RE: [AZORES-Genealogy] MyOrigins surprise findings from Family Finder DNA testing

[pico]

Hello Deb and Helen,

I'm so glad you asked that. And by no means is it upsetting in any way.

I arrived at the percentage by math. I thought I spelled it out, but maybe that was in another message to my family, because I'm trying to get them all convinced to do the Family Finder test.

Here's my calculation:

If your father was 100% Irish and your mother was 100% Native Indian, then all their kids are 50/50 of each.

If your paternal grandfather was Irish, your paternal grandmother Indian and your maternal grandfather was German and maternal grandmother was Chinese, then you are roughly 25% of each.

Working back through your family tree, you have 8 great-grandparents, 16 g-g-grandparents until you get to the 7th generation at which time you have 128 potentially different ancestors. But if anywhere between you and the 7th generation there was a couple who are related, then that reduces the total number of different ancestors.

Now to percentages. We don't have exactly 100 ancestors in the 6th or 7th generation because it goes from 64 to 128. So somewhere in the area of the 6th and 7th generation we reach the level of 100 different ancestors.

In my father's case, born in 1919, he reaches the 7th generation with ancestors born about the year 1675, give or take 25 years. If one of these 100 ancestors was from England, he would approximately account for 1% of my father's DNA. Same for Egypt, Korea, Africa, whatever.

Thus I come to my original conclusion you wanted to know how I came to it.

But now we come to a more complex math problem, because there is not a good chance that any of these 100 different ancestors is pure anything. Maybe the English ancestor is half German. Maybe the African ancestor is half Portuguese, etc. So it takes more than one ancestor to get to 1% of DNA in my father from the 7th generation back. I know that's getting more complicated, but I'm trying to explain it as clearly as I can. Maybe someone else can do a better job with it.

Doug da Rocha Holmes
Sacramento, California
Pico & Terceira Genealogist
916-550-1618

www.dholmes.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] MyOrigins surprise findings from Family
Finder DNA testing
From: helen kerner <hker...@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Thu, May 08, 2014 1:04 pm
To: "azores@googlegroups.com" <azores@googlegroups.com>

Deb,

Ditto from helen cunha kerner.

From: 'looking4roots' via Azores Genealogy <azores@googlegroups.com>
To: "azores@googlegroups.com" <azores@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 8, 2014 12:46 PM
Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] MyOrigins surprise findings from Family Finder DNA testing

Hi Doug,  you asked why the group members aren't responding to your e-mail and suggest it may be because of the shock of not being lily white. I feel compelled to respond.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but being shocked about my African ancestry and not being "lily white" is  no part of my silence.  I not only think it is logical, much as you articulated, that some of my ancestors would be from Africa; I also think it is exciting to see the DNA map and all of the places that are reflected in my DNA.

My reason for not joining the dialogue is because I am an academic, whose training is rooted in the citing of sources and an almost knee-jerk reaction to weigh the credibility of all information placed in front of me.  With the absence of that type of supporting detail in your message, I would be at loss as to how I should respond.

I appreciate that you approach many of the topics on this list with great enthusiasm and are willing to offer your insights to help other group members.  In this particular instance, I am curious about the assumptions on which your statements are anchored.  Don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting what you wrote is bunk. I don't have the expertise to evaluate its veracity. I just can't accept it wholesale without supporting documentation.  For example, you say:

 all it takes is one ancestor from the late 1600s to be from England or modern UK to appear as 1% European Islands DNA

Is that statement based on research that you could provide for us? Is it based on reading you have done but don't remember exactly where?  Or is it a less-than-precise statement which serves to make the point that it doesn't take very many people from a particular region to change one's DNA map?  Any is fine, but it would be helpful to understand the foundation to your general statements, so I know how to evaluate it on the continuum from opinion to fact.

That is my reluctance to join in a conversation.  I hope it is taken in the spirit in which it is intended.

Deb, a.k.a. looking4roots51

 

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