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Ancestral DNA Testing

 Many people have some identifying features or skin colors that help to identify their particular line of ancestry. The trouble is that many people have parents from two different ancestry lines. This makes the diversification very hard to track as you start looking back on generations of mixed ancestry. With ancestry DNA it is possible to determine the dominate one for that individual.

Ancestry DNA testing is a method of determining a person’s ethnicity by comparing various points on their DNA. A number of Americans are curious about whether they have any native American roots and ancestry DNA testing is one way to find out where you come from, whether it is native American, Indo-European, African or east Asian. We are going to look at how you can use ancestry dna testing to determine whether you have any native American roots or if you are generally curious as to where your ancestors were from.

Each person is classified into one of four main groups when it comes to ethnicity, the reason being that these are the only groups that are genetically distinct. Those groups are East Asian, Native American, African, or European. Sub groups (for example, Chinese versus Japanese or Korean), don't have distinct DNA patterns, so they cannot be determined by a DNA test.

In order to take an ancestry DNA test you can order a home test kit online or through a laboratory that does DNA testing. The usual procedure is to swab the inside of the cheek, which gives a good DNA sample for the laboratory to analyze.

The laboratory may look at the mitochondrial (or maternal) DNA or DNA from the paternal line. If it is looking at the mitochondrial DNA they will normally study about 400 different points on the DNA, whereas for the paternal line only 25-37 are necessary.

The results you receive will be in the form of a letter which corresponds to a specific ethnicity. It may also give you percentages of ethnicity – that is, how much Native American, Indo-European, East Asian or African ancestry you have. If it gives you a letter then you can equate your main ancestry based on the following:

H, I, J, K, N, R, T, U, V, W, X: Indo-European

A, B, C, D, X: Native American/Asian

L: African

M, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, O, P, Q, Z: East Asian

P, Q: Oceania, Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea

N: Australian


Ancestry DNA testing works in discovering one’s ethnic roots because there exists a part of the DNA that generally remains relatively unchanged for many centuries. This is particularly true with the Y chromosome, which is DNA inherited exclusively by a male child from his father, and so paternal DNA testing requires fewer comparisons, as the DNA is always passed down from father to son without much significant change.

Ancestral DNA testing is not without it's critics. There is plenty of debate surrounding the concept of ancestry DNA testing. Many experts claim it is not reliable. Some believe it causes issues with cultural beliefs rather than instilling a sense of their role in society, and others find these claims to be completely ridiculous and place plenty of merit in ancestry DNA test results.

There are many good Ancestry DNA testing locations in the world that offer individuals the opportunity to find out where their true heritage lies. Meanwhile an independent validation method still has to be adopted before the greater scientific world will accept it.

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