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I think we have my dad talked into taking a dna test. He is the oldest male in the extended family. Like a lot of families, we've been told there is some Native American ancestry. We'd like to find out if it is there and what else might show up? What would be the best test for him to take?
I would recommend Ancestry.Com
Is cheaper, I paid $75 dollars on line, received the kit in the mail, sent the saliva back in the mail and received my results in about 3 weeks.
There's a number of things you should know first. I assume you're talking about the autosomal DNA which will provide an ethnicity report, because unless the rumored Native American ancestry is on his direct paternal line (father's, father's, father, etc) or direct maternal line (mother's mother's mother, etc) then the Y-DNA and mtDNA tests won't help.
Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com, and 23andMe.com are the companies that provide autosomal DNA tests - 23andMe.com is $199, because they also offer health reports. Ancestry.com and FamilyTreeDNA.com cost $99 normally. Sometimes, you can catch them on sale, normally for $89 or $79.
However, you need to aware of several things regarding the ethnicity reports, and especially Native American ancestry.
Family stories about Native American heritage are often myths. Unless your dad is Latino, who have a higher chance of having Native American ancestry, there's a very good chance your family story just isn't true.
That said, most of the population clusters for the Native American DNA category come from South/Central America, not North America. So many people who do actually have documented North American-Indian heritage don't match the sample group for it, because there's not enough of a sample group from North American tribes to make an accurate comparison to. This is because most full blooded Natives of North America are generally unwilling to participate in DNA testing/sampling. So it is possible to have Native American heritage and have it not show up in the ethnicity report.
It's also possible to simply not inherit any of the Native American DNA from your Native American ancestor. While we get 50% from each parent, due to recombination, we do not get exactly 25% from each grandparent. Statistically, you'd inherit about 3.125% from a 3rd great grandparent, and only 1.56% from a 4th great grandparent, which in reality could be more or less than that, or none at all. So if the last full blooded Native American ancestor was a distant ancestor, it's entirely possible your dad simply didn't inherit any DNA from them at all, and therefore it wouldn't show up on an ethnicity report.
This is why whether you have Native American ancestry or not is better determined by researching the paper trail and finding actual documentation of it, not taking a DNA test. Even putting all this aside about Native Americans, the ethnicity reports are very, very much only an estimate and can vary greatly depending on the sample groups. There is no DNA which is totally unique to one area of Europe, for example, so even European results are only an estimate. It's really only possible to tell continents apart with any real accuracy. I would not recommend taking the test solely for the ethnicity report - the true value of the test is with the DNA matches.
I would not recommend 23andMe.com because they are double the cost and although you do get health reports with it, at the moment, they are still very limited and not very helpful. For health reports, it's cheaper and you will get more info by uploading your raw data from Ancestry.com or FamilyTreeDNA to Promethease.com for $5. Promeathease will provide a more comprehensive health report than 23andMe for only $5 and will take raw data from Ancestry or FTDNA.
There's a number of things you should know first. I assume you're talking about the autosomal DNA which will provide an ethnicity report, because unless the rumored Native American ancestry is on his direct paternal line (father's, father's, father, etc) or direct maternal line (mother's mother's mother, etc) then the Y-DNA and mtDNA tests won't help.
Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com, and 23andMe.com are the companies that provide autosomal DNA tests - 23andMe.com is $199, because they also offer health reports. Ancestry.com and FamilyTreeDNA.com cost $99 normally. Sometimes, you can catch them on sale, normally for $89 or $79.
However, you need to aware of several things regarding the ethnicity reports, and especially Native American ancestry.
Family stories about Native American heritage are often myths. Unless your dad is Latino, who have a higher chance of having Native American ancestry, there's a very good chance your family story just isn't true.
That said, most of the population clusters for the Native American DNA category come from South/Central America, not North America. So many people who do actually have documented North American-Indian heritage don't match the sample group for it, because there's not enough of a sample group from North American tribes to make an accurate comparison to. This is because most full blooded Natives of North America are generally unwilling to participate in DNA testing/sampling. So it is possible to have Native American heritage and have it not show up in the ethnicity report.
It's also possible to simply not inherit any of the Native American DNA from your Native American ancestor. While we get 50% from each parent, due to recombination, we do not get exactly 25% from each grandparent. Statistically, you'd inherit about 3.125% from a 3rd great grandparent, and only 1.56% from a 4th great grandparent, which in reality could be more or less than that, or none at all. So if the last full blooded Native American ancestor was a distant ancestor, it's entirely possible your dad simply didn't inherit any DNA from them at all, and therefore it wouldn't show up on an ethnicity report.
This is why whether you have Native American ancestry or not is better determined by researching the paper trail and finding actual documentation of it, not taking a DNA test. Even putting all this aside about Native Americans, the ethnicity reports are very, very much only an estimate and can vary greatly depending on the sample groups. There is no DNA which is totally unique to one area of Europe, for example, so even European results are only an estimate. It's really only possible to tell continents apart with any real accuracy. I would not recommend taking the test solely for the ethnicity report - the true value of the test is with the DNA matches.
I would not recommend 23andMe.com because they are double the cost and although you do get health reports with it, at the moment, they are still very limited and not very helpful. For health reports, it's cheaper and you will get more info by uploading your raw data from Ancestry.com or FamilyTreeDNA to Promethease.com for $5. Promeathease will provide a more comprehensive health report than 23andMe for only $5 and will take raw data from Ancestry or FTDNA.
Have you done the Archaic DNA matches at Gedmatch yet?
It has Clovis and Kennewick
In my case it shows both, I also have a lot of Hungarian and German (the Stuttgart man)
Have you done the Archaic DNA matches at Gedmatch yet?
It has Clovis and Kennewick
In my case it shows both, I also have a lot of Hungarian and German (the Stuttgart man)
I am not sure what this has to do with the original question, or anything I said in response but yes, I have.
I am not sure what this has to do with the original question, or anything I said in response but yes, I have.
This was in response to this:
"That said, most of the population clusters for the Native American DNA category come from South/Central America, not North America. So many people who do actually have documented North American-Indian heritage don't match the sample group for it, because there's not enough of a sample group from North American tribes to make an accurate comparison to. This is because most full blooded Natives of North America are generally unwilling to participate in DNA testing/sampling. So it is possible to have Native American heritage and have it not show up in the ethnicity report."
Clovis DNA and Kennewick DNA are North American Native Americans....
This was in response to this:
"That said, most of the population clusters for the Native American DNA category come from South/Central America, not North America. So many people who do actually have documented North American-Indian heritage don't match the sample group for it, because there's not enough of a sample group from North American tribes to make an accurate comparison to. This is because most full blooded Natives of North America are generally unwilling to participate in DNA testing/sampling. So it is possible to have Native American heritage and have it not show up in the ethnicity report."
Clovis DNA and Kennewick DNA are North American Native Americans....
And it really has nothing to do with recent heritage. Nor is it very conclusive, since there's not much data to compare with - the Clovis results, for example, compare your DNA with one sample. It's really not going to tell the OP anything about what they are really looking for.
A lot of Gedmatch's tools/calculators are created to lean towards a certain type of results, and only meant to be used if you know you have ancestry in that group. Running the tool when you don't have ancestry in those groups and skew the results.
Thanks for explaining some of the limitations. We're pretty sure there is some Native American ancestry in the family. It's possible nothing will show up.
We're also kind of curious about African history too. My ggggg grandfather had a male child with his slave. He freed this then young adult son in his will. This son then had children with a caucasian woman, but couldn't marry her because of the laws at the time. Their children also went on to marry and some of them married back into the family. I don't have full genealogy on some of my ancestors, but have some suspicions. We're kind of curious if this mulatto son is also part of our line.
Well, here's an added question. I'm waiting for my 23andme results (and opted for their test because of the health reports). I'm curious about relatives as my biological father was a sperm donor. Do all the gene-testing firms share that data or do I need to get a test with each firm if i want to see if there are any bio relatives out there?
If your father has a substantial NA ancestry any of those tests will show "Asian/Native American". The racial category is broad enough to catch that even if it can't specifically identify North American Indian tribes. I'd go with Ancestry.com.
Last edited by BeauCharles; 08-15-2016 at 11:55 AM..
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