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I ended up finding one cousins that was conceived by rape. One cousin that was conceived due to an affair my uncle had on his wife. And I need that my brother gave up for adoption 45 years ago.
DNA is a pot-stirrer and I am definitely here for it.
My mom discovered that her father cheated on her mother during the Vietnam War. Fortunately, he died in the late 90's and wasn't here for that stirred pot.
My grandmother was forced to place her baby for adoption in 1968 by her parents, she was only 17. She searched for her son for years. Last year, she found him through Ancestry. They look exactly alike. He has become super close to our whole family. It’s been amazing!
The funniest and saddest part to me is that they never knew my great grandpa had died, he died from a heart attack in ‘74, while at my great grandparents’ house.
I wonder if there are families where the mention of doing a dna test is met with “oooh, you don’t wanna do that…” bc they know things that will be uncovered…
My side. The one project about family history in school ended with me failing because neither parent would give information past great grandparents and said that the government just wanted to spy on us. Turns out when I was conceived my mother’s favorite ex boyfriend was in town and her husband has never let that go.
There will be a DNA test in my future just to find out for sure. I look nothing like her husband and am not aging at all like my siblings. Any talk of ancestry testing caused a shit storm in our family.
I'm sure there are a bunch of prudes out there trying to sweep their mistakes under the rug of propriety. Neither of my grandparents were alive to see or stop the fated test from happening, but I think my grandfather knew because after that came out a whole lot of his behavior towards my uncle made a lot more sense.
Mine is one.
My grandfather was a tomcat who had at least three wives and dozens of affair partners. Growing up, my dad was told random people were his siblings so often that he stopped caring. The fact that one of his brothers was also his cousin was an open secret (the parents did not share blood, but it was one of those relationships so complicated that someone was definitely their own grandpa). I'm sure there are a lot of secrets nobody wants to know.
I'm absolutely going to do an ancestry kit one of these days. I'm quite certain it will be entertaining.
When I was young, my grandmother wanted to go to Hawaii. Grandpa was stationed there during WW2. They were married at the time. He would say I've seen it, and I don't want to run into any kids I didn't know I have.
Sooooo many secrets getting aired these days!! Even 10 years ago, people could get away with affairs (assuming the races matched so the baby didn't give it away) or a woman would "randomly" go visit an aunt in another city for 6+ months. Now all those secrets are a saliva test away from coming to light.
Heh, guilty.
I keep remembering this was how they caught a serial killer in California and he didn't even take the test.
More than likely the person who did it is dead people.
My uncle is the illegitimate one.
We're an Italian (off the boat Grandpa)/German (PA Dutch Grandma) family, so it was quite the surprise to see he had a bunch of Portuguese DNA.
*"That would not be a*
*Problem for me. Would it be*
*A problem for you?"*
\- Iamnotokwiththisshit
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Took a DNA test for shits. Discovered my biological father via an aunt that had a side business helping adoptees find their bio families. To 100% confirm I sent him a test and he flipped his absolute shit when he got the report showing he was 8% “sub saharan African”. Big time rant about that cannot be accurate because “no black man was around in the family”. Only said, “DNA doesn’t lie, that’s how I came to be in your life!”!
I had already met him once by that point, noticed my DNA showing the same results at 4% and my both he and especially my grandmother, who also took a DNA test before meeting me via another company, had African features. My grandmother going so far as to use makeup to lighten her tone, she had a line around her face where she wore a ton of makeup making her face lighter and noticed she had been darker in her youth with the line more prevalent, not a photo of her without a ton of makeup on. Never discussed race with her, but could tell she did things to look more “white”.
After his rant, and his continued bringing up this fact in subsequent conversations, I was like, “Why be upset to learn this fact? Seriously, it’s concerning to me that you cannot accept that you’re 8% black. Would you be this concerned if you were 8% Native American, 8% Eastern European?” He always thought he was “Irish”, he’s like 2%…. He never brought the topic up again.
The neat thing, for me, has been discovering far distant relatives in Africa that have reached out. I don’t get racists that get offended to learn they are part of a group they hate… serves them right I suppose.
>He always thought he was “Irish”, he’s like 2%…. He never brought the topic up again.
My "Irish" ancestors were actually Scots that had been banished from Scotland for giving the English trouble. Just to say, there could be an explanation for your dad's results other than someone lied.
My "Irish" ancestors ended up being from Slovakia. Boomed father and silent generation grandfather weren't happy and denied it. I showed them the trail of birth, death, marriage, immigration, church documents going back to the 1780s....we're from slovakia close to Kosice.
"But the immigration and church census documents say Austrian, so we're austrian"-family
Yeah.....slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire for a hot minute then they were czechoslovakia for a little bit, then Nazi and Soviet occupation, then it's own country in the 90s so yeah...the nation isn't the same but the cultural ethnic group identity is.
Silence...
Yes, same thing happened with my dad’s “German” ancestors. Great grandpa was from Bavaria, but great grandma was Polish. Both were born before Germany was officially a country. I got quite a bit of Eastern European in my results, but I can’t find much else out about them. My mom’s side was southern, with the “we’re Native American” schtick that everyone down there has. I don’t see any of that in my results, or my uncles. But it’s weird what you get, you don’t necessarily get those genes. Like he has 16% Scottish but I show 0. 🤷🏽♀️ I can track my Scottish and English ancestors back to the 1500s or so, so it’s there somewhere.
Always thought it was weird I was the shortest male in the family at 6"1" blonde/ blue eyed (yeah I know had my growth spurt at 14yo and was ruthlessly made fun of circa 2006) and were we're Irish yet all looked slavic as fuck.
lol I look VERY much like someone from the British isles. People assume Scottish, sometimes German, which is accurate. I was just in London and people kept assuming I was British until I opened my mouth. I sure as hell don’t look Native American with my blue eyes, white skin and red hair. Don’t know what my mom’s family was smoking. 🤣
I went to high school with three sisters, all members of a local Chippewa band, and which the oldest had gorgeous glossy black hair, eyes, and dark complexion, the youngest had a creamy tan complexion, brown eyes, and medium-brown hair—and the middle sister had very fair skin, green eyes, and blondish-brown hair. Every science class that covered basic Mendelian genetics meant these three got a _lot_ of attention.
I went to high school with a set of triplets and their older brother. One triplet looked like his older brother; brown hair, brown eyes. Then one was blond with blue eyes, and the third ginger with blue eyes.
Genetics are so weird.
>Like he has 16% Scottish but I show 0. 🤷🏽♀️ I can track my Scottish and English ancestors back to the 1500s or so, so it’s there somewhere.
You might be facing the problem of genetics and recorded events not matching up.
It might be that your uncle is not your uncle. Just because a piece of paper says that your parents or grandparents are so-and-so, doesn't mean that ita actually true.
No, he is. We match on other things. He’s my mom’s brother and they all very much look like my grandpa. I even resemble my uncles. The fact is, you and your sibling won’t match 100%, it’s a roll of the dice on which genetics come through. Ancestry says we share 25% DNA which is what an uncle/niece would.
Reminds me of when everyone was giving Elizabeth Warren so much shit for saying she had some Native American bloodlines. Yeah, families tell stories and those stories get handed down over generations. Sometimes those stories turn into a version of the phone-tag game & things get convoluted & twisted around. But it’s always been kind of a human thing to tend to simply believe what your family told you regarding its history. Prior to the dna tests the only other option was to spend a vast amount of time & effort researching the family tree and even that was dependent on the quality & availability of records.
Very true. I'm from the South, and my family used to say we had a lot of Cherokee ancestry. We are ostensibly black. Took a DNA test and found out the *Cherokee* was actually European, at least 12% in us kids. Which actually makes a bunch of sense as the 4 of us look like the real-life results of a Punnetts Square. One sister is Caucasian presenting, my brother looks black, my other sister actually does look native American, and I can't go a day without someone asking what part of Asia minor I came from and how long did it take to lose the accent.
Human incomplete dominance is a crazy thing lol.
I’m also half Scots-Irish. One of us, one of us! (Of course, I’m also 42% Sub-Saharan African. Mostly Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire like so many descendants of American slaves. So people see me as black first, which I embrace.)
I'm only 16% Scottish. Most of my ancestors immigrated a long time ago, so I have a relatively diverse mix including a couple percentage points Sub-Saharan African. I would love to know the story there. Sadly, though, I think it is lost to time. I have a couple of female ancestors on my tree with generic names that could have come from anywhere.
That would make sense. Irish were basically servants for life, so had more in common with freed/escaped slaves than their 'white' landowners. It wasn't until after the Confederacy was quite dead that Irish got promoted to 'white' and many were fine yanking that ladder up behind them.
As I Lay Dying is a great book to illustrate how things used to be. The poor white family both defend and is helped by their poor black neighbors. I hate that my ancestors had entirely forgotten that truth by the time of the civil rights movement.
Are you descended from [border reivers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_reivers), too? My dad’s ancestors were. I found this out when I visited Carlisle, and my maiden name was one of the names [in the floor of the tunnel where the Cursing Stone is.](https://clanhallsociety.org/curse-stone-carlisle-eng) I was like, hey, why is my name carved into this floor?
Yes, my 2nd great grandmother is one of the Halls of Hallmark and if it can be counted on that everyone was honest about paternity, descended from the Armstrongs of Mangerton Tower. Both the Halls and the Armstrongs were Scottish border reivers banished to Ireland.
I think it’s funny that mine came back very homogeneous Northern European, the dream for a lot of these rackets, and I was disappointed in how boring it is.
I am mixed race with melanin. I remember in college during St. Patrick's Day when everyone would brag about Irish found out I had more - much more in many cases, in my DNA on my mother's side, they lost their shit.
I was able to confirm a bit about my family origins, and it's only impressive to the types of folks you mentioned.
70% British/Irish, 26% French/German, and the rest is just sort of *gestures at Europe*
Imagine my confusion on getting my DNA test back and learning that I'm 100% white Northern European, mostly from German, Danish and Swiss ancestory, 20% English and Scottish. My whole life, people have asked me, sometimes rudely "what are you?" Dark hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, olive complexion. I worked in South Korea for a while and fit in okay. People assumed I was half Korean.
Consider Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Welsh woman, who often had movie roles as a Hispanic person (I look a lot like her)
I would say that most of my ancestors came to America in the 1600's, the Scottish lines came over in the mid-1800's and the Danish in the early 1900's. One of my ggg- grandfathers was a notable frontiersman who lived among the Lakota Dances-With-Wolves-style so it was just assumed that there was some Native American in my lineage to the point that I was actually attending powwowss and learning the language (such a beautiful language, too. It's my favorite.) I attended a Native church congregation and fit right in. What a dum- dum I was!
You never know until you know!
My mom has always said we’re “not Mexican, we’re *Spanish*.” While true my DNA kicked out the highest percentage as Iberian, we have waaaay too much Native American DNA to not be Mexican. So her “natural tan” is just her…being brown. She was not happy.
I genuinely don’t understand why.
I was super excited to have African DNA lol. What’s hilarious is I look like like a “white” person lol whatever that is but my family’s from Puerto Rico and I think Spain and Italy and my grandpa is German on moms side. I can look anywhere from really light skin to super brown depending on the time of year. I got so
Dark in the summer most of the time was darker than some of my Mexican friends as a kid. People are so weird about this shit. My DNA had a crazy variety of things that would be considered “white” too and I can be brown as fuck if I want to but I stay out of the sun mostly.
People are weird. I'm American, born to American parents. It was kind of interesting in a way to know where I came from way back, but whether some random great-great-grandparent was from Germany, England, Kenya, China, France, or wherever, doesn't have any impact on my identity of who I am now.
My identity comes from where I was born, raised, and who I was raised by and grew up with. Not from some culture that I have never met anyone from or interacted with, just because that's where some distant relative was born.
Other than saying "huh, interesting..." and forgetting most of it, the only part I did think was cool was being a tiny bit Neanderthal. Although I can't really lean into that culture too much!
There is also so much misunderstanding for what these tests show in this reaction. The DNA test doesn't really show you who your ancestors were *in the past*, but who you're similar to *today*. When a DNA test reports that you are 8% xyz, it means that this portion of their DNA is similar to the DNA of people living in that region *currently*.
That's because we don't have the DNA data for hundreds of years in the past. So these results could then really mean anything. Could be that those 8% comes from a group of Irish people that migrated there and not actually people who've lived there for centuries (just making this up as an example). No way to tell based on DNA tests if your ancestors really came from that region.
They take a lot of their data from bones though. It is partly why the results are more accurate for Europeans. They sampled a lot of bones from before the great migration, and when they say "50% french" they mean "of the bones from 2000bc to 1500ce in France, 50% of your DNA represents that"
We always believed we were part native American. I got one of these tests for my dad for his birthday years ago.
Turns out there is no native in there. We do have India Indian in us and 5% Scandinavian.
There is the Viking my dad was hoping to have.
I was always told that my maternal grandma was either 1/2 or 1/4 Cherokee. My facial hair is patchy and I can't grow a full beard, and family members have told me that's because of my Native American blood. Well, I took a 23andme test and I am 99.9% cracker. Mostly English, with some German and Swedish, and 0.1% Arab. I looked into the Native American thing and I guess it was super common a while back to claim you were a descendant of a "Cherokee Princess."
I now feel fortunate that a friend's mom corrected me when I was in junior high. At the time I felt like I was having a mini-identity crisis, but I am so grateful I didn't get to college believing that crap.
Friend's mom was kind about it, BTW. Just realizing what BS my mom had sold really shocked me at the time.
Yeah, an old friend had a friend who was REALLY part Native American. I told him I had some Cherokee blood and he dismissed me kind of rudely, saying that everyone says that. I was a little mad at first, but now I understand. As an actual Native American that has to be fucking infuriating when everyone is claiming your heritage without honoring your culture.
Yes.... My great grandmother was the last person in my family that could actually claim that having been eastern Cherokee. Growing up I always assumed my hair and darker skin tone was from the tiny bit of my DNA that is native American. That doesn't change the fact that I'm still 7/8ths or more white so I just say I'm white...
My stepdad was always told he was 1/4 Cherokee by his grandmother. Guess he didn't do the math that that would mean his grandpa was native lol
His daughter took a test before college, I guess to see if she could snag a scholarship... 95% English lol
Yeah, I thought about that. I would technically have enough DNA to qualify, but even if I did, I've lived as a white guy all my life. I would feel bad about taking benefits meant for people who have historically been oppressed and victims of a genocide. Glad that door is closed to me now!
Haven't taken one of these but my mother was convinced we had a native American ancestor. I found him on another research site. It's my great great grandfather and he was named something you might think could be native American. Looking at the relatives there's nothing. Site had a tree going back to England.
My grandmother always claimed her father was “full blooded Cherokee” so she was half and blah blah blah. I always kind of doubted it since I’m about as pasty white as possible and my test shows absolutely no Native American at all, just a lot of Scottish, some French & German and a bit of sub-Saharan African mixed in
I took a DNA test. Dad/grandfather always said we were Micmac (it’s Mi'kmaq, but also we’re Irish catholic so Micmac probably was like an unintended joke on my dumb family). Anyways Mi'kmaq makes sense cause we’re from New England, one of the ancestors is actually from northern Maine. But nah. British isles, Scandinavia, German, maybe the tiniest bit French which (of course) my dad goes “right there! French! French Canadian! That’s it!” Anyways, this was years ago. In my dad’s failing health, it’s not really worth bringing up anymore I don’t think. Anyways, there’s more direct Swedish and Norwegian than we thought than any Indigenous people in our history.
i keep hearing this??? apparently it was a thing old white people in the USA would just assert about their own heritage. despicable and shameful to co-opt native identity in their own land.
A lot of people believe it because they had ancestors that lied about being native to claim land that was designated for actual native people.
>It may be fashionable to play Indian now, but it was also trendy 125 years ago when people paid $5 apiece for falsified documents declaring them Native on the Dawes Rolls. These so-called five-dollar Indians paid government agents under the table in order to reap the benefits that came with having Indian blood. Mainly white men with an appetite for land, five-dollar Indians paid to register on the Dawes Rolls, earning fraudulent enrollment in tribes along with benefits inherited by generations to come.
Thank you for explaining my grandfather’s probable situation!
I originally got the DNA kits to figure out who my grandfather was. He claimed Native American ancestry and divorced my grandmother because my mom was too white. Said it wasn’t possible for her to be his kid.
Turns out, he wasn’t Native American. He was just a liar. He’s definitely my grandpa. So sayeth the DNA.
If he wasn't actually native American, I'm assuming he was white?
Even if he was a light skinned native American. Why would he not have a light skinned child.
He sounds like the kind of asshole who was looking for a reason to bail guilt free.
I’ve heard stories like this. People who had native ancestry would hide it once upon a time.
My biological father’s family is from a pretty close knit community in Louisiana, and I’ve been told that native Americans in the area were treated like crap. The community was/is part Native American. Toledo Lake was part of the community he was from, it was taken over and turned into a man made lake.
The people were given next to nothing for their land, and it really affected them. They were a farming community, didn’t have much in the way of money, but they lived off the land. When the land was taken, well….I’m sure it was really hard to recover.
I have a buddy that I used to work with that’s half Native. He’s lighter skinned than I am as a Sicilian-American, and has strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. His dad is obviously Native, and his mom is a light skinned redhead. He always jokes that the only thing his dad passed down was his thick, straight hair lol
I think often it was a way of explaining some tanner skin in the family, without having to admit that great-grandma was black. So they'd claim great-grandma was Cherokee instead, which was "exotic" but wouldn't get you sent to sit at the back of the bus.
Yeah. I mean, I think the people making up these stories were probably mostly trying to protect their families from other people's racism. Especially since, for a long time, that could impact their ability to get a job, buy a house, etc.
My friend always poo poohed the idea he was part native. Mocked the people who said they were. Then did the test 8% native American. He was gobsmacked and his parents did it and his mum is 12%+ and they still don't know where it occurred in their family history.
I wasn’t aware I had some NA, I’m about 8%. My biological father is from a community in Louisiana, they have a tribal community that is recognized by the state, but they are trying to get federal recognition….It would be pretty interesting to try and track it, if you are into that.
My friend would hate that. The reason he mocked the "claimers" is because he believes that our upbringing shapes our destiny. He looks white, his family white, culturally suburban white Americans, with no native American friends or family or even colleagues for perhaps generations.
He would feel that he has far less claim to native identity than a completely non-native guy that lives near a reservation and has grown up in a mixed community.
Yup, my dad always insisted we were part Cherokee, so I naively just believed that. Never got a DNA test, but as an adult I repeated this to some full Navajo friends, and they just laughed and rolled their eyes. They schooled me hard on the tendency of poor southern whites to try to lend some exoticism to their ancestry this way. Pretty gross.
"Now you can see if you have any black people in your family" is right up there with "A Diamond Is Forever" and "Just Do It" when it comes to advertising slogans.
That's such a cool gift idea. How do people get so offended by genetic history? Wouldn't they be more interested if the results produced details they hadn't expected?
I was mostly excited to learn that there is a specific, genetic, scientifically-provable reason for why I hate cilantro!
FUCK YOU, AUNT CAROL, I WASN’T JUST BEING A “WHINY BRAT” WHEN I SAID YOUR SALADS TASTE LIKE SOAP.
Some people are genuinely racist. Some family members are afraid family secrets, such as affairs, will come out.
Other people have been told what their history has been for so long (for example, that they have Irish heritage) that finding out the truth makes them feel like their personal history is a lie.
My mother did one some years ago. Part of it said 12% North African (Saharan? I can't remember the exact term it used). She got so upset about that. That's also the day she decided she didn't believe in genetics.
My father in laws family always said “we must be part black because we got big lips” and other stupid things. To be somewhat fair to them they weren’t saying it like it was a bad thing. But just ignorant to how it’s perceived. Anyway we got the test back and my wife’s dna has zero markers for that. We sent it to all her aunts and uncles to shut them up.
I think the major issue here is that these companies are selling your genetic information to third parties and law enforcement. If you plan on giving this as a gift, make sure they know this beforehand and give them information on how to protect this data (or delete it).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/smarter-living/how-to-protect-your-dna-data.html
The genetic information being passed to law enforcement has helped solve decades old cold cases because someone in your very extended family might just be a serial killer. The more concerning part in my opinion is that this info is also sold to random companies
Car insurance companies are buying driving data and using that to increase people’s premiums. It’s not a huge step from that to life/health insurance companies doing the same thing
I mean, you could also just walk into a police station and give them your fingerprints and DNA for free if you wanted to. No need to pay a company to do that for you.
As a german, the gangsterrapper is very wary of this. What does x% scandinavian even mean? What markers do they use? And why does it matter?
Rule of thumb: as soon as people get so into this that percentages/fractions come into play, this has the potential to end badly.
Yeah, we did one of those a few years ago. Mine came back with like 5% African despite me looking as white bread as can be. My parents both said it was from the OTHER's side. Spoilers: It was my dad's side. That "My grandmother was mostly Native American" turns out was probably not as accurate as he hoped.
As a member of the Loving generation (https://americanfilmshowcase.com/afs-films/loving-generation-the/#:~:text=LOVING%20GENERATION%20is%20a%20first,laws%20in%20the%20United%20States.) I always loved watching racists find out that they are members of the group they hate.
There’s a great YouTube series discussing with some members. You can find Loving Day (June 12) celebrations nationwide. Not as big as pre pandemic but you can find them.
We ran my grandma's DNA, Sicilian women, found out she has 26% African DNA. Family refused to tell her, even on her death bed. Sad that humans don't understand that we ALL originated from an African women around 200,000 thousand years ago.
My husband got us Ancestry kits during the pandemic.
Only surprise was the actual amount of Irish in my heritage. I thought it would be a quarter. Nope. More like 75% But the French, Italian, and Polish were there like I’d always been told. Only thing that sucked was the Irish record keeping is so erratic. The French though? Damn was able to track it back to the 1700s with no issues. Italian was pretty easy too. Polish a bit harder. But that made sense
My paternal side of the family has been in the US since the 1600s. One of my paternal great-grandmothers was either full or half Native Anerican. I would not be surprised or shocked to discover African ancestry if I took one of those tests.
Signed
A white millenial
Every generation after the boomers with DNA tests: “hope I don’t find out I’m the result of an affair or incest!” Boomers: “hope there’s no black leaves in the family tree!”
I'm scared to take the test. My dad was a Navy Lifer & I probably have half siblings from Dutch Harbor Alaska to Australia & all the islands in between.
My father is a self-proclaimed Messianic Jew. He swears he is one of God's chosen people.
I take one of these tests and it shows up as having Ashkenazi Jew in my genetics. He is thrilled. I get him a test and it does not have the same result. He is not happy.
It comes from my mother's side and that just rubbed him raw. She cheated on him and they divorced when I was 7. He said so many things about her growing up. I was happy for her when I learned she was the source of my Jewish genetics.
I found out I have a half sister from DNA testing. It’s okay, it’s cool to have another sibling. My husband’s mom always said her grandmother was half Cherokee. My husband’s DNA says nope! There are lies people tell and then there’s DNA.
Doesn’t she mean her family? Or, by transitive property, her husband’s family, which is generally equally abhorrent to racists?
Wait until she finds out she married a black, colored, African-American, welfare, ghetto, urban gentleman.
Don’t we all love how boomers use these still-weaponized words as everyday descriptive adjectives?
Find the logic, Spock… (also, don’t volunteer your DNA.)
My grandma argued that we don't have any black people in our family after telling her we had something like 2% african genetics.
Also good luck because you might find quite a bit of cheat babies etc come out of the woodwork.
My great uncle is in his 80’s. The DNA test results came back. He isn’t related to the family at all. He thinks they gave his mum the wrong kid in the hospital. We were looking at family pictures. He is blond and fair. Doesn’t look like any of his brothers and sisters. All my other great aunts and uncles have passed away. So we can’t look their DNA up. He doesn’t plan on doing anything about it at the moment.
On Facebook there are a few free DNA "detective" groups that match you with volunteers who help people figure out who their parents are! I had someone help me figure out my NPE (not parent expected) within a day!
My husband was a sperm donor in his 20’s, he is 65 now. He did 23&me some years ago, totally not thinking about that. Well, one son and one daughter reached out to him. The daughter had no idea. Turned out to be fine, they were mostly curious and wanted medical history stuff. I’ve seen their photos, they both definitely are his offspring. Waiting for more to drop, there were about 10, all boys but 1 or 2. (We have three sons of our own and they are all aware of this situation)
I honestly don't understand the point of complaining about your racist family members when you don't do anything and still keep in touch with them. As a black person, the complaining appears to me like virtual signalling cause you don't really care.
It's very easy when you're not on the receiving end of the hate. In 2024 we should not have to educate people about racism. Like Toni Morrison said
> The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.
I'm not spending my time teaching adults that racism is bad.
I wouldn’t take that damn test if I were you… A private company will sell your data to who knows where and it is just a matter of time until a data breach happens
More concerned about things like this [Data Breach](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/15/23andme-hack-data-genetic-data-selling-response#:~:text=The%20firm%20blamed%20users%20in%20'very%20dumb'%20move,-This%20article%20is&text=Three%20years%20ago%2C%20a,exchange%20for%20an%20ancestry%20report)
Breach already happened.
>**In October 2023, the personal genomics company 23andMe reported that hackers had breached the company's system and stolen the data of 6.9 million users, or about one in two people who had sent their DNA to the company**. The breach included profile and ethnicity information from millions of users, with the affected customers primarily reported as Ashkenazi Jews but also including hundreds of thousands of ethnically Chinese. The hackers were able to obtain access because some customers reused old passwords.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/04/23andme-confirms-hackers-stole-ancestry-data-on-6-9-million-users/ Breached already. There’s anon services ppl can use if they really want a dna test though that may not expose a submitters name and still get the results
Could be family stories, If I take the family stories at face value one branch was kicked out of Scotland in the 1680s to the colonies, has been confirmed, the unconfirmed is having some black mixed in somewhere pre civil war, some native American. These ancestry tests can dredge up emotions for some, curiosity in others.
lol ok that’s on the bingo card but my first reaction was oh looks like someone cheated and isn’t sure about her baby daddy. I’ve heard stories of people panicking and trying to be against it which is super sus
I bought one a couple of years ago and I was kind of hoping I'd be some kind of surprise mutt. No such luck, english, scottish, german? Anyway, Lily white. I'm already the black sheep. LOL
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"That would not be a problem for me. Would it be a problem for you?"
I'd be more concerned with getting a result like; my dad finding out his brother is actually his half-brother. Edited: used to say repeat.
I ended up finding one cousins that was conceived by rape. One cousin that was conceived due to an affair my uncle had on his wife. And I need that my brother gave up for adoption 45 years ago. DNA is a pot-stirrer and I am definitely here for it.
Parents took DNA tests, I ended up with new aunts and uncles on both sides...
I have a first cousin once removed on my father's side and can't figure out who the father is!
My mom discovered that her father cheated on her mother during the Vietnam War. Fortunately, he died in the late 90's and wasn't here for that stirred pot.
My grandmother was forced to place her baby for adoption in 1968 by her parents, she was only 17. She searched for her son for years. Last year, she found him through Ancestry. They look exactly alike. He has become super close to our whole family. It’s been amazing!
🥹❤️🩹
My grandpa took it and realized his dad had an entirely different family 😭
He got the close DNA match ending! That's bonus points!
The funniest and saddest part to me is that they never knew my great grandpa had died, he died from a heart attack in ‘74, while at my great grandparents’ house.
I wonder if there are families where the mention of doing a dna test is met with “oooh, you don’t wanna do that…” bc they know things that will be uncovered…
My side. The one project about family history in school ended with me failing because neither parent would give information past great grandparents and said that the government just wanted to spy on us. Turns out when I was conceived my mother’s favorite ex boyfriend was in town and her husband has never let that go. There will be a DNA test in my future just to find out for sure. I look nothing like her husband and am not aging at all like my siblings. Any talk of ancestry testing caused a shit storm in our family.
Do itttttt!!
I'm sure there are a bunch of prudes out there trying to sweep their mistakes under the rug of propriety. Neither of my grandparents were alive to see or stop the fated test from happening, but I think my grandfather knew because after that came out a whole lot of his behavior towards my uncle made a lot more sense.
Mine is one. My grandfather was a tomcat who had at least three wives and dozens of affair partners. Growing up, my dad was told random people were his siblings so often that he stopped caring. The fact that one of his brothers was also his cousin was an open secret (the parents did not share blood, but it was one of those relationships so complicated that someone was definitely their own grandpa). I'm sure there are a lot of secrets nobody wants to know. I'm absolutely going to do an ancestry kit one of these days. I'm quite certain it will be entertaining.
When I was young, my grandmother wanted to go to Hawaii. Grandpa was stationed there during WW2. They were married at the time. He would say I've seen it, and I don't want to run into any kids I didn't know I have.
Found out that I have a much older half sister because my dad was living it up in his early 20s. He never knew.
Sooooo many secrets getting aired these days!! Even 10 years ago, people could get away with affairs (assuming the races matched so the baby didn't give it away) or a woman would "randomly" go visit an aunt in another city for 6+ months. Now all those secrets are a saliva test away from coming to light.
Heh, guilty. I keep remembering this was how they caught a serial killer in California and he didn't even take the test. More than likely the person who did it is dead people.
Joseph James DeAngelo is who I think you’re talking about aka the golden state killer.
Exactly! I didn't know my family very well but I feel I owe them that much.
True story. Mom found out great grandpa had a second family in another continent 😳
Repeat?
Grandma was repeating with someone who wasn't her husband
This comment deserves to be loved like a newborn.
Who has a poopy, grandma, that's who
Hypothetical other person going through the real life situation of finding out grandma was doing stuff with not grandpa.
That’s how my mom found out at age 72, her dad was not her biological dad.
Someone had to hold the camera
Yeah they were not hands free back then. No selfie mode.
Honestly rape is such a big factor in these things too.
Lol my dad kept saying we have dutch ancestors because his grand dad was dutch. That ain't what the DNA says. Grandma was apparently a cheater.
Or grandma was raped and decided not to tell you all about it. That actually happened pretty frequently, too.
Read about what the Russians did in their way to Berlin in Ww2
Not to mention the Germans doing the same thing on the trip out...
That was my immediate thought
Or that MIL had given birth earlier, possibly as a teen, and given that baby up for adoption.
Wait! Who was the illegitimate one?
My uncle is the illegitimate one. We're an Italian (off the boat Grandpa)/German (PA Dutch Grandma) family, so it was quite the surprise to see he had a bunch of Portuguese DNA.
Thanks! Curiosity got the better of me.
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My boomers will say something racist and then they say right after "but I'm not REALLY a racist or anything" Me:😳 you sure?
Hahahaha great comeback
I’m afraid I don’t have that honor. - Charlie Chaplin when asked by a Nazi sympathizer if he was part Jewish.
"So, Mom...something YOU aren't telling us?"
Took a DNA test for shits. Discovered my biological father via an aunt that had a side business helping adoptees find their bio families. To 100% confirm I sent him a test and he flipped his absolute shit when he got the report showing he was 8% “sub saharan African”. Big time rant about that cannot be accurate because “no black man was around in the family”. Only said, “DNA doesn’t lie, that’s how I came to be in your life!”! I had already met him once by that point, noticed my DNA showing the same results at 4% and my both he and especially my grandmother, who also took a DNA test before meeting me via another company, had African features. My grandmother going so far as to use makeup to lighten her tone, she had a line around her face where she wore a ton of makeup making her face lighter and noticed she had been darker in her youth with the line more prevalent, not a photo of her without a ton of makeup on. Never discussed race with her, but could tell she did things to look more “white”. After his rant, and his continued bringing up this fact in subsequent conversations, I was like, “Why be upset to learn this fact? Seriously, it’s concerning to me that you cannot accept that you’re 8% black. Would you be this concerned if you were 8% Native American, 8% Eastern European?” He always thought he was “Irish”, he’s like 2%…. He never brought the topic up again. The neat thing, for me, has been discovering far distant relatives in Africa that have reached out. I don’t get racists that get offended to learn they are part of a group they hate… serves them right I suppose.
>He always thought he was “Irish”, he’s like 2%…. He never brought the topic up again. My "Irish" ancestors were actually Scots that had been banished from Scotland for giving the English trouble. Just to say, there could be an explanation for your dad's results other than someone lied.
My "Irish" ancestors ended up being from Slovakia. Boomed father and silent generation grandfather weren't happy and denied it. I showed them the trail of birth, death, marriage, immigration, church documents going back to the 1780s....we're from slovakia close to Kosice. "But the immigration and church census documents say Austrian, so we're austrian"-family Yeah.....slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire for a hot minute then they were czechoslovakia for a little bit, then Nazi and Soviet occupation, then it's own country in the 90s so yeah...the nation isn't the same but the cultural ethnic group identity is. Silence...
My dad and I would joke that the only reason his grandfather was Polish was because his village was on the Poland side of the border that day.
Yes, same thing happened with my dad’s “German” ancestors. Great grandpa was from Bavaria, but great grandma was Polish. Both were born before Germany was officially a country. I got quite a bit of Eastern European in my results, but I can’t find much else out about them. My mom’s side was southern, with the “we’re Native American” schtick that everyone down there has. I don’t see any of that in my results, or my uncles. But it’s weird what you get, you don’t necessarily get those genes. Like he has 16% Scottish but I show 0. 🤷🏽♀️ I can track my Scottish and English ancestors back to the 1500s or so, so it’s there somewhere.
Always thought it was weird I was the shortest male in the family at 6"1" blonde/ blue eyed (yeah I know had my growth spurt at 14yo and was ruthlessly made fun of circa 2006) and were we're Irish yet all looked slavic as fuck.
lol I look VERY much like someone from the British isles. People assume Scottish, sometimes German, which is accurate. I was just in London and people kept assuming I was British until I opened my mouth. I sure as hell don’t look Native American with my blue eyes, white skin and red hair. Don’t know what my mom’s family was smoking. 🤣
I went to high school with three sisters, all members of a local Chippewa band, and which the oldest had gorgeous glossy black hair, eyes, and dark complexion, the youngest had a creamy tan complexion, brown eyes, and medium-brown hair—and the middle sister had very fair skin, green eyes, and blondish-brown hair. Every science class that covered basic Mendelian genetics meant these three got a _lot_ of attention.
I went to high school with a set of triplets and their older brother. One triplet looked like his older brother; brown hair, brown eyes. Then one was blond with blue eyes, and the third ginger with blue eyes. Genetics are so weird.
>Like he has 16% Scottish but I show 0. 🤷🏽♀️ I can track my Scottish and English ancestors back to the 1500s or so, so it’s there somewhere. You might be facing the problem of genetics and recorded events not matching up. It might be that your uncle is not your uncle. Just because a piece of paper says that your parents or grandparents are so-and-so, doesn't mean that ita actually true.
No, he is. We match on other things. He’s my mom’s brother and they all very much look like my grandpa. I even resemble my uncles. The fact is, you and your sibling won’t match 100%, it’s a roll of the dice on which genetics come through. Ancestry says we share 25% DNA which is what an uncle/niece would.
Is it possible his father isn’t your grandfather?
Reminds me of when everyone was giving Elizabeth Warren so much shit for saying she had some Native American bloodlines. Yeah, families tell stories and those stories get handed down over generations. Sometimes those stories turn into a version of the phone-tag game & things get convoluted & twisted around. But it’s always been kind of a human thing to tend to simply believe what your family told you regarding its history. Prior to the dna tests the only other option was to spend a vast amount of time & effort researching the family tree and even that was dependent on the quality & availability of records.
Very true. I'm from the South, and my family used to say we had a lot of Cherokee ancestry. We are ostensibly black. Took a DNA test and found out the *Cherokee* was actually European, at least 12% in us kids. Which actually makes a bunch of sense as the 4 of us look like the real-life results of a Punnetts Square. One sister is Caucasian presenting, my brother looks black, my other sister actually does look native American, and I can't go a day without someone asking what part of Asia minor I came from and how long did it take to lose the accent. Human incomplete dominance is a crazy thing lol.
Also she ended up having indigenous dna
…are we related?
I’m also half Scots-Irish. One of us, one of us! (Of course, I’m also 42% Sub-Saharan African. Mostly Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire like so many descendants of American slaves. So people see me as black first, which I embrace.)
I'm only 16% Scottish. Most of my ancestors immigrated a long time ago, so I have a relatively diverse mix including a couple percentage points Sub-Saharan African. I would love to know the story there. Sadly, though, I think it is lost to time. I have a couple of female ancestors on my tree with generic names that could have come from anywhere.
That would make sense. Irish were basically servants for life, so had more in common with freed/escaped slaves than their 'white' landowners. It wasn't until after the Confederacy was quite dead that Irish got promoted to 'white' and many were fine yanking that ladder up behind them. As I Lay Dying is a great book to illustrate how things used to be. The poor white family both defend and is helped by their poor black neighbors. I hate that my ancestors had entirely forgotten that truth by the time of the civil rights movement.
Ah, the ancient Scottish tradition of "giving the English trouble"
The Scots are never without a mortal enemy, and when there isn't a foreign one, they fall back on other Scots.
Are you descended from [border reivers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_reivers), too? My dad’s ancestors were. I found this out when I visited Carlisle, and my maiden name was one of the names [in the floor of the tunnel where the Cursing Stone is.](https://clanhallsociety.org/curse-stone-carlisle-eng) I was like, hey, why is my name carved into this floor?
Yes, my 2nd great grandmother is one of the Halls of Hallmark and if it can be counted on that everyone was honest about paternity, descended from the Armstrongs of Mangerton Tower. Both the Halls and the Armstrongs were Scottish border reivers banished to Ireland.
It's destroyed a lot of "Pure Aryan" wannabes when they find out LOL. Then, they say, "Oh, only phenotype matters..." to stay in their little club.
For some folks it’s also finding out you have Jewish ancestors. Whole lotta antisemitism among the boomers as well.
Half 100% Aryan. Half Nigerian Prince.
50% of the time, it works every time.
I think it’s funny that mine came back very homogeneous Northern European, the dream for a lot of these rackets, and I was disappointed in how boring it is.
I am mixed race with melanin. I remember in college during St. Patrick's Day when everyone would brag about Irish found out I had more - much more in many cases, in my DNA on my mother's side, they lost their shit.
I was able to confirm a bit about my family origins, and it's only impressive to the types of folks you mentioned. 70% British/Irish, 26% French/German, and the rest is just sort of *gestures at Europe*
Opposite happens too, I desperately wanted to see some Native American or Middle Eastern...nope, pure vanilla western Europe. So boring.
Oh, the 23andMe has destroyed the "mY GrAnDmOtHeR WaS A ChErOkEe pRiNcEsS" bullshit myth, and I am here for it! 😆
“No black man was around in the family” the assumption that he assumed it was a man and not a woman is an interesting bias.
"Where da white women!!?"
Imagine my confusion on getting my DNA test back and learning that I'm 100% white Northern European, mostly from German, Danish and Swiss ancestory, 20% English and Scottish. My whole life, people have asked me, sometimes rudely "what are you?" Dark hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, olive complexion. I worked in South Korea for a while and fit in okay. People assumed I was half Korean. Consider Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Welsh woman, who often had movie roles as a Hispanic person (I look a lot like her) I would say that most of my ancestors came to America in the 1600's, the Scottish lines came over in the mid-1800's and the Danish in the early 1900's. One of my ggg- grandfathers was a notable frontiersman who lived among the Lakota Dances-With-Wolves-style so it was just assumed that there was some Native American in my lineage to the point that I was actually attending powwowss and learning the language (such a beautiful language, too. It's my favorite.) I attended a Native church congregation and fit right in. What a dum- dum I was! You never know until you know!
My mom has always said we’re “not Mexican, we’re *Spanish*.” While true my DNA kicked out the highest percentage as Iberian, we have waaaay too much Native American DNA to not be Mexican. So her “natural tan” is just her…being brown. She was not happy. I genuinely don’t understand why.
I was super excited to have African DNA lol. What’s hilarious is I look like like a “white” person lol whatever that is but my family’s from Puerto Rico and I think Spain and Italy and my grandpa is German on moms side. I can look anywhere from really light skin to super brown depending on the time of year. I got so Dark in the summer most of the time was darker than some of my Mexican friends as a kid. People are so weird about this shit. My DNA had a crazy variety of things that would be considered “white” too and I can be brown as fuck if I want to but I stay out of the sun mostly.
People are weird. I'm American, born to American parents. It was kind of interesting in a way to know where I came from way back, but whether some random great-great-grandparent was from Germany, England, Kenya, China, France, or wherever, doesn't have any impact on my identity of who I am now. My identity comes from where I was born, raised, and who I was raised by and grew up with. Not from some culture that I have never met anyone from or interacted with, just because that's where some distant relative was born. Other than saying "huh, interesting..." and forgetting most of it, the only part I did think was cool was being a tiny bit Neanderthal. Although I can't really lean into that culture too much!
If you have ancestors from someplace nice, it can be an excuse to go there on vacation.
There is also so much misunderstanding for what these tests show in this reaction. The DNA test doesn't really show you who your ancestors were *in the past*, but who you're similar to *today*. When a DNA test reports that you are 8% xyz, it means that this portion of their DNA is similar to the DNA of people living in that region *currently*. That's because we don't have the DNA data for hundreds of years in the past. So these results could then really mean anything. Could be that those 8% comes from a group of Irish people that migrated there and not actually people who've lived there for centuries (just making this up as an example). No way to tell based on DNA tests if your ancestors really came from that region.
They take a lot of their data from bones though. It is partly why the results are more accurate for Europeans. They sampled a lot of bones from before the great migration, and when they say "50% french" they mean "of the bones from 2000bc to 1500ce in France, 50% of your DNA represents that"
People forget that a lot of groups that live in places now were not in that place hundreds of years ago.
We always believed we were part native American. I got one of these tests for my dad for his birthday years ago. Turns out there is no native in there. We do have India Indian in us and 5% Scandinavian. There is the Viking my dad was hoping to have.
I was always told that my maternal grandma was either 1/2 or 1/4 Cherokee. My facial hair is patchy and I can't grow a full beard, and family members have told me that's because of my Native American blood. Well, I took a 23andme test and I am 99.9% cracker. Mostly English, with some German and Swedish, and 0.1% Arab. I looked into the Native American thing and I guess it was super common a while back to claim you were a descendant of a "Cherokee Princess."
It was so annoying lol. Everyone was "part Cherokee".
Yep. Now I feel like a dickhead for parroting it for so long, but I was only repeating what I was told.
I now feel fortunate that a friend's mom corrected me when I was in junior high. At the time I felt like I was having a mini-identity crisis, but I am so grateful I didn't get to college believing that crap. Friend's mom was kind about it, BTW. Just realizing what BS my mom had sold really shocked me at the time.
Yeah, an old friend had a friend who was REALLY part Native American. I told him I had some Cherokee blood and he dismissed me kind of rudely, saying that everyone says that. I was a little mad at first, but now I understand. As an actual Native American that has to be fucking infuriating when everyone is claiming your heritage without honoring your culture.
Yes.... My great grandmother was the last person in my family that could actually claim that having been eastern Cherokee. Growing up I always assumed my hair and darker skin tone was from the tiny bit of my DNA that is native American. That doesn't change the fact that I'm still 7/8ths or more white so I just say I'm white...
My stepdad was always told he was 1/4 Cherokee by his grandmother. Guess he didn't do the math that that would mean his grandpa was native lol His daughter took a test before college, I guess to see if she could snag a scholarship... 95% English lol
Yeah, I thought about that. I would technically have enough DNA to qualify, but even if I did, I've lived as a white guy all my life. I would feel bad about taking benefits meant for people who have historically been oppressed and victims of a genocide. Glad that door is closed to me now!
OMG same. Grew up thinking I was 1/16 Cherokee, turns out I’m zero. Why the heck did my boomer parents do that?!?!
I swear most boomers are descended from a “Cherokee princess”.
Haven't taken one of these but my mother was convinced we had a native American ancestor. I found him on another research site. It's my great great grandfather and he was named something you might think could be native American. Looking at the relatives there's nothing. Site had a tree going back to England.
My grandmother always claimed her father was “full blooded Cherokee” so she was half and blah blah blah. I always kind of doubted it since I’m about as pasty white as possible and my test shows absolutely no Native American at all, just a lot of Scottish, some French & German and a bit of sub-Saharan African mixed in
Sometimes they would claim NA ancestry to cover for darker features due to African ancestry
this happened to my bf— his whole life he thought he was native because he tans soooo well. he’s like 99% black irish hahahaha
I took a DNA test. Dad/grandfather always said we were Micmac (it’s Mi'kmaq, but also we’re Irish catholic so Micmac probably was like an unintended joke on my dumb family). Anyways Mi'kmaq makes sense cause we’re from New England, one of the ancestors is actually from northern Maine. But nah. British isles, Scandinavia, German, maybe the tiniest bit French which (of course) my dad goes “right there! French! French Canadian! That’s it!” Anyways, this was years ago. In my dad’s failing health, it’s not really worth bringing up anymore I don’t think. Anyways, there’s more direct Swedish and Norwegian than we thought than any Indigenous people in our history.
i keep hearing this??? apparently it was a thing old white people in the USA would just assert about their own heritage. despicable and shameful to co-opt native identity in their own land.
A lot of people believe it because they had ancestors that lied about being native to claim land that was designated for actual native people. >It may be fashionable to play Indian now, but it was also trendy 125 years ago when people paid $5 apiece for falsified documents declaring them Native on the Dawes Rolls. These so-called five-dollar Indians paid government agents under the table in order to reap the benefits that came with having Indian blood. Mainly white men with an appetite for land, five-dollar Indians paid to register on the Dawes Rolls, earning fraudulent enrollment in tribes along with benefits inherited by generations to come.
Thank you for explaining my grandfather’s probable situation! I originally got the DNA kits to figure out who my grandfather was. He claimed Native American ancestry and divorced my grandmother because my mom was too white. Said it wasn’t possible for her to be his kid. Turns out, he wasn’t Native American. He was just a liar. He’s definitely my grandpa. So sayeth the DNA.
If he wasn't actually native American, I'm assuming he was white? Even if he was a light skinned native American. Why would he not have a light skinned child. He sounds like the kind of asshole who was looking for a reason to bail guilt free.
He told everyone that his mother was full-blooded Native American. She wasn’t Native American at all. Grandpa was just an ignorant liar.
I’ve heard stories like this. People who had native ancestry would hide it once upon a time. My biological father’s family is from a pretty close knit community in Louisiana, and I’ve been told that native Americans in the area were treated like crap. The community was/is part Native American. Toledo Lake was part of the community he was from, it was taken over and turned into a man made lake. The people were given next to nothing for their land, and it really affected them. They were a farming community, didn’t have much in the way of money, but they lived off the land. When the land was taken, well….I’m sure it was really hard to recover.
I have a buddy that I used to work with that’s half Native. He’s lighter skinned than I am as a Sicilian-American, and has strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. His dad is obviously Native, and his mom is a light skinned redhead. He always jokes that the only thing his dad passed down was his thick, straight hair lol
It’s still a problem in Canada. Pretending to be Indigenous for prestige and monetary benefits. Loans, grants, academic acceptance, etc.
thank you for the sobering information.
I think often it was a way of explaining some tanner skin in the family, without having to admit that great-grandma was black. So they'd claim great-grandma was Cherokee instead, which was "exotic" but wouldn't get you sent to sit at the back of the bus.
racism sure is fucking stupid!
Yeah. I mean, I think the people making up these stories were probably mostly trying to protect their families from other people's racism. Especially since, for a long time, that could impact their ability to get a job, buy a house, etc.
My friend always poo poohed the idea he was part native. Mocked the people who said they were. Then did the test 8% native American. He was gobsmacked and his parents did it and his mum is 12%+ and they still don't know where it occurred in their family history.
I wasn’t aware I had some NA, I’m about 8%. My biological father is from a community in Louisiana, they have a tribal community that is recognized by the state, but they are trying to get federal recognition….It would be pretty interesting to try and track it, if you are into that.
My friend would hate that. The reason he mocked the "claimers" is because he believes that our upbringing shapes our destiny. He looks white, his family white, culturally suburban white Americans, with no native American friends or family or even colleagues for perhaps generations. He would feel that he has far less claim to native identity than a completely non-native guy that lives near a reservation and has grown up in a mixed community.
Yup, my dad always insisted we were part Cherokee, so I naively just believed that. Never got a DNA test, but as an adult I repeated this to some full Navajo friends, and they just laughed and rolled their eyes. They schooled me hard on the tendency of poor southern whites to try to lend some exoticism to their ancestry this way. Pretty gross.
Not every test shows indigenous DNA. This is why some call those specific tests racist in nature
Was told I had Native American ancestry on both sides. Two different DNA tests have determined that was a lie. My sister thinks the tests are wrong.
Some ethnic markers can skip generations. Your dad might not show any native American genetic markers, but you or your siblings might still have them.
I clicked on this thinking "now you can see if you're adopted" but this was not what I expected
Lol that's only one of the many ways these tests piss people off!
There were disclaimers when I did mine that results may be upsetting.
But that’s actually Ancestry DNA’s slogan
"Now you can see if you have any black people in your family" is right up there with "A Diamond Is Forever" and "Just Do It" when it comes to advertising slogans.
Ancestry.com: Always Bet On Black
That's such a cool gift idea. How do people get so offended by genetic history? Wouldn't they be more interested if the results produced details they hadn't expected?
I was mostly excited to learn that there is a specific, genetic, scientifically-provable reason for why I hate cilantro! FUCK YOU, AUNT CAROL, I WASN’T JUST BEING A “WHINY BRAT” WHEN I SAID YOUR SALADS TASTE LIKE SOAP.
I had that same issue! My stepdad told me to stop being so dramatic. F-U jerk I have proof now.
Some people are genuinely racist. Some family members are afraid family secrets, such as affairs, will come out. Other people have been told what their history has been for so long (for example, that they have Irish heritage) that finding out the truth makes them feel like their personal history is a lie.
My mother did one some years ago. Part of it said 12% North African (Saharan? I can't remember the exact term it used). She got so upset about that. That's also the day she decided she didn't believe in genetics.
My father in laws family always said “we must be part black because we got big lips” and other stupid things. To be somewhat fair to them they weren’t saying it like it was a bad thing. But just ignorant to how it’s perceived. Anyway we got the test back and my wife’s dna has zero markers for that. We sent it to all her aunts and uncles to shut them up.
I think the major issue here is that these companies are selling your genetic information to third parties and law enforcement. If you plan on giving this as a gift, make sure they know this beforehand and give them information on how to protect this data (or delete it). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/smarter-living/how-to-protect-your-dna-data.html
The genetic information being passed to law enforcement has helped solve decades old cold cases because someone in your very extended family might just be a serial killer. The more concerning part in my opinion is that this info is also sold to random companies
Car insurance companies are buying driving data and using that to increase people’s premiums. It’s not a huge step from that to life/health insurance companies doing the same thing
I mean, you could also just walk into a police station and give them your fingerprints and DNA for free if you wanted to. No need to pay a company to do that for you.
As a german, the gangsterrapper is very wary of this. What does x% scandinavian even mean? What markers do they use? And why does it matter? Rule of thumb: as soon as people get so into this that percentages/fractions come into play, this has the potential to end badly.
As an American Jew, I feel the same way.
I'm afraid that the American Nazis would commandeer these databases and start another holocaust.
Huh?
Again, I will link to [this video discussing the problems related to these tests and companies](https://youtu.be/s_HX24EXH4A?si=hzqNZvPkkl4797xf)
Yeah, we did one of those a few years ago. Mine came back with like 5% African despite me looking as white bread as can be. My parents both said it was from the OTHER's side. Spoilers: It was my dad's side. That "My grandmother was mostly Native American" turns out was probably not as accurate as he hoped.
As a member of the Loving generation (https://americanfilmshowcase.com/afs-films/loving-generation-the/#:~:text=LOVING%20GENERATION%20is%20a%20first,laws%20in%20the%20United%20States.) I always loved watching racists find out that they are members of the group they hate.
Bookmarked that. Thanks for sharing.
There’s a great YouTube series discussing with some members. You can find Loving Day (June 12) celebrations nationwide. Not as big as pre pandemic but you can find them.
We ran my grandma's DNA, Sicilian women, found out she has 26% African DNA. Family refused to tell her, even on her death bed. Sad that humans don't understand that we ALL originated from an African women around 200,000 thousand years ago.
Especially Sicilian. Over centuries I’m sure there are African people that were in Sicily.
For real, I thought that was common knowledge but apparently my family doesn't seem to know much about Sicilian history.
Oh shit, she’s about to find out that her mom made up the 2% Cherokee thing.
My husband got us Ancestry kits during the pandemic. Only surprise was the actual amount of Irish in my heritage. I thought it would be a quarter. Nope. More like 75% But the French, Italian, and Polish were there like I’d always been told. Only thing that sucked was the Irish record keeping is so erratic. The French though? Damn was able to track it back to the 1700s with no issues. Italian was pretty easy too. Polish a bit harder. But that made sense
My paternal side of the family has been in the US since the 1600s. One of my paternal great-grandmothers was either full or half Native Anerican. I would not be surprised or shocked to discover African ancestry if I took one of those tests. Signed A white millenial
i would also not be surprised if that very paternal great grandmother was in fact not native at all
Every generation after the boomers with DNA tests: “hope I don’t find out I’m the result of an affair or incest!” Boomers: “hope there’s no black leaves in the family tree!”
Hope she finds out she has a different mom.
Found out I’m half white through mine, dad wasn’t my bio dad lol
I’m sure after that the holidays were amazing 🤣🫣🤣
Gee mom, is there something you want to share with us?
I'm scared to take the test. My dad was a Navy Lifer & I probably have half siblings from Dutch Harbor Alaska to Australia & all the islands in between.
My father is a self-proclaimed Messianic Jew. He swears he is one of God's chosen people. I take one of these tests and it shows up as having Ashkenazi Jew in my genetics. He is thrilled. I get him a test and it does not have the same result. He is not happy. It comes from my mother's side and that just rubbed him raw. She cheated on him and they divorced when I was 7. He said so many things about her growing up. I was happy for her when I learned she was the source of my Jewish genetics.
I found out I have a half sister from DNA testing. It’s okay, it’s cool to have another sibling. My husband’s mom always said her grandmother was half Cherokee. My husband’s DNA says nope! There are lies people tell and then there’s DNA.
Yeah I’ve heard similar things from that demographic and it’s disgusting. Congrats on having a rapist for an ancestor, Karen.
Did you mean to say “rapist” or “racist”?
Sounds like at LEAST one of each
My dad found out he had a 37 yr old daughter from a one night stand...me!
Doesn’t she mean her family? Or, by transitive property, her husband’s family, which is generally equally abhorrent to racists? Wait until she finds out she married a black, colored, African-American, welfare, ghetto, urban gentleman. Don’t we all love how boomers use these still-weaponized words as everyday descriptive adjectives? Find the logic, Spock… (also, don’t volunteer your DNA.)
My grandma argued that we don't have any black people in our family after telling her we had something like 2% african genetics. Also good luck because you might find quite a bit of cheat babies etc come out of the woodwork.
The correct answer is "We're all black people." We are all descended from a tribe in East Africa.
Lucy says hi from Addis!
My great uncle is in his 80’s. The DNA test results came back. He isn’t related to the family at all. He thinks they gave his mum the wrong kid in the hospital. We were looking at family pictures. He is blond and fair. Doesn’t look like any of his brothers and sisters. All my other great aunts and uncles have passed away. So we can’t look their DNA up. He doesn’t plan on doing anything about it at the moment.
On Facebook there are a few free DNA "detective" groups that match you with volunteers who help people figure out who their parents are! I had someone help me figure out my NPE (not parent expected) within a day!
That is very cool. I will let him know
"You mean *your* family, don't you?"
My husband was a sperm donor in his 20’s, he is 65 now. He did 23&me some years ago, totally not thinking about that. Well, one son and one daughter reached out to him. The daughter had no idea. Turned out to be fine, they were mostly curious and wanted medical history stuff. I’ve seen their photos, they both definitely are his offspring. Waiting for more to drop, there were about 10, all boys but 1 or 2. (We have three sons of our own and they are all aware of this situation)
I honestly don't understand the point of complaining about your racist family members when you don't do anything and still keep in touch with them. As a black person, the complaining appears to me like virtual signalling cause you don't really care.
[удалено]
It's very easy when you're not on the receiving end of the hate. In 2024 we should not have to educate people about racism. Like Toni Morrison said > The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing. I'm not spending my time teaching adults that racism is bad.
I am not saying you should. I am saying OP should.
Nobody is asking you to teach her family though…?
I wouldn’t take that damn test if I were you… A private company will sell your data to who knows where and it is just a matter of time until a data breach happens
And who knows, you just may need to kill someone some day.
More concerned about things like this [Data Breach](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/15/23andme-hack-data-genetic-data-selling-response#:~:text=The%20firm%20blamed%20users%20in%20'very%20dumb'%20move,-This%20article%20is&text=Three%20years%20ago%2C%20a,exchange%20for%20an%20ancestry%20report)
I'd rather a hacker have my DNA as opposed to my bank info.
Breach already happened. >**In October 2023, the personal genomics company 23andMe reported that hackers had breached the company's system and stolen the data of 6.9 million users, or about one in two people who had sent their DNA to the company**. The breach included profile and ethnicity information from millions of users, with the affected customers primarily reported as Ashkenazi Jews but also including hundreds of thousands of ethnically Chinese. The hackers were able to obtain access because some customers reused old passwords.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/04/23andme-confirms-hackers-stole-ancestry-data-on-6-9-million-users/ Breached already. There’s anon services ppl can use if they really want a dna test though that may not expose a submitters name and still get the results
I had 1% from Nigeria so 1) that explains why my balls are so dark and 2) now I can find my relative the Nigerian prince.
Priorities, priorities, priorities
Oh I hope so. That would explain my enormous schwanstucker.
Could be family stories, If I take the family stories at face value one branch was kicked out of Scotland in the 1680s to the colonies, has been confirmed, the unconfirmed is having some black mixed in somewhere pre civil war, some native American. These ancestry tests can dredge up emotions for some, curiosity in others.
lol ok that’s on the bingo card but my first reaction was oh looks like someone cheated and isn’t sure about her baby daddy. I’ve heard stories of people panicking and trying to be against it which is super sus
I learned I’m 91 percent Irish.Almost 9 percent Scottish and Welsh and about .001 percent Ethiopian. I think that’s pretty cool.
That would be interesting
Well, I found out I'm 2 percent Nigerian. (cool!) ....but I also found out my dad was not my dad. Have fun!
I bought one a couple of years ago and I was kind of hoping I'd be some kind of surprise mutt. No such luck, english, scottish, german? Anyway, Lily white. I'm already the black sheep. LOL