My daughter wanted me to fo a DNA test just for the ethnicity. I have a twin & my siblings are always discussing if we're actually identical. I did not know that my twin had also done one. Called my daughter & to her the question was answered, we were a 100% match. (Edited for spelling)

I know someone who did their DNA and was told their entire life and their mother was told their entire life that they were native American. But since I was helping her with the DNA and figured out what happened. I went through the census records and discovered that her mother was born in the deep South and her grandparents State on the census record mulatto. So then the next generation they end up moving up to Michigan and they're listed on the census as half-breed Cherokee so somebody probably told them just move up to the northern states and say you're Indian. And so when the DNA shows up it shows African and absolutely no native American.

YES!!! "Surprises" This is 100% accurate! "Not father" is so common now. Sadly it also ruins families too :( Also when you have "what is never told" i.e. a child born out of wedlock that is swept under the rug and never talked or heard about. Sadly when this comes up too, often family will deny it when you tell them 100% DNA does not lie (unless u've got a bone marrow? transplant)

I've been waiting to hear words like this. Ancestry hasn't noted my French ancestry (albeit, it's one person in the 17th Century), but I think it's also impossible to categorize Norman French ancestors as many were Vikings (Norwegians and Swedes) who circled around the UK in so many directions. I find the scholarship so much more captivating.

Yes, the sibling distribution is wild! My paternal grandfather immigrated from Sicily, his wife, my grandmother was from Baton Rouge of French descent. My momma’s side was a hodgepodge of English, Scottish, Irish etc. My DNA on Ancestry says 47% English, 16% Scottish, 13% Southern Italian (Sicily), 11% Wales, 7% French, 6% Irish. At My Heritage- (my first test) it says I am 6% Ashkenazi Jewish and my Dad (also tested) was 7% Ashkenazi. We totally expected this (though I still have not found the Ancestor) - my dad has Crohn’s Disease, he was born in 1943 & he started having symptoms at 8 years old. Fast forward to 1973, he became severely sick, lost weight fast, no hospital in our area that he went to, could figure out what was wrong. (We live in Kansas City, Missouri). My dads mom worked at Menorah Medical Center (a Jewish Hospital here in KC) - his X-rays from North Kansas City Hospital were sent over & his physician there immediately diagnosed him with Crohns Disease. This Doctor, told my Dad (quote) “that he has Jewish blood, because this is a Jewish Disease.” It’s weird how so many people have now been diagnosed with Crohn’s in the years since, yet it was absolutely unheard of in the non-Jewish Medical Community in 49 years ago. 🤷🏽‍♀️

So, I took a DNA test about 5 or so years ago. I started talking to someone and we couldn't figure out how we were related. 5 years go by and she reaches back out and says that she found out how and whom.

Thank you for your message! I though of that too. There are at least two limitations of DNA ancestry testing. One, is that it can go as far as back 5 generations and is limited to specific ethnicity. Two, the data available is limited (and often unreliable) at best but I recognise that it is changing for better or for worse! I identified the problem with DNA testing which is that I was supposed to have German, French, Spanish, Swiss, Jewish and other non-British ancestry but nothing. However, I realised that I can go as far as back 5 Generations and I am 4th Generations Australian. The bulk of my DNA testing and matching are in Australia! There is another issue of ethnicity test which is that there is no such thing as pure homogenous ethnic groups in the world. English people is a very good example of this, there are at least 5 different ethnic groups that makes up the people. Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, Normans (French-Vikings) and various migrations of mostly European origin. That makes it harder to identify the real origin of us! As for me I am discovering many twists as I am not who am I!

I probably had the worst emotional experience of my life through discovering, and contacting my birthmother through genealogy DNA testing. I'll just say that she wasn't thrilled with me contacting her. I'm in my 50's and It took some counseling, and time to reasonably accept it. I had considered suicide. I cannot emphasize enough to discourage parents of adopted children in assisting with even well intentions? Another point to mention is if you move forward with the test is to have your user name, and not your real name displayed on the site. You then decide who knows who you are? I have no regrets though, and glad I did it!

I have traced genealogy line to include known 8th, 9th and 10th ggrand parents on dad's side are Abenaki but my DNA results do not show it. However, my aunt (dad's sister) does show. Also, my DNA shows match back 62 generations to a Peruvian (based on a known sample group) who lived approximately 450 AD and I'm listed with 1.7% AmeriIndian and 4% overall native including Columbian, Mexican and Puerto Rican ancestors--based on y chromosome. No one in the family made that connection before. This is all quite interesting. Thanks for the vids--you are very informative and pleasant to listen to.

I’ve tried explaining recombination to my siblings. I think I’m going to need a few jars of different colored sand. One jar is English, one jar German, one jar French… mix them in a big jar, scoop some out into 3 empties and see what they get.

I’m somewhat surprised that there was no mention of who owns the DNA after a person sends it off to the company for testing. Also, no mention as to what use, the company may make of your personal record after the test has been completed.

Thank you for this video. I have taken DNA tests with multiple companies and the ethnicity estimate is a little different. Whenever these companies do an update on the ethnicity estimate the percentages do change however the technology still appears to be a work in progress.

Thank you for the video. I've often wondered why people take the DNA test and then don't want to be bothered. We all have our motivations. Perhaps they're struggling with some of the findings, don't have time to respond to multiple requests, are not comfortable sharing personal information with strangers, or didn't realize how much work there can be in building out a Tree.

Wonderful informative and spot on!

thanks, Amy

This is an awesome video! Theres a lot that I didn’t understand but you really made things more clear…Thanks so much for sharing ❤️

Learning so much. Very informative

Love your videos.

It's amusing how keen people seem these days to claim native-American ancestry. In the past, it would've been something people would have tried to hide LOL.

Estimate is simply "the best guess we have at the time."

Actually the biggest chance that you would have Native American ancestry is if you have French-Canadian Ancestry. Many French Canadians married with Native American females especially in the 1600s and 1700s because there just wasn’t enough females from what is now Quebec to marry.

You are good. In fact you need a tv show. I have a question: You mentioned: If someone lk at your DNA test they can get in contact with you. How will they know how to contact you? Thanks. Again great video.

I've been taking all the tests I can find. I got curious as to how similar (or different) the results would be. So far... Ancestry/MyHeritage have same regions but different %'s. 23&Me found Indigenous American where as Ancestry/MyHeritage did not. On the flip side, 23&Me didn't find Scandanavian, where Ancestry/MyHeritage did. I was handed down family records on my mother's side. She's. Primarily German (her dad) and Irish (her mom). Ancestry has me at 3% German and 23&Me has me at 35%. Of course Ancestry also sub-regions Germany into two other "regions". So, that should be taken into account too. Nice video. 🤘 (Edit added) FamilyTreeDNA has my results still pending. And the CRI Genetics tests hasn't arrived yet. I'll be ordering LivingDNA as soon as CRI gets in.

You spoke quite a bit about Native American Ethnicity, and then at one point said "this is for another video". Have you done or are you planning on doing a video dedicated to this topic? I'm one of those people with family stories, and my paternal grandfather looked quite Native American, but no DNA results for that. I've just started my Genealogy research but haven't found anything in census records yet. Please let me know. Thank you

Off Topic... I really like what you're wearing (I love red, white, and blue!). I was wondering if you'd tell me who manufactures it so I can find one on eBay for me!

I took 3 DNA tests and all where 90% correct yes I was not surprised shocked was more like it but I finally know who I am and where my family came from !

My 2nd great grandfather was irish and his mother was irish, but I dont have any irish in my ethnicity, my ethnicity does have Scottish and Welsh but I dont have this showing up on my tree. And iv gone back 7 generations.

Tbh I don't trust my family as is so finding substantial proof that the lineage on that side is correct is even more difficult. I never got to hear stories or anything about where we can from. Most of my grandparents that immigrated we're from Germany but I was only a 13% match with DNA that said I was Germanic. It has since been updated and now it's in my top 3 where as the Irish from my "mother's" side has gone down in not only percentage but on my list. It's been confusing to say the least. I don't just wanna learn the family history but I'd like to learn things about the area of cultures I may be from and I'm finding this very challenging as they change.

My father is from Scotland and my mother is from Germany. Some branches I could trace back 6 or 7 generations and both sides stayed and married mostly in the same region. When I took a DNA test I expected the ethnicity to be about 50% Scottish and 50% German. I was surprised to see over 40% Scottish (Irish, Welsh), almost 40% English and only about 20% German. I thought this can't be accurate but as I watch your video I got this idea. My mother's paternal family and ancesters are from Hannover, Lower Saxony. Could my "high" English ethnicity actually be Anglo-Saxon original from Germany?

I have a cousin and our nearest common ancestor is our 2nd great grand father. Both of us did our DNA test down to the 700 marker level. There is only 2 markers that are only one number difference between us. We are hardly identical and we only met for the first time in 2017. We are in our 60's.

The 'dad' thing happened to one of my daughter's and I but I wasn't as surprised as she was because I had always suspected that I was her father

I agree with her. I found 4 out of 5 of her points to be true

I cannot remember the TV program (maybe Dr Oz or The Doctors), but anyway Triplets were DNA tested. Identical twins ect are suppose to have the same DNA right? Well two of the girls had identical DNA, and the 3rd Triplet's was slightly different; not by much but different. So scientists are working on all sorts of DNA testing. My brother's friend has Triplet nieces who are simply gorgeous, and you cannot tell them apart. They were at the mall one day when approched by a talent scout it was on to different opportunities for them; (I digress).

I have a large Ancestry tree. After a lot of problems with supposed DNA matches I made my tree private and deleted my DNA test results. Recently I bought another DNA test from Ancestry. The top match has changed to a small tree that is totally no clue to the DNA link and some of my previous tree matches show now as no match at all. How is that possible ??????

My son donated his bone marrow to a leukemia patient…they said if she does DNA testing that she’d have the history of our son!

I have what should be a 1st cousin once removed who had taken a test (Angela). She doesn't share enough DNA with me, my brother, my uncle and about 12 cousins whose tests I manage. She's definitely related, but not how she should be! Her grandmother Gail, is my mom's sister, or at least that's what she's supposed to be. Based on the amount of DNA shared, I think grandma and my 1st cousin's mother (Gail) and at least one other aunt have some explaining to do! Grandma had 17 kids (maybe 16 after I explain..), 10 (or 9) daughters and 7 sons. I believe that one of my aunts gave birth to Gail and grandma raised her as her own! I believe that Aunt Gail is actually a 1st cousin to me, her son is 1st cousin once removed, and that Angela is my 1st cousin 2x removed. None of the family want to hear about, but hey, DNA doesn't lie!

Would a half brother show up as a cousin? If not enough DNA matched.

Yes I went onto 23& me and found out I had 2nd 3rd and even 4th cousins I contacted 3 of them but got no reply so I have now lost interest.

Good info about the N.A. features. Not everyone with wavy black hair and high cheekbones is an indigenous American! I can't understand why this assumption still lives in the 21st century, it's ridiculous.

I wish you would have touched on the topic that they only test 37 to 50 SNPS of data and your DNA has allot of SNPS so if they don’t pick it up pay for a bigger SNP test! There still is allot more research to do on DNA! I say this for people who are trying to rejoin the tribes that are allowing them to like the Catawba tribe.. you have to prove DNA and this is probably the last generation that will get in

Every September my Ancestry ethnicity make-up changes. I’m a lot more German than i was 3 years ago.😁😁 From 0 to 6% in just 3 years. Funny thing is that 20 years ago i thought i was 5% German and rest Czech/Slovak. After doing genealogy going back 5 generations i should have just trace of German, as only 1 surname is German and the last time he was in Germany was 400 years ago. The subsequent generations kept marrying local girls in Czechia and then Slovakia.

Look at it this way. If you reach out to a match and the DNA match don’t respond? Thank them silently for giving more clues to those who match (you). Don’t assume DNA tests have one reason to exist. It’s annoying when people put that pressure on because guess what? They are NOT going to want to take a test because of this unwarranted expectation. I like connecting - I’m in the adoption triad - but not all others are in that boat.

Hello, I am Wayward Californian. Thank you for taking the time to share knowledge! Building family histories online is really fun. For some reason, I really mistrust mail order DNA tests. Shouldn't the testing be in a clean, sterile laboratory setting?🎁

Took my test and found out my dad isn't my dad - No ruined family here although mum is now the butt of all the family jokes. Glad I took the test while she is alive. Mum is 85 and has vague bits info for me to try and track the real baby daddy.

Another example of "not exact." My ex wife and her daughter both spit into the tube. They have a 2701 cM match which Ancestry assigned as a Sibling match. My ex kind of remembers being her mom. Our 3 sons match their mom at 3053 cM, 2968 cM, and 3063 cM. The sons all have a match with me in the 3400's range. The daughter is my step-daughter so has no DNA match with me. She does have half-sibling matches with my three sons.

You will need another video to talk about the $5 Indians

Very Good!... #122 ✝ {9-5-2023}

Yes I look like native put my test didn't show anything

I show no Native American ancestry yet my cousins show 25% or more. Mind you we are all enrolled in the Choctaw tribe.

My grandmother was a Campbell. Yet my DNA shows no Scottish ancestry.

The children can't help they got here by an unwed mother . I think they like to know ,so when have children don't get marry to one of their lost family. Adopted people some found out they are adopted children after their parents die .so sad.

Yup! I was raised to hide our heritage and culture. I did mine to try and find relatives because of adoption and I don't want to be that One who sends random people messages. How can I be sensitive about it?....

I took the ancestry DNA test looking for viking and found none. It took me 2 weeks to follow this rumor told by our dark age nobles and found these busts that the Romans have 3000 years ago and my family look like twins of these guys still today and my last name means the eyebrow bridge of the Sarmatians. We were the very first horse people and the only tribe the Romans feared and forced us to be their cavalry and took the sons very young for 30 years generationally for centuries. Which forced the daughters to be the warriors and defenders of the tribe. They didn't marry until the men would return to the tribe, they had arranged marriages. They didn't kill the boys but sent them away to hide from the Romans. They found their tombs 3 years ago and have our DNA. We Slavs all have Sarmatian DNA but we Poles have the most we are 50/50 Sarmatian/Slavic. I wrote THE FIRST HORSE PEOPLE the complete history of my ancient tribe the Sarmatian knights and the Amazon women and I am revising to put in the parallel history of the Slavs and how they became allies to the horse people. The Romans have busts of the faces of every tribe they encounter including in Africa.

I can confirm that estimates don’t always reflect research. I have 30% Celtic dna but none of my 5generation ancestors is Irish born rofl.

I just hope that when I get my test back that it does not show that i am Gay

Um you cannot discount personal family history stories though, especially about Native American ancestry. People have to understand. Most Native Americans do not test for DNA especially if someone wants to find ancestry. Tribes use special census tribal rolls especially if you want to enroll in a tribe. Most of them don’t require DNA testing for that. So I think that’s why people don’t have a lot of Native ancestry in their estimates. In addition to that, not saying that Native Americans don’t test, but these companies don’t have large amounts of Native American samples to compare individuals with

Be ready for many Surprise s.

I was told my genealogy was of American Indians. I researched my lineage and found 3 generations of indians on my mother & father side, but my dna ancestry only shows 2% of it & 37% African. How is it possible when I can't find no records of any Africans in my genealogy?

I took one of those DNA tests. I know they are not 100% accurate by the method they use If you can trace your genealogy back 4 or 5 generations,you pretty much know your nationality origins by the surnames. I've got mostly Irish ,English and Scot origins

All the skeletons come out of the closet from the family tree.

NUMBER 5: Some cousin I did/do not know because she was never raised in our state abused #5. Her father was so jealous of her mom when her mom would come here to visit every 10 or more years to visited her parents/my paternal grandparents her husband would'nt allow her to bring the kids along that way it was "insurance" she would retun to Washington. So anyway, this "cousin" did the DNA test and found out my "birth father" (I call him that because he had 5 daughters and never took care of any of us) and beat our mother' nearly to death; anyway, dear old dad has an illegitimate son. LOL! I'm sure there are more out there! So this "cousin" makes contact with this man's grandaughter because she too took a DNA test too. The granddaughter built a tree on Ancestry for the illegitimate son. So I'm looking for a piece of information on Ancestry trees when one caught my eye; yes, dear old dad's name and birthdate so I look and nearly passed out. A formal Navy photo of my father listed as "Father" and "Mother" a photo of her grandmother just like a happy little married family; daddy, mommy, & baby makes 3. All of my paternal aunties, cousins ect but none from his side. "Old dad's" daughters are my 2 full sisters and then our 2 half sisters. Our oldest sis is passed away. She was a very private person she is turning over and over in her grave knowing she is on this granddaughters Ancestery tree; she would never ever claim this illegitimate man. Even posted our precious mother and my half sis's mom; simply low class and disrespectful. This cousin and this man's granddaughter built this tree like we are all one big happy family. They even have me posted (a living person) I begged Ancestry to remove me obviously because I am alive but they refused and Ancestry refused to contact the tree owners and tell her to take me off the tree. I could care less about this illegitimate deceased son or any one in his family. Something else I think is very sad about this is the fact that the man who raised this illegitimate male child died at Normandy WWII; I wonder if he knew this wasn't his kid or if made any difference to him as he took his last breaths. The illegitimate son died and of course the obit had him listed as the son of Mr & Mrs John Doe and all of ther other children (his sibs); what if they never knew he was'nt really their full brother. I'm not sure what I would have done if this illegitimate child would have contacted me years ago and I doubt my sis knew him or about him (?) but at least we would have been respected and given a choice. I understand people just want to know where they come from. This out right BLATANT act just turned me into a flaming mad disrespected individual. Thing is BEWEAR about DNA & posting trees online because anybody can publish anything they chose to and you cannot do one thing about it. Your most personal life is all laid out before you true or fiction. I was informed "The Dead Have No Rights."

99% of family stories about American Indian ancestry are WRONG.