Sep 30 2011
Our Hidden African Ancestry
Update: A post at the blog Your Genetic Genealogist just went up with a very similar story to mine. Check it out.
It was just a few thin green segments on my fourth and seventh chromosomes that sent me searching.
I wanted to know more about my family history. I pestered my mom with questions about her parents, her grandparents and great grandparents. I even went digging on my own into birth records, old newspapers clippings and state archives. Eventually, I wandered into records of our family history on the plains of Nebraska, Iowa and then the hills of West Virginia.
I wanted to know what those segments represented — or more accurately — who they represented.
I’m white.
My hair, or at least the hair I once had, is blond. (That’s me on the left with my brother when we were kids.) Our family’s heritage is solidly English, Irish and German. I named my son after a Gaelic folk hero.
But those thin green segments in my 23andMe Ancestry Painting meant that one of my grandmother’s great grandmothers, or one of her great grandfathers, was black.
It’s no secret, or it shouldn’t be, that a majority of African Americans have European ancestry – on average between 20 and 25 percent. It’s one of those vestiges of America’s history of slavery.
“For anyone still naïve enough to believe in the myth of racial purity, it is one more corroboration that the social categories of ‘white’ and ‘black’ are and always have been more porous than can be imagined,” wrote Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. in an article in The Root about Michelle Obama’s ancestry.
While much has been written about European ancestry among African Americans what’s less well known is how many Americans, like me, who consider themselves white also have African ancestry.
Researchers at 23andMe looked at the genetic ancestry of about 78,000 customers likely to consider themselves as entirely of European ancestry and found that somewhere between 3 percent and 4 percent of those people have “hidden” African ancestry.
The percent of African ancestry is relatively low with the majority of individuals having just 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent — which suggests that those people have an African ancestor who lived about six generations, or about 200 years, ago.
This is by no means meant to represent the percent of African ancestry among those who identify themselves as being of European descent across America. It is simply a snapshot of those in our database at this time. Our researchers have also excluded those with more than 5 percent African ancestry with the assumption that it’s more likely that their ancestry is known. That doesn’t mean it is known, just as it doesn’t mean that those of European descent with 5 percent or less African ancestry are unaware of it. In addition, our database includes customers who are actually European so the actual percentage of Americans of European descent in our database who have African ancestry may be higher.
But we believe this is the first detailed look of the African ancestry among those who consider themselves white. It begs many questions for possible future study. For instance, looking at the generational distribution implied by the percentages it appears most of the mixing occurred 200 years ago or more. Was intermixing between black and white more acceptable during that time in American history? Or was the relative isolation of people then such that the societal taboos against such mixing were more lax?
At the very least these findings suggest a more nuanced picture of race relations at that time.
For our family, the news has recast our own picture of who our ancestors were. My sisters and I have 1 percent African ancestry. My mother, a generation closer to the source, has more. For a family that thought we were a mix of Irish, German and French, it was a surprise.
But the surprise triggered our search to find out about our genealogical history.
Just as 23andMe’s findings offer a new narrative about American social history and race relations, our family’s discovery offered another look at where we came from. Somewhere in our family’s past we had a black ancestor who was “absorbed” into white society. That story was hidden until our DNA revealed it.
This ancestor would have lived during the era of slavery and at a time and in a place where the “Rule of Hypodescent” — more commonly known as the “one drop rule” — held that anyone with any African ancestry was considered “black.”
Beyond what this might say about American history, the finding also comes at a time when people appear to be much more comfortable with mixed ancestry. So what will this finding mean for other families now?
On a personal note, each generation in our family had a different reaction to the news of having an African ancestor. What’s also interesting is that our evidence of African ancestry, which is very small, can’t be seen in the next generation — the generation of my children and my sisters’ children — who seemed most excited by the new finding and were most disappointed that they didn’t have it.
James Larry Vick, whom we’ve written about before in this blog, talked about his own similar discovery through 23andMe that he had African ancestors.
At first he thought it was a mistake, but he has since pieced together the link. He believes it was from his mother’s 2nd great grandmother, who had come from the Cumberland Gap area of Appalachia, home to a tri-racial population known as “Melungeons.” The Melungeons are of European, African and Native American ancestry.
“I do not think anyone in our family would have believed we could have an African segment and none would believe we could have Melungeon ancestry,” Vick said. “I doubt anyone in my family would know what Melungeon is.”
Our own family’s search of records hasn’t led to quite as detailed of a discovery, but it’s offered some tantalizing hints — a “free man of color” with the same surname as my mother’s great grandmother in the same small West Virginia town.
Using 23andMe’s Relative Finder tool I’ve hunted for people with the same surname and family history from that area and this may lead us to new clues. But the journey through this hidden family history has already taught us a lot not just about ourselves but about America’s own hidden history.
Great post! I’m African American with lots of “surprise” White ancestors all the way back to the Puritans. I confess I always viewed the surprise factor from the other side of the fence. How interesting to hear another perspective – and confirmation that ancestry is never quite what it seems to be. Thanks for sharing:-)
I find this so fascinating! How do you differentiate between “African” markers and those of western European descent who have Moorish ancestors (e.g., the “black Irish” who were rumored to be such secondary to the Moors presence)? Since the article explained this person’s children no longer have the markers, is it something that can only be tested within a specific band of generations?
“more porous than can be imagined,”
lol
This is not uncommon in the African American Ancestry. I have relatives who passed for white because they thought it would better their lives. For generations there children thought of themselves as white until someone came knocking on their door to introduce themselves as family. What a surprise. I guess what bothers me most is that they didn’t want to beleive it, even though there was legal documentation supporting it. But good for you in your attitude regarding it. It’s been said we come come Africa.
I’m unsure of the definition of African American but the ancestors of people with small amounts of African ancestry could also have come from the Caribbean islands without ever reaching America. My brother-in-law has ancestry like this, as, although he is a 3rd generation Australian, he has 2% African and 0.5% Asian genome in his Ancestry Painting. This must have come from ancestors of his maternal gg grandfather who was born in Jamaica before emigrating to Australia in 1858. And in this case his daughter, who is my niece, has inherited about 1% of the African and a trace of Asian genome, so she’s thrilled.
The possibility of finding traces of African ancestry was the reason why this branch of my family agreed to test at 23andMe, and they all think it was well worth it, to find something like this!
Well, congratulations. I am not American so finding a Black African ancestor is not really important to me. I suppose I am White to tag myself, I just think myself as an Australian of Maltese ancestry.
In Australia, Black Irish does not mean having Black African Ancestry or North African Moorish ancestry. It just means having brown eyes, black or very dark hair and a non florid complexion but being 100% Irish (from Eire).
The problem with Europeans finding Black African segments at 23andMe is that the segments are less than reality due to 23andMe using the standard three groups as “racial” exemplars: Utah American Whites, Chinese/Japanese East Asians and Yoruba Nigerian Africans. A lot of minor admixing cannot be seen with those exemplars. I have a 100% European Ancestry Painting at 23andMe, but according to Admixture programs I have black African ancestry ranging between 1 to 3% depending on the Admixture runs, number of ancestors assumed and the ethnic groups used. Anyway because of that result (of Black African ancestry) I checked my genealogy well beyond five generations, and I found my Black African ancestor. The woman was a slave, and she is at least my 12th great grandmother, as I am descended from more than one line of her descendants.
I think many of those Native Americans that people have been told are in their family were actually African Americans of light color who passed into the White community.
My first 23andme result said 100% European, later it was changed to 99% European and less than half a percent of African, then later changed again to 99% European and less than half a percent of Asian and just over a half percent of African. I have no known African or Asian ancestry. It has been said that segments at the centomere (middle of the chromosome where the two pencil points meet) and the ends of the chromosomes are “cold spots” and could be very old. I actually have matches to my Asian segments but the people I am matching have Finnish (from Finland) ancestry. These must be very ancient segments that have survived over thousands of years. Many Finns and other Scandinavians have low amounts of Asian in their 23andme Ancestry Painting. In DODECAD/Dienekes and Eurogenes and Gedmatch DIY, I have a South Asian, Southeast Asian, Northeast Asian, Southwest Asian, West Asian, Southwest Asian and so on. Every category. It even shows a tiny amount Palaeo African (San Bushmen and pygmy). The “African” could be from any world population that has a tiny amount of African such as India (England had a trading post there since 1600), Indonesia (Dutch Spice Trade), Arabia, Spain, Jewish people, Australian-Irish children who were taken away from their aborigine parents and sent to the British Isles, and then there was the Ottoman Empire, Moors, Spain, and Italy (Roman Empire had many many Africans), Sicily. For hundreds of years the Dutch traded with the Portuguese and the Portuguese traded with the Spanish and the Spanish had ties to Ireland and so on.
And as for Relative Finder, so far, my predicted 4th and 5th cousins don’t seem to match within 200 years. They seem to be NO closer than 400-500 years, if even that. Those 10 cM matches could be 1,000 years ago. The 5 cM matches could be 1,000 or more years ago. My Relative Finder has been changed and most of my former ‘predicted 4th cousins” are now listed as “3rd to distant cousin”.
Gedmatch/Dodecad
Population average% chr with highest% highest%
East European 12.2% 22 26.6%
West European 48.0% 11 64.9%
Mediterranean 24.5% 17 35.2%
Neo_African 0.3% 3 2.0%
West Asian 8.4% 8 19.6%
South Asian 1.5% 8 5.1%
Northeast Asian 0.8% 16 5.1%
Southeast Asian 0.7% 6 4.4%
East African 0.2% 19 1.9%
Southwest Asian 2.2% 21 10.8%
Northwest African 0.8% 19 5.9%
Palaeo African 0.3% 3 2.9%
Finding out my results just a few weeks ago was a great thing, I knew I had African and Native American Ancestry but the surprise was finding 22% European Ancestry. Professor Doug McDonald from Illinois U. gave 21.5% and GedMatch 15.1. It is more then I would have thought. I am the Family Historian and this helps to understand
alot.
ScottH
I had the same response as you when I saw the african segment in my ancestry painting and also on my moms and brother and sister. I knew we had some native american but was surprised at first by the african dna. I am trying to find the african ancestry and like you have thought about what their lives must have been like.
My ancestors with NA and african ancestry are also from the hills of (Barbour and Monongalia counties) West Virginia, I believe my ggg grandmother moved to Nebraska in the late 1800s with her married daughter and along with her younger children (my gg grandfather’s siblings).
I wonder if we are related?
Candy,
Thanks for the comment. The surnames that I think are related to our African ancestry are Batten and or Vaughan and they go back to Virginia/West Virginia.
Hi everyone. I am terribly interested to know if any of you finding your hidden ancestry to be african american have tried to learn about or locate other branches from the ancestor you identified as african american?
“”But those thin green segments in my 23andMe Ancestry Painting meant that one of my grandmother’s great grandmothers, or one of her great grandfathers, was black.”"
DOES THE CHROMOSOME NUMBER RELATE TO A SPECIFIC GENERATION?
How did you know this was your grandmother’s great grandmother, or great grandfather?
I wouldn’t put too much stock in these tiny amounts of African ancestry without other supporting evidence. One of the reasons I got into DNA testing was to try to verify oral traditions of Native American ancestry in my family, which is of European (mostly English & Irish) ancestry. I started with Ancestry by DNA’s DNA Print 2.0 and 2.5 about eight years ago. 2.0 showed me with 19% Native American (which seemed impossibly high given my phenotype and all the documentary and photo evidence) and no African. So, I retested when version 2.5 came out, and it showed 8% Nat Am, and added 6% African (both higher than I would have guessed from traditional genealogy). Later I tested with DecodeMe, which showed similar results to DNA Print 2.5, at least on the X chromosome, but with 8% Asian rather than Nat Am. Next, I tried 23andMe, which showed me with no Asian or Native American, and only 0.29% African – much less than the margin of error. Most recently, I have also tested with Family Tree DNA, Ethnoancestry, and DNA Tribes. These last three showed European (mostly British Isles) with no Asian or African at all.
Clearly, as DNA testing has evolved over the last ten years or so, my non-European ancestry percentages have steadily declined. Using traditional genealogy, I would expect 100% European, and this is what I do get on the very latest tests. Had I stopped at the first, I might have believed that the 19% Native American result was confirmation of my family’s “Cherokee great-grandmother” tales, which I have concluded are myths, not just in my case, but also in the vast majority of cases among white Appalachian families. I know of people who really wanted to believe those stories, and so did stop with the DNA Print tests, and to this day think that they have have “proven” Native American ancestry.
The latest fad for white American genealogists not satisfied with being Scotch-Irish, Quaker, or umpteenth great-grandchild of Charlemagne seems now to be to suddenly discover that they’re part black. Test results within the margin of error, with no other reason to suspect such ancestry, should not be sufficient proof of such ancestry, in my opinion. An important principle in Science is to repeat the experiment. If you’re relying on only one test from one company, especially if the results were not what you expected, you’re in danger of some real self-deception in terms of what you believe about your ancestry.
Ancestry tests are getting better, but they all have margins of error, sometimes large ones, which amateur genetic genealogists would do well to keep in mind.
That is a good point to look for “supporting” evidence.
1. My father: Dark complected, light brown eyes, dark brown curly hair.
2. His mother was the same, except with dark brown eyes and dark brown, thick, board-straight hair.
3. His father was of mostly English origin, light-complected with very light blue eyes and blond hair (but HIS mother was dark-complected with dark brown eyes and hair, and in pictures, she has strong Native American features – even though genealogy doesn’t indicate Native American ancestry).
4. My brother is very dark complected, dark brown eyes, and dark brown, thick, wavy hair.
5. Census records list my ggrandfather’s family as white, mulatto, and white on consecutive censuses in Tennessee. Also, between the mulatto census and the second white census, they go from having property of a good value to having no property listed. (Hmm) Names such as “Fatama” pop up in the census records (my gggrandmother and my g-aunt are two).
6. My mother: Very light complected, blue-eyed and blond-haired.
7. She remembered her grandfather as being dark-complected with dark brown eyes and hair, and her grandfather’s name was Fernando (I won’t list full name here, but it was English first name, Hispanic middle name, Hispanic surname for second middle name, then a German last name). In records of his family through the couple of generations back that we can find on his mother’s side, there are many names traditionally considered to be of Hispanic origin.
8. I’m between medium and light complected (olive, sort of), brown haired and blue eyed.
9. My family on both sides have passed down the phrase “Black Dutch” to describe their ancestry. My father speculated Indian as well, but nothing confirmed through genealogical research for that (just the picture of his grandmother).
10. There are quite a number of my relatives on both sides of my family, including first cousins, who have the unusual combination of being light complected with dark brown eyes and blond hair.
I have a 23andme test that I’ll be sending in soon, and I’m interested to see the results.
I’ve just discovered this thread and would like to add that it is such an important and sensitive issue, because of how deeply it concerns one’s sense of both personal and group identity, which stretches back in time to the relationship we have with our forebears.
Unfortunately, some equate “racial purity”, which doesn’t exist, with “racial identify”, which does.
The state aggravates the issue by seeking to trivialise, demonise and suppress its importance, because it wants us all to identify with itself as our nation, and thus see each other as members of the same tribe, when manifestly many of us don’t feel that we are.
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23andMe is actually very conservative in its African estimates. Its not cropping up with any significance in European populations. Its quite low in the Spanish for example, where you might expect some. It is popping up in colonial descended Americans. If you have a touch of green in your ancestry painting, you have a relatively recent African ancestor.
Personally I was thrilled to find that touch of green. Another link to American history. A new story to find. It was very exciting. And great to see that a significant portion of the folk on those ships escaped the ongoing sadness of racism, or their descendents did anyway. :)
I think an unexpected fractional result without any other support can be chalked up to testing imperfections.
Such small percentages would go back a couple hundred years before most of our ancestors were Americans so you have to look at the opportunity to mix in a little African blood in Europe. The best opportunities were in Mediterranean trade ports like Naples and Sicily. Most americans self classified as hispanic white really didn’t come directly from Iberia and were exposed to a lot of racial mixing in the Caribbean.
Not surprising. With the advancement of both genetic technologies, and information sharing on the Internet, it will only become easier and cheaper to discover truths about family history. The socially interesting part will be-as some mentioned-how welcome the “news” is. We are all related-not just at one common ancestor-but at many multiples. Researchers looking at computerized genealogical data are trying to crunch the data and look at this much larger picture. Fact is, everyone has 4 grandparents, and each of their generation’s parents lead to 8, 16, 32, 64, 128……1 BILLION something direct ancestors, in a heckuva family TREE, in short order (30 generations, or approximately 1000 years ago. English (Olde English, which was virtually pure German) was spoken, and the Magna Carta was about to usher in the seeds of Democracy. The formula is 2 to the power of “X,” with X being how many generations back. Since the beginning of this country, you would have approximately 128 direct ancestors. It would only take slightly more than 1 to have 1% ancestry of whatever they represented (and that is if they tied into your line 200+ years ago). We are definitely “livin’ in interesting times,” INDEED!
(Continued…) World population is estimated to have been no more than 500 million 1000 years ago. What this means is there was a lot of overlapping and “exotic” family structures. And the further you go back, the more overlapping there had to have been.
on the ancestry painting of 23andme i also have 1% African ancestry.But on the Native American Ancestry Finder that % is bumped up to 1.06%,my African appears on chromosomes 3,5 and 6.Very interesting.