GS

I’m rewriting this after being accused of using AI for my first review. Just to clarify, I’m a real person and this is based fully on my own research and personal opinion.

Living DNA includes Slovenia in a region called West Balkan, which honestly doesn’t make much sense. Geographically, Slovenia is part of Central Europe. Genetically, culturally and historically, Slovenia has a lot more in common with Austria or northern Italy than with the southern Balkans.

What bothered me even more was the genetic grouping. Slovenians were lumped in with populations from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and others, but these are not genetically the same groups. We might share some overlap with northern Croatia, but even that part of Croatia is more Central European than Balkan.

Also, the label West Balkan DNA is misleading. There’s no such thing as a single West Balkan genetic group. For example, Albania is also in the Western Balkans, but Albanians have a completely different genetic profile from Slavs or Central Europeans. The region is way too diverse to be grouped under one simplified label.

This isn’t just my opinion. A 2018 study in Frontiers in Genetics found that Slovenians are closer genetically to Northern and Eastern Europeans. Another study in Scientific Reports (Fernandes et al., 2020) showed that Slovenians cluster more with Central Europeans, not with populations from the southern Balkans.

Living DNA should really rethink how it defines regions like this. A more accurate and research-based approach would make the results much more meaningful for people from Central and Southeastern Europe.

Family Tree DNA’s “Balkan and Greece” category is surprisingly careless for a company claiming to provide detailed ancestry insights. The Balkans are one of the most diverse regions in Europe, home to South Slavs, Albanians, Romanians, Greeks, and others, each with distinct genetic and cultural backgrounds. Grouping them all together under one vague label flattens that diversity entirely.

Even more confusing is the phrasing “Balkan and Greece,” which implies that Greece is somehow not part of the Balkan: a geographically and historically inaccurate distinction.

What really stood out as completely off, though, was the inclusion of Slovenian DNA in this category. Slovenians are Central Europeans, both genetically and geographically, with much closer ties to Austrians and Northern Italians than to populations in the southern Balkans. Including them here makes no scientific or historical sense.

Family Tree DNA should seriously reconsider how they define regional categories if they want to be taken seriously by users with any knowledge of European history or genetics.

Disappointed to see Slovenian DNA lumped into the “Balkan” category. Slovenia has little in common genetically or culturally with the southern Balkans. This kind of oversimplification erases important regional identities. MyHeritage should do better in representing Central European ancestry accurately.