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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-05 > 1052096094


From: "Steve Williamson" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] False Postive Native American Findings (was Truce!)
Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 20:54:43 -0500
References: <20030505012542.41784.qmail@web41207.mail.yahoo.com>


David,
I really don't have the statistics to prove or disprove any of that.
Ancestry by DNA would obviously be the people contact about that, no?

All I'm really saying is: I'm satisfied with my test. I feel my money was
well spent. I would recommend the test for amateur genealogists. As it says
specifically in the User's Manual, part of the point of the test is to show
how mixed we all are, not how "pure" we are. Given what I've learned about
world history over the years, both in school and on my own, almost nothing
would surprise me as to "unexpected minority genes." ("minority" in terms of
%s, I mean)

That being said, I haven't yet heard that the test has shown a lily-white,
blue-eyed blond to be 100% African, or a dark person with typically
sub-Saharan African features to be 100% East Asian. If it were a bogus test,
you'd think you'd sometimes get wild, random results like that. Again, it
isn't meant to be any kind of personal attack against anyone, but John &
Tom's "triangle game" (my nickname, not theirs) reminds me of Zeno's
paradox: http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/articles/zeno_tort/ That is,
it's a trick of numbers, and doesn't really say anything definitive about
physical reality, and the overall validity of the test. I'm not a
professional mathematician, so take that as merely the opinion of a layman
using his own common sense.

Steve W.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Faux" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: [DNA] False Postive Native American Findings (was Truce!)


> Steve: Maybe there are no false positives. AncestrybyDNA would certainly
make that point. Certainly a couple of individuals from England could show
positive for NNA due to limited migration from North American - but what if
substantial numbers of those with proven English genealogies who were born
there started showing up with 15% NNA? Isn't it interesting that there does
not seem to be any sort of issue or "problem" with respect to African
alleles - there seems to be no doubt that when African percentages appear in
the results of the DNAPrint test, they are likely a close approximation of
the true value. I have made this point before, but the test is excellent at
differentiating between African and any other type of allele (among the four
groups being assessed). I personally am convinced (at this point in time)
that any NNA value found in the results section means that those alleles are
there - but I am open to looking at data from those who can demonstrate that
the re!
> sults are very very unlikely. It would appear, however, that most of the
Listers are from the USA, and if their family has been here for any length
of time, some admixture with NNA or African is likely (as is the case in my
family). David.


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