Anyone get surprise with their AncestryDNA results?

[tzolkin]

How come everyone who has a Native American background is part Cherokee and not part Lenape Lenape or some other less romantic tribe?

"My great grandma was a Cherokee princess" is a big joke among native people. Of course there are some who really do have Cherokee heritage, but if you're going to lie at least be a little more creative

 

[goofyernmost]

I haven't done the DNA and probably won't, but, last year I did a pretty extensive Ancestry.com search for my family and found the the original named family came from England. My parents and grandparents told us for years that we were German originally, but, became very much intermixed with French, American Indian (don't know which tribe) and British straight from London. No German connection at all.

 

[kimblebee]

"My great grandma was a Cherokee princess" is a big joke among native people. Of course there are some who really do have Cherokee heritage, but if you're going to lie at least be a little more creative

It seems like it's a status thing, just like saying you have a relative who came over on the Mayflower. Either the boat held 100000 people or there's a lot of inbreeding that went on lol

 

[Erzengel]

I thought Ancestry DNA kind of just told you your ancestry makeup. I didn't know it links you with potential family. I know I kind of said I wasn't going to contact any family members as I didn't want to ruin memories. But I did find my birth grandfather and I've had people start contacting me because of the dna matching. "Hi it looks like we are related." I did contact someone who appears to be my grandfather's nephew who's around 60 years old. I only learned that after the fact. He responded to me and I contacted him back with news of his "new family" and he hasn't responded even though it shows he's on that site daily. So I'm not sure if he's contacting other relatives to check on my information or is upset with the news.

 

[momz]

It seems like it's a status thing, just like saying you have a relative who came over on the Mayflower. Either the boat held 100000 people or there's a lot of inbreeding that went on lol

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where), that a full 10% of the US population can, in fact, trace their ancestry to the Mayflower. They were quite prolific people and that pattern continued for generations. Lots of kids.

i'm one of them. My ancestor was an indentured servant on the Mayflower. He also got into some trouble down the line, but that's another story. Humble beginnings, let's just say that.

 

[momz]

I thought Ancestry DNA kind of just told you your ancestry makeup. I didn't know it links you with potential family. I know I kind of said I wasn't going to contact any family members as I didn't want to ruin memories. But I did find my birth grandfather and I've had people start contacting me because of the dna matching. "Hi it looks like we are related." I did contact someone who appears to be my grandfather's nephew who's around 60 years old. I only learned that after the fact. He responded to me and I contacted him back with news of his "new family" and he hasn't responded even though it shows he's on that site daily. So I'm not sure if he's contacting other relatives to check on my information or is upset with the news.

Wow, interesting situation. You identify this person as your "birth" grandfather. I take it you are not familiar with your biological family then? I hope things go well for you and you are able to make connections for yourself.

I have not done the DNA thing, but I'm not at all against embracing a family member if it were discovered that a relative fathered an illegitimate child somewhere out there. Not saying this is your situation, I'm just daydreaming about what could be discovered through this process.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I was surprised to see no Native American ancestry. Supposedly, I have it on both sides, and can trace the sides to specific tribes. Several of us certainly look as though we are Native American, too, but not a trace of it in my results. I was also surprised to see 68% Irish until I started digging around in the family tree. Sure enough, heavily Scots-Irish.
Dh supposedly has Cherokee in his mother's line, but his results also did not support this. I also expected DH to show up as heavily Czech since he is half Czech, but his Czech side must be mutts. He is lots of little bits of various European countries and slightly East Asian. His paternal grandparents, though, both came over from Czechoslovakia and identify as Moravian Czech for.several generations before them.

As for NA results, either the tests have trouble detecting NA DNA or previous generations have sometimes been a bit confused. I wish I knew for sure.

 

[Erzengel]

Wow, interesting situation. You identify this person as your "birth" grandfather. I take it you are not familiar with your biological family then? I hope things go well for you and you are able to make connections for yourself.

I have not done the DNA thing, but I'm not at all against embracing a family member if it were discovered that a relative fathered an illegitimate child somewhere out there. Not saying this is your situation, I'm just daydreaming about what could be discovered through this process.

Without going into too much detail, I'm not familiar with my birth grandfather or his side of the family.

It doesn't necessarily bother me, but I was hoping that I could be told something about him as he's passed on and so has all his siblings. So any information I would have got would just be informative.

 

[dreiwhit]

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where), that a full 10% of the US population can, in fact, trace their ancestry to the Mayflower. They were quite prolific people and that pattern continued for generations. Lots of kids.

I never knew until recently that I had a Mayflower ancestor. Unfortunately, he died in the first winter, but some of his family survived.

My wife also found out that she had three ancestors that were on the Mayflower. She doesn't let me forget it!

Suprisingly enough, we discovered that my wife and I had a common ancestor back in the early 1500s.

 

[tvguy]

Suprisingly enough, we discovered that my wife and I had a common ancestor back in the early 1500s.

.

 

[cats mom]

It seems like it's a status thing, just like saying you have a relative who came over on the Mayflower. Either the boat held 100000 people or there's a lot of inbreeding that went on lol

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where), that a full 10% of the US population can, in fact, trace their ancestry to the Mayflower. They were quite prolific people and that pattern continued for generations. Lots of kids.

i'm one of them. My ancestor was an indentured servant on the Mayflower. He also got into some trouble down the line, but that's another story. Humble beginnings, let's just say that.

Closer to 12% of the population per research posted on History News Network (circa 2004, no idea what current numbers are). "A staggering 35 million people can claim an ancestral lineage that runs all the way back - sometimes through fifteen generations - to the original 24 males." (of the 102 passengers of the Mayflower, 24 males produced children to carry on their surnames).

I can also trace back to the Mayflower, which gets me requests for donations to the Governor William Bradford Compact, and generally a pretty easy report for my kids when they're doing the unit on the Mayflower in school. lol

I wonder what percentage of the population can legitimately claim Native American ancestry? A couple of studies have found 4% - 5% using genetic testing, but the sample sizes were small, and there's the whole small number of Native American genetic markers available to use in DNA testing thing.

I haven't done DNA testing, but I am finding this thread an interesting read.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

My DH and I started working on our genealogy and I said if he found out that we were somehow related to each other, I DONT WANT TO KNOW! That would creep me out.

 

[hereyago]

It seems like it's a status thing, just like saying you have a relative who came over on the Mayflower. there's a lot of inbreeding that went on lol

Lol, probably. The only other settlers were in Jamestown and that was slim pickings as well, not to mention they were all males.

 

[aprilgail]

Don't give up hope. My mom was adopted and found her biological mother about 30 years ago. She refused to tell her anything about her biological father and no one else knew anything. My mom, my siblings and I all took the ancestry test several years ago. My mom, who is 68, was convinced that we would never find anything after all this time. Well, after doing the same things that you are doing, I finally got a hint from a 3rd cousin last spring that led me to my mom's biological father. Unfortunately, he had already passed away, but we were able to find several half siblings and have them tested.

GOT HIM!! I had a ancestryDNA match of a 3rd cousin, looking at his tree he had the same last name on there as my birth father- I messaged him numerous times over the past 2 years and never got a response- I gave it one more shot this month and he answered- apologized because the notifications went to spam and he never got them. Turns out my father is his fathers brother. He passed away but I am fine with that-it is closure. The cousin is sending me a copy of his death certificate and some pictures of him. He had no other kids so no half siblings there for me. I am so happy- no more days spent online searching!

 

[rastahomie]

I haven't done this, yet, for many reasons (money being the main one). I may do it someday.

However, I doubt there's much they can tell me that I don't already know. If human beings could be mutts, I am one. Best I can tell, my ancestry is about 2% of each of 50 ethnic groups - Eastern European, Western European, Northern European, Plains Indians, and so on and so forth. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if I had some Japanese and African thrown in there, just for the lulz.

 

[bdcp]

We got our results in March. I'm 55% GB, 16% Scandinavian and 11% Irish with the rest a mix that includes Germany and other European countries. My maiden name is both Irish and English. I'm 0% Native American, African and Asian which is no surprise. I joke I'm just about as white as I can be. DH is 16% Native American, 35% Iberian Peninsula (I posted before he's Puerto Rican) and smaller percentages of European, Asian (1%), European Jew (1%) and something like 15% African. The Moors went all over Europe so that's pretty common in a lot of European families to have African DNA. As for the Native American, that can range from North through Central and South American and the Caribbean which makes sense since he's Puerto Rican. Neither of us were really surprised except I thought I'd be more Irish and German than British, although I have all on both sides.

My first cousin is getting ready to do it and we're curious to see her percentages since it's that side of the family that is considered mostly Irish.

 

[dhardawa]

FYI - the basic kit only test PATERNAL DNA. You have to get a different kit for MATERNAL DNA kit but from my understanding only women can only get maternal DNA test results.

At least that is what my parents told me when my mom took hers to find out things that didn't make sense from her moms side. She took the maternal test and it was a puzzle to dicipher.

There's no way this is correct. I think what your confusing is chromosomal DNA that comes from both parents with mitochondrial DNA that comes only from your mom. Even geneticists can't tell you which parent your DNA came from without testing them too. Well, except for your sex chromosomes.

My son is adopted. His dad is white and his mom is half black and half white. His Ancestry DNA came back 75% European and 25% African.

 

[disneychrista]

There's no way this is correct. I think what your confusing is chromosomal DNA that comes from both parents with mitochondrial DNA that comes only from your mom. Even geneticists can't tell you which parent your DNA came from without testing them too. Well, except for your sex chromosomes.

I just know what I was told. Maybe the information my mom got was mis-understood. I do know my mom was more interested in her maternal heritage.

 

[Deb]

There's no way this is correct. I think what your confusing is chromosomal DNA that comes from both parents with mitochondrial DNA that comes only from your mom. Even geneticists can't tell you which parent your DNA came from without testing them too. Well, except for your sex chromosomes.

My son is adopted. His dad is white and his mom is half black and half white. His Ancestry DNA came back 75% European and 25% African.

It's actually completely wrong. The basic test is a "family finder" test that is relatively accurate for a few generations on both sides. The Ydna test can only be taken by men and goes back many generations straight back the paternal like (father's father's father's father and so on) The mitochondrial test can be taken by anyone but tracks the maternal line only (mother's mother's mother and so on)

 

[eileenjez]

I took the test and surprise I came back as 95% Irish. Mom always told us we were all Irish and as both Mom and Dad were born there and most of the family are still there I didn't think it could be anything else. The other 5% was Great Britain. My husband's was all Eastern European. We knew that one also from his parents. Our children were fun. One had 50% Irish and 48% Eastern Europe while the other had 50% Eastern European, 48% Irish. I've also been in contact with some relatives that I didn't know about. Some here in the US.