# An interesting 23 and Me result **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202 "2018-02-20T15:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/1 "2018-02-20T15:31:42Z")
I got the results yesterday. Pretty boring, for the most part, as I’m the expected 99.9% European heritage. It was the 0.1% that was interesting, as it says that this minuscule part of me is Native American, with a full-blooded male 4th-great (or further back), most likely born between 1680 and 1770. I have a large ancestry database, but it’s impossible to even speculate on the circumstance. I can only guess that it happened on the east coast, possibly in Rhode Island. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/2 "2018-02-20T15:45:02Z")
What are the error bars? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/3 "2018-02-20T15:53:48Z")
The fact that the results specify “male” suggests that they’re seeing a Native American Y chromosome. There’s not much room for error on that, but it’s difficult to say how far back the native ancestor would be. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/4 "2018-02-20T16:37:03Z")
My results came back 99.7% Northern European, which boggles my mind, as do your results. In America, in the 21st century, how can people with ancestors who have been over here since the first white people came over here (as some of mine have been) still be so WHITE? Even .2% of my other .3% is still white. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/5 "2018-02-20T17:05:36Z")
Before you place too much reliance on these tests, take a look at these articles: [How Reliable Are Home DNA Ancestry Tests? Investigation Uses Triplets to Find Out](http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/21784-how-reliable-are-home-dna-ancestry-tests-investigation-uses-triplets-to-find-out) **23andMe** test run for identical triplets: > [@](#): > > Nicole was 11 percent French and German but Erica was 22.3 percent. Their sister Jaclyn was in the middle at 18 percent. > > “I’m surprised,” Nicole said. “I’m surprised because we came from the same egg and DNA. How are our ancestries different?” > … > > The tests also showed that Mandy had six percent Scandinavian ancestry but her identical sisters showed none. [Inside The Shady World Of DNA Testing Companies](http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html) > [@](#): > > “At least once a week, we’ll get a call from somebody who took two or three other tests and then ours, and complains about how different they are. Usually it’s 5-20 percent off, but we got an email from a guy showing how in one test he was 7 percent Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, then on another he was 33 percent, and then on ours 45 percent” > > * * * > > “If you get a high percentage, it’s a safe bet that you have ancestors from there. I’m talking about a 50-60 percent on your test. Anything lower, and take it with a grain of salt.”\*\*\* ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/6 "2018-02-20T17:11:17Z")
On one hand, I’d like to have a DNA test, but on the other hand, I expect it’ll just confirm what I’ve been told my whole life - everybody came from Poland as far back as anyone knows. So it would be a waste of money to be told that. Still, it’d be interesting to find out where else my ancestors might have lived. But not interesting enough to shell out the price of the test. Yeah, frugal - that’s me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/7 "2018-02-20T17:45:41Z")
Why does European ancestry have to equal boring? There’s much diversity there, I just don’t get when I hear people say that, and I hear it often. Would somebody who is 90-99% Asian or African also call themselves boring? I don’t think anyone else’s DNA is any more exotic than anybody else. I have considered doing 23 & Me just to see if the paper trail our family researchers have uncovered matches the genetic one. It would be interesting, but it wouldn’t change my self-image of who I feel I am. I am pretty sure I am over 90% Western European. I consider it neither a badge of honor nor shame, it just is what it is. And I ain’t boring, doggone it! ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/8 "2018-02-20T17:55:20Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > My results came back 99.7% Northern European, which boggles my mind, as do your results. In America, in the 21st century, how can people with ancestors who have been over here since the first white people came over here (as some of mine have been) still be so WHITE? Even .2% of my other .3% is still white. Mine came back as 100% European, and I’ve had ancestors in the U.S. for a very, very long time as well. They just didn’t move around much. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/9 "2018-02-20T18:25:19Z")
My FIL’s came back as 100% Bohunk. And that is DESPITE he and his parents having been born in the US. (Don’t know about earlier generations.) My SIL’s came back 100% European, so I assume my wife’s would be similar. And I assume mine would as well. As far as I ever knew, I’d been told German/Polish/English/Irish, tho I think the last immigrants came over around 1860. I think folk of European ethnicity living in the Northeast/Midwest didn’t “mingle” overly much outside their ethnic/religious groups. So such results don’t really surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/10 "2018-02-20T18:57:18Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Before you place too much reliance on these tests, take a look at these articles: > [How Reliable Are Home DNA Ancestry Tests? Investigation Uses Triplets to Find Out](http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/21784-how-reliable-are-home-dna-ancestry-tests-investigation-uses-triplets-to-find-out) > > **23andMe** test run for identical triplets: > > [Inside The Shady World Of DNA Testing Companies](http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html) I’ve been doing genealogy research for about 20 years now, so am always cautious about taking things unchallenged. I just found it interesting, is all. The largest grouping was French & German, which is not at all surprising, since my father’s family emigrated from Germany in the 1840s, and my mother’s side is pretty much entirely British Isles, and going back in America to the Mayflower. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-23-and-me-result/809202/11 "2018-02-20T19:04:38Z")
It’s not so much that “100% European” is boring, as that “100% what you’d always thought it was anyway” is boring.