I have a Spanish ancestor from the 1500s, how much Spanish blood do I have fraction or percent wise?

Question

I just want to know how much Spanish blood I would have.

I can't figure it out (I'm not good at math), so I need an answer, either fraction or percent will do, thank you.

Answer 1

It would be better to know exactly how many generations that particular ancestor was away from you, and then multiply by half for that many generations.  You are half your father, quarter your grandfather, eighth your greatgrandfather...  but then there is repetition.  I wonder when it is likely to happen, but I expect by the 1500s you could easily have the same ancestor accidentally somewhere else about once. You should therefore be willing to multiply it.

I pick, personally, 33.3333.... years per generation...  (often people pick 30 or 25).  I believe 1600 was at least 12 generations ago, and 1500 up to 17 generations ago.  (It could be more, but I'm only using 30 to 33.333 years.  If you picked 25 it would in the end make your ancestry  from him even lower than 1/131 072)

1/2 to the power of 12 = 1/4096

1/2 to the power of 17 = 1/131 072

But then you have to consider possible repetitions.  It may be 2/4096 or 3/4096 or more, (but since the other ancestral line may be a different # of generations it could be 3/8192, ...)

You would likely not have any chromosome from that person, since you have 46 chromosomes (although it's possible, and you know that you do if you're talking about your paternal line. and your maternal line has mtDNA--I'm not sure exactly sure what part the mtDNA plays in your body)

Answer 2

Genevieve's Mom gave you an accurate answer.  However, trying to figure out percentages is really futile and useless.  Nothingusefullearnedatschool also told you right, you need to trace your ancestry.  

As you go back the percentages will change and you can only go back so far.  You have to realize there are no pure races or nationalities.  All of our ancestors were nomads at one time.  Then there have been invasions of countries and boundary changes.  You might have great great great great grandparents that came from Germany but then one of them might have had a grandparent from Hungary.  Then another might have had a great grandparent from Poland.  

If you have any English lines, you have to consider that they are a nation of Mutts just like Americans.  Originally there were Celts, then they were invaded by the Romans and the Roman soldiers came from a lot of places in the world,  then the Germanic Anglo, Saxons and Jutes, then the Danes and then the French speaking Normans.  

Actually, it is not your "blood" that relates you so much as it is your genes and DNA.

Your blood contains DNA but so does your hair, your saliva, your skin etc. They usually don't use blood for DNA testing.

Y DNA is passed solely from father to son.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to both sons and daughters but only her daughters pass it on to her children.

If you are a male you can have both the Y and mitochondrial tests done and it will give you the direct male line and the direct female line but the DNA of spouses of your direct male and direct female will not be included.  All of those people are included in who you are.

Most of your DNA is autosomal.  You get it 50-50 from both parents.

Answer 3

How many generations back is this person?

1. The first generation is you = 1

2. The second generation is your parents = 2

3. Grandparents = 4

4. Great grandparents = 16

5. Great-great grandparents = 32

6. 3 great grandparents = 64

7. 4 great grandparents = 128

and so on. Keep doubling from your 4th great grandparents until you get to that generation. Then put 1 over the number you come up with (for instance with your 4th great grandma you have 1/128th of her DNA in your makeup) and go from there.

If you're looking for a rough approximation, assume there are 20-25 years per generation and you're going back approximately 500 years. That makes somewhere between 20-25 generations back. At 20 generations that's 1/1,048,576. At 25 generations that's 1/33,554,432. That's pretty diluted DNA, but it's still there.

Answer 4

Well, I too have Spanish blood from back then...But, simply put, any estimation of a fraction or percentage would be just that: pure guess.

Social demographers (city planners, etc.) guess that a generation is 20 years.  That would be 5 generations a century. In my own case, 5 generations takes me back to the 1700s, before the American revolution.

Ten generations ago you would have had 1,024 ancestors; 20 generations ago, it would have been 524,288, for an accumulative total ancestors of 1,048,575.

If your Spanish ancestor was 10 generations ago, and you had only one Spanish ancestor (i.e., he/she married a French person and no one else was Spanish from that time until now), you would be 1/1024th Spanish, or a bit less than 1/10 of one percent.

If you want to find out what percent Spanish you are, you will need more information, either from a paper trail or from DNA.

Try these:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 5

10%