[RainMan]

I adamantly refuse to participate in these scams. My daughter chose to have one done, and it came back and told her that she was 1/4 Scandinavian. I told her it was BS, because a) I personally knew all of her grandparents and there was no Scandinavian blood listed or claimed by any of them. b) I did the family genealogy 20 years ago back to the 15-1600's, and did not find a single Scandinavian ancestor (not many Scandinavian Amish back in the 17-1800's). They also said she was 1% black. (Needless to say, with 17 generations of records on my side, that is a Narf.) They also told her she had 0% American Indian blood, even though the family came to America in the the 1500's and rode a covered wagon over the Oregon Trail. If ANY ethnicity were to creep in, I would think Indian would be it.

That brings up another point. I heard that they purposely tell everyone they are approx. 1% African, in order to make people less racist. In short, they are lying for political ends. If you assume 25 years (+/-) per generation, this means that for a 25 y.o today, one of their GGGGG Grandparents, running around in 1800 was creating mixed race children, and one of the mixed race children was a direct ancestor. Sorry, that was not common back then, and seeing how history recorded the brothers that killed each other because the one was sleeping with the other's wife, and the GGGGG aunt that was kidnapped by the Indians and married into the tribe, I doubt a black ancestor would have been hidden.

In short, I believe these sites exist for the SINGLE purpose of collecting DNA so that they can be subpoenaed at some future point to deny medical claims once government healthcare is the only option.

[outofsalt]

I'm 27 % Labrador (not Canadian, retriever).
I sent in my dog's slobber. /JK

[Andy'smom]

I don’t know which company your daughter used to test her DNA, but some are more accurate than others. That said, DNA isn’t measured in political/countries. They use a reference population who’s ancestors have dwelt in an area for centuries. These populations are going to overlap countries. If you are German, you will likely get some Scandinavian results. The same with England, Ireland, Scotland, France. The Vikings sacked Rome and controlled areas in Italy. They were everywhere in Europe. 25% would be a maybe a grandparent or a couple of great-grandparents who have DNA consistent with someone in Scandinavia. It doesn’t mean they were born or lived there.

A 1% result of African heritage would most likely be ignored. It’s considered “noise”.

[beef]

“they purposely tell everyone they are approx. 1% African”

Is this really surprising? I don’t think they would have to lie about it. If you go back far enough, everyone on the planet is descended from Africans.