To think these DNA ancestry tests make no sense

[CarolineFields]

So you get back a score of 40% Nigerian. Meaning out of the tiny scrap of DNA tested - less than 0.1% -40% of that matches the average population in Nigeria. But if those Nigerians are tested, they won't come back as 100% Nigerian, so 40% of 0.1% matches people who are likely to be told they are 50% not Nigerian?

And if you are in Iceland when you have that test, you are told you are 40% Nigerian, but someone in Australia can be told they are 80% Icelandic due to being compared to you and you cohort?

Because you only inherit 1% of your DNA from a 4G grandparent. Going back further than 6 generations and you’d only register the majority ethnicity of multiple ancestors.

“The celts" were bigged up by the tudors, but they never really existed outside the PR machine.”

The PR machine meaning all the archaeology and ancient history departments of top Universities? The British museum? I can assure you that the Celtic peoples existed. The term “Celt” is a catch all like “Germanic” or “Chinese” covering multiple ethnicities and/or tribes/kingdoms that had shared/overlapping cultural practices, identities, religions and similar linguistic roots.

You do realise that the DNA ancestry that is "analysed" by the DNA companies only goes back about 6 generations....

And I guess you have some ancestors who came from before 6 generations ago?

They do. That’s how they figured out that Neanderthals and other early humans didn’t go extinct but are part of modern human ancestry.

No

You inherit all your DNA from your 4G grandparents.

Where else does your DNA come from?

It's just different 4G grandparents.

Just as all your DNA comes from your parents. You just get 1 of your Dad's chromosome 1 and one of your mum's chromosome 1.

Your mum got 1 of her chromosome 1 from her mum and the other from her Dad. And 1 of those ended up in you.

And all their DNA comes from their parents.

If you looked at all your 4G grandparents and looked at all your chromosomes, you should be able to match up each of your chromosomes with the 4G grandparent it came from.

Geneologists?

Or scientists?

I thought geneologists just traced family trees

Genealogists. With an “a”. 🙄

dna testing is a big thing in the genealogy world. Thought you’d know that, what with your genetics degree.

the university of Strathclyde have a genetic genealogy conference next month. Maybe you should attend. You might learn something. https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/centreforlifelonglearning/genealogy/advancinggeneticgenealogy/

Thank you @Fiveyearsleft

If it’s Niall of the Nine Hostages, he was an Irishman that went raiding all through Europe, especially Wales. But since he wasn’t Scandanavian, it wasn’t called “going Viking”

@cake or wine, I said you only inherit around 1% of your DNA from “a 4G grandparent” you have 64 of them. Please read a bit slower, as you are missing key qualifiers.

I do a lot of genealogy and know to take the ethnicities with a pinch of salt. But I was impressed when my grandmother's DNA test showed a small chunk of French and a decent sized chunk of Germanic Europe, as her mother was illegitimate and I've later realised from DNA matches that the father was one of two brothers (in the very next household) whose grandfather was born in France. I manage several other test results for other family (different lines to my Nana) and none of them have even a tiny bit of French DNA!

Having a degree in genetics doesn't involve knowing anything about 'genealogy'.

Not having a go, but it simply doesn't.

Genealogists may need to understand a bit about genetics, but geneticists don't need to know a single thing about genealogy.

It doesn't really mean anything anyway.

Ultimately, we all descend from a tiny group of humans a long long time ago.

It seems arbitrary to talk about "where we come from" when we have so many ancestors.

But we just stop at 200 years.

It’s not arbitrary.

I don't have a degree in genetics - and I am also pretty sure that you don't need a deep understanding of genetics to be a genealogist.

Just the ability to trace family trees, research births, deaths etc and look up records.

I don't think that family trees go back to Neanderthal times but I know that using DNA is very useful to see how we have evolved over time and spread over the millenia.

@GaryLurcher19 i think that’s been very much proven in this thread!! Although of course anyone can claim a degree in anything, can’t they?

It's meaningless.

You do agree that your DNA comes from people who were alive 1000s and 1000s of years ago and over time, it's been passed down, mutated,, been crossed over between chromosomes and eventually ended up in you.

So where "does your DNA come from?" and what does it mean?

@cakeorwine amd that’s where you’re wrong. Anyone working as a genealogist will have to know how to interpret autosomal or y dna tests given that so many people do them. But what do I know, it’s only my job.

It’s not meaningless if you want to know where your 64 ancestors were 6 generations ago. Many people do want to know.

Is studying modern history also meaningless then? It’s from the same time period.

Not everyone wants to find out which lemur we all descended from millions of years ago.

Great.

So please explain where your DNA comes from?

You have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
They were passed down over countless generations, subject to crossover during meiosis, mutations but ended up in you.

So where does your DNA come from and what does that mean about "where you " come from and your ancestors?

It's not lemurs we are descended from

But this is the point.

It's not "where are you from". It's just an indicator of where some of your ancestors may have been 6 generations ago.

how many fecking times….. I don’t deal with “countless generations”. And I’m not interested in the deep philosophical questions of where dna comes from. You are being very weird.

It is nothing to do with what I think or want, that is the scientific definition of "celtic". (and originates around Spain). Of course people can choose to use the word in other ways, but it is a social invention. Nothing wrong with that, if people like doing it, but this thread is talking about genetics and origins, and in that context, there is no "celtic"

Oh i get it!

Caroline means the Celts are not a genetically identifiable ethnic group, they have a collection of traditions and habits developed over a millennium that give them links to each other (music rifts, kilts, dance, irish bagpipes Scottish bagpipes, language links)

Oh yes! Though it becomes very apparent who is fibbing to those whom do have a higher education in genetics or evolutionary biology. 😂

Saying nowt more because I don't want to spoil it. 🍿🍺