Is it possible to be 100 percent european on a DNA test?

[LemonFatball]

Because I recently got my DNA test results and it came back as 100 percent european with my ancestory being irish and english. Is this possible?

I am too, Mainly scottish and English with a bit of Irish which fits in with what I know about my family history.
so yes it's possible. Why do you think it's not?

Yes, mine is mainly English with a little Irish Scottish and Welsh. I was disappointed because family lore said my great great grandmother was Russian on one side and Spanish on the other. Clearly not!

Im English Irish Scottish and Welsh and a tiny 2% Scandinavian i should imagine its entirely possible to be 100% European mine fluctuates though when I first got it I was 2% German too now im more Welsh no German

Mine says I am 98% Cornish and 2% Netherlands.
That's it - not even a smidge of anywhere else in England.

My family and I had results that were all 100% European.

Why would it not be possible?

Why would it not be possible?

Lol. I am 99% east midlands (Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire specifically. 1% France (some relative multiple generations back apparently) .

Could be worse.

@Tryagain26 because I've heard people say its not possible and some theory's say that humans moved from africa to europe so I was think that id have some ancestory outside of europe Although I've heard others say that the out of africa theory is not true.

Although at the same time it didnt supprise me much cause im probaly the whitest of the white as im a redhead with blue eyes

100% European doesn't mean that you never had ancestors living in Africa if you go fat enough back. Some people willa presumably have 100% African, and others 100% Asian etc, that isn't proof that humans have independently evolved three times with no common ancestors.

I don't quite know how these tests work, but it will not mean 100% of your ancestors have always been European

Exactly this.

Few DNA markers these tests look at are actually group specific. Heritage DNA tests are largely based on comparison with current database they have available - many people find they've had their finding updated over the years as more people take the test.

DNA tests can only catch the DNA that's passed down to you - the farther back, the less chance there is. Once you get beyond 6 or 7 generations, the chance of any directly being passed down are tiny. You're not going to get any results that from ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. They aren't really accurately testing what the DNA of any group would have looked like generations back - just what people there now largely have.

So yes, it's very possible to have 100% European DNA for these tests if your ancestors for the last 150-200 years were European.

I’m 95% English, 2% Netherlands and 3% Germany. Even if I had ancestors that were 100% African that could have been bred to 0% over generations - the child of two 50% Chinese/50% English parents could feasibly be 100% English or 100% Chinese if it just so happened they only inherited the English/Chinese genes - it’s just statistically unlikely.

What do you mean is it possible? Why are you shocked? My DNA is 100% European. It came back 60% English, 35% Irish and Scottish, and 5% Scandinavian. I wouldn’t say that’s unusual at all. The lady next door had hers done at the same time, and hers was a mix of British, Irish and French. My best friend’s DNA is 100% European as well.

Mine is a mix of English and Irish

Human life started in Africa but that was around 300,000 years ago. The tests don't go that far back they go back 300 years at the most so around 10 generations.

You undoubtedly have black ancestors going back far enough. But there wouldn’t be any point in showing it on the test even if they could as we all have the same.

‘Some theories’? No. Evidence, well researched, tells us there is a mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago and has an unbroken line of succession to modern people.

The reason the testing companies tell you you’re European is they are setting their reference more recently that 200,000 years ago!

We all came from Africa.

Yes my ExH got 100% British and 80% northern British. He was not pleased as it was “boring”

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/female-ancestor.htm

The tests work by matching features of your DNA to local populations now. So your DNA is similar to people living today in Ireland and England. It doesn't mean that none of your ancestors came from elsewhere- ultimately everyone's ancestors came from Africa, as you say.

White Europeans are also massively over-represented in the data they use apparently so the tests tend to be better at picking up similarities to DNA in areas with lots of white European people and can miss other ethnicities, simply because there isn't enough comparator DNA in the data.

In short, the tests don't mean all that much.

@APatternGrammar so then there is no such thing as "native" or indeginous people then (i.e native americans, native indians, native chinese people, native europeans etc)

Of course it’s possible. Most white Europeans, especially in the northern regions and especially on ISLANDS will be 100% white European.

When do you suggest our ancestors were all having children with modern Asian or African people? A few people might have a touch of North African via Spain/Portugal but generally people stayed put.

I believe they’re correct with the out of Africa theory… but that’s so far back it would predate race itself.

I am 100% European according to my DNA, but these DNA tests don't tell the full picture, certainly not the further you go back.

The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry by Bryan Sykes is a good book. It's semi fictional but rooted in the science/evidence that we all descend from mitochondrial Eve, and the classification of all modern Europeans into seven mitochondrial haplogroups. It's now commonly agreed (including by the author) that there are more than seven, but the principal that the most recent female ancestor which we all descend from via our matrilineal line was a woman who lived in East Africa about 200,000 years ago, remains.

@LemonFatball "because I've heard people say its not possible and some theory's say that humans moved from africa to europe so I was think that id have some ancestory outside of europe"

The largest and most successful migration out of Africa happened around 70,000 years ago, so it was a prehistoric event. You aren't going to get results much further back than 6 generations (so around 300 years). You surely didn't expect to results from pre-history?!

There are first peoples. If migration happened to that region, and those people settled first, and their descendants are there now, they are the indigenous people.

Did you think every group of people sprang up independently of every other group? Like we all descended from different groups of primates? And that’s the only way people can be indigenous.