4% Gujarati DNA

[Duck]

I have a friend whose father has 4% Gujarati DNA, how far are we going back in time, she has traced the main branches of her tree to approx 1820s and no one appears to have indian roots

Thank you
Simon

[4b2]

Possibilities:

1) Incorrect ethnicity given
2) NPE with an Indian ancestor somewhere
3) Indian ancestry one generation prior, two at a push

Are there any ancestors who lived in India? It could be back another generation than the 1820s, but going back further is unlikely to turn anything more up.

Do they have any DNA matches who have ancestry from India, where those matches are also shared among themselves in a cluster? So you'd have, say 30 matches with ancestors in India, and they match with, on at least three in that cluster. Then look through the trees (expand incomplete trees as needed) and see if you can find MRCAs.

Obviously, there's not masses of Indians tested, and the ones that are tested are going to be from subsets of the population, e.g. Catholics, Brahmin, and Anglo-Indians.

But if there are no matches, it might be an error with ethnicity. You'd probably want to trace back another generation too.

I have tests with Indian ethnicity, and combining them it's difficult to see where it's come from. So I think their prediction with India is not as good as with British. There's also other groups in India that could theoretically get mix up as Indian. That happened with mine and FamilyTreeDNA. Armenian and Parsi are two that could get mixed up.

[fiddlerslass]

Is there any Roma ancestry?

[Biggles50]

Was any family serving in the Military in the early 1800’s?

Families travelled with the troups when they were on a long term posting or maybe there was someone who Worked for the East India Company who took a local as their Wife.

Gujurat is an area of India that borders the Arabian sea so sailers would have been in the area and those born there could have been sailors themselves and ended up in the UK or ended up in South Africa or any port in the world.

There are a myriad of possibilities.

[Duck]

Many thanks for your replies.  I have contacted my friend, all her ancestors in the 1800s (1820 onwards) all appear to have been industrial labourers apart from one who became a professional footballer in 1898,  they hailed from Lancashire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  There doesn't appear to be anyone with a military or romany background.

Once again thank you
Simon

[Nanna52]

Realistically DNA is a guess.  I’ve had Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Irish and Scottish around the 4% mark come and go with each update.  They have disappeared and I now have 7% Arcadia, which is apparently French Canadian.  I await the next update.

[Biggles50]

In 1800 there is estimated to be 40,000 people in the UK of Asian (India) origin.

Mainly in Port Cities and Industrial centres, so it is very possible.

That said I would suggest putting it on the back burner as it will be different next year after the next update which is likely to be in late September.

Working on the DNA Matches and linking them into your tree and Grouping them is far more worthwhile than researchong Admixture.