The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results

[pharmaT]

Janey, having 26% native American DNA does not automatically mean that one of your grandparents or 2 of your grt grandparents were Native American. It's not as simple as that. Although we inherit 50% of our DNA from each parent the randomness  of DNA division  means we don't automatically inherit 25% from each grandparent or indeed 12.5% from each grt grandparent. In fact we could have a 4x grt grandparent for example from whom we have no DNA and another 4xgrt grandparents from whom we've inherited quite a bit of DNA.

[JaneyCanuck]

pharmaT, I'm rather surprised that you didn't understand that that is exactly the point I was making.

The test says what your DNA is; not what your ancestors are.
Expecting to find out what percentage of your ancestors came from where ... nope, that just won't happen.

The Ancestry television commercial has the woman saying "I am 26% Native American".

Not in any meaningful sense, she isn't.

Apparently her DNA is 26% Native American (and since it's Ancestry saying it, I would take that with a grain of salt anyway).

The test does not show that SHE is 26% Native American.

When I say I'm 100% English except for a greatx4 grandfather born somewhere in Ireland c1770, I'm talking about my ancestry, not my DNA. I think that's how most people understand the concept.

It is absolutely misleading for Ancestry to tell people they are A% this or B% that or C% the other thing. Autosomal DNA simply does not tell you where any proportion of your ancestors were from. It's just a pretty meaningless bit of data.

As you say, this woman's "26% Native American" DNA could well mean that she has one Aboriginal greatx4 grandparent whose autosomal DNA just happened to be the bit that got passed down to her.

It isn't going to get her tribal membership in any Native American group in the US. That depends on ancestry, not DNA. Just the way most of us think of "what we are".

[lesleyhannah]

Can someone tell me if the result comes back 0% for a particular ethnic category can we take it that we have NO ancestors from that area? We wanted to test a family story that one branch of the family was originally Spanish - probably provoked by the olive complexions on almost members of that branch plus the slightly unusual surname. The DNA came back with NO Spanish DNA. Can we now put this story to rest - despite the protests of family members?

I'm still a bit confused by the test - but grateful for any help!

[hurworth]

It depends a bit on how far back Lesleyhannah.  If say it is as far back as the  Spanish Armada that's several generations ago and not likely to show.  But it would be worth uploading to Gedmatch and playing around with their tools.

We have some distant cousins I would LOVE to test just to be nosey (or if they have tested I wish their results would jump up and down at me from the long list of names).   One member of the family became an actor and always played "exotic" characters and we're related to both of his grandmother's parents.  I've found he had a South American gtgt-grandmother of unknown ancestry - nothing to do with the Armada at all.

[shellyesq]

They are running a television commercial in North America where a woman discovers she is "26% Native American".

Well come on.

Wouldn't you likely know about it, if one of your four grandparents, or two of your eight great-grandparents, or four of your sixteen great-great-grandparents, were Aboriginal? Or, for instance, if four of your sixteen great-great-grandparents each had one Aboriginal parent and two of them each had two Aboriginal parents? Keeping in mind that it's highly unlikely that at least a few of the great-great-grandparents of someone living in the US, if not more recent ancestors, were not immigrants or children of immigrants, i.e. 100% European.

That's really a pretty hefty percentage of ancestors to know nothing about. Unless you know absolutely nothing about at least one of your parents' families.

In the ad, I believe she said she thought she was Hispanic.  So she likely had more recent ancestors who came from somewhere other than Europe.  I think it's common for people of, say, Mexican heritage to show up as a mix of Native American and European DNA, given the country's history.  She may have known she had ancestors from a particular Hispanic country, but not have realized that their DNA would be part Native American. 

[Renatha]

I'm English and had my DNA tested at FTDNA last June, I uploaded the results to Gedmatch but in spite of having loads of 'matches' to 2nd -remote cousins I only found one in Canada whom I knew before anyway!
My ethnicity is 65/35 GB/European and it seems as though most of the people tested are from the USA, they seem to be unaware of their 'Old World' ancestry so we in the UK have very little chance of finding anyone to match with there?
CR

I agree with you CR. My grandparents on one side and great-grandparents on the other, came to Australia from the UK & Europe - England & Wales and Ireland, Germany, England & England. My result through Ancestry was 53% Ireland 20% Scandinavia and 10% Europe East with all remaining regions being more broadly in that part of the world.
I was hoping to be put in touch with living relatives / fellow family research enthusiasts in the UK but there were only distant cousins mostly in the US where none of the people on my family tree went. The 53% Ireland does not co-relate with having only one G-Grandmother from there, but I know it is random as to where the DNA comes from to make up each descendant. I'd always thought I was a bit Irish anyway, certainly different from others in my family...so happy to have it confirmed 

[Spike H]

If you can find the definitions Ancestry uses "Ireland" includes Wales. So you need to add your Welsh ancestry to your Irish to get a better correlation. If you have anyone from Cornwall you can add them in as well. "Ireland" includes all the Celtic areas, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

[Renatha]

If you can find the definitions Ancestry uses "Ireland" includes Wales. So you need to add your Welsh ancestry to your Irish to get a better correlation. If you have anyone from Cornwall you can add them in as well. "Ireland" includes all the Celtic areas, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

Long line from Somerset, does that count?

[DavidG02]

I was hoping to be put in touch with living relatives / fellow family research enthusiasts in the UK but there were only distant cousins mostly in the US where none of the people on my family tree went.

I have had my results 3 days and uploaded to gedmatch. I have had contact with 3 people 1 from Victoria Australia, 1 from NZ and 1 I suspect is also in Australia. They have been fantastic help and we have confirmed connections back to Cornwall, Sussex and a brickwall confirmation which I will post soon on the Australia Board.

The best thing about Australian records is they are ( mostly) available so going back to 4th-6th cousins helps those UK records that are hard to find. I am not fussed if I have an American cousin as they are also into Genealogy as much as anyone so I will get some greater info. Plus it helps show where families split ie Poor Law recipients having brothers and sisters head off to 3 different countries ie Canada, USA and Australia.

Keep hoping for that one day