Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Can someone explain to me why white Americans who are recent to the U.S. (as in after the Civil War), who came straight out Europe are always so quick to claim to be a mutt with NA DNA when most are pure Euro?
I have taken my DNA tests at Ancestry DNA and 23andme. As a black American descendant of slaves, I find that black Americans have some of the most interesting results. While the vast majority of black Americans claim to have NA, most of us only have traces amount, if that. My 23andme picked up a little over one percent NA and Ancestry classified a miniscule amt of me to be Central Asian (most likely ancient NA blood) in addition to West African and European ancestry, traces of Middle Eastern and Asian roots.
Many black Americans' families have been here since the 1600s and are a mixture of dozens of African tribes, European countries, with hints of NA,Asian and Arabian blood. Yet many black Americans I have talked to on the internet want to be as close to pure African as possible.
White Americans seem to be the exact opposite. Most have been in the U.S for less than one hundred years, want to claim American and NAs even though Europeans tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Why? Why can't white Americans, with the exception of those with colonial ancestry, accept they are not part of the patchwork of American history, do not have NA ancestry and are immigrants themselves?
There is nothing wrong with being 100 percent European with no American roots. Own it.
Can someone explain to me why white Americans who are recent to the U.S. (as in after the Civil War), who came straight out Europe are always so quick to claim to be a mutt with NA DNA when most are pure Euro?
I have taken my DNA tests at Ancestry DNA and 23andme. As a black American descendant of slaves, I find that black Americans have some of the most interesting results. While the vast majority of black Americans claim to have NA, most of us only have traces amount, if that. My 23andme picked up a little over one percent NA and Ancestry classified a miniscule amt of me to be Central Asian (most likely ancient NA blood) in addition to West African and European ancestry, traces of Middle Eastern and Asian roots.
Many black Americans' families have been here since the 1600s and are a mixture of dozens of African tribes, European countries, with hints of NA,Asian and Arabian blood. Yet many black Americans I have talked to on the internet want to be as close to pure African as possible.
White Americans seem to be the exact opposite. Most have been in the U.S for less than one hundred years, want to claim American and NAs even though Europeans tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Why? Why can't white Americans, with the exception of those with colonial ancestry, accept they are not part of the patchwork of American history, do not have NA ancestry and are immigrants themselves?
There is nothing wrong with being 100 percent European with no American roots. Own it.
I don't know who you're talking to but everyone I know claims to be what they are. I'm 1st generation Hungarian born in America; my parents came here in the late 50's. My hub's family are Italian on his fathers side (both his parents were Italian's that came here early 1900's); his mothers father was French, we didn't know what her mother was. My daughters fathers mother came here from Germany in 45; her husbands family came from Poland in the early 1900's. The only person claiming to have NA is my son's fathers mother who does appear to have some. Her hub was Scottish (on his fathers side) and Irish and English on his mothers side. Everyone I know is proud of where there family has come from. The families that were here late 1800's to mid 1900's all fought in our wars. One of my ex MIL's relatives was a very distinguished soldier in the civil war.
Can't say I've met people behaving the way the OP describes. I think we may be looking at some kind of confirmation bias and/or racial resentment here.
Can someone explain to me why white Americans who are recent to the U.S. (as in after the Civil War), who came straight out Europe are always so quick to claim to be a mutt with NA DNA when most are pure Euro?
I have taken my DNA tests at Ancestry DNA and 23andme. As a black American descendant of slaves, I find that black Americans have some of the most interesting results. While the vast majority of black Americans claim to have NA, most of us only have traces amount, if that. My 23andme picked up a little over one percent NA and Ancestry classified a miniscule amt of me to be Central Asian (most likely ancient NA blood) in addition to West African and European ancestry, traces of Middle Eastern and Asian roots.
Many black Americans' families have been here since the 1600s and are a mixture of dozens of African tribes, European countries, with hints of NA,Asian and Arabian blood. Yet many black Americans I have talked to on the internet want to be as close to pure African as possible.
White Americans seem to be the exact opposite. Most have been in the U.S for less than one hundred years, want to claim American and NAs even though Europeans tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Why? Why can't white Americans, with the exception of those with colonial ancestry, accept they are not part of the patchwork of American history, do not have NA ancestry and are immigrants themselves?
There is nothing wrong with being 100 percent European with no American roots. Own it.
What on earth gives you the idea that this is a general statement true of white Americans?
I know where my ancestors came from in Europe. One line does go back to colonial times, but I never believed I had any indigenous ancestry. My most "ethnic" part of my DNA is the 2% Irish that popped up.
Now we DO see on these types of boards a common story where "Great-grandma was a Cherokee princess" and that's been discussed to death. I suspect it was a popular story told to children at some point in history that morphed into them growing up to believe it was true. It's almost always a female ancestor and almost always Cherokee.
But to make this huge leap to a ridiculous claim that all white people do this isn't that much different than asking why "you people" all steal watermelons.
IMO, I think some?/many? of the white people who have family stories of NA ancestry actually have no idea how long their families have been in the US. If they knew their basic genealogy, they would know something about their ancestry. This is why the DNA tests are so popular. Because people don't have a clue.
All 4 of my grandparents were immigrants to the US in the early 1900s. Don't think they ever met a Native American.
Added: Sometimes I think the NA stories are an attempt to explain one or more family members who have dark hair in a family of blonds.
Can someone explain to me why white Americans who are recent to the U.S. (as in after the Civil War), who came straight out Europe are always so quick to claim to be a mutt with NA DNA when most are pure Euro?
I have taken my DNA tests at Ancestry DNA and 23andme. As a black American descendant of slaves, I find that black Americans have some of the most interesting results. While the vast majority of black Americans claim to have NA, most of us only have traces amount, if that. My 23andme picked up a little over one percent NA and Ancestry classified a miniscule amt of me to be Central Asian (most likely ancient NA blood) in addition to West African and European ancestry, traces of Middle Eastern and Asian roots.
Many black Americans' families have been here since the 1600s and are a mixture of dozens of African tribes, European countries, with hints of NA,Asian and Arabian blood. Yet many black Americans I have talked to on the internet want to be as close to pure African as possible.
White Americans seem to be the exact opposite. Most have been in the U.S for less than one hundred years, want to claim American and NAs even though Europeans tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Why? Why can't white Americans, with the exception of those with colonial ancestry, accept they are not part of the patchwork of American history, do not have NA ancestry and are immigrants themselves?
There is nothing wrong with being 100 percent European with no American roots. Own it.
Plenty of native black and white Americans who have been in America for the past 200 or years for some reason love to claim native ancestry.
Colonial stock white person here.............both sides of my mother's family have NA ancestor stories. Neither has been confirmed by DNA testing, although I keep the door open because my grandmother does come in at over 1% NA on many GEDmatch utilities where the reference panel European samples show only fractions of a percent. Whether is because of an actual NA ancestor, or not, I do not know. As for the other side of the family, I think there is a non-European ancestor there, but my only clue is 1-2% South Asian (India) DNA in my mother (which Ancestry.com picked up). Sadly my grandfather passed away long ago and his brother doesn't have the same trace my mom inherited.
As to why the stories exist......my guess is what previous posters said. Their are members of the family who look non-European, and the story they told their children, and still circulate in the community is because of an Indian ancestor. I just saw a 1920s photo of one of these ancestors...........and she looks like Jim Thorpe. Maybe there is a part of England or Germany where this look is common, but I haven't found it.
My mother's lines have mainly been in the US since around 1906. They don't claim anything other than what they appear to be on paper. At this point, they are part of America even if their history doesn't go back as far as others.
My father's that we can trace so far go back in the 1700's. There are some claims of NA that have not been proven. I don't think anyone has figured out the reason behind that yet. It is certainly wide spread. My brother did his dna test recently. We are mostly white European. This side of the family is definitely some of the 'pioneers' that made the history books although I can't say they were always on the right side of law.
I think your basic premise is false. My paternal grandparents did arrive here 103 and 110 years ago. I've traced my maternal ancestors back to early 1800s in Virginia and the Carolinas, and a couple back to the early 1700s in those places and Maryland. I've done work for two maternal side cousins and traced their unrelated ancestors, in one case, back to the same former colonies and times as me and, in the other case, back to New Amsterdam under the Dutch.
What on earth gives you the idea that this is a general statement true of white Americans?
I know where my ancestors came from in Europe. One line does go back to colonial times, but I never believed I had any indigenous ancestry. My most "ethnic" part of my DNA is the 2% Irish that popped up.
Now we DO see on these types of boards a common story where "Great-grandma was a Cherokee princess" and that's been discussed to death. I suspect it was a popular story told to children at some point in history that morphed into them growing up to believe it was true. It's almost always a female ancestor and almost always Cherokee.
But to make this huge leap to a ridiculous claim that all white people do this isn't that much different than asking why "you people" all steal watermelons.
What do watermelons have anything to do with this thread?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
