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What we need is a great big melting pot, big enough to take the world and all it's got. We can stir it for 100 years or more, and turn out coffee coloured people by the score.
Actually we are all related genetically. Someone from Swaziland could easily share the exact same DNA as someone in Norway. We all crawled out of the same pond, genetically speaking.
How far back to you want to take this "culture pride" stuff? Because if you keep going, we're all tadpoles out of the exact same swamp.
I dug up too much for a Southern family prior to the internet. All it did was cause problems. Blue eyed, blonde turned out to be on the Cherokee tribal role. :>)
My family has been in the American South since the early 1700s - they were slave owners, sharecroppers, and everything in between.
They haven't been at all concerned, worried, or in denial about ancestors of any color. Of course, a big chunk of us are from Louisiana...the melting pot of the American South. That could make a difference in attitudes I guess.
My dad, who is too cheap to spring for 23andme testing, is chomping at the bit for me to get my results back! I think he's HOPING for a big ethnic melting pot of genetics in fact! LOL He may be really disappointed if it comes back as "German and English. Period."
I've been doing some family research and have hit a wall. My GGGG grandmother, on my mother's side has 2 possibilities to follow. It's possible that instead of being Native American, as we've always been told, she may actually have been African. Unfortunately, she has a very common name. (I have found her in census records listed as white, but I have also found her name listed in "property'" records, listed as "mulatto." This may or may not be different people.) During her life, the family was in Arkansas, and then settled in Jackson, Mississippi. I figure if she was African, it would have been quite scandalous, which may be why I'm having such a hard time pinning her down. My grandmother on my mom's side was always pretty tight-lipped about her family's history, but I do remember her referring to the "darkies" in Mississippi.
This is the main reason I will be getting my DNA tested. I feel like if there was an African ancestor, and she had to be kept "secret" that it's time for her to be acknowledged. There is nobody left in the family who would be embarrassed by any of our ancestors, so we can finally dig up the truth. I can understand why my southern roots may not have embraced her at the time, but I have no problem doing so.
If the African or NA was on your direct maternal line you should get your answer via your haplogroup.
Most of my life I was told that my great grandmother was NA. After testing with 23andMe she had some NA ancestry but my haplogroup is European. After all these years some family members decided to come clean. My mother's 3rd great grandmother was a caucasian woman. Yes, in the late 1700s and early 1800s she had a child with an black man.
You never know what you will find out doing this type of testing. It can definitely slay the family lore.
If the African or NA was on your direct maternal line you should get your answer via your haplogroup.
Most of my life I was told that my great grandmother was NA. After testing with 23andMe she had some NA ancestry but my haplogroup is European. After all these years some family members decided to come clean. My mother's 3rd great grandmother was a caucasian woman. Yes, in the late 1700s and early 1800s she had a child with an black man.
You never know what you will find out doing this type of testing. It can definitely slay the family lore.
There are three specific items of family lore that I am curious about on my side. One is that we are part Jewish - not even sure if that can be traced! The other is that we have Native American ancestry on both my paternal and maternal sides. Supposedly my paternal great great great great grandfather married a Native American woman and his brother married her sister. So...we'll see. Also, my mother is directly related to Jesse James, OR SO SHE SAYS. Actually, there's pretty good paperwork documenting this, but we'll see!
WOW Interesting ! I wonder if he burns easily in the sun ?
Just one great reason to embrace more melanin and possible natural sun block
This subject has answered for me why so many European Americans look noticeably different than the Europeans born and bred across the pond
Even compared to people in a place like Australia .
Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon
Surprisingly, even though he is pretty fair complected, with blue eyes and blonde hair, he doesn't burn easily. In fact, he's one of those disgusting people who turns a lovely golden tan in the sun. He's a veritable Nordic Adonis! LOL
You know, you never can tell - maybe it's that smidgen of African blood that protects him from the sunburn that most fair skinned people seem prone to.
The question is interesting about burning easily in the sun. It seems that I am on the other extreme from KathrynAragon's husband.
I am mostly West African, and Africans tend to both naturally be protected against intense sun but also darken easily in the sun. I am pretty light for an African person but do not darken substantially at all. I wonder if my lack of "tanning" ability comes from having some Celtic (Irish, Spanish, French), Slavic and Nordic ancestry? BTW, I have gotten sunburn as well.
There are three specific items of family lore that I am curious about on my side. One is that we are part Jewish - not even sure if that can be traced! The other is that we have Native American ancestry on both my paternal and maternal sides. Supposedly my paternal great great great great grandfather married a Native American woman and his brother married her sister. So...we'll see. Also, my mother is directly related to Jesse James, OR SO SHE SAYS. Actually, there's pretty good paperwork documenting this, but we'll see!
If you have Ashkenazic Jewish ancestry, that will show up on 23andme, and you will have thousands upon thousands of DNA cousins. I have more than 1100 DNA relatives on the site, and more and more keep appearing and falling off daily. There are ways to find or at least speculate about Sephardic ancestors as well, but the science is much more inexact.
The question is interesting about burning easily in the sun. It seems that I am on the other extreme from KathrynAragon's husband.
I am mostly West African, and Africans tend to both naturally be protected against intense sun but also darken easily in the sun. I am pretty light for an African person but do not darken substantially at all. I wonder if my lack of "tanning" ability comes from having some Celtic (Irish, Spanish, French), Slavic and Nordic ancestry? BTW, I have gotten sunburn as well.
That's interesting... Could be!
Hey, maybe you and my husband are related...now THAT would be weird.
Most americans are mixed. Black americans are mixed with European, yet whites having african ancestry is often ignored. Do white americans embrace their African ancestry? Also, I just read something about Heather Locklear, who is blonde and blue eyed, having African ancestry.
I don't think I understand the question. 100% of humanity is descended from Africa, so what are you getting at?
The Geno 2.0 Project test I took shows Neanderthal/Denisovan ancestry, which is pretty exciting to me. Every human not descended completely from sub-Saharan African has a small percentage of 1-3 percent (with Europeans having more). I hope my family is one of those 3%. I want to embrace my caveman ancestry.
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to spring for 23andme testing, is chomping at the bit for me to get my results back! I think he's HOPING for a big ethnic melting pot of genetics in fact! LOL He may be really disappointed if it comes back as "German and English. Period."
