Anyone get surprise with their AncestryDNA results?

The only one of us who took the test was DS. We were surprised to see that he supposedly didn't have Native American ancestry, since we have a Native American in our family graveyard. DH said he also has Native American ancestry. I'm not convinced the test is accurate.

I just got my results today. It said mostly GB (not surprising), 17% Irish (also not surprising, as my maiden name starts with Mc). The surprising part was 0% Native American, as my great-grandfather claimed on his death bed that his mother was Cherokee. He had Native American facial features, and my grandmother said his mother was small and dark.
 
My MIL always claimed to be part Native American, though could never come up with specifics (which relative was it, what tribe, etc.) She was surprised when no such link showed up in her Dna analysis. I wasn't, lol.
 
My Grandmother had always said she was Native American and we found out we were 20% Native American. We were surprised to find that out. The rest was to be expected.
 
Everyone in my immediate family has done it:
We weren't surprised to be mostly Irish but my dad and I did get a surprise - a wee bit of Italian and Native American!
 


I am going to order one of these soon, I know for a fact I am Irish as my maiden name was a Mc but my mother was a Hooker (not literally) so been told German as well..Also have been told American Indian..
 
I find it interesting that so many families have been told they have a Native American background.
 
I find it interesting that so many families have been told they have a Native American background.
This comes from intermarriage...DNA diluted. The Cherokee had a few white Chiefs and elders. There is also many instance of informal adoption.

I haven't done much research, but have heard the DNA samples of Native Americans (for Ancestry DNA) are taken primarily from western tribes? I don't know, if this is true, but interesting. IMO

We take 1/2 of our DNA from each parent... randomly. Doesn't take long for one or two relations to be erased
 


I've posted this on other DNA threads about Native ancestry. It explains some points. The title just about killed me because the stories in my family as well ---

http://www.rootsandrecombinantdna.com/2015/03/native-american-dna-is-just-not-that.html

Very informative on the issue. As well as using third party tools to go forward.

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Remember, just like the explanation/link posted earlier, that there can be multiple children in a family with no link to a certain heritage and it can show up in just one. So none for you does not mean it is not there.

There are four of us in our family, and only one picked up a bit of Polynesia. We are mainly Irish, Scandinavian, some Great Britain.

Only two of us picked up a bit of Finland/Northwest Russia.

There is a story of someone who was 100% that they had Native American ancestry. Four children. None. Nope. No and then suddenly a percentage in the fourth.

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As far as the tests not being accurate. I totally disagree. Why? We sent six samples within a month to ancestry.com. Four of us are white, one is black and one is extremely mixed heritage (meaning between white, black, and South Asian heritage - all of us are mixed to some extent). Obviously, no one knows that - a given.

Bang on with everyone. Meaning it all made sense. My mother was three distinct main categories - Ireland, Scandinavia, Europe West (how they put that). My two sisters carried the exact three distinct main categories. Sent in at different time periods, separately.

I picked up a fourth main and it is evident that I picked up my father's there.

The next, the test obviously doesn't know that she's black. She carried mainly African countries/areas. And of course a good percentage of smaller white percentages - Great Britain/Ireland. And more - Caucasus, which explained some stories through the years.

The sixth, a family member, was practically every single area in the world. We obviously knew generally but boy was it was something! From East Asia to Ireland to Polynesia to South Asia to Scandinavia to African countries to Central Asia to Great Britain to Caucasus. And that's not the full list. She had five main areas and twelve smaller ones.
 
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My grandfather looked like the atypical cigar store Indian - so guess what we do have native american heritage. But the rest of heritage comes from the UK. No surprises there. But not one really cares. We are just who we are
 
I took it not so much to find out "what" I am - I took it to try to find out "who" I am. I located my bio mother years ago but come up to dead ends with my bio father- getting closer though, located a few cousins on that side but they are pretty distant- one day a closer one will eventually pop up. I did my adoptive moms dna and strangest thing was this lady was listed as a first cousin and my mom didn't know her- I messaged her and she said that Gordon "smith" was her grandfather that abandoned her mother when she was a baby- Gordon was MY grandfather and that seemed really off, so we worked out family trees and timelines and it turns out it was his black sheep good for nothing brother that was the father not my moms dad- she was happy I was able to send her pictures of that part of the family to show her mom. I spend hours a day on ancestry working back family trees, making "mirror" trees of other people on my DNA list trying to trace it back to my bio father.

Don't give up hope. My mom was adopted and found her biological mother about 30 years ago. She refused to tell her anything about her biological father and no one else knew anything. My mom, my siblings and I all took the ancestry test several years ago. My mom, who is 68, was convinced that we would never find anything after all this time. Well, after doing the same things that you are doing, I finally got a hint from a 3rd cousin last spring that led me to my mom's biological father. Unfortunately, he had already passed away, but we were able to find several half siblings and have them tested.
 
At one point during my sons illness they tested my husband and I to be a bone marrow match for a transplant (they had tested my daughter months earlier), and I thought to myself, I wonder if someone somewhere had to have a Come to Jesus moment with their spouse now because the spouse may not be the bio dad.
I wonder if they would tell that specifically or if they'd simply say " sorry - you are not a match."
 
I wonder if they would tell that specifically or if they'd simply say " sorry - you are not a match."

I imagine they would just tell my husband that he wasn't a match. However, if I had any question about who the father of my child was, I could not NOT reach out to the other man and ask him to get tested, my childs life is on the line. I suppose I could do it w/o my husband finding out though.
 
I imagine they would just tell my husband that he wasn't a match. However, if I had any question about who the father of my child was, I could not NOT reach out to the other man and ask him to get tested, my childs life is on the line. I suppose I could do it w/o my husband finding out though.

When my godson was having his family tested for a match they told us- they only matched 3 out of 6 or whatever number they matched- I guess if the dad matched none we would have known it LOL.
 
If you're referring to my post, it involves a man in his eighties. All of his siblings and most nieces and nephews have done the Ancestry testing, with the same woman popping up in the appropriate branch in relation to each of them, so the brothers are taking the testing to see what happens. One brother was out of the country serving in the military during the entirety of the window of conception (and then some). I understand a paternity test requires testing of both parties, but as contact has not been made with the potential "child" he's decided to utilize the Ancestry testing like the rest of the family to see what happens.

The ancestry test is great for finding bio relatives if you are adopted, donor child etc- there is a facebook group called DNA detectives that is very helpful and also another named search squad- they are a bunch of people that help you along with your search (no fee!)- they have helped me with numerous searches. The search for my bio father comes up with a dead end most of the time, I know he came here in his 20's from Greece but then heard he went back there and there isn't a whole lot of ancestry kits coming from Greece apparently.
 
Okay, just because you have someone in your ancestry with a particular ethinicity, does not mean you will inherit it. You inherit half your genes from each parent, who each inherited half of theirs from each of their parents. Even siblings will not usually have the same percentages of anything. It's basic genetics. I'm waiting for DH's and mine and I had to explain to DH's niece that if she wants accurate info on her dad, she can't assume that what DH shows is what her dad will show. I also have a very good friend who found her birth family using ancestry. It turned out wonderful and they're all one big happy family now and my friends knows where she came from. She did her own detective work after getting her results and being linked to a cousin and great aunt.

We sent ours in on 1/3 so still waiting for results. I'm pretty sure what mine will show as we have pretty extensive family tree info. DH, on the other hand is Puerto Rican by heritage so he could be a mix of anything.
 
Yes. My wife's side is heavily Scandinavian, and we have no idea where that came from. There's also some Greek and North African on her side as well.

On my side, much more Eastern European than we first knew. We later confirmed that to be true. I also have Persian ancestry, which I have no idea where that came from.
 
I find it interesting that so many families have been told they have a Native American background.

How come everyone who has a Native American background is part Cherokee and not part Lenape Lenape or some other less romantic tribe?
 

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