DNA to determine ethnic background

This interests me a great deal. Has anyone on here had it done?

If so, has it thrown up any surprises?

As far as I know, I am about 60% German and 40% British, with the German side made up of Frisian and a little bit of Swiss, and the British side made up of Scottish, with a little bit of English and Irish.

I suspect, though, if I had a test done, the Swiss German bit would reveal some Jewish, the Frisian would reveal some East Slav (Ukrainian), and the Scottish bit some Native American (either Mohawk or Ojibway).

Whatever the case, I think it would be cool to know.

So, what is your supposed make up, and do you have reason to suspect any additional, interesting strands?

I havn’t had it done, but a mixture of American (so a totally unknown mix of European, from an unknown mix) and English (so an unknown mix!)

I did see the facebook video of it though and think I’d love to have it done!

I go all the way back to Adam and therefore God 😉

Many of us will also have a portion of sub-sahara African or Asian of some sort.

So a Frisian, a Swiss, the Scot, an Irishman, a Red Indian, a Jew and the Ukrainian man all go into a bar and…….

100%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZHwGnGrm_k 8)

In reality I’m a total mongrel from all over the shop, too many to mention,

50% Yorkshire. 50% Durham.

I have ginger pubes and my skin starts off blue, and goes white in the sun. I reckon I’m 90% north african.

ultimately we are all African

Family were pretty much all from East London 1800 to 1900 so I’d hazard a guess at a genetically mongrel apart from the purebred input from my parents being related

As far as I know, I am about 60% German and 40% British, with the German side made up of Frisian and a little bit of Swiss, and the British side made up of Scottish, with a little bit of English and Irish.

Another North American claims “Scotch Irish” descent.
Quelle surprise! 🙂

Every (non african) American i’ve ever met seems to claim to be either Scots or Irish or the more commonly claimed combination of both.

With Canadians this is likely true.
Americans less so. They just wish it were.

Who do you use to do this? I’d love to give this ago.

My German side is mixed up and my South African side is too.
Would love to see where they are actually from.

Scottish, Welsh, Dutch – but the Dutch contingent were migrant French huguenots . . . A bit of alsorts – but aren’t we all?!

Would love to give this a go. No one’s entirely sure of the ancestry of my Macedonian half. Suspected slavs, but entirely possible/likely that there could be some Ottoman influence.

I think all they’d be able to tell from mine is that i was human.
Pretty much my entire family as far as records go have either been migrant/seasonal workers, travelling sales/traders or criminals. (And sometimes a combination)
Even going back 4 generations we’ve got 6 or 7 nationalities/racial subtypes. And very few of them were even locals at the time!

Pity all we’ve inherited from them is bad teeth, bad hair and a tendency to get cancer.

As I understand this, what you actually find out is that you have some DNA features which are more predominant in a specific region. I’m pretty sure that they can’t be more specific than that.

We’re all mongrels.

We’re all mongrels.

Well that’s not true, we Africans are genetically pure.

You’ve probably even got Neanderthal DNA in you, what with your distant ancestors shagging other species…….durty feckers 😐

I’m Italian on my dads best friends side.

Another North American claims “Scotch Irish” descent.
Quelle surprise!

Every (non african) American i’ve ever met seems to claim to be either Scots or Irish or the more commonly claimed combination of both.

But with me it is accurate in the sense that my grandmother is from Jedburgh, so no real stretch.

Only one strand of mine was in the New World long enough to have mingled. The rest got off the boat with just enough time to produce a bunch of grandchildren before some of us got back on and returned. 😀

As far as I know, I am about 60% German and 40% British

Oi.. British isn’t an ethnicity. England is a country made from Saxons; Wales is indigenous pre-Saxon British. Except that (apparently) the Saxon influx is pretty small and most of Britain is mostly descended from post-ice age settlers.. probably very similar to those in northern Germany anyway.

I’ve read articles that really rubbish those DNA tester services anyway.

What is English in this context – Saxon, Norman, Norse etc?

Oi.. British isn’t an ethnicity

I know. I know. It’s just a term of convenience in order to avoid having to break it down every time it is talked about. I figure if the DNA thing were to drill down even further, I would be significantly more German than I already am.

It would be more interesting to see if you have Native American DNA I reckon, and probably clearer to establish too.

My sister in law’s husband swears his whole family is plan old white American but he looks for all the world like a South Sea Islander, and everyone keeps asking him where his family’s from. That’d make an interesting DNA test.

I was tempted to have a yes done so I’d be interested to read those articles Molgrips. Any links?

I have more of a family herbaceous border than a family tree so it’d be pretty simple. 33% northern british, 33% the northern british person’s sister, and the rest a mix of viking raider and sheep.

First google hit

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9912822/DNA-ancestry-tests-branded-meaningless.html

I’d be interested in doing it but also agree we are all very ethnically mixed. Off to find out costs …

One nan is Indian (fathers side) and my mum’s dad was a Barnardos boy and died at 21 in the war so we know very little about his side of the family.

some people have a very hard time accepting that their genetics dont tie in with what they consider their own ethnicity to be

ultimately its a bit of a con

go back 10 generations and youve got 1000 ancestors to pick from, we also have ancestors that by chance/selection we inherit no DNA from, so mitochondrial(maternal lineage) and y-chromosomal(male) analyses can produce very different results

Its a confusing picture mt dna puts us all at sharing a common ancestor 200,000 years ago, y-chromo, 400,000 years ago, average automsomal about a million, the most recent genes we share we only acquired 3500 years ago

the other thing to consider is that genetic markers often dont correspond to geographic regions or even cultural or linguistic boundaries (even very inbred populations have some surprise genetic secrets)
In my first lab we studied families for rare diseases- 1 in 10 families would have a family member with genes that didnt come from the person they thought was their dad

basically as a race we move around a lot and shag around a lot more than people realise, it takes <1month to walk from britain to africa, in theory you could make a lot of babies on your way!

Apparently we’re all from various bits of the North West in our family.

Apart from the afros and big noses, some housewife probably had some explaining to do after a trip down to the slave port in Lancaster!

This was covered very well by the infinite monkey cage program awhile back. It is really a bit of a con. There is over extrapolation of origin from relatively limited genetic markers.
Perhaps not quite as much of a con as buying your own star. But a nice little earner for someone.

Stoner…

Too
Much
Information
!
!
!

My great grandparents were English, French, Irish, Scottish, Flemish and Spanish.

Dark brown hair, hobbit like appearance, fair skin, ginger beard.
😐

All grey now thank God.

‘Remain’, btw.
😀

For the record despite seeing myself like this :

I’m actually seven-eighths French and one eighth Italian, exactly.

Aren’t the Welsh living proof that the Romans shagged sheep?

100% Cumbrian, kyuck kyuck.

(we’re not so sure about uncle five toes, though)

Read up about it a bit, sort of a waste of money. Genetics (ie relations) only good for 1 generation really and regional ancestry also quite dubious as dna info is rapidly diminished as you go back through generations. IMHO not worth £100+

I thought there was no such thing as a scientific definition of race or ethnicity? It’s all just shades of grey.
It’s an entirely artificial way of grouping people together.

Worth a read of this… https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/1846558239 Not just Neanderthals we mated with!

Nah, you don’t need DNA, just the far more scientific Nails Test.

Viking – drive a nail into arm, no reaction.

Scottish – whaddya mean, only one nail? Gies us twa!

Irish – already used up all their nails on each other

Welsh – have no nails, the English stole them.

English – they’re the helpful chaps who carry a hammer and say “Here, let me help you with that Nail test”

See, simple.

Oh, and if you do try the Nail Test, then there’s a good chance of high % Neanderthal. 🙂

Don’t know about “race”, but the DNA clustering is interesting: