Has anyone ever done one of those ancestry DNA tests?

Reeeeyah

13

I did one and why am I 7% African? and 2% Caucasus?

I thought I was white.

Reply 1

ruthf

15

Original post by Reeeeyah

I did one and why am I 7% African? and 2% Caucasus?

I thought I was white.

Do some research. No one is ‘white’ in the sense that you mean. We are all a mixture of various different races. If you have a problem with that then maybe take a long, hard think about why on Earth you would.

Reply 2

AzureCeleste

20

Also do your research on how those tests work.
They're literally comparing your DNA to people of a certain race-I personally wouldn't trust it

Reply 3

Reeeeyah

OP

13

Original post by ruthflame57

Do some research. No one is ‘white’ in the sense that you mean. We are all a mixture of various different races. If you have a problem with that then maybe take a long, hard think about why on Earth you would.

Never said I had a problem with it. I’m confused as to how I got those results, that’s all. Ya tosspot.

Reply 4

ruthf

15

Original post by Reeeeyah

Never said I had a problem with it. I’m confused as to how I got those results, that’s all. Ya tosspot.

Why are you confused? How can you be confused by that? Did you honestly believe you were 100% white? Open a book some time in your life.

Reply 5

HateOCR

22

Everybody originated from mitochondrial Eve who lived in Africa some 200,000 years ago

Reply 6

Feastful

16

Original post by Reeeeyah

I did one and why am I 7% African? and 2% Caucasus?

I thought I was white.

To be fair I would be very alarmed about being 2% Couscous (sorry but that's what I automatically read that as XD ).

But yeah, Caucasian...While I've never taken one of these DNA tests, what I can say for certain is that we've never been a very isolated island. People of African descent were arriving at these shores as far back as the Roman times (and there are endless examples of this from all over the country, for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-38172433 & https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1464209/Borders-folk-may-be-descended-from-Africans.html ), so its entirely feasible to have African ancestry. Roman's aside, in the Medieval times the church had widespread links which connected us to many other countries, and in some cases, monks were traveling from as far afield from Northern Africa to visit our shores.

Though you may appear totally white, if you had a black ancestor in the Medieval Times, that would be more than enough time for any external stereotypical African features to be lost over the centuries (but while still retaining a distinct African origin genetic mark in the DNA). Also, we are all ultimately descended from people who originated in Africa (and that story is still told in even the whitest people's genetic makeup).

Only 2% Caucasian though? What did the other percentages say? What exact DNA test did you take (and who by)?

Reply 7

username3434964

21

Yes. White is my favourite country.

Reply 8

Reeeeyah

OP

13

Original post by Feastful

To be fair I would be very alarmed about being 2% Couscous (sorry but that's what I automatically read that as XD ).

But yeah, Caucasian...While I've never taken one of these DNA tests, what I can say for certain is that we've never been a very isolated island. People of African descent were arriving at these shores as far back as the Roman times (and there are endless examples of this from all over the country, for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-38172433 & https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1464209/Borders-folk-may-be-descended-from-Africans.html ), so its entirely feasible to have African ancestry. Roman's aside, in the Medieval times the church had widespread links which connected us to many other countries, and in some cases, monks were traveling from as far afield from Northern Africa to visit our shores.

Though you may appear totally white, if you had a black ancestor in the Medieval Times, that would be more than enough time for any external stereotypical African features to be lost over the centuries (but while still retaining a distinct African origin genetic mark in the DNA). Also, we are all ultimately descended from people who originated in Africa (and that story is still told in even the whitest people's genetic makeup).

Only 2% Caucasian though? What did the other percentages say? What exact DNA test did you take (and who by)?

Thank you very much for your answer, that was very helpful!

I got 2% Caucasus which is apparently people who are from west Asia?

I only got 32% British.
20% Irish.
Iberian peninsula
Italy/Greece
Finland/Northwest Russia

I probably didn’t word my first post very well in that I didn’t mean I had a problem with having that in my ancestry, it just confused me as obviously I wasn’t aware of it. The test I took can only go back 500-1000 years. I took the DNA test from the Ancestry website.

Reply 9

Feastful

16

Original post by Reeeeyah

Thank you very much for your answer, that was very helpful!

I got 2% Caucasus which is apparently people who are from west Asia?

I only got 32% British.
20% Irish.
Iberian peninsula
Italy/Greece
Finland/Northwest Russia

I probably didn’t word my first post very well in that I didn’t mean I had a problem with having that in my ancestry, it just confused me as obviously I wasn’t aware of it. The test I took can only go back 500-1000 years. I took the DNA test from the Ancestry website.

The problem with the test using terms such as "British" or "Irish" etc, is that all of these countries have very mixed (and often shared) genetic ancestries (for example lots of German, French & Danish DNA in what we commonly perceive to be "British" people etc), so that in many respects, these definitions are not narrowing things down your ancestry very well.

But a great deal of historical events have happened over the millennia which could easily explain a lot of your genetic ancestry. For example:

1. I've looked up Caucasus and the first thing that I noticed was that the Caucasus regions proximity to Russia. There would have been lots of movement over the boarders (and if you have a sizeable chunk of Russian genetic heritage, having a minor amount of Caucasus heritage could tie in with that). For example, there was a long series conflicts between the Russians and the Caucasus people's in the 1780s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechen%E2%80%93Russian_conflict

2. The Finns participated in Vikings' trade routes to the East, there is evidence of Viking settlements in Finland and some Vikings were also of Finnish heritage (here is also an example of a Viking Sword found in Finland: https://www.enca.com/life/1000-year-old-viking-sword-found-in-finland ). Where this is potentially relevant in your heritage, is that the Vikings were also very well traveled to Britain (at first helping us, then repeatedly attacking us and invading us, before finally conquering us and setting up their own Viking king (King Canute/Cnut) to rule our country). More on Vikings & Finns: https://www.quora.com/Were-there-Finns-among-the-Viking-especially-during-the-raids-Are-there-any-books-about-this

Because of all the rape and intermarriage that resulted from these Viking raids (and then later settlement) on our shores, "Viking DNA" (as in DNA more associated with the Nordic/Slavic countries etc) is very common among the British people's. This DNA is not evenly spread across our population though- where Viking raids and settlements were more commonplace, so too the DNA is more concentrated.

The Vikings also installed leaders in Russia too, starting with a guy called Rurik (who was a Viking who founded a whole dynasty in Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians ).

If you have any Viking heritage, that alone could help explain a number of the other countries associated genetics in your heritage.

3. Ireland has had so much back & forth history with Britain over the millennia too (near continuous movement between the countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_migration_to_Great_Britain ), it has resulted in about 10% of British people having Irish ancestry (so having Irish ancestry is very common among British people's).

For example during the great Irish Famine, vast numbers of starving Irish people fled to mainland England: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/chm/outreach/migration/backgroundreading/migration/

The Vikings too also invaded Ireland (resulting in more Viking genetic mingling):

4. Concerning the Italian & Greek ancestry etc, again, history is full of stories of intermingling, migrations, invasions & more. But if you want to be more certain about what actual stories are true for your heritage, then the best thing to do is to simply start filling out your family ancestry tree via a website like Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/

Some of the largest scale movements of people happened during WW1 & WW2 (which included people fleeing from a great deal of countries to England), and you may find that some of your genetic heritage is in fact surprisingly recent (with various relatives having genetic backgrounds which you did not previously know about).

For example, last year I began to fill out my own family tree online more (and in the process, connecting up to endless other relatives and different family tree's etc) and I discovered that I actually share direct common ancestor (1750) with the current queen of England, and that in general, after a while a number of German ancestors also begin to crop up in the family. The funny thing is that when I visited Germany once a few years back (before I found all of this out), I found myself being struck by how similar I looked to a lot of German people I saw walking past (which is unusual because in England I almost never come across people who I feel actually look like me) and a number of people approached people and spoke to me in German as (despite me being in a very touristy group) because they assumed that I was German. At the time, I figured it must just be down to having Anglo-Saxon heritage or something (not absolutely confirmed in myself, but so common among British people in general etc), but it looks like the genetic link to Germany was much closer than I thought!

In my family tree journey (on top of all the expected English heritage) I also discovered repeated links to Scotland, Wales & Australia. I know that somewhere I also have French ancestry on at least 2 different main sides of my family. I have discovered a great deal of interesting people in my ancestry (politicians, farmers, scientists, doctors, inventors, aristocrats, generals, criminals, great tragedies and more) and as I fill out my tree more, the only real common running factor in my ancestry, seems to be that people travel a LOT! Lol.

So I really recommend not just leaving things at the DNA test, but filling out your tree more for clues too. You never know what surprising stories & interesting people's you might discover!

Has anyone ever done one of those ancestry DNA tests?

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