DNA test to determine amount of Indian blood?

Question

I would like to have a Dna test to determine the amount of American Indian I might have in me, My Grandmother told me that she was 1/4 American Indian, but she thought she might be more. Has anyone used any Dna tests that they brought on the internet, and how accurate were they? and did they break down any other races they might have and the percent? can anything like this be done in a Doctors office or hospital? I know I have a very small amount, but Im just interested in finding out the exact amount. thanks

Answer 1

Testing of this type cannot be done in a doctor's office or a hospital, it has to be done in specialist laboratories.

DNA testing cannot show which country, or ethnicity in recent history someone was from, and obviously it cannot give you a name.

A DNA test can show, approximately, your ancestors trail through the world since the evolution of your first ancestor, because you are female a test of your Mtdna will not show any paternal line at all, only the possible origin of your mother, her mother, your great grandmother etc., etc. You do not carry your father's Y-DNA and, either he, your brother, father's brother, or your father's father, or a male cousin on your father's side, would need to be tested to show your father's genetic origins, it cannot show which tribe someone was a member of, only that Native American is, or is not, in your father's lineage.

Below is a reply I have given to a similar previous question, dna cannot tell you which country you originated in, only the probable area, or areas of the world your ancient ancestors passed through during their evolution.

Human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes: 22 pairs of autosomes, and one pair of s*x chromosomes. Females carry a pair of X chromosomes that can swap, or recombine, similar regions of DNA during meiosis. However, males harbor one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, and significant recombination between these dissimilar s*x chromosomes does not occur. Therefore, the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY) remains largely unchanged over many generations, directly passed from father to son, son to grandson, and so on, along with genetic variations in the NRY that may be present. Scientists can use genetic variations, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), on the Y chromosome as markers of human ancestry and migration.

It is very effective and the best companies will retest until they get a conclusive result.

If you have, say, just the first 12 markers tested($149 with FTDNA), that will give an indication of where you originated, the more markers you test on, the more information is gained ( for mtdna, your suggested geographic origin and your maternal deep ancestral ethnic origin, $129 with FTDNA) if you test on the maximumum of, say 67 markers ($349 with FTDNA), it is possible then to find a match to someone else carrying your own, or a different surname, and to prove a link where perhaps no "paper trail" exists. It can therefore pinpoint a place in which your ancestors probably lived in recent history but DNA does not, obviously,

have a surname attached to it, surnames have only been used for around 700 years and of course your DNA originated 10s of thousands of years ago. You can also have a SNP test which will help show the migratory pattern of your ancient ancestors, having said that, you can join a Surname project (e.g. with FTDNA) and receive discounted prices on your tests.

I recommend that you make yourself aware of the various tests available, and the costs with each testing company.

Plus, check out what is available to you after you have tested.

I used Family Tree DNA ,they were the first in the field (founded in 1999), have the largest data base, and do the testing for the National Geographic's Genome project, their "after sales" is excellent and I consider they are the best, but you have to make your own decision on that.

http://www.familytreedna.org

Answer 2

U don,t need DNA just ..look at Ur face and discover it Ur self ..skin color,hair, hair color ,eyes color lips ,teeth..You figure out it yourself

Answer 3

Although your parents almost always give half your DNA, each ancestor before that is only an average estimate.  So you cannot get an "exact" percentage.  There's no guarantee that it is even going to be close to accurate.  But it is an estimate.

Search for autosome testing if you want this estimate.  But, if you're 1/16 American Indian, you  might not find any if you test half your chromosomes, like I heard is sometimes done..  If you test them all, you may find about 3 (av. 2.75).  Give or take a few. LOL.  Your autosomes could be 0 native american, out of 44 autosomes, even if your ancestry is 1/16 native american.

I'll try to calculate the chances for testing half of your autosomes.  But for now I'll just guess.  I am doing this so you have an idea of what I am thinking, and how spread out the chances are (so you can't tell slight differences in your ancestral percentages; you may be able to tell larger and larger differences with better and better certainty):

1/16, and testing only HALF your of your autosomes

30% chance: 0 chromosomes

40% chance: 1 chromosome

20% chance: 2 chromosomes

5-10% chance: 3 chromosomes

But you could probably tell the difference if there is a large difference like if you're half native american.  But there is still risk of it going that far too, so this isn't a certain fact, and if you get less than half of the DNA, you wouldn't really know.

Y-DNA and mtDNA do not estimate your percentages but would be helpful if your fathers' male-only line or mothers' female-only line are the one you want to identify. They say just that one line which could be a sliver of your ancestry back ago enough.

So to conclude:

-You cannot tell the difference from DNA on whether you are 1/16th American Indian or 1/8 or whatever.  

-The other races they mention may mislead you into thinking you have had recent foreign races you don't have.  I believe that some haplogroups that are associated with Africa more than Europe have some subbranches in Europe; so it may say 5% African (I'm just guessing) though this doesn't mean you have recent african ancestry at least if all Europeans are also about 5% African.  I'm just picking 5% by the way, I really don't know.  So be careful of things like that, find out what a race as a whole is like, rather than taking up the percentages for each continent as separate.