What is your ethnicity?

[Papenbrook]

I am an African American. However, I don't know what/which section(s) of Africa that my ancestors originated from.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Papenbrook

I am an African American. However, I don't know what/which section(s) of Africa that my ancestors originated from.

Same here unfortunately.

[Lethal Lullaby]

1/4 Korean at least, but basically white, the rest of me is.

[Stephen]

White/British

[MsMarvelDuckie]

For today, at least- 100% Irish, me lads and lassies!

The rest of the year it's maybe 45-50% But still.....

[IndigoErth]

I wish the genealogy DNA test we did didn't lump Scottish and Irish together, but I realize they are genetically very much alike so it's hard to tell, plus the migration of some families from Scotland to Ireland for a while before some generations moved onto the U.S. The Scottish part of my family was always obvious, with the maternal grandmother being a Boyd and all, though we're no doubt Irish as well, at least on my dad's side, and wouldn't mind knowing the percentage.



I feel like the allusive Middle Eastern member is like an ultra rare NPC we can't find. We'll never win that first, lowest rank of the Diversity Achievement at this rate...

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

I wish the genealogy DNA test we did didn't lump Scottish and Irish together, but I realize they are genetically very much alike so it's hard to tell, plus the migration of some families from Scotland to Ireland for a while before some generations moved onto the U.S. The Scottish part of my family was always obvious, with the maternal grandmother being a Boyd and all, though we're no doubt Irish as well, at least on my dad's side, and wouldn't mind knowing the percentage.



I feel like the allusive Middle Eastern member is like an ultra rare NPC we can't find. We'll never win that first, lowest rank of the Diversity Achievement at this rate...

Those tests seem like BS. How can they prove you're 50% this and 25% that? Especially considering how much political borders have changed throughout history? And how can someone be 0% Asian or African when people from those continents also belong to the same species as Europeans and Amerindians do? How far in one's family tree does such a test even go?

[Cure]

They prove it with ****ing DNA. Are you seriously one of those people who doubts legitimate science?

[IndigoErth]

Not sure how far back it can go. If humanity came out of Africa, then no, it doesn't go nearly back that far obliviously. After a while some things will be watered down enough that heritage far enough away may no longer show up simply because there is so little left and, in the DNA lottery, an individual did not inherit genes from it even though it still exists back in the family history somewhere.

These tests are not based on exact linage. It's more like taking a handful of playing cards, drawing a circle on the floor, throwing the cards into the air and seeing which ones land in the circle. Those being the genetics someone inherits. Do it again for a sibling and it may be similar, but a little different.

The tests done from my mom and uncle give me a rough idea, and the things that came out high for them are likely probably still a good amount in me too, but I can't tell exact lineage percentage from them since it's their own genetic makeup.

I can say it does work though, at least the ones we did through Ancestry.com. Because that site has their results combined with their database, it compares yours with other members who have done it and it matches up people who have similar results and are likely your cousins, with a probability given.

I have a couple second cousins that, unknown to us, had already also done this test and are members of the site, and it put them right up top.

There is also the old family rumor on my mom's side, of an old family friend my grandfather and his brother called "Uncle Bill." Thing is... it was always rumored and suspected that this man was not just a family friend but may have actually been their biological father. (The man they grew up knowing as their father was also rumored to be sterile, so it may have been an 'arrangement' back then rather than an affair.) Looking at photos of both them as old men, my grandfather was also suspiciously the spitting image of him. And damned if this test did not finally prove it true when some of its suggested cousins were right within the living generations of that family.

So I can vouch for the fact that this thing definitely works. I'm fascinated that it proved the rumor true. Although it's very odd that I actually have no connection to the surname of my grandfather and maiden name of my mom... She should have grown up with a different maiden name entirely. And "Uncle Bill" is no pretend uncle... he's my actual great grandfather. (And through whom we should have been better off, but that's another story...)

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Cure

They prove it with ****ing DNA. Are you seriously one of those people who doubts legitimate science?

No? But considering how often borders have changed throughout history and how much people moved around it seems a bit hard to pinpoint it exactly. Saying someone has "German ancestors" or "Italian ancestors " is pretty vague since those countries, as we know today, are very modern and 19th century creations. And like Indigo said, they lump certain people together like the irish and the Scottish and I assume Scandinavians are lumped together as well. So yeah, how far can this test go?

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Not sure how far back it can go. If humanity came out of Africa, then no, it doesn't go nearly back that far obliviously. After a while some things will be watered down enough that heritage far enough away may no longer show up simply because there is so little left and, in the DNA lottery, an individual did not inherit genes from it even though it still exists back in the family history somewhere.

These tests are not based on exact linage. It's more like taking a handful of playing cards, drawing a circle on the floor, throwing the cards into the air and seeing which ones land in the circle. Those being the genetics someone inherits. Do it again for a sibling and it may be similar, but a little different.

The tests done from my mom and uncle give me a rough idea, and the things that came out high for them are likely probably still a good amount in me too, but I can't tell exact lineage percentage from them since it's their own genetic makeup.

I can say it does work though, at least the ones we did through Ancestry.com. Because that site has their results combined with their database, it compares yours with other members who have done it and it matches up people who have similar results and are likely your cousins, with a probability given.

I have a couple second cousins that, unknown to us, had already also done this test and are members of the site, and it put them right up top.

There is also the old family rumor on my mom's side, of an old family friend my grandfather and his brother called "Uncle Bill." Thing is... it was always rumored and suspected that this man was not just a family friend but may have actually been their biological father. (The man they grew up knowing as their father was also rumored to be sterile, so it may have been an 'arrangement' back then rather than an affair.) Looking at photos of both them as old men, my grandfather was also suspiciously the spitting image of him. And damned if this test did not finally prove it true when some of its suggested cousins were right within the living generations of that family.

So I can vouch for the fact that this thing definitely works. I'm fascinated that it proved the rumor true. Although it's very odd that I actually have no connection to the surname of my grandfather and maiden name of my mom... She should have grown up with a different maiden name entirely. And "Uncle Bill" is no pretend uncle... he's my actual great grandfather. (And through whom we should have been better off, but that's another story...)

I see.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Considering they've been able to determine if someone is related to that mummy found in the peet bogs in England- and it was hundreds of years old- or the descendants of the king whose grave was recently uncovered in a construction site (forgot which one- think it was one of the Richards or Henrys or something) it can go pretty far back. Far enough to tell what someone's ethnic roots are even hundreds of years removed. Especially with families from certain regions that never went anywhere until the last couple centuries or so- because up until this country was colinized or later immigrants arrived, most people woyld remain in or near their home region their entire lives. DNA is a funny thing as Indigo said, it can pinpoint certain genes origin to a very specific place and even show who is related to whom, by markers that are different for each ethnic group!

[Katie]

Here's how they know:

Basically your DNA, half from your mom and half from your dad belongs to DNA families called haplogroups. There are several haplogroups which correspond to different geographical areas. So, for instance, if your mom is white and dad is black, their DNA families would correspond to one of the European haplogroups for mom and one of the African haplogroups for dad.

The major haplogroups that show up in these DNA tests would be your closest relatives. But all through history people have migrated and comingled and intermarried and procreated so just because mom is white, that doesn't mean that she might not have Indian haplogroups mixed in or Native American or Iberian. And dad may have European mixed in. Thats how these tests can show minute percentages of unexpected DNA. Somewhere in history, near or, usually, far back, there was a wandering ancestor that made a splash in your genepool.

[CyberCubed]

That's kinda why researching ancestory is kinda pointless. Of course you're going to have great grandparents or people from 200-300 years ago that mixed with different races or whatnot. People lived all over Europe and all over the America's, you're bound to have dozens of different races in your ancestors.

Does it really matter if you find out you're 5% Chinese? Or 5% Indian? Or 5% black? I mean does it really make a difference?

[IndigoErth]

Depends on perspective. Some like you aren't interested, others find it fascinating. No one opinion on that gets to be the "right" one...

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Ancestry tells the story of your family. It can tell you how when and where your ancestors lived, who they were and how it all came to create you. Knowing yoyr roots can tell you a lot about who you are. That's why people research it- to find out where they came from and know the story of their family.

[CyberCubed]

But anyones ancestors can come from all over the world. We know how ancient civilizations lived, as well as people from the 1400's-1900's. It's no big mystery, it's in the history books.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

I think you're missing the point though. It's all about PERSONAL history, about how where and what one's own family comes from. General history may be "in the books" but that doesn't tell us about the day to day lives of our own ancestors, or even who they were. One person's ancestors may have taken part in an important historical battle, or have ties to a famous historical figure, while another person's family was part of the slave trade or were immigrants from famine or war-torn countires. It's all a matter of what our PERSONAL ties to history are. That is what makes it interesting.

For instance, my hubby's ancestors first came to North America on the ship with William Penn, and have mostly remained in that same area for the last three hundred years. They were a mix of German and Irish, while mine came over in 1848-49, when three Irish brothers came through New York and later migrated to the mid-west during the Irish potato famine in that time. But my family traces back to the 1100's in County Armagh in the northern part of Ireland, with my grandmother's family being mainly German and French! Knowing who those people were makes the historic eras they lived in much more meaningful and personal, as I learned about some of the hardships and events they saw. Like it's easy to dismiss the bomb on Hiroshima as "a long time ago" until you see pictures taken by your own grandfather as a naval photographer in Japan after the event. (I have, and they were horiffic.) Things like this are important to us as individuals, because they tie our own lives to the past.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

I think you're missing the point though. It's all about PERSONAL history, about how where and what one's own family comes from. General history may be "in the books" but that doesn't tell us about the day to day lives of our own ancestors, or even who they were. One person's ancestors may have taken part in an important historical battle, or have ties to a famous historical figure, while another person's family was part of the slave trade or were immigrants from famine or war-torn countires. It's all a matter of what our PERSONAL ties to history are. That is what makes it interesting.

For instance, my hubby's ancestors first came to North America on the ship with William Penn, and have mostly remained in that same area for the last three hundred years. They were a mix of German and Irish, while mine came over in 1848-49, when three Irish brothers came through New York and later migrated to the mid-west during the Irish potato famine in that time. But my family traces back to the 1100's in County Armagh in the northern part of Ireland, with my grandmother's family being mainly German and French! Knowing who those people were makes the historic eras they lived in much more meaningful and personal, as I learned about some of the hardships and events they saw. Like it's easy to dismiss the bomb on Hiroshima as "a long time ago" until you see pictures taken by your own grandfather as a naval photographer in Japan after the event. (I have, and they were horiffic.) Things like this are important to us as individuals, because they tie our own lives to the past.

I guess its also very special to look at your past family history when your family has strong ideas and values that have been passed down through the generations. Looking back and seeing what they stood up for, and then seeing your current family upholding those same values, is seeing their spirit and legacy continue to flourish even though they are no longer here.

It even extends to those outside of kin and can include even people who are completely unrelated but uphold the same values. Just look at the founding fathers of the United States, none of them are alive but their legacy and spirit continues to live through millions of Americans, most of whom are not biologically related to them.

[IndigoErth]

Agree, very much missing the point. If it doesn't interest you, Cubed, you could, I dunno, ignore the thread and stick to pondering unstoppable ageing and sleep patterns...

Totally understandable that deeper topics aren't everyone's cup of tea.

[CyberCubed]

My curiosity was sparked, but not too much. For all I know my great grandpappy could have been part of The Great Train robbery of 1886, but it won't make a difference to me. Hell speaking of that, most of our ancestors are probably murderers or criminals, because that's how people lived back then.