South American DNA

[baltoa]

I am looking for anyone out there that has information on South American DNA. Trying to figure out why my Grandmother received South American DNA is very confusing. Could South American DNA equal Native American DNA?

My great grandfather was half German, his parents migrated here into Illinois an Iowa. He was adopted by his Father's sister at birth, it is said that his real mother died from childbirth but not too sure. His father was married a couple of times and the last women he was married to before the birth of my Great grandfather states that her mother was from Ireland and father Prussia/Germany- Which doesn't really add up to way my grandmother's results showed up half European- half Spanish/iberia, South American and West middle east. A percentage of that European is Southeast Europe circling Mediterranean area.

We know for sure my grandmothers mother's side is German and Jewish who also migrated to Illinois, so i am guessing the west middle east is coming from her side.

The South American and Spanish is very confusing however! My great grandfather did indeed look spanish with Native/ South American though. There is also records of him and his aunt and uncle (adoptive parents) going into Canada for "farming"

Would appreciate anyones help. Thanks for reading!

[Tomero]

It would be helpful if you posted your grandmother's ethnic breakdown percentages. I am Hispanic from New Mexico, and I have Iberian, Native American (North American, only traces of South American, though), and Middle Eastern as my three top percentages. Most Hispanics that come from old Spanish colonial families in the Southwest U.S. have these combinations.

It could be that your great great grandmother came from old Hispanic families living in the Southwest U.S.

[Manot]

Just do not take it literally.

I would say that Native American clusters of FTDNA are bad, just not worse than MyHeritage. So just do not believe them. I participate in a Brazilian Genetic Genelogy group on Facebook, it is more common to see Brazilians getting Native American from the north than from the South. But we all know that this is just an imprecision of FTDNA. In my opinion the best company to identify the Native American percentage at the moment is 23AndMe.

[gensrchr2]

Some of the matches I have on another DNA testing site to which I uploaded my data, who appear to be 100% Scandinavian and living presently in Scandinavia, are showing not just some Native American but also in some cases Arctic/Inuit and East Asian. Y haplogroup N is common in both Finland and Siberia. Siberians are connected to Native Americans via shared ancestry according to recent studies. So there may be some overlap, possibly explaining the percentages.