DNA test question

I worked the Blackfeet rez in Montana for several years. I was at some Bureau training somewhere and a female agent told me she was 1/4 Blackfeet. Hell, that's enough to enroll! I said - one of your grandparents was a full-blooded Blackfeet? She started hemming and hawing and mumbled something about maybe not a fourth and then changed the subject.

Here in the bootheel next to the Trail of Tears, the answer is always 2/15's . . .
 
Here's the answer that I received from, Family Tree DNA Help Desk:

Different Ethnicity Reports

Each company will have different academic reference populations that they compare your data to. Because there are different reference populations, and because each company also has a different algorithm for calculating those percentages, the results will vary from company to company.

Each company also tests different autosomal SNPs, so we're each looking at a different data set for you to begin with, which will further cause differences. To see how many SNPs each company has in common with the Family Finder, please view the link below from the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

Autosomal SNP comparison chart - ISOGG Wiki

Autosomal DNA Inheritance

Autosomal DNA is passed down via random recombination. This means you do not inherit a perfect half of what your parents have.

Autosomal DNA, including the sections that allow us to interpret ethnic percentages, is passed down in sections or chunks. When the DNA randomly recombines, it's recombining segments of SNPs instead of individual SNPs. For example, instead of getting an A from mom and then a T from dad and a C from mom and a G from dad, you're getting ACACACACACACACACAC from mom and then TGTGTG from dad. When it all evens out, about half of the segments came from mom, and about half of the segments came from dad. This is how you can end up with a child that phenotypically resembles one parent more than they resemble the other.

However, where this can all show up most glaringly is in the myOrigin results. While mom might be 50% Central Europe, 20% East Slavic, and 30% Scandinavia—that autosomal DNA doesn't just split in half perfectly when it gets passed down. It gets passed down randomly. So the child can inherit 5% Central Europe, 15% East Slavic, and 30% Scandinavia from mom—or any other random combination of these percentages. The same goes for how dad's percentages will be passed down to the child. Compounded across multiple generations, this kind of randomness can explain why myOrigins results are often not what we expect them to be—you simply don't inherit autosomal DNA from all of your ancestors, and we cannot connect you to populations with which you didn't inherit shared DNA.

Because of this, autosomal DNA testing can prove ancestry from a specific region or ethnicity, but it can't disprove it.

You can read more about ethnicity testing at the links below:

Ethnicity is just an Estimate

Ethnicity Testing: A Conundrum

Ethnicity Results, True or Not

Ethnicity Percentages Changing

MyOrigins ethnicity percentages are always updated to include the most up-to-date scientific knowledge about autosomal DNA. MyOrigins 2.0 had 24 population clusters and myOrigins 3.0 has 90. This means that based on the latest scientific knowledge, we were able to further refine the results.

If your percentages changed that is because the markers associated with the previous population clusters are no longer associated with them. Based on the latest scientific knowledge, the markers are now associated with the population clusters you see in your myOrigins 3.0 results.

Genetic genealogy and population genetics are very recent fields of scientific research, so we are constantly learning new things. That is why we continue to update our population clusters. Also, please be advised that autosomal DNA markers are not necessarily associated with places of birth or genealogical records. The inherited markers can be hundreds of years old.

See the articles below for further clarification:

Making Sense of Ethnicity Updates

Don't Like Your Ethnicity? Wait 5 Minutes

Ancestral DNA Percentages


My conclusion on this is, if I am correct each child may/will get different amounts of DNA from each parent. So each child will have different percentages of certain DNA. No two childs DNA is the same percentage of an ethnicity.
 
My MBH, (much better half) is a very good hobby genealogist. We have traveled through a lot of the Southeastern US visiting relatives, cemeteries, dusty courthouses and such. She helps many people on Ancestry find out who their ancestors are. We used to publish a Family History Newsletter called "Tablets of Clay."
Folks want her to give them their family history, that she might spend a lot of time on, free, and that what she usually does. They don't want to do the work, they just want to see the results. The Indian, (Native American) heritage story is common in our families, but unproven. An Aunt believes that she is part Indian, but the DNA test hasn't shown any connection. Another one is "Spindletop" a oil fortune that was supposedly owned by an Ancestor, but "stolen" by the government. Lots of scams and money given to supposedly pending lawsuits to recover the money.

Lots of times Family Tradition stories are just that: stories. Aunt Sally was really married 3 times or more, or some such tale. My Aunt Ula claimed that she was several years younger than she really was. We found her on the census showing her correct birth year. I think it's funny.

Our theme that we hammered relatives with in our newsletter was: Document, Document, Document!!

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
Last edited:
My wife did one of these for herself. I understand, as she was adopted at birth and was frustrated by doctors telling her they couldn't diagnose without a family medical history. Then she gave one to our eldest son for Christmas. If I hadn't been there when he was born the results might have convinced me they weren't related. She offered me one. I declined.

Then she ran one on our adopted boy, Max. Turns out he's 75% Treeing Walker, 12.5% Boxer and 12.5% Bassett. I love him anyway.
 
Last edited:
My son-in-law did that and found out his father wasn't his father. His real father also had done a test and they have now connected. But it was touch-and-go there for a while. Not good.

My daughter did it and was exactly what we told her she was. Half Eastern European the other half what they called American Founders. My wife's family first emigrated here in the mid 20th century. Mine in the early 18th century. The wife and I know where we come from, don't need no test.

I also got an email from my mother's first cousin. She had done one and was contacted by some adoptee. The tests suggest they were likely first cousins. Given the rest of the family members history, age, etc. the most likely scenario was my grandfather had a child on the side. Hard for me to believe. He's passed. I don't want to know.

They basically wanted to DNA test my 90 year old mother to see if she was his sibling. I referred them to Bishop Bullwinkle....Hell to Da Naw Naw Naw. That ain't going to happen.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QxIIz1yEsA[/ame]
 
Last edited:
So if I do the test and find out that Daniel Wesson is my great, great grandmothers lover, do you think they'll give me a free gun?
 
My MBH, (much better half) is a very good hobby genealogist. We have traveled through a lot of the Southeastern US visiting relatives, cemeteries, dusty courthouses and such. She helps many people on Ancestry find out who their ancestors are. We used to publish a Family History Newsletter called "Tablets of Clay."
Folks want her to give them their family history, that she might spend a lot of time on, free, and that what she usually does. They don't want to do the work, they just want to see the results. The Indian, (Native American) heritage story is common in our families, but unproven. An Aunt believes that she is part Indian, but the DNA test hasn't shown any connection. Another one is "Spindletop" a oil fortune that was supposedly owned by an Ancestor, but "stolen" by the government. Lots of scams and money given to supposedly pending lawsuits to recover the money.

Lots of times Family Tradition stories are just that: stories. Aunt Sally was really married 3 times or more, or some such tale. My Aunt Ula claimed that she was several years younger than she really was. We found her on the census showing her correct birth year. I think it's funny.

Our theme that we hammered relatives with in our newsletter was: Document, Document, Document!!

Have a blessed day,

Leon


Documentation is the Key.
This subject has become personal to me.

For those who want to know their family history, DNA is just part of the key to finding your roots, combined with documentation it is the key to any family ancestral tree.
It's not just, "Knowing where your ancestors came from, but also who they were".
My DNA test was no surprise to me, 50% Asian 50% European. Exactly what I had expected. Although I was looking for the elusive Native American or as some call it "Indigenous Peoples" DNA.
Nope. This came from family lore as handed down from my mothers father and his family, they were from Eastern Kentucky part of the Appalachia region . No cousins have any either, unless it is from the families that their family married into.

Some want to know their DNA and family story, and others don't. That is a personal choice. But if your family has any historical history, why wouldn't you want to know and be proud of that history?
When I found information on my mothers fathers family (Perkins) I embraced it. But that's just me. Everyone doesn't feel the same way.

If asked I will gladly tell my story, but I didn't want to make a book out of this post.
 
Last edited:
My wife knew some of this, but her G-G-M on her mother's side went through six husbands. All but the last one died within two years of marriage to her. I guess many men didn't live long back then. Or maybe she was a serial murderess.
 
I'm considering getting one of the detailed DNA reports. My brother died a few years ago of a rare form of cancer that the doctors told him was found almost exclusively among those of Finnish descent. Finnish ? My paternal grandfather came from the Naples region and my maternal grandfather from central Sicily. I figure that a DNA test will reveal some Greek, Spanish, possibly Moorish and probably some traces from the British Isles from the time of the Roman empire along with the regions that I have known history of.

I think at some point the Huns were up in the region now known as Finland and worked their way across Europe, so maybe many, many generations ago some Finn blood got mixed in with my ancestors. It will be interesting to see if any traces show up.

As a side note, a woman who had claimed to be my half sister took a DNA test with Ancestry.com about a year ago. Well, it turns out that she found out who her real daddy was, and she has two half brothers. One from her mom and another man, and one from her dad and a different woman than her mom.
In any case, it was a relief to myself and my siblings to know that we don't have a half sister.
 
Last edited:
Mother's side of the family always said there was a little Cherokee in the line judging from my great-grandmother's appearance. Nope! DNA said 39% NW Europe, 30% Scotland, 19% Wales, and 12% Ireland. I'm probably about one of the whitest guys here.:rolleyes:
 
The wife and I got DNA tested by an actual doctor about 20 years ago. After we lost several babies to miscarriage our OB doc wanted to find out why, and he recommended genetic testing. We had blood taken, then went back a few weeks later for the results. Turns out my wife does have a genetic anomaly.

The doc told me I was normal. I'm pretty sure she got that one wrong, and my wife is completely convinced. What she did not tell us was anything about ancestry, but that wasn't really the point of that test.
 
The wife and I got DNA tested by an actual doctor about 20 years ago. After we lost several babies to miscarriage our OB doc wanted to find out why, and he recommended genetic testing. We had blood taken, then went back a few weeks later for the results. Turns out my wife does have a genetic anomaly.

The doc told me I was normal. I'm pretty sure she got that one wrong, and my wife is completely convinced. What she did not tell us was anything about ancestry, but that wasn't really the point of that test.

Was your doctor a Genetic Counselor?
My family, sisters, nieces and nephews have been tested by a Genetic Cancer Counselor. The counselor was only looking for a genetic abnormality called Lynch Syndrome.

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer - Wikipedia

This was done because way to many relatives on my mothers side of the family have died from a form of cancer, including my mother at 70 and brother at 46. Most relatives died under the age of 60.

This disease is passed on through the blood. My 2 year older sister was the first to be diagnosed with LS, followed by her then 42 yo daughter who is a cancer survivor and her two sons, of which one is a cancer survivor. Then my 18 year younger sister and her daughter both tested positive. Her son who just turned 18 can tested when he is 20. My bother's children have refused to get tested, although his oldest son is an esophageal cancer survivor with LS and with many issues.
It has been more than suggested that more than likely LS has been responsible for most of the deaths in our family.
As explained by the counselor each child has a 50/50 chance of inheriting LS.
I fortunately do not have it. But I do have a higher rate of getting a cancer than the general public due to having one of the two defective genes. Also fortunately, I cannot pass it on to my children. So they don't need to be tested. I had a colonoscopy last week and it was my third consecutive clean one with no polyps.

The moral of this story, if cancer seems to run in your family, on either parents side, get tested. This is only a genetic test not a full DNA test.

And too, if your family has ANY known genetic abnormalities, please get tested.
 
Last edited:
The borders of most European countries have changed so much over the centuries, and people have moved about so much, that most of us who claim European ancestry are mixtures of several, or many different cultures and nationalities.

My father's grandfather moved to the USA from a small town in Bavaria in the 1870s. But going back a couple of generations past that, his grandfather came from Silesia...which probably explains why Ancestry tells me that 15% of my DNA is from Eastern Europe and Russia, even though I don't have a single relative from the areas we normally think of when we hear those names.

Ancestry's DNA map shows overlaps between national borders. England extends into northwestern France and western Belgium. Germany's DNA map includes parts of France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

I grew up thinking that all sides of my family came from Europe in the late 1800s. But when I started researching my family, I was shocked to find that my paternal grandmother's family were here before the Revolution, and that in that branch of the family, I'm a 7th-generation American! I had no idea...
 
My dad is, by law, my adoptive father.
He's the only father I've known in my 59.333 years on this planet. I'll never honor any other man with the title of "Dad".


Dad knew he was adopted and always had a deep desire to know where he came from, who is biological parents were, why he was given up for adoption...so he set about to learn his history. Dad used one of the big 3 companies and he also was able to get some information from the orphange we was placed into right after he was born. Turns out he is of Irish descent, both of his biological parents were Irish immigrants or direct descendants of.


Dad was able to connect with distant relatives in the U.S including a half sister, has made multiple trips to Ireland to the county (Cork, I think) and searched for more roots of family tree. He's finally found the answers to so many questions. At 81 years young, he's overjoyed with what has taken so long to find out.


I talked to him about why he waited so long to find out who he was and I'll never forget his answer. "I loved my mother and respected her for everything she did. I could never have done any of this while she was alive. I owed her that much and more."

So there I sat with that little nugget laid out before be. My mother has never talked about my biological father...ZERO. I've made very feeble and half-hearted attempts to bring it up in passing.....no dice.

So, slightly amended:
"I love my parents and respect them for everything they have done for me....."


I don't need a DNA test to know who I am. I'll take nurture over nature every time.


Is there a missing part of my history? Yes.
Does knowing more change the man I am? No.


Although the science of genetics is amazing, it can't never replace the people that are important to me with anyone better than what I have know.


I wish you all the same contentment I have found.
 
Back
Top