I think that the only reason they launched this tool is to get a share of all the naïve (mostly American) customers from Family Tree DNA and AncestryDNA who really believe that they are connecting with 3rd or 4th cousins based on what the site tells them. I have never understood why people would want to connect with a 3rd or 4th cousin anyway. I barely see my first and second cousins.