He is now denying the validity of dna tests. I don’t want to say the past 35 years of having him treat me worse than he treats his sister had anything to do with his assumptions of my dna, but he was upset to learn that I am more Irish than him. I wonder what he thought of my mother before these results…
I’ve heard before that there is a tendency of these tests to over-report European ancestry and under-report or misidentify ethnic minorities. Something to do with the underlying datasets not being inclusive enough because those populations are smaller and don’t purchase these DNA tests at the same rate as Western Europeans.
There also seems to be a weird fetishisation of First Nations ancestry in parts of the US. I’ve also been told I have Cherokee ancestors, but it didn’t show in my dna ancestory either.
I was also told our family was part Cherokee. It’s apparently a super common claim
It’s unstated racism.
If someone in your past could get a good tan, it was common to say that they were part “< insert native american tribe from your area>” because you definitely didn’t want to be perceived as part black.
Look up the “one-drop rule”.
I’m sure that was a factor in many of these instances. That said in our family my impression was it was more of a “here’s something special about us” type thing, like there’s nothing otherwise noteworthy.
That’s generally how these things are always communicated to later generations. 😂
I’m struggling to process that this is so common… Also had this in my family growing up
Mixed race / olive skinned people trying to find something more acceptable in order to avoid being outcast. Also, edgelords.