In 2008 iGENEA won the newly instituted Anthropology Blog award for

Outstanding Achievement in Misleading the Public about Human Population Genetics

There was a copious amount of misleading information provided on their website (as of Oct
16, 2008). People could learn, for example, that there's no haplogroup N in Finland, that
there's 30% R1b in Russia, 5% of haplogroup J in Armenia, but 10% in Germany. They
were also pleased to know that Y-chromosome haplogroup J is associated with the Jews
and mtDNA haplogroup H with the Vikings. But, wait, haplogroup I1a is associated with
the Scythians (absent in most of Siberia and Central Asia, but who cares about details),
while mtDNA haplogroup H with the Teutons. Also, the company not only asserted that
Y-chromosomes of ancient Greeks and Macedonians have been tested (it arbitrarily
considers them to be distinct peoples beforehand), pointing to completely irrelevant
bibliography as "evidence", but also lists the percentages of various ancient tribes in modern
nations. Apparently, Bulgarians are 49% Thracian, while Albanians 18%, whereas Greeks
and "Macedonians" 0%. Those Thracians must have evacuated from Greek Thrace and
flown over Macedonia to settle in Albania ... If one has any understanding of population
genetics, no more needs to be said. But, if one is a newbie researching the field, one should
spend some time to educate oneself, and don't trust companies that offer the sky. If it's too
good to be true, it probably isn't.
"I have rarely seen such a pack of bullshit about Y-DNA as on iGenea's website (DNA
Tribes isn't recommendable either). I am not talking about their assumptions about
ethnicities based on haplogroups. People tested with iGenea get their results that say
something 'You are R1b, therefore your ancestors were Anglo-Saxon', or 'You are J2, your
ancestors can be traced back to ancient Phoenicia'. It's like they do not understand the most
basic aspects of population migration and history. I remember that DNA Tribes claimed
that the Celts originated in Ireland and colonised Europe from there ! When the level of
knowledge is so low (primary school level?) it makes you wonder how these companies are
not bankrupt yet. What is strange is that iGenea is owned by FTDNA, and FTDNA never
makes such weird assumptions on their website." (Maciamo, geneticist at Eupedia)
http://www.eupedia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-25521.html
http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/26694-Person-s-behind-eupedia-com-genetics-Maciamo-Hay

iGENEA did NOT claim that the modern Slavic inhabitants of the Former YugoSLAV
Republic of "Makedonija" were related to the ancient Greek tribe of Macedonians of
Alexander the Great from northern Greece. The company merely found ancient
genetic markers (more likely "Paeonian") in the geographic region of the FYRo'M',
which they named "antic Macedonian", only because the FYRo'M' calls itself
"Macedonia" and iGENEA considered it to be politically correct to make use of the
constitutional name of the country. Anyway, if, supposedly, the people of the main
ethnic group in the FYRo'M' are only 30% "antic Macedonian", as iGENEA claimed,
what happened to the rest of 70%?

Post from iGENEA to 13.07.2010 12:07:35

Hello Velko,
we have removed these statistics from our website because the data they where based on is
some years old and we decided not to update these statistics.
Therefore there might be some mistakes in it, based on insufficient data because some years
ago the scientific reasearch was not as good as today but as we dont update these statistics
any more i can not tell you the percentages based on todays scientific knowledge.
Roman C. Scholz
iGENEA
info@igenea.com
www.igenea.com
Post from Velko to 10.07.2010 00:07:42
Hallo Mr Scholz
I am Bulgarian and I would have been interested in the services you provide. However I just
cannot imaging that your results in terms of matching the people\'s profile to ancient tribe
has something to do with the truth. Does the matching for Bulgaria: 49%Thraker,
11%macedonian, 15%slavs, 15 %hellenen, 5% pheonician; and for Macedonia:
30%macedonian; 10% illyrian; 15% hellenen, 5%phoenician, 20% germanic, 5% hunnen,
15% slavs; comes from your results? If yes, then I just cannot match them with the Balcan
history. And also from the logic, the reults do not match. Example: for Macedonia
0%Thraker - at the same time 49% for Bulgaria and 18% for Albania, but 0% for
Macedonia, which is inbetween. 2nd I do not believe the number 30%macedonian for
Macedonia. How have you deternived that is really ancient Macedonian and not another
ancient tribe ? 3rd looking at Bulgarians 95% are 49%Thraker, 11%macedonian, 15%slavs,
15 %hellenen, 5% pheonician. Which would mean that less than 5% of today\'s Bulgarians
have come to Bulgaria after 6th century, incl. the proto Bulgarins themselves. I juts cannot
believe they have been so few. So in summary I would be interested that you explain your
methodology of ding those matches. At the moment they look to me as pure speculations.
Thanks in advance
https://www.igenea.com/en/forum/d/ancient-macedonians/274