MyHeritageReviews 6,486

Dear Nadine,

I'm sorry to read of your disappointment with your ethnicity estimate results.

I must clarify that your DNA Ethnicity Estimate's percentages do not mean you do not have a specific Native American heritage. Indeed, this tends to be a very common issue with many people trying to research their Native American heritage through DNA and there is much literature on the subject found in various forums online.

I'd like to clarify that while you indeed have Native American ancestry, this does not necessarily mean that this ancestry is included in your DNA and might therefore not appear in your Ethnicity Estimate.

The reason being is mainly because of how DNA is inherited. Each of us inherits about 50% DNA from our mother and 50% from our father. However, the percentages of DNA received from grandparents and further back are rarely divided evenly. Therefore, you don’t necessarily inherit the DNA of a given ancestor throughout the generations that have passed.

Since your ancestors’ DNA is not passed evenly to their descendants, one grandparent might have passed on 3% of his/her DNA to his great-grandchild, while another great-grandparent may have passed on 11%.

For example, if you have a Native American great-grandmother, you might have inherited such a small amount of her Native American DNA that it cannot be traced in a DNA test.

In addition, though you might have Native American DNA, it might belong to a tribe that is not part of the sampling used to build our Ethnicity Estimate. There are more than 500 recognized tribes which are ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse.

However, the majority of these tribes have not contributed their DNA for research purposes which would allow science to establish better ethnicity models. Therefore, the fact that we did not find Native American DNA in your sample does not mean that you are not Native American.

If your specific Native American ethnicity does not appear in the Ethnicity Estimate, you might also consider testing one of your parents or grandparents as it is more likely that Native American DNA will be traced in the generations closer to the Native American ancestor.

In the meantime, Information on matching Native American DNA with yours along with new and exciting information can always be found along with your estimate by utilizing the research tools available to you such as building your own family tree and finding comparable matches whether they be through Genealogy or DNA matches.

Our match algorithms have been proven to automatically find and compare similar DNA strands along with ancestral surnames, records, and family trees to find very interesting discoveries. New DNA is uploaded every day and the chances of that new information to match your research are great and it has helped many worldwide.

All this said, the progress of your research and your overall satisfaction is always a top priority and therefore, please feel free to e-mail me personally at [email protected] anytime with any further questions.

I'm always here to help.

Kind Regards
Rafael

Dear Susan,

I'm sorry to find your low star review and that you are disappointed with your DNA results.

It is true to consider the reason why an ethnicity estimate would differ when your DNA is calculated by two different companies that most likely process and measure your raw DNA results in a different way using the various processing methods and algorithms that are used.
With the MyHeritage test, as with some other autosomal tests, we cover about 700,000 SNPs. However, this does not mean that each DNA test necessarily covers the exact same SNPs. This means that although the DNA sample could be the same, we simply tested different bits of it, which could result in a different outcome. Although these differences may be small, it could have an impact on how the estimate is calculated and in some cases will result in the differences you quote.

Also, the DNA of neighboring nations such as England may have populations with similar DNA. This occurs mainly because of the long history the bordering nations have with each other and how DNA is not divided equally upon higher generations of grandparents. Your DNA is indeed compared to 42 references but in some cases, for some DNA it is difficult to build a distinct profile for Great Britain, Ireland and Scandinavian countries, as those are admixed with Western European DNA. Anglo-Saxon people settled the British Isles, and they were comprised of Germanic tribes ultimately.

That said, you may still research your DNA further by utilizing the research tools available to you such as building your own family tree and finding comparable matches whether they be Genealogy or DNA matches.

Our match algorithms have been proven to automatically find and compare similar DNA strands along with ancestral surnames, records, and family trees to find very interesting discoveries. This has helped many of our members in the DNA research community to find new discoveries and dig into their past.

We are constantly using the feedback from members such as yourself to research, improve, and refine our ethnicity estimate because it is our goal to provide the most state-of-the-art family research tools on the market.

The progress of your research and your overall satisfaction is important to me and all in all, I would like to personally view your results and understand the differences to ultimately report them to our DNA department for evaluation. If you are interested, please contact me directly at [email protected].

Always happy to help
Rafael
MyHeritage