Help any suggestions?

[cambys]

I am new at DNA testing & need help. I am a female & would like to determine if my maternal gg-grandfather was Native American or Mulatto. He was listed in some of the census records as Indian, some as Mulatto, & some as White. His parents were listed as Indian, Black, & Mulatto.

My maternal gg-grandmother was always listed as White, but family rumor claimed she was born out of wedlock & her biological father was a Native American.

Is there a test that will give me this information? I would like to know which is correct for my maternal gg-grandparents. Also, would it be best for me to test my maternal GreatUncle since he is the oldest member in my family?

Thanks for your help.

[Pleroma]

Cambys,

You need an admixture test that looks at percentages of European, Sub-saharan African, East Asian, and Native American DNA.

I used ancestrybydna.com who I found were the most reasonably priced for this test.

It would be best to test your Great Uncle because he is the closest genetically to those ancestors you are searching for.

Although this type of test is not 100% accurate, it usually will indicate if you have an African heritage. I'm sceptical as to whether or not it always reveals the presence of a Native American one---but it may.

It will not tell you who was whom in your family tree; only that somebody was.

[tomcat]

The low cost route (based on pre-August prices) is to get a sample from maternal uncle and submit to Genographic project for Y- and Mt-DNA testing ($200. appx.). Then have the sample released to FTDNA (the lab that does the work for Genographic) and have FTDNA release the sample to their new partner DNA-Fingerprint for DNA-F's autosomal panel 1 ($62 appx). Then have DNA-F sent the results of autosomal panel 1 to DNATribes for analysis ($100 appx.).

This will give you basic Y-, Mt-, and At-DNA results for the oldest (known?) living member of your family for appx. $362 (a very small premium to the cost of DNAP's ABDNA 2.5 that will only yield an autosomal analysis ... provided, of course, that FTDNA is agreeable to this testing routine. Email them.

Tom