What Is Best Test To Determine Native American Ancestry?

[jebfalvey]

There is oral tradition on my paternal side that my great-grandmother was a "quarter" Mohegan Indian. This was my father's grandmother. I tried to get my Dad to take a DNA test but he wasn't keen on the idea. That is why I had the MtnDNA done! I have three brothers-if one of them is willing to do the test I would like to make sure it is the best/correct one to take.

The rest of our ancestry of paternal side is German, Swedish and "Old Yankee" which could encompass many ethnic groups.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Jan

[jebfalvey]

PS I did the MtnDNA out of curiosity - I knew it would not help me in finding out if the oral tradition is true as I need a male to do the test.

[JSW]

RE There is oral tradition on my paternal side that my great-grandmother was a "quarter" Mohegan Indian. This was my father's grandmother.

There are three possible tests
Y-DNA test paternal line:but that does not help as there is no NA in that direct line
mtDNA test Maternal line also no NA in that direct line
DNAPrint: A real REMOTE chance - the error is about 15% [my view others may say it is better than that] on that test
Thus with you being at 1/32 [or 3%] it would not do much.
Even your father at 7% would be a problem.

One possibility is to find a straight maternal descenant of your
great grand mother and test his/her mtDNA
IF the NA part was in her maternal line it could show up by the mtDNA haplogroup she was in.

[jebfalvey]

John,
Thanks for claifying. I am glad I asked! I have a better understanding now.

Jan
*******************
There are three possible tests
Y-DNA test paternal line:but that does not help as there is no NA in that direct line
mtDNA test Maternal line also no NA in that direct line
DNAPrint: A real REMOTE chance - the error is about 15% [my view others may say it is better than that] on that test
Thus with you being at 1/32 [or 3%] it would not do much.
Even your father at 7% would be a problem.

One possibility is to find a straight maternal descenant of your
great grand mother and test his/her mtDNA
IF the NA part was in her maternal line it could show up by the mtDNA haplogroup she was in. [/B][/QUOTE]

[Lucy]

Native American Test Results

When you state you feel there is a 15% error rate, just out of curiosity, do you feel it is false positives, false negatives, or both?

I suspect part of it may be due to the random nature of the inheritance. To test this "theory" of mine out, I am having all my siblings tested over the next year to see how "much" Native American DNA each of us inherited. We have it coming in on two lines. I tested at 20%, but figure I am at one of the outlying points on the bell curve and expect most of my siblings to come in at less (i.e. more at the top of the bell curve).