So for my entire life(37 years), I thought I was Irish. I mean, I have a super Irish last name and my mom had bright red hair. Then I got this test, turns out I’m german. I think I’m happy with this outcome.
So for my entire life(37 years), I thought I was Irish. I mean, I have a super Irish last name and my mom had bright red hair. Then I got this test, turns out I’m german. I think I’m happy with this outcome.
22 comments
Be prepared for not so nice comments.
The American obession with DNA tests and ancestry is very irritating for most Germans to put it mildly.
How good is your Gaelic?
Congrats nobody gives a shit about DNA shit except yanks
Nah, you are not. Those tests are nonsense.
You are as American as you were when you were born.
You are not german, sweetheart. You have some “germanic europe” ancestry, which i asume means you have some ancestors from central europe
I mean that’s still 47% British Isles DNA, it’s just more detailed than the broad “Germanic Europe” part. Possibly more if some of those Scandinavian ancestors were vikings settling in Ireland. In any case, don’t let the funny numbers own your identity. You do you.
No offence, but shouldn’t this experience have taught you that this whole idea is bull? Tracing these things can’t be accurate beyond a few generations to begin with (where “accurate” means getting the right modern day country), and that’s before we get into the bit where none of this actually says anything about you. You’re no more (or, indeed, less) german than if this said “100% Mexico” or soemthing. Where your from is defined by where you grew up, where you live now, where you’re culturally immersed, stuff like that. All the results of this test are good for is telling you you’re perhaps a bit too gullible.
tl;dr: OP is American
Sorry to brake it to you.
But you are still a US American.
And unless you actually move to another country and become a citizen their you will never be anything else.
Genes neither teach you culture nor language
You should probably talk to an expert in genealogy about this, because those percentages don’t mean what you think. If you have a brother or sister, get them to take the test as well, and they’re pretty much guaranteed to get different results. That’s because you inherit different bits of your DNA from your parents.
Another thing to remember is that “Germanic” and “German” are not synonyms. Actually, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are also Germanic, as are the Dutch, but what “Germanic Europe” probably means is “vaguely between the Rhine and the Danube”, and what your result shows is that 34% of the markers in your DNA are typical of those that are in the company’s database of clients who claim to have ancestors from that part of Europe. It doesn’t mean you are one-third German.
Used the right way, DNA tests can be helpful. But if you want to know where your ancestors are from, you have to trace your family tree back through records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, financial transactions, title deeds, court proceedings and the like.
Oh, and red hair? That is rare, and is concentrated in the extreme north and west of Europe (although it does occur in other parts of the world as well). Ireland has a particularly high concentration, but so do the other Celtic populations.
Those ethnicity DNA kits they sell you are bull. It’s basically modern day esoteric science. These results get scrambled every time you choose another DNA Ancestry provider or maybe decide to do another test next year by the same provider.
They compare DNA from other people who sent in their DNA. So the bigger the pool grows the more the results will shift.
German Americans are the [Largest ethnic group in the USA](https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-ethnic-groups-in-america-2013-8). All major American Breweries, and lot of heavy Industry (Boeing, Oshkosh, Milwaukee tools, etc) were founded by German Americans.
The reason WHY, you and many others grew up not knowing your German roots is something you must discover yourself.
I’ll bet 5 yankee dollars that the OP deletes this post after he reads all the comments.
I can get some good homeopathic medicine that I’d assume you might be interested in, being german and somehow caring about those DNA tests.
>turns out I’m German
Even if we put on American goggles your test result in no way supports that conclusion.
K so apparently this offended people. Legitimately sorry if anyone was offended because of my statement. I was excited because for the first time in 37 years I know something about myself. My family died when I was young and I became a ward of the state, bouncing from 1 abusive home to the next till I aged out and was forgotten. But whatever, go ahead and keep yelling. It’s entertaining.
Hey, if you’re interested in talking about it, I’d love to have a conversation about what sense you make of these percentages.
I just finished a dissertation in social science (although my earlier background was in engineering and biology), that has to do with how social narratives and ideologies about genetics impact how people think about themselves. One of the questions I didn’t get into in that research, but about which I’m still really interested, is to do with how people understand this sort of genetic test result.
By the way, this is an open invitation to anyone who’s done a DNA ethnicity test, and would like to talk about it. It’s not for any specific research project, but like I say I’m just fascinated by the question.
Thanks for sharing your DNA with NSA. 😁
Understandable. I would probably be upset in their shoes as well. I’ll try to word my posts better in the future.
Hey, I wonder why the hole ancestery thing is so important to the US people (at least it seems like it). Shure it would be interesting to do such analysis, but here in germany it seems like no one cares and ever makes a test.
Guten Tag mein Freund