how come I never noticed I'm Mongolian?
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Jacki Chan not Zorro?
My daughter was interested in her genetic history. Her natural dad is not her real dad. Her real dad adopted her a couple of years after I married him. Anyway, I've told her all I know about her real dad, but she was very interested in learning more.
So I did a genetic test. It was expensive, but super easy. All my life my parents told me that my mom is Polish, and my dad is Mexican. My grandfather was fluent in Polish and my other grandparents are/were fluent in Spanish. My mom and aunts have red hair, so they always thought a little Irish or Scottish. My mom's family name on one side is German. But my dna test did not say this! Of course my first reaction was to decide they had sent the wrong results. They said I was mostly Mongolian with other Chinese and a little Japanese, and the other main nationality is Finish, some Spain type Spanish, North Africa. I was about to ask for my money back. Then my husband went searching around on the web for photos of Mongolian models. They look like my twin.
It was very difficult to accept. I had grown up with an identity as a Mexican. I was very proud of my heritage. I learned Spanish in school. I noted Cinco De Mayo. I kept looking at myself in the mirror trying so hard to see myself as a Chinese woman instead of a Mexican one.
I've accepted it now. I went looking in the family stories. One of grandfather's was adopted. In California in the time when many Chinese imigrants were flocking there. The story is that a young girl had a child, and was a household servant, and the baby was taken in by the family. Who knows how accurate this is, I'm still trying to find out. I do know for sure that a Chinese kid was raised as Mexican. How, where, when, I don't know.
It's left me with so many questions. Why did they leave China? Why couldn't they raise their own child? Did they have other relatives in America? Did they have other children besides my grandfather? I will probably never know. I have much research left to do. I have no name to go by. But I can try to look at common stories, look at Chinese history at about the turn of the centruy to find out why they might have left.
I see everything differently now. I belong to a completely different group of people that I know nothing about. I am realated to Jackie Chan an not to my childhood hero, Zorro. This is okay with me, strangely enough, though I can't explain it, I've always been interested in China. My brother's teacher was Chinese when I was in 6th grade. It was a tiny school, so we celebrated Chinese new year that year with her. We even got on the news. It stayed with me. I loved the whole animals are years thing. I like the dragon customs and the mythology. One of my favorite movies is Big Trouble in Little China. It's always all been so cool to me. Good thing!
I have a little collection of photos, but they aren't very clear in this format. But these 3 are pretty good exampes. One of the photos cuts off the caption, she is Mexican.
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It cost $140 to $300 from DNA tribes that I found online, DNAtribes.com. They have been testing people all over the world and have a very large data base. They sent the kit to me, I swabbed the inside of my cheeks, popped it into the envolope they provided and sent it back. They e-mailed me the results in about a week. It was very worth it. It gave me a sense of belonging and identity that I had not really had before.
polish people have a good deal of mongol ancestry as do most east europeans - the mongols got through most of europe this would seem far more plausiable.
My father is Mongolian and Spanish (from Spain, not Mexico). His mother's entire family line came up through Mexico into California by my great grandfather around the turn of the century. I have no information about his father.
My mother thought she was Polish, but is Finish. I have research on her mother's side going back several generations.Her father's parents came from Poland around the turn of the century, my great grandfather died of the swine flu the year my grandfather was born.
The other smaller elements, like North African and Indian (the continent) are more of a mystery. I plan to save up and ask my parents to take the test.
Thanks for the information, I'm finding out a lot.
I don't know if you've done any research on this or not, but Mexicans ARE Mongoloid. Mezito is a short-off Asian race. Perhaps that's why the test claimed such high Mongolian DNA. Also, Finnish people have the highest Asian DNA in Europe.
Someone mentioned that Poles have Asian DNA. They actually don't. The Mongols were in the area now known as Poland in the 4th Century and gone by the 6th Century. The indo-European Slavics moved in after the Mongols left. So Poland is Slavic, indo-European, totally white.
Thanks for the info! I had thought this, too, but my reserch doesn't support it. Take a look at DNA tribes.com. They have taken DNA samples from all over the planet. They use the DNA from people who's ansestors have lived on that land for centruies going back. My DNA matches the DNA of people who have lived in Mongolia for centuries going back, not Mexican. Also Mongoian DNA and Mexican DNA don't match each other. I also compared photo after photo of women around the world and they have distinct features, mine match those from Mongolia, and I look nothing like those from Mexico. I was just talking to 2 women who have lived in China for many decades. They said I look like those who live there. Before I took the DNA sample, I was talking with a native Mexican, he was trying to figure out why I didn't look like his friends or relatives, he told me he thought I must have a lot of Polish influence. But now his observations make sense. Thanks again!
Hi, I also found out similar things about my dna. I was raised as primarily black Bermudian,but just thought my family was mixed w/ a bit of native american and english.
Though I do have those two in my makeup, i just found out i have much more. My grandfather told me his dad was Chinese and my grandmother's mum is eat Indian. I always kind of known about the chinese part due to my grandpa's surname but the east indian part was very new to me, but then I realised it makes sense, since my great grandmum (who is from nevis)often spoke about visiting muslim relatives in Trinidad (my great grandmum was christian, though my grandfather, my parents and I are muslims).
like how you said you were interested in china, I've always been interested in india (and china as well)! so, this was cool to me.
I also found out that I'm mostly scandinavian on my dad's side.
Though, I found the news interesting, my nieces found it VERY interesting! They like to learn about asian cultures and want to study an asian language!
I would like to get the dna test aswell, just to see if i have any other ancestry i don't know of!
It sounds like we are almost related! I have a touch of Indian on my DNA report, the country, not American Indian. I am still learning, and the more I learn, the more I feel like I belong somewhere. It's nice to be grounded in a culture, or many in our case!
Hey thats interesting what you found out. Ancestral dna is interesting because it actually goes back thousands of years in your family line. I'm betting that the mongol results you have in the results of your dna test are from some Native American ancestry you have. Most Hispanics from central and south america are mestizos (mixed european and native american). The Natives Americans originally came from Asia according to DNA and anthroplogy testing. Thats probably why your dna showed those Asian results. Very fascinating isn't it! :D
Katherine Ortega
Clinical Geneticist
Christa Dovel says:
5 months ago
How interesting! My father is adopted, and I have always longed to know his heritage -- it could be so many different things.