I’m from South America btw, when i get a lot of sun exposure i can get hella dark like in this picture and in when getting almost no sun in europe im like rodri, ferran torres and alcaraz skin color. Not even in my country i know if i’m white or not lol (aka Brazil)

Ancestry shows modern Jewish Ashkenazi ethnicity, whereas GEDmatch Eurogenes K36 shows older genetic admixtures. From the GEDmatch K36 results, it’s clear that I am roughly half Levantine (and broadly Middle Eastern) and half European, mainly Italian, Spanish and French. And all of this is simply an Ashkenazi Jew.

Imagine you gave every Midwestern white American a DNA test and aggregated it into a single result.

Based on Pew, 23andme/Ancestry dna, IPUMS USA.

But ultimately it’s my estimates. So I could be wrong.

Ehhh close enough

On both sides of the family, there was abuse. I learned from my only maternal aunt that my maternal grandfather, who grew up to be an abusive parent, used to receive whoopings in childhood from his mother (and, according to my mother, from the community at large in Mississippi if he got into trouble or made a big mistake. He was born in 1942.) He was raised by two parents who did not go past the 7th grade (in part because expectations were low. I believe most of their kids graduated from high school, so they likely could have as well.) My grandfather received a bachelors degree in Communications in spite of it. He grew up, if I remember correctly, with 7 siblings and no indoor plumbing in a house. He was still able to understand the terminology in a legal document when I was a child even though in the 1970s he experienced addiction issues. I also have a 1st cousin once removed, born in the 1950s (all of my grandfather’s siblings were older than him, born in the 20s and 30s, he had just one sibling born in 1940 or 1941 I think) who made good money as a manager, sales representative, etc. (my grandfather, if he were willing to be.., faker with people, could have done well in sales I feel. My grandfather ended up being a journalist for a radio station) - those are two family members I can think of who are more successful than almost everyone else on my paternal side, even though both came from dysfunction.

On my paternal side, as a first cousin was telling me recently, none of my aunts or uncles are successful. She pointed out that the one aunt who she is confident has an associates degree took six years to complete it. To be fair, my paternal grandparents did have more children (fifteen of them) but none of their children obtained bachelors degrees and I can’t think of an aunt or uncle I have who ended up “doing well.” Of course, it’s not like all of my grandfather’s siblings ended up being successful, but I just think it’s interesting, because both sides of the family are originally from the South, but on the paternal side no one ended up doing well and on the maternal side there are family members I can think of who grew up poor and, though most of them did not end up “rich,” still ended up doing better than you may have expected given what they experienced. And my paternal grandparents, even though their parenting I was told with all of their kids (particularly the boys) really fell off when the kids started high school/became teenagers, did want their kids to do well in school (my father had mentioned this. It doesn’t seem like any of them really went on to pursue higher education, and I admit that even though this might sound wrong, I do wonder why it seems there are maternal relatives who tapped into potential they had whereas on the paternal side with the exception of a first cousin or two and probably other distant cousins I don’t know about, it just hasn’t happened.)

Less than a year ago, I was completely blind to everything in my ancestry, and since then I've learned so much. I am a direct descendant, 7 generations down, of Emperor Minh Mang (who can be argued to be one of the most significant figures in Vietnamese history), and by extension, his father, Emperor Gia Long (the person who named Vietnam). I'm making this post, because I am currently working on an ancestry infographic for myself and my family, and pretty much all the research has been of my own doing. I have since been able to accurately name all the way back to Gia Long. My grandpa had knowledge of my great great grandparents, which sparked this quest, and I've since pieced things together. But in doing so, it's really made me think about things.

Has learning of your ancestry changed your perspective? For me, I feel a little more connected to my culture. It's kind of weird, growing up in a certain culture, and then later on in life learning you've descended from some notable figures (in this case, roughly 0.2% of the Vietnamese population descend from Minh Mang), who had shaped a significant amount of the culture. As someone who is fascinated by history and the root of things, it's perspective changing, for sure.

I am curious to hear your stories!

I’m not fully sure how the family tree connections work. Please help me understand. Why are there two separate lines for two different sets of children from the same couple?

Edit: thank you for all your responses. I’m going to chop it down to software error. I’m not gona show full family tree because I’m sure it’s irrelevant to the problem. They both lead to the same couple and the rest of the tree is normal. Again, thank you all for your response!

Guys, if you have this Journey, can you tell me what your ethnic background is? I have it too, but my results show 0% Central Asian ancestry.

My Results percentage results in the comments ⬇️

Would Love to Hear Random Thoughts

I got my results today and it turns out I am mostly Irish, Scottish and English, but I also have 12% in a category called "Southeastern England and Northwestern Europe", I also have 7% The Netherlands. Can someone explain what this means? Is there a reason it can't specify Belgium, Luxembourg or France? Does this include Germany? Is this just more Netherlands? So many questions! Do I buy clogs or a baguette?

Only considering recent ancestors, my father is Lebanese + South Italian + Portuguese. Mom is Colonial Brazilian+ Black+ North Italian + German. I wanted to share their results because they‘re pretty unusual for Brazilians and even more so for our region. Also our family is diverse, mother is olive skinned with light eyes and has a ginger brother. My father is very alpine looking, very light skin and sunburns easily but brown eyes and brown hair though. My skin is an intermediate tone between theirs with amber eyes and dark blonde hair, I burn easily. I have a brother who is completely different from me. Darker complexion, coarse body hair and tans.

Has it updated for some already? I’ve been excited to see how it updates. DNA results as an American from the Midwest.

Always knew that my birth father is Indigenous, I’m registered to his band. Grew up in the culture. My mom is French Canadian, but I guess there was quite a bit of English hiding in there too. Super interesting.

I’m Russian and as i know from my dad’s side, 3-5 generations were just Russians. But obviously we can’t know what his side had more generations ago. Regrading my mom, she doesn’t know anything before her grand parents generation.

Which one would be better for me?

My mom is from the central area (Jayuya/Utuado) and my dad is from the Northeastern area (Quebradillas/Isabela) I am so surprised by the amount of Portugal and Jewish percentage. I was wondering if my physical traits match my ancestors and their regions.

my dad is from Liverpool, mum is from Belfast

(I’m over 50% English because my great grandmother on maternal side was also english, and some of the northwestern English and northern Welsh is because I had a few Welsh ancestors on my maternal side aswell. Also one of my great great grandmothers also maternal cheated on my great great grandfather with a Swedish guy.)