Has anyone had a DNA test that revealed their racial admixture which surprised them?

Question

There are many companies performing these tests now including http://www.ancestrybydna.com, which is the company that analyzed my DNA. As a lightskinned African American with roots in the South and the implications of master-slave rapes and miscegeneation, some friends assumed and assured me that I must have some European ancestry. The test revealed that I am 95% African and about 5% East Asian. I was surprised by the Asian genes because there are no Asian people in my family that I know of....but it means that one of my great, great, great, greats could have been. There have been several documentaries on PBS that show people getting their DNA tested -- some of whom are very surprised by the results. I wonder if any of you were raised as one "race" but DNA test results revealed something you didn't know?

Answer 1

Another woman posted here that she found that she was approximately 35% West African, and she identified as Black, while a guy who tested 31% West African had always considered himself white. Both were surprised. I think we all would be.

To the guy who says Blacks are keeping race alive: Wanting to know your ethnic heritage is pretty normal. Most of us can ask our parents, who asked their parents and so on, or we can search genealogical records. People who were kidnapped from their families, then sold to the highest bidder, lost their heritage. They couldn't tell their children about their clan history, because they didn't know where their children were.

I think it's absolutely fantastic that their descendants can finally find a sense of their history further back than a couple hundred years. I personally have no interest in learning more than I already know, but the fact that I could if I wanted to is something that has been denied to many.

Answer 2

I haven't learned anything surprising about myself, but it may interest you to know that through (repeated) DNA testing on convicts, it has been learned that some people can have more than one kind of DNA in their body-- totally different kinds!

This is how it works. Sometimes a woman is pregnant with twins. Sometimes a single egg divides to form twins, and sometimes they do not separate properly. They each have very similar, but distinctly different DNA. Sometimes it is recognizable and we call them 'conjoined' twins.

Sometimes, one embryo may begin to absorb the other. This can also give rise to conjoined twins.

However, in some cases, either the bodies never develop enough to be recognizable as conjoined bodies, or one body absorbs so much of the other that they are effectively one. The person that is born does not look like conjoined twins. They may have the regular complement of arms and legs, etc. But repeated testing has revealed the fact that a body might have different DNA on, say, the left side than on the right side. Or on the upper body than on the lower body.

You can see how this would give rise to problems. Due to the fact that the body developed to full term maturity, they may be relatively healthy (although I would not be surprised if this was where some autoimmune diseases arise.)

But there may already have been cases where DNA testing falsely proved someone innocent of a crime they actually committed, because the DNA was taken from the wrong part of the body.

Furthermore, in cases where different portions or different organs originally arose from embryos of different sexes, then we have problems. It is not surprising that such a person would have a conflict of interests, so to speak. The only realistic thing to do in such a case is to reconcile oneself to the gender of the body. Nobody can expect all of society to adapt to their birth defect.

In the future, tests will be developed for this and related prenatal problems. Embryos will be made to separate properly, or not begin to absorb one another in the first place. This may be difficult and expensive, but it will be better than setting up an entire new culture in parallel to our own, and, ultimately, in competition with it.

Answer 3

It's very interesting and something I'd like to do out of curiosity. After travelling and living in different countries I wonder why I relate to some cultures and not others. Is it because this race is somewhere in my ancestry? Most people living in the US are a mix and what we're used to here. It was only when I travelled to certain parts of Asia that I found one nationality and physically, their beauty was beyond compare.

Answer 4

Frankly it doesn't matter
Whatever the ancestry, It is the individual that matters
If this racial admixture finding trend continues
We'll have "Hitler and the quest for the aryan master race part 2"

Answer 5

I have done quite a bit of geneology work and I am a complete heinz 57 of Europe.
English , Irish, Scottish and German with a possible side order of French

to my kids Pilipino and Spanish were added -Quite the blend.

Answer 6

You seriously paid 210-399 dollars for that!! Crazy!! I would only do it if its free, but I would much rather just look it up.

I already know that I am Irish, Scottish, English, French, Native american...etc etc I sure wouldnt pay hundreds of dollars to find out specifics...especially when I could use that money to save some homeless dogs and cats! No offense intended but I think its a little excessive. Especially considering the fact that race doesnt matter...especially in Canada.

Answer 7

No, but I think mine would be surprising. I'm white, but my skin isn't pale at all and it tans very easily Blonde as a kid, but now hair is dark.

Answer 8

Science has determined that almost everyone is 5% African, which I think is cool.

Answer 9

didn't need dna testing to find out what i got in me.

and if you find someone who's only one race, then you've runned into a bonafied imbred.

Answer 10

Huh, what a great idea to do!