With a Simple DNA Test, Family Histories Are Rewritten

With a Simple DNA Test, Family Histories Are Rewritten
Researchers at 23andMe acknowledged the difficulty in a recent paper, writing, “It is important to note
that ancestry, ethnicity, identity and race are complex labels that result both from visible traits, such as skin color, and from cultural, economic, geographical and social factors.”
In a recent study, the researchers decided to use Census Bureau definitions — black, white, Hispanic — to
ask how often people who identify as one race actually have genetic markers indicating a mixed heritage.
The chances of having African ancestry were highest in the South,
and highest of all in South Carolina, where at least 13 percent of those who said they were white had African ancestors.
Among those who said they were black, genetic ancestry over all was 73.2 percent African, 0.8 percent Native American and 24 percent European.
A genealogist helped him track down some first cousins in Alabama, who said they had been told never to contact Mr. Hutchinson or his family.
If testing “tells me I’m 95 percent Ashkenazi Jewish and 5 percent Korean, is
that really different from 100 percent Ashkenazi Jewish and zero percent Korean?” Jonathan Marks, an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, wondered in The Wirecutter.