My DNA Tribes experience

Another place that I took my raw Ancestry.com data to was to the DNA Tribes SNP analysis. (Hey, with so many iffy results, I wanted to clear up the muddy water some in my mind.) DNA Tribes boasts checking your DNA against 560,000 individuals from 1,200+ populations around the world, including 950+ indigenous populations. Compared to Ancestry.com's 3000 or so people (and I think only about 400 of them are African...and you can easily see why I might want a DNA Tribes checkup.

To be clear, DNA Tribes offers a stand alone product where they will test your saliva like other DNA testing companies. That is NOT what I purchased. I repeat, that is NOT what I purchased. I purchased the SNP product that will process the raw DNA from a test that you have already taken (Ancestry.com in my case).

DNA Tribes SNP analysis costs $40 if you let them know where all 4 of your immediate grandparents were born. No need to be too specific I don't think. I wrote USA for all of them. Otherwise the test costs $50.

I sent my raw Ancestry.com DNA data by email. In the email, I told them that all four of my grandparents were born in the US (as mentioned above). The results arrived in my email about an hour later. There were no matches to relatives - just results.

DNA Tribes SNP: Admixture Analysis - 8 Continental Cores

DNA Tribes SNP: Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) - 8 Continental Cores

 So wow, right? According to this, I am 88% African which is significantly higher than the 77% that Ancestry.com gave me. I am also 2.5 % American Indian, which is also higher than the less than 1% that Ancestry gave me.

DNA Tribes SNP: Admixture Analysis - 53 Regional Clusters

DNA Tribes SNP: Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) - 53 Regional Clusters

Like wow, right? Ok, so I need to find a new word. But still - check out the East and Central African. There is even some Nilotic and Madagascar. Didn't see those coming.

DNA Tribes SNP: Population Admixture - Native and Jewish Populations

Since I'm not Jewish, this particular report shows my connection to native populations. That Luhya is like BAM...I'm here! I wasn't too surprised by these because they also showed up in some of my gedmatch reports. More on that later.

DNA Tribes SNP: Iterative Population Admixture- Native and Jewish Populations

DNA Tribes SNP: Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) - Native and Jewish Populations

These charts correspond to the chart before. Luhya, Yoruban, and Dogon feature strongly with no divergence. That's far from the iffiness of Ancestry.com.

DNA Tribes SNP: World Genetic Grid

 This was a pretty picture. I think it's interesting that the Native American portion of my DNA shows up in South America. Things that make you go hmmm...

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Diasporic Populations p.1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Diasporic Populations p.2

This part tripped me out. It basically says that if they pretended that I was indigenous to an area without being mixed with anything else (which I know is most likely not true because I am an African in America with known European DNA)...but if they pretended that I was 100% of something...then this is a ranking of how close my DNA ranks to being like that of a particular people. So I expected to see African-American, right? (Since it is one of the options.) Check out what my number one ranking is. Also check out ranks for numbers three, four, and five.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - African Populations p. 1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - African Populations p.2

My number two ranking was unexpected too. I am aware that I am at least a third Nigerian. However I did not expect to rank higher as Yoruba Nigerian than African-American. Am I really even African-American? Yeah, it finally shows up ranked as number FIVE (say what?!) Also check out ranks 6 - 14. How awesome is that? Isn't that quite a level of detail compared to just writing "West Africa"?

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - European Populations p. 1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - European Populations p.2

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - European Populations p.3

Basically, the rest of my rankings alternate between these two categories (Diaspora and African) until I get to number 74. Then the European rankings begin.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Native American Populations

My closest Native American ranking shows up in Ecuador. Huh? Well alrighty then.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Middle Eastern Populations p. 1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Middle Eastern Populations p.2

Next comes the Middle Eastern stuff.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - North Asian Populations p.1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - North Asian Populations p.2

And then the North Asian stuff.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Caucasus Mountains Population

And then the Caucasus Mountains stuff...which by the way has nothing to do with Europeans. So why in the world are they called Caucasians? I read an interesting article about the whole ordeal. I will try to find it and add it one day. Long story short, study for yourself. We have all been told or misled to believe a great many untruths about the world.

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - South Asian Populations p.1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - South Asian Populations p.2

And then the South Asian stuff...

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - East Asian Populations p.1

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - East Asian Populations p.2

And then the East Asian stuff...

DNA Tribes SNP: Total Ancestral Fit - Oceanian and South Malay Archipelago Populations

And finally, the Oceanian (and Polynesian?) stuff. It's interesting to see how low it ranks for me because it appears in my Ancestry.com results as less than 1%. I never believed it to be anything more than statistical noise, and I believe I am correct. This validates my hypothesis anyway.

ETA: I came back to say that someone in my facebook group hipped me to the fact that many from Madagascar have the Oceanian/ Polynesian DNA, so that's probably why it keeps showing up in my results (on Ancestry.com and 23andme - which I haven't written about yet.) I learn something new everyday!

Until next time...

My DNA Land Experience

Another place that I uploaded my raw DNA data to (for free) was dna.land. This site is small, but it was interesting to see how they categorize my ethnicities based on the samples that they compare my DNA to in their database.

DNA.Land Results

DNA.Land Map

DNA.Land Ethnicity Details

I found it interesting to see the Mende singled out. It relates to what my African Ancestry report stated about my mother's line originating from them.

Until next time...

My Advice on where and how to begin your DNA / Geneaology journey

My plain and simple advice is to begin your DNA testing journey with Ancestry.com. For most people (especially African-Americans) this is the best place to start. It's less expensive than other tests, and it comes with the ability to add a family tree and to peruse the family trees of your matches to help find a common ancestor that you might not have known about. Also, it is a bit more specific on your ethnicity(s) than some of the other tests (i.e. Nigeria, Benin/Togo, Ivory Coast/Ghana, etc. vs. West Africa or Subsaharan Africa -- who says that anyway?) If you decide you care no more about the whole ordeal than that, then you are only out of $80 - $100 bucks depending on if you had a discount code or not.

If you have a very specific reason for wanting a test, this DNA test options page by DNA Tested African Descendants may be helpful to you.

Wherever you decide to test, please upload your raw DNA to gedmatch so we can find out if we are related! Here's a helpful video if you need it.

Also, if you are of African descent and having trouble researching your family tree or understanding DNA (yes, I know this ish ain't easy), join the very helpful Facebook group: DNA Tested African Descendants. I have learned soooo much very quickly that has helped me in my journey. There are other helpful groups dealing with DNA testing and Genealogy research too, so be sure to search out those. I belong to too many to list them all today.

Until next time...