Ancestry DNA shock result

[rageagainstthemachine72]

My daughter did a dna test, results came back 25% Italian. I thought that's weird, that must mean one of her parents is half italian, so I did a test, yes you guessed it I'm 48% Italian and my two sisters who tested years ago came up as half sisters. Devastated, mum died two years ago and the man who I thought was my father died over 30 years ago. Not really sure what I'm looking for regarding this post, just some support and anyone out there with similar stories.

But when you are talking about DNA testing it’s very relevant.

"...but finding out what happened to people who are long dead seems pointless."
It may well seem so to you, but there are many people who find it an interesting and useful activity.

I didn't mean that exploring one's family tree is pointless, I've used Ancestry for 20+ years and had a weird experience in the Mormon centre in Salt Lake City but I was referring to uploading DNA which seems to open all kinds of heartache for many people that they cannot resolve.

how will that change things? you are you and you are here now? I agree about hereditary and genetic issues but that's not actually a road that is always helpful. We know that there has been discussion about using such DNA information to base life insurance quotes on.

had a weird experience in the Mormon centre in Salt Lake City

In the Family Search library? You need to expand on that!!

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one

I just don’t know what people are hoping to achieve with these kits. We know that one of our biological great-grandparents was from overseas and went home possibly unaware that his British girlfriend was pregnant. In all likelihood he married and had kids later; I wouldn’t want put to put his family through the upsetting discovery that he had another child when we will never know the true circumstances around it all.

Another bbc radio4 prog ; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020xzb

A couple of points by google ai, about this prog:
Varying Results: Different testing companies often yield conflicting ethnicity breakdowns for the exact same person.
Database Dependence: Results rely heavily on the specific reference populations and proprietary databases each company uses rather than an absolute scientific standard.

I’m so sorry you’ve had this shock i really hope you can come to terms with it soon.
💐💐💐

Sorry slightly hijacking this post but I need to know, how did you discover your grandfather wasn’t your bio grandfather? That’s interesting as I would have thought it would be harder to tell which grandfather etc from DNA results.

The reason I ask is my dad has always believed his father isn’t his bio father. Various reasons as to why he thinks this (abuse, abandonment etc which wasn’t shown to his siblings). He won’t do a test himself as he isn’t strong enough to hear the results (he’s more worried it would come back saying his bio dad was his real dad, at which point the behaviour wouldn’t make sense). So I would love to do it if it means I can find out and put his mind at rest and years of abuse could be explained.

I would love to be Italian

I think even in extreme situations, such as the biological father being a paedophile, you'd have to give the child age-appropriate information (i.e. explaining that the man who's raising the child isn't related to them, but still loves them like any other daddy) and then gradually work up to giving them the full truth.

MN's attitude is often:

half-siblings on the father's side = essentially stepsiblings

half-siblings on the mother's side = real siblings, it's offensive to refer to them as half-siblings at all

half-siblings from an egg or sperm donor = not siblings at all, it's offensive to refer to them as such

Even though all of those share the exact same amount of DNA!

I'm no expert, but are you sure that you and your dughters have interpreted those results correctly?

I may very well be wrong but my understanding is that your results simply reflect something about how historic migrations of peoples have contributed to your DNA.

My DNA results indicate that my DNA has majority contributions from Viking (Scandanavian) and Celtic (originating from central Europe) ancestors but my ancestors have come from the British Isles for tens of generations - if not significantly longer. My parents and grandparents weren't "vikings".

If your daughter has a DNA result that comes back 25% "Italian" I don't think it means one of her parents was half Italian.

It's a bit like Meghan Markle revealing her DNA was 43% "Nigerian". It doesn't mean one of her parents was Nigerian, it means 43% of her DNA was contributed to by ancestors who originated from Nigeria.

"...how did you discover your grandfather wasn’t your bio grandfather? That’s interesting as I would have thought it would be harder to tell which grandfather etc from DNA results."

I'm not the person you asked the question of, but the simplest way would be if there turned out to be unexpected aunts/uncles or cousins that are unrelated to any of your other DNA matches that you can place on your family tree.

When I say aunts/uncles and cousins, I'm talking about people with the typical amount of shared DNA that you and an aunt/uncle might share.

You will typically share around 1,700 cM of DNA with an aunt/uncle but this can range from 1,200 to 2,280. For example, I share 1,526 cM with my aunt who is also on Ancestry.

If a person is your half-aunt/uncle (that is half-siblings of your dad) then you will share less DNA with them, typically around 870 cM with a range of 490 to 1,310.

If you have somebody like this as a DNA match that you do not recognise then that is a good place to start looking.

However, for many people, they only have a few close matches like this. So it is often necessary to look at more distant relationships. Perhaps go down to 100 cM of DNA (this would be something like a second or third cousin, so related to you through your great grandparents or great great grandparents).

You will then need to build your family tree and find out how these people are related to you.

If all of your grandparents are your actual grandparents then you would expect to have DNA matches through each of your grandparents. However, if you cannot find DNA matches through one or more of your grandparents then that may be evidence that that was not the biological grandparent.

Or, it may be that nobody related to that grandparent has done a DNA test.

You would then need to look at any DNA matches that aren't related in any way to the ones that you have already got on your family tree (you can see 'shared matches' that you and another DNA match have in common).

If there are no DNA matches at all through one grandfather and a number of DNA matches that are unrelated to the other ones you have on your tree then it is quite possible that the grandfather is not the actual grandfather and that these other DNA matches are related to the real grandfather.

Just to give an example, I have 20 DNA matches with 100 cM or more.

Of these, one is my aunt and of the other 19, 4 are related through my paternal grandfather, 5 are related through my paternal grandmother, one is related through my maternal grandmother and 9 are related through my maternal grandmother.

You will notice that I only have one DNA match through my maternal grandfather at this level, so, if you don't find any then that doesn't necessarily mean that there is no relation. But if you do find a DNA match then you are definitely related to that grandparent.

[EDIT]

An excellent resource for the expected amount of shared DNA is here:

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

They are very reliable. DNA doesn't lie. I was in the same position and was able to have a legal dna test done which confirmed the commercial DNA test had.

Im very confused by the statements that half siblings don't exist. Isnt the definition of a sibling someone with the same mother and father as you and a half sibling shares one parent?

Depending on the actual relationship, you might refer to each other as sisters but technically, and based on DNA, you might only be half.

We havr a few like this in our family. Everyone knows person x is a "half aunt" or "half cousin" but we are all close so just refer to aunt or cousin. But if we were discussing family trees or medical history or dna results the half would ve relevant

Wait...what am I reading?? This is sarcasm, yes? Or are you genuinely saying that someone liking "sumo and anime" is showing signs of being Japanese, even if they don't look Japanese?? 😅🤯

DNA doesn't matter to everyone but it certainly does to a lot if people. Adopted children don't always want to know but sometimes they do, and they should have the right to.

And so should children of unexpected paternity.

But they were (as confirmed by result) 50% Japanese. And yes of course, liking things from certain cultures is in the DNA, just like the Italians have a love of pizza and USA burgers or England fish & chips, it's in the genes. Not always but in most cases. And it wasn't just sumo & anime but also Susi and Pokémon.

honestly what a bunch of toot

These tests are a load of s**t- how can you possibly find out you have half siblings or that your dad isn't your dad through this? Genetics are pretty simple- you only inherit your looks, hair and eye colour from your immediate parents. For example, if both parents have brown hair and brown eyes, their children will definately also be dark haired with brown eyes. If mum is ginger and dad is blonde, it's 50/50)

Wrong on both counts.

In your example, both brown-eyed parents could potentially pass down a blue eye gene and have a blue-eyed child.

And DNA tests can confirm paternity accurately.

You never heard of characteristics skipping a generation?

I know my dad was adopted, so was interested to see what would show up on my DNA test. I have a possibility for his mother, but when my possible cousin messaged she wasn't interested in stirring up that, so I've left it. I then had what I thought might be his dad pop up when I got a match with a half uncle. However, they live abroad, and from the extensive obituary this man wasn't even in this country when my dad was conceived, he was newly married and setting up a company. But he was here during the war, when my mum was born. And I have zero DNA matches with her dad's side of the family. Her mum was in her 40s when my mum was born, this man was in his 20s. My aunts were in their teens. Only one of my aunts is still alive now, she's in her late 90s, and there's no way I will be bringing any of this up with her, so it will possibly remain a mystery forever.

If the person who you think was your father would test as being %100 Italian then he is very likely your father.

Not all Italians necessarily look like what you think an Italian looks like.

The only conclusive answer might be impossible to recover since you’d need a dna test on the person you think was your father.

OK, so perhaps her grandfather - many Italians stayed in the UK after.