Found out I’m mixed race not white

[NewHeritage]

Long story short but an online dna test has discovered one of my parents isn’t biologically my parent. I have found the name of my biological parent and also talked to other “new” relatives online after making contact with them.

I now have a slightly daft question……I don’t know what “race” my parent was. I mean I do, but I don’t know the name/label/category. They were South American, from (British) Guyana and an indigenous American. So what race are indigenous Americans from South America?

Not Latino as British Guyana I don’t think is a Latino country. Not Afro-Caribbean as they weren’t from Africa or the Caribbean (though there is some African ancestry in the mix according to my dna results which makes sense as there were a lot of African slaves in Guyana in the past. So my dna results are like 50% European, 5% African and 45% Indo-american. But is indo-american a race?

I can trace my ancestry on both sides literally just to the British Isles but think you are talking absolute crap.
Determined divisiveness? The woman has just found out her dad is not her dad and her heritage is from another country altogether!
That's fascinating! Wanting to know about your culture is not divisive, its natural.
I'd want to know absolutely everything. How exciting OP!

All of the Guyanese people I know consider themselves west indian caribbean.

Wow. My results were as expected but 23andme relatives revealed I have a distant Welsh relative who is pretty much everything under the sun but Welsh. Claims she had no idea. Some English but otherwise very exotic results, small amounts from dozens of countries across multiple continents. I don't understand how that's even possible. Mixed-race US and Australian ancestors who later move to Britain? Adoption?

The funniest was a distant American relative who strongly identifies with his Scottish roots. Think ridiculous cliché, in a 'kilt' (it was a tartan skirt!), Burns Night celebrations, patriotic posting on Scots this and that on FB... zero Scots ancestry. He has a very small amount of distant English ancestry, otherwise wholly German.

I didn't think that stereotype was real, I was laughing so hard. I sincerely hope he wasn't too crushed!

My paternal ancestors were indentured slaves from India.

*Correcting my typo - indentured ‘labourers’

My other ancestors were African slaves and Scottish slave masters.

You cannot be serious?!

This isn't specific to white. Race really doesn't matter unless you accept that it does or want it to or are part of the crowd and can't see clearly on your own.

Agreed. Forced 'struggle life', I'd say.

Of course I’m serious. Do some research and educate yourself. This is just one thing you might read.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/

It means you have one Jewish grandparent. It would be interesting to know how your father survived the Holocaust.

There's nothing wrong with someone saying 'I don't see colour' unless you're determined to take the phrase literally.

We really shouldn't see colour (not literally); it's a positive thing.

Great. So a white person can describe themselves as black and a black person can be white or mixed race and a mixed race person can be asian, etc.

Transracial. After all it's whatever you feel comfortable identifying as.

Fair enough, but that example was just an illustration of another point - that you don't need your father to do a DNA test to know that your birth cert contains a mistake.

Race and ethnicity/heritage/culture are not the same thing.

Refer to my subsequent post, this is not what I meant. I meant that the terms offered (for example in census) are often white-centric and colonialist and not representative of the wide range of ethnicities, hence use the wording you feel best describes you.

Race is a social construct. It’s completely different to sex.

It's a social construct based on people's genotypes and phenotypes...

Being middle aged I know quite a few people who have tracked down various biological relatives using Ancestry etc and it seems quite reliable as long as you interpret the data properly. One has found several half siblings, another her biological father.

My own parents are who I thought they were, but I got to meet some cousins for the first time ten years ago and had an instant affinity - they reminded me so much of their side of the family and there was that instant familiarity even though we had just met.

To a lot of us it matters, being able to see how we fit into that great human jigsaw. To see "where we came from" - even if it's reflected, at a few removes, in cousins' faces and little mannerisms.

Oh my goodness. I'm embarrassed for you, with your absolute confidence.

Have you read this piece? All the way through? It really doesn't say what you think it says. In fact, it's almost all not at all related to the point you seem to be making (bar the headline, but journalists will be journalists).

Exhausting

Oh dear 🤦‍♀️

Sorry to jump on your thread, Op, but I have a question about DNA, ancestry tests and ethnicity if anyway can answer.
If full siblings do the tests, would their ethnicity results be the same?
Or might they vary like physical characteristics vary, e.g. one sibling might have inherited their DM's blue eyes, another their father's height and a third red hair from a grandparent?

How do you feel about it OP?

If I found out I had some Native American blood in me I think I'd find that rather cool and exciting, makes for a more interesting family history than my lot who havn't moved since at least 1066 and half of them had the first christian name, we've lived in the same farmhouse since 1647, frankly rather dull!

@NewHeritage DH is from British Guyana. He considers himself afro-Caribbean, but that’s what people assume he is if that makes sense but his Ancestry DNA is very mixed. It’s a fascinating country.

I think it depends on how accurate the tests are. I read an article once, where identical twins took the test and it came up with totally different percentages of ethnicities.https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/dna-ancestry-kits-twins-marketplace-1.4980976

As I keep saying… ethnicity results really are the horoscopes of genealogy. Bit of fun, not to be taken as gospel.

Shared dna with other test takers is accurate. There is no reason why two siblings would test unless one thought there was different parentage.

He was born in 1946 and adopted in 1947 so after the end of the war. Would have been his bio mum or dad who were Jewish… no luck on Ancestry finding out about either of them.