I am proud of my Mexican and Spanish heritage even though I “look like a pale, Caucasian-(white)-American nerd,” which I am as well.
I paid for the 23 and Me genetic heritage and health testing within the last 12 months.
In my results I found that 4.9% of my DNA came from Native American ancestors who lived in what is modern day Mexico.
Being that my paternal grandmother was born in Mexico (and naturalized as a United States citizen in the middle of the Twentieth Century) I was surprised that only 4.9% of my genetic code (that relates to family heritage) was from Native Americans (from “Mexico”).
Historically Mexican citizens have had predominately both Spanish and Native American ancestors. This is my basic understand of historical Mexican society – which could be inaccurate. At 5:40am on a Wednesday morning I do not have time to investigate these facts further at this time.
Using simple math I have come to the following hypothesis:
My paternal Grandmother was my only Mexican relative.
She accounts for an estimated 25% of my DNA.
I am 4.9% Native American from Mexico.
If 100% of her DNA is represented by 25% of my DNA then:
DNA inheritance doesn’t “work that way” as you will find out should you participate in DNA testing. There is never an even distribution of DNA that is perfectly, statistically proportional to what your genetics should be as predicted by strictly percentages. My findings about my Grandma’s heritage are strictly a proportional estimate based on math and logic.
More on DNA in future posts. It’s time to go to work…