Too Funny: Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test

Comic from Dana Summers.

Welcome to the noise-level Native American DNA club, Elizabeth Warren!  My father gets a consistently tiny reading in most ethnicity calculators of Native American/Amerindian, and if real (which is unlikely) it is due to an ancestor from the 1700s.  Although it seems that the ethnicity estimates seem to point to some Arctic origin, possibly Greenland or Siberia, and possibly Saami.

These DNA tests are quite something. pic.twitter.com/tCHmW7pJbj

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) October 15, 2018

I think Roberta Estes has the most thorough discussion on the topic.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Where is this Native American DNA coming from? Part 2

I tested my dad's DNA at Ancestry.com.  I then uploaded the raw DNA results to GEDmatch to play around some more.  Here is what I found.

The following is my father's predicted ethnicity percentages (with ranges) from AncestryDNA (Ancestry.com's DNA).  I have included only those populations that either has definite DNA affinity with, or may have trace affinity with.

NOTE: Ancestry explains Trace Regions this way: "These are regions where you seem to have just a trace amount of genetic ethnicity -- there is only a small amount of evidence supporting the regions as part of your genetic ethnicity.  Because both the estimated amount and the range of the estimate are small, it is possible that these regions appear by chance and are not actually part of your genetic ethnicity." [emphasis mine]

Region        Approximate amount

America         less than 1%
Native American less than 1% (Range: 0%-1%)

Asia             0%
Asia South       0% (Range: 0%-1%)

Europe           99%
Great Britain    62% (Range: 38%-85%)
Scandinavia      33% (Range: 12%-53%)
Ireland          2% (Range: 0%-10%)
Europe West      2% (Range: 0%-9%)
Europe East      0% (Range: 0%-2%)
European Jewish  0% (Range: 0%-less than 1%)
Finland/NWRussia 0% (Range: 0%-1%)

West Asia        0%
Middle East      0% (Range: 0%-1%)
Caucasus         0% (Range: 0%-less than 1%)

So far, so good.  All of the predicted ethnicities seemed reasonable from what I knew, except the Native American.  My own results included Native American 0% (Range: 0%-less than 1%).  I was to find that most of my NA amounts in other ethnicity admixture tests on GEDmatch would show about half whatever my father's NA amounts were.

Here are the results from the various GEDmatch tests.  I will highlight any Native American as well as Siberian and Oceanian, as they may (or may not) be relevant.

Eurogenes EUtest V2 K15
Population
North_Sea 36.44%
Atlantic 24.37%
Baltic 11.87%
Eastern_Euro 12.45%
West_Med 8.01%
West_Asian 4.52%
East_Med 0.08%
Red_Sea -
South_Asian -
Southeast_Asian -
Siberian 0.67%
Amerindian 0.81%
Oceanian 0.43%
Northeast_African -
Sub-Saharan 0.35%

Eurogenes Hunter Gatherer vs Farmer
Population
Anatolian Farmer 9.59%
Baltic Hunter Gatherer 57.12%
Middle Eastern Herder -
East Asian Farmer -
South American Hunter Gatherer 1.33%
South Asian Hunter Gatherer 0.90%
North Eurasian Hunter Gatherer 0.57%
East African Pastoralist -
Oceanian Hunter Gatherer 0.11%
Mediterranean Farmer 30.05%
Pygmy Hunter Gatherer -
Bantu Farmer 0.33%

Eurogenes K9
Population
South Asian 0.65%
Caucasus 7.00%
Southwest Asian -
North Amerindian + Arctic 1.30%
Siberian 0.85%
Mediterranean 23.72%
East Asian -
West African 0.17%
North European 66.31%

Eurogenes K10
Population
South Asian 0.57%
Caucasus 7.17%
Southwest Asian -
North Amerindian + Arctic 1.27%
Siberian 0.71%
Mediterranean 13.00%
East Asian -
West African 0.15%
East European 24.69%
North Atlantic 52.44%

Eurogenes K11
Population
South Asian 0.30%
Caucasus 6.35%
Southwest Asian -
North Amerindian + Arctic 1.19%
Siberian - 
Mediterranean 12.31%
East Asian -
West African 0.11%
Volga-Ural 12.79%
South Baltic 16.45%
North Atlantic 50.49%

Eurogenes K12
Population
South Asian 0.22%
Caucasus 5.97%
Southwest Asian -
North Amerindian + Arctic 1.18%
Siberian - 
Mediterranean 10.96%
East Asian -
West African 0.09%
Volga-Ural 11.35%
South Baltic 13.03%
Western European 27.18%
North Sea 30.02%

Eurogenes K13
Population
North_Atlantic 44.91%
Baltic 28.77%
West_Med 12.34%
West_Asian 6.86%
East_Med 3.16%
Red_Sea 0.05%
South_Asian 0.33%
East_Asian -
Siberian 1.33%
Amerindian 1.08%
Oceanian 0.67%
Northeast_African -
Sub-Saharan 0.49%

MDLP Ancient Roots K18
Population
Caucasian 6.66%
Melano-Austronesian 0.23%
Volga-Uralic 6.27%
East_Siberian - 
West_Siberian 2.13%
South_Central_Asian 4.20%
South_Indian 0.70%
North_West_European 33.43%
Sami-Finnic 2.47%
South_East_Asian -
Archaic_African 0.61%
Mediterranean 8.21%
Arctic - 
Afroasiatic 1.78%
East_European 30.29%
Roma 1.51%
East_African -
Amerindian 1.54%

MDLP World-22
Population
Pygmy -
West-Asian 6.41%
North-European-Mesolithic 5.25%
Indo-Tibetan -
Mesoamerican - 
Arctic-Amerind 0.85%
South-America_Amerind -
Indian 1.13%
North-Siberean -
Atlantic_Mediterranean_Neolithic 31.40%
Samoedic 0.87%
Indo-Iranian 2.01%
East-Siberean -
North-East-European 48.49%
South-African -
North-Amerind - 
Sub-Saharian -
East-South-Asian -
Near_East 3.58%
Melanesian -
Paleo-Siberian -
Austronesian -

MDLP World
Population
Caucaus_Parsia 8.77%
Middle_East 4.55%
Indian 1.53%
South_and_West_European 43.19%
Melanesian -
Sub_Saharian -
North_and_East_European 40.83%
Arctic_Amerind 0.76%
East_Asian -
Paleo_African 0.06%
Mesoamerican - 
North_Asian 0.31%

Dodecad World9
Population
Amerindian 1.33%
East_Asian -
African -
Atlantic_Baltic 72.95%
Australasian -
Siberian 1.35%
Caucasus_Gedrosia 12.19%
Southern 11.60%
South_Asian 0.57%

HarrapaWorld
Population
S-Indian -
Baloch 9.14%
Caucasian 7.15%
NE-Euro 51.62%
SE-Asian -
Siberian 1.24%
NE-Asian -
Papuan -
American 0.63%
Beringian 0.09%
Mediterranean 28.64%
SW-Asian 1.46%
San -
E-African -
Pygmy -
W-African -


So, those NA percentages are consistently there, but are also at very low levels.  Around 1%.  Noise level.  No idea where they are coming from.

Yvette Hoitink, a genealogist from the Netherlands, took the Eurogenes K13 ethnicity test and discovered she had 1.15% NA, although, unlike me, she simply dismissed it out of hand, as it seemed to come from her father who descended from a long line of Dutch who never left their community.  Yvette figured it was proof that these ethnicity tests are not exact, and should be taken with a grain of salt.  Maybe I should just drop this whole inquiry and just consider it noise.



© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Where is this Native American DNA coming from? Part 1

My dad has trace Native American (NA)DNA in every ethnicity test I run his DNA through, from AncestryDNA to all the admixture tests on GEDmatch.

Why?  Where is it coming from?

My dad has no Cherokee, Iroquois, or Dakota ancestor story.  I have found no records whatsoever indicating Native American heritage.  A full half of his ancestry came from Scandinavian in the 1880's and 1890's, for pete's sake.

And is the Native American real?  That is not clear to me.  I'm somewhat inclined to dismiss it because of a lack of all usual evidence, but why is it showing up at all?  It is a distinct DNA signature, due to the isolation of Native Americans for thousands of years.  Since the NA comes across as Arctic whenever it is possible to refine (as opposed to North American, Mesoamerican, or South American), I have wondered for a while if my Scandinavian ancestors are the culprits for this DNA?

Everything else about his DNA test results makes perfect sense.  An English/Scottish/Welsh type with a heavy dose of Scandinavian, and some Irish and some German.  In AncestryDNA's breakdown he also has possible trace Europe East, European Jewish, Finland/Northwest Russia, and Caucasus.  None of those surprise me, as those groups all inhabited the same landmass, and in the past 500 - 1000 years have had interaction.  That my dad should have as strong an indicator for Native American as Finland/Northwest Russia is very odd.  I would expect the latter to be the larger, more dominant trace ethnicity.  And while the GEDmatch battery of ethnicity admixture tests indeed show a larger amount of eastern Scandinavia and Russia than Ancestry's prediction, the Native American keeps pace, hovering either slightly less or slightly more than 1%.  An annoying number, by the way, as that is at what is called "noise level."





© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.