Shirley T
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Not necessarily. But an AUTOSOMAL DNA test might be helpful. There are 3 types of DNA
Y which goes from father to son only.
Mitochondrial which goes from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it on to their children.
Y & Mitochondrial are helpful in matching people with other family trees. They both go back in a straight line virtually unchanged. One company that does this type of testing advertises they will help you discover your "deep ancestral roots." They will assign you to a Haplogroup based on your DNA and show you the origin of your nomadic ancestor going back thousands of years.
However, understand it is only in 2 lines and you come from a myriad of family lines.
If you had both done right off the bat it would exclude your paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather. The number of people you descend from pyramids as you go back. If you get back to your 6xgreat grandparents, you are directly descended from 510 individuals. Of those 510, you get your Y from only 8 if you are male and your Mitochondrial from only 8 whether you are male or female leaving out a total of 494 people.
There is at least one company in the U.S. that will take your Autosomal DNA and match you with population groups throughout the world. They won't tell you that you are 1/2 of something, 1/4 of something else and 1/4 of another something else. They couldn't do that as there are no pure nationalities or pure races or ethnicities.
What they will do will show you your matches starting with the top in descending order. Then they will total it up and break it down by regions such as Northern Europeans, Mediterranean etc.
Nationality is defined by the U.S. State Department as where you have your citizenship.
Your nationality will not be the country from which your ancestors immigrated. Germany was not a nation until 1871. Italy became a nation at the end of the 19th century. Some nations did not come into existence in Europe until after WWI.
The only company I know that will tests your Autosomal for regional ethnic background is
http://www.DNATribes.Com
When you go into their website if you click on "Feedback" at the top there is a way you can email them and ask questions.
FamilyTreeDNA is the premier company for family history testing in Y & Mitochondrial. They do Autosomal but will not give you any type of analysis so don't use them for Autosomal. I believe at one time they did. I had to send my results from FamilyTreeDNA to DNATribes.
Now how accurate it is that I don't know for sure. I can see how if more than one company does this type of testing and analysis you could possibly get some different results as one might have some population samples another wouldn't.
"You get your Autosomal 50-50 from both parents. They really determine your total genetic pattern. I had a website that told me you don't get it 50-50 from both parents so I asked a question on the Biology Board since Genealogy and Genetic are not the same thing and this was the reply.
"Actually, you do inherit your autosomal DNA 50-50 from each parent. That site is wrong.
"Your mother's egg contributes one set of 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome (an X). Your father's sperm contributes the other set of 22 autosomes, and another sex chromosome (either an X or a Y).
"Where the 50-50 part breaks down is when you pass on your DNA to your children. Each of your children will get half their DNA from you, but they won't necessarily get an equal mix of what you inherited from your parents. They could inherit a more from your mother, through you, and less from your father, or vice versa.
"Another way to look at it: you inherited 50% of your autosomal DNA from each parent, but you didn't necessarily inherit exactly 25% from each grandparent. Your maternal grandparents contributed exactly 50% in total, but it could be biased in favor of either your maternal grandmother or your maternal grandfather. Same goes for your paternal grandparents.
"When you take one of those DNA tests, which markers they find depend on which ones you inherited through your mother and father, and that will be different between you and your siblings (assuming no identical twins). If one of your grandparents is Dutch, and another is Polish, you might happen to inherit more markers that the test considers NW Eur., and your sister might happen to inherit more that are considered E Eur. In most cases, that will just be a random chance. Also, just because you have more markers that the test considers NW Eur, doesn't necessarily mean you really are "more" NW Eur. in any real sense.
Source(s):
PhD in molecular biology"
I asked DNATribes if my sister with whom I share both parents had the same Autosomal test would her results be the same as mine and they replied
"Two siblings will each obtain unique results. Family members do typically share some regional or ethnic genetic affiliations, but in some cases matches can vary substantially between siblings."
Anonymous
That would be done through DNA test and you would need samples from that nationality and so forth. It would be costly and a long drawn out experience.
No offense to you, so don't take it that way. i think everyone should have a good knowledege as to where they come from. And I'm not talking about "Africa" or "Europe". Everyone should know their blood line.