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My maternal grandmother (b. 1911/d. 1940) was of mixed race (white father and black mother, her father left and she was raised by her mom) Her husband (my maternal grandfather) was born in the 1890's in Northern Central Mexico , which consists of European/ Mestizo Mexicans.

My brother (we have several other siblings and we all share the same parents) did a DNA test and it reads: 27% Great Britain, 15% Cameroon/Congo, 14% Iberian Peninsula, plus a small percentage from 14 other regions. The estimate is: 43% Africa, 11% Mali , 6% Native American, 3% Asia , 46% Europe.

My dad was Black. My mom always referred to herself as colored because her own mixed race mother did. I grew up being questioned as to my race and bullied and teased by certain kids, which made me ask my mom about her family, all she would say was "tell them you're part colored and part Mexican." was as far as she went , another one of her responses was "you're father is colored and you always go by your father's race." Mexican is a nationality and not a race (unless you were born in the actual country) Me and my siblings were raised in a Black household and always identified ourselves as Black, but as I got older and learned a lot more about my mom's lineage I know better and identify with all 3 races.

Most of my life (and to this day) my race has been an issue with certain people putting me on trial with questions ( although they are kind) but that has really gotten old.

PolyGeo
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Never2old
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  • I'm not sure that this is a duplicate of that particular question. There seems to be more of an element here of trying to reconcile ethnicity reported by the DNA test with what is known of ethnicity from the oral/paper record. In any event I am going to abstain from this close vote, at least for now. – PolyGeo Sep 29 '15 at 06:59
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    Is this a genealogical question or a social one? I can imagine how distressing it must be to be challenged about your identity (I've seen it happen to friends of mine), but I don't see why you are obligated to answer rude busybodies. To improve this question for our site guidelines, I'd like to see the section about the DNA results improved, because I don't understand them as they are written. But unless you have a question about how the results match the 'paper trail' (what you know about your heritage from your family) I would have to agree with ColeValleyGirl that this is a duplicate. – Jan Murphy Sep 29 '15 at 16:19

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DNA Testing (assuming you have done an autosomal test) gives you a broad idea of your DNAs ancient origins. The categories vary slightly company to company. It will never be 100% accurate as it is compared to samples of DNA found throughout the world. For example the part that says you are British just means you matched a certain part of your DNA that a high percentage of the samples from the British Isles also share. If you want to know your immediate ancestry, i.e your recent ancestors like great great grandparents then a family tree is the way to go rather than DNA Testing. But both is always better! My advice: Get as solid and well documented a tree as you can and see if it matches up with your DNA test results.

Danny B
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  • Yes! We do have a family tree (my mom) on Ancestry.com. I intend to do some thorough research on my maternal great-grandmother's lineage. So far the DNA test my brother did has resulted in thousands of matches for 2nd 3rd, 4th, 5th (and so on) cousins, now just recently to several others dating back to the 1700's. – Never2old Sep 29 '15 at 18:10
  • Make sure to triple check all of your facts for a person before you move on to their parents! – Danny B Oct 01 '15 at 10:53