Mystery Asian percentage in my origins

[HanJulBev]

Hello

All their lives my mother and her mother my nanna have been called Asian even though they have no knowledge of Asian blood in the family. So when I did a myorigins test here and it said I'm around 12% east Asian, I was very interested. My mum did her test too, and she showed as around 22% East Asian. The fact that it increased like that made me wonder if her mums test would show double that too, which would mean one of her parent might be the source of the Asian. But her test came back with percentages almost identical to my mums, which confused me a lot. How can both mother and daughter have almost identical my origins results? What does that mean?

[ltd-jean-pull]

Where were your parents born?

[HanJulBev]

All my living relatives were born in Australia. Closest one I know who was born elsewhere was great grandmother from England. When researching on ancestry, all ancestors are from British isles. Which is why it's a real mystery - my mum and nanna look Asian. How can both mum and nanna have almost identical myorigins results?

[ltd-jean-pull]

On the fuzzy map on MyOrigins what areas does East Asia include?

[HanJulBev]

Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan...

Do you know why my mum and my Nanna's myorigins results could be so similar?

[ltd-jean-pull]

Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan...

Do you know why my mum and my Nanna's myorigins results could be so similar?

So the area excludes China and Philippines? Is there anything else on MyOrigins that's not European?

I'm certainly no expert but perhaps your grandmother's component was underestimated a bit and your mother's was overestimated.

[HanJulBev]

I think it might include the Phillipines. They have a tiny amount of South American maybe; and a big chunk of Western Europe. But the rest is British isles. I'm really puzzled. I was sure nanna must be half Asian and one of her parents not who they seemed to be...

[ltd-jean-pull]

How about your grandmother's matches? Any clues from them?

Does your Nanna have siblings who could test?

[HanJulBev]

There was one match in Nanna's list for the Asian blood but emailing brought no new information - that person has a Hawaiian background. My nanna is estranged from her siblings.

[ltd-jean-pull]

I wonder whether Gedmatch might be useful?

Polynesian ancestry can show up mostly as East Asian. I'm just looking at the kit of a friend who has mostly Maori ancestry (on Eurogenes K13 at Gedmatch). It shows about 30% European ancestry and almost 50% East Asian and 16% Oceanian.

I'm not certain the Oceanian category at FtDNA (which is Papua New Guinea, Timor and indigenous Australian) is similar to the Oceania in Eurogenes K13).

If your grandmother does have Polynesian ancestry it is very difficult to work out relationships as it is an endogamous population.

[DaveInGreece]

Gedmatch

Uploading both kits is definitely a good option. Not only does it have a wide range of ethnicity estimators which might give you slightly different and/or more detailed results, but it also has chromosome painting. It will show you which parts of which chromosomes are "Asian". If your mother has "Asian" in places where your grandmother doesn't, then it would indicate that your grandfather was also part Asian (or something FTDNA interprets as Asian).