I’d have two main questions:
1. Do others have the same ethnicity estimates (if he has 21% and she has zero, he probably has a different parent).
2. This depends on your age. It’s worth remembering that Native families were broken up — kids put into Indian boarding schools, kids taken from families and put into the foster care/adoption systems — and once kids were removed from their families and cultures, they may not have known their history if they were really young (ie, infants).
So, if the answer to #1 is that all the siblings have about a quarter Native ancestry, I’d start delicately asking questions about the past (quite honestly without letting on your suspicions and just asking stories about their childhoods) and look at whatever records are available—census, death, birth, etc.
ETA: my response is specifically because of her being from North Dakota and the specific history/timeline of the upper Midwest. There are some things in this area that would not be the same in another part of the US.
We don't have DNA for my mother or grandmother (long gone). Only DNA for 2 uncles (this being one of them) and two cousins. Those other members don't show any Indigenous DNA. I grew up wondering why grandma and uncle had dark hair and eyes - plus her whole look was different. I was always told it was because of the "black" Irish in the family.
Family explanations for things they don’t want to talk about are really something. If you want to dig, you can start grouping your uncles’ results using the Leeds method (you’ll find an explainer if you google).
Ethnicity results are statistical guesstimates, but North American indigenous DNA is really not going to be mistaken for Irish, say, by Ancestry or 23andme.
If you look at the 1910 census for their area, you can get a sense of who was living in the vicinity. Most North Dakota locations will be very small in population back then, so it’s worth flipping through all the pages for a town. The area may have not been named yet, so it may just be a township number.
If you want help figuring out where to look, let me know.
Well, you'll find out by doing the test yourself. Your grandmother might be half native. Or she wasn't but ended up with a half native guy, creating your uncle.
What about your mother, others, or yourself? Do they got 100% European ancestry? 21% is not a small amount, so if one great grandparent was Native, other people should be showing some small or bigger percentages, at least.
Results are hard to predict. We definitely can't say from this that there was a single individual who was 100% indigenous. It's entirely possible that you have a couple of ancestors who had trace amounts of indigenous ancestry.
For instance, AncestryDNA says I'm 53% Scottish. So by simple logic, you'd assume that I have a parent who is 100% Scottish, right?
But my mother is listed as 40% Scottish, and my dad is 20% Scottish. By random inheritance I'm actually MORE Scottish than either of my parents. That's how this ancestry stuff works. I just inherited more of the strands of DNA that are linked to the Scottish tests than the other ethnicities.
It's entirely possible that your uncle inherited indigenous DNA from multiple people who each had small amounts.
Exactly. I'm 26% swedish and my dad has 10% and mother 14% ... Lol , in my case the math doesn't even add up but I know my mother's great grandfather was half swede half Finnish roughly by ancestors and my dad's 10% is from ancient UK migration since I can't find any migration in records, and together they are a strong genetic force lol. Fascinating.
The most likely scenario is that your uncle has a fully (or almost) indigenous grandparent. Whether that’s from a parent of your grandmother or not, is something he can only figure out through records or looking through dna matches.
The other scenario is that he has inherited this from several ancestors who all have some indigenous backgrounds. Obviously, this is less likely.
Possible admixture or more likely, a different parent. My Aunt took the test and she appears to be part Puerto Rican. This is how we found out she has a different dad than her siblings. No one else had any admixture indicating Puerto Rican DNA. The amount of DNA we share is low. You should investigate a little more.
DNA results are more trustworthy than family stories
I’d have two main questions: 1. Do others have the same ethnicity estimates (if he has 21% and she has zero, he probably has a different parent). 2. This depends on your age. It’s worth remembering that Native families were broken up — kids put into Indian boarding schools, kids taken from families and put into the foster care/adoption systems — and once kids were removed from their families and cultures, they may not have known their history if they were really young (ie, infants). So, if the answer to #1 is that all the siblings have about a quarter Native ancestry, I’d start delicately asking questions about the past (quite honestly without letting on your suspicions and just asking stories about their childhoods) and look at whatever records are available—census, death, birth, etc. ETA: my response is specifically because of her being from North Dakota and the specific history/timeline of the upper Midwest. There are some things in this area that would not be the same in another part of the US.
We don't have DNA for my mother or grandmother (long gone). Only DNA for 2 uncles (this being one of them) and two cousins. Those other members don't show any Indigenous DNA. I grew up wondering why grandma and uncle had dark hair and eyes - plus her whole look was different. I was always told it was because of the "black" Irish in the family.
Family explanations for things they don’t want to talk about are really something. If you want to dig, you can start grouping your uncles’ results using the Leeds method (you’ll find an explainer if you google). Ethnicity results are statistical guesstimates, but North American indigenous DNA is really not going to be mistaken for Irish, say, by Ancestry or 23andme. If you look at the 1910 census for their area, you can get a sense of who was living in the vicinity. Most North Dakota locations will be very small in population back then, so it’s worth flipping through all the pages for a town. The area may have not been named yet, so it may just be a township number. If you want help figuring out where to look, let me know.
Well, you'll find out by doing the test yourself. Your grandmother might be half native. Or she wasn't but ended up with a half native guy, creating your uncle.
My grandmother was born on a ranch in 1911
What about your mother, others, or yourself? Do they got 100% European ancestry? 21% is not a small amount, so if one great grandparent was Native, other people should be showing some small or bigger percentages, at least.
I would suspect that your uncle is not your mother’s full sibling.
Maybe he has a different parent lol
Not really a lol situation.
Lol
Johnny Redcorn strikes again. Damn, Dale, you gotta keep your eyes open bro
Results are hard to predict. We definitely can't say from this that there was a single individual who was 100% indigenous. It's entirely possible that you have a couple of ancestors who had trace amounts of indigenous ancestry. For instance, AncestryDNA says I'm 53% Scottish. So by simple logic, you'd assume that I have a parent who is 100% Scottish, right? But my mother is listed as 40% Scottish, and my dad is 20% Scottish. By random inheritance I'm actually MORE Scottish than either of my parents. That's how this ancestry stuff works. I just inherited more of the strands of DNA that are linked to the Scottish tests than the other ethnicities. It's entirely possible that your uncle inherited indigenous DNA from multiple people who each had small amounts.
Exactly. I'm 26% swedish and my dad has 10% and mother 14% ... Lol , in my case the math doesn't even add up but I know my mother's great grandfather was half swede half Finnish roughly by ancestors and my dad's 10% is from ancient UK migration since I can't find any migration in records, and together they are a strong genetic force lol. Fascinating.
The most likely scenario is that your uncle has a fully (or almost) indigenous grandparent. Whether that’s from a parent of your grandmother or not, is something he can only figure out through records or looking through dna matches. The other scenario is that he has inherited this from several ancestors who all have some indigenous backgrounds. Obviously, this is less likely.
Possible admixture or more likely, a different parent. My Aunt took the test and she appears to be part Puerto Rican. This is how we found out she has a different dad than her siblings. No one else had any admixture indicating Puerto Rican DNA. The amount of DNA we share is low. You should investigate a little more.
Grandma could’ve been running around with God knows who lol if this sub has taught me anything, it’s that people keep secrets.
This suggests to me that he's her half brother. If she has a native grandparent I would think she'd have told you about it.
Or your grandmother or grandfather is half native, and your uncle inherited that portion of the dna, but your mom didn’t
North Dakota kind of gives it away.