Ancestry DNA

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If someone found out they were, say, 2% African, through a dna test, would you think they were ridiculous for becoming interested in that cultures’ history, customs, practices etc?
No - YANBU
Yes - YABU

I personally would not find them unreasonable

I have Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Scandinavian (of various Nations), Iberian French and English .
Though I do not know that much of Spain and France I do know quite a bit of the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and , of course English (which I am one)

Not sure if I would with such a small DNA percentage though but Horses for Courses.

Forgot to add
I know little of the Scandinavian countries either but perhaps its because what I do know of is closer to Home .

No I wouldn't, that's their blood, part of who they are. Although Ancestry.com DNA changes quite a lot when it gets updated as more people join. So that % could go up or possibly down.

Is it you, OP? I'd be very excited if that showed up on my dna, mine was boring - English, Welsh, with a tiny bit of Scottish & Irish 😴

My DNA was 100% northwest European. Mainly British with a little bit of Scandinavian. Very boring. I’d have loved 2% African!

If a person finds out they’re 2% African and becomes interested in that culture, I think that would be quite understandable, but it would be unreasonable for them to claim to be African, with such a tenuous link. After all, we are all 100% African, if you go back far enough.

If it actually said 2% African, then no, I wouldn't be interested. If it said 2% Angolan, then I would, as that's much more specific, and not somewhere I know much about.

What about the make up of the other 98%? Do many people have less than 2% African DNA? I don't know - I'm waiting for my results - I've just submitted mine last month for no specific reason other than I'm curious - I don't expect to find anything particularly interesting - other than - maybe my father - has fathered other children via extra marital affairs - that wouldn't surprise me. I went NC with him as soon as my mother died about 15 years ago.

Isn't everyone African? That's where humans began.

Does Ancestry really segregate like this.. Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Scandinavian (of various Nations), Iberian French, English and then lump the entire continent of Africa together?

@ChateauMargaux
I've just looked and "Africa" has 114 subdivisions.
For comparison "Europe" has 1501 and "Indigenous Americas" has 136

If they were making it part of their identity and saying "Hi I'm Jane from Africa" that would be weird. But researching where their ancestors came from is quite normal

I did mine recently, I had roughly 30% Scottish, 30% Irish, 6% Norwegian and the rest 'English'. No African, so if you had any show up I imagine you'd have to have more recent ancestors than 'the dawn of civilisation'!

I would find it a bit weird if someone went full 'I'm part African' from 2% though, I think.

No. Was watching something on YouTube about how far back is the 2% in DNA results go and its only 4/5th grandparent. I would love to know how that grandparent lived and how they got to the UK.

I did an ancient DNA program a while ago and had something like 2% native American.
I was actually thrilled because it's something thats always been of great interest to me. I'm yet to pronounce myself Sioux and wear a headdress. It's fascinating, but pretty meaningless in the long run.

Mine said I was 1% Mongolian (or something strange like that) when I did it 5 years ago. Then at some point it updated and I'm now 100% british and Irish, very boring! So it isn't always accurate and can change, especially as more peoples DNA gets analysed.

2% is roughly 1 of the great great great great grandparents who may have lived around the late 18th century.

For example This man had 8 children in Cornwall around that time and his descendants are well scattered. There are similar examples linked in that article too.

Yes the DNA result is only very recent family not since the dawn of time.

I would love to have Native American DNA, how fascinating.

BTW, isn't it a bit silly to say 'African culture'? There are so many different cultures in Africa that wherever you pick might be the wrong one. Finding out that a great-grandparent was from , Côte d'Ivoire for example would be more meaningful, but Africa is really pointless surely?

Is there a reason why anybody with or without African Dna cant be interested in African culture?

Of course anyone can be interested in any culture, my point was that to decide to be interested on the basis of a DNA test from Ancestry seems meaningless. It would be necessary to whittle down to a particular country to make sense.

Of course anyone can be interested in any culture, my point was that to decide to be interested on the basis of a DNA test from Ancestry seems meaningless. It would be necessary to whittle down to a particular country to make sense.
The ancestry Dna results do whittle it down to country, not just continent.

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