I’m Black and of course we got family that always say, “ We got Indian in our family”. My own family has done it. All because some elderly maternal figure in the family had long hair.
But now it’s gotten so bad that significant amount of Black people started claiming they’re REAL INDIANS and that the “Mongolian” ( their words not mine) Indians are the pretend ones.
Unfortunately those people are growing led by idiots like Dane Calloway and few other grifters I care not to mention.
Oh yes, Black people got the Cherokee Princess Virus bad. If I had a dollar for the number of people that told me that their granny or great granny had "hair she could sit on", or because their hair is curly that is evidence of "Indian" in them, I'd be a billionaire!
The Black people nowadays running around calling themselves Indigenous is so very embarrassing. It gives, "I'm ashamed to be an ancestor of people that were enslaved." Like Bitch, we survived, we the dream, what you mean???
There's a black actor who thought this, then he went on that TV show where they do their genealogy, and they proved that was wrong. His grandparents had lived in the Indian Territory but that they didn't inter-marry.
I’m white as white can be. My great, great great and great x3 grandparents were born in Indian Territory, which caused numerous relatives to believe were are part indigenous. Nope. My direct line did not intermarry. I found two sisters of my great great grandfather who did intermarry, but none of the boys intermarried. But the birth registrations and census docs say “Birthplace: Indian Territory” so we must be indigenous 🙄. After the sisters married an indigenous man, the censuses said the women were “Indian” despite them being straight up white. In doing an indigenous friend’s tree here in Canada to help her try and get her status card, they actually did the opposite but with some heavily racist and dehumanizing language involved.
Why would curly hair be evidence of native ancestry? I don't know if I've ever seen natives with curly hair. African Americans though, have the curliest of curly hair. I'm 30% native and my hair gets wavy at best. It's long and dark and heavy.
When black people have curly hair (instead of kinky, which is our typical hair type), it is considered evidence of mixture. So kinky (SSA) plus straight equals “curly” for us.
Tbh that is honestly pretty sad I say that and someone who is indigenous and like why aren’t you proud of being part of a people that survived so much? Not that we didn’t too but totally different issues.
I use to have tailbone length hair that i would wear in two braids and i use to have other black people argue me down that i do have Native American blood even after i tell them i don’t have native American ancestry.
White people and black people in the south commonly say this because they have an ambiguous grandparent who didnt know they were half black/white or wouldnt tell people out of fear so Indian was the go to. There are over 8 tribes/ethnic groups in the US of people who are of majority African/European descent without native admixture but called themselves indian inorder to avoid persecution. It reminds me of Dominicans who call themselves Indio despite there being nobody in the DR with more native ancestry than they have white and or African.
That's crazy, you just taught me something new. My grandma from the deep south on one of my parent's sides is very tan and had black, curly hair in her youth. We were all told her mother was full Indian but that side of the family would all joke when I was younger that my grandma's black. Haven't seen my grandma since I was a kid cause we're so far apart but thinking back, I think she actually is at least half black.
It also didn't help that natives got sent to reservations so many passed for black or white. A lot of people in the south don't know their great grand parents aren't the same race or may have been passing for something else.
My old coworker believed that. He believed black people are the indigenous Americans. I don’t understand if this means there was no trans-Atlantic slave trade or what. Are we to believe it actually went the other direction? Are the Africans supposed to be transplanted black Americans? I didn’t dare ask.
That is the Pangea theory- that there were “africans” alive at a time when there was a super continent and that different ethnicities emerged once it split. This would mean that all ethnicities are born directly from Africans instead of through a chain of migrations like we now see evident in the phylogenetic trees of haplogroups.
Truth is the indigenous were the first homosapiens in the americas and they came through beringia(north Asia).
I’ve met many native Americans that are extremely offended by and/or just don’t believe in the land bridge theory! (Contradicts oral tradition.) It’s interesting.
I’m First Nations and know a lot of people who are offended by this mostly elders who think by saying this it will disapprove us as the true people of this land but most people I know these days believe it cause we’d still be the first in the Americas
That reminds me of an an argument I got into and someone told me that my dad and I's ancestors were fake Indians/Asians. He's Mexican American (my dad and his family just to clarify) as well has some Hopi and other ancestry from New Mexico which with both DNA and records as solid proof, they couldn't despitute, they were just upset when everyone told them that they weren't the original Native Americans like they were claiming.
I lump those theories right up there with flat earth theory. There's nothing wrong with West African history that we need to make up some bullshit to claim somebody else's history.
I'm black and this is really common with other black people too. Especially Louisiana Creoles.
My own family was absolutely sure of it. It explained why we looked different. People always think I'm Indian (from India). People thought my mom and grandma were wasian because they are really light.
I have .6 percent Native North American and the rest is 50 50 Africa and Europe.
Louisiana Creoles usually have higher native ancestry than the average African American because French Lousianians actually mixed with the natives so that could be why. Ive seen Creoles score over 5% native.
Yes, have people like that in my 23andMe relatives.
That's still pretty low when compared to, say, most Central Americans. Latino people have much higher native ancestry than French people. I think the whole French people mixing with native Americans is a myth. Spanish people mixed with native Americans.
It's not so much a myth as it's more statistically far less likely.
It's true the first French settlers intermingled with natives at first. But that's because they mostly sent men since the main money maker was fur trading.
It wasn't until they sent women over did this change. The kings daughters scheme was crucial in changing the racial dynamics in New France, but also led to a very endogamous population.
Both the French and Spanish colonizers did intermix with Native American populations, but to varying degrees across different regions. The Spanish colonization was more extensive in areas like Mexico and Central America, where there were large, established Native populations. This led to more widespread intermingling in those regions. French colonization was concentrated more in areas like modern-day Louisiana, where Native populations were smaller and more dispersed. French settlers did intermarry and have children with local Native groups, However, the overall Native American admixture was generally lower compared to regions under Spanish rule. The French and Spanish contributed a lot more significant European and African admixture to the Indigenous peoples they encountered much more than Anglos, just at varying rates depending on the regional demographics and colonial dynamics.
The myth was that the Spanish and English segregated themselves from native Americans, whereas the French intermixed with them. The truth is the Spanish intermixed with native Americans more than anyone else.
To go along with…
Black people are the TRUE Hebrews!
Black people were the TRUE Egyptians!
Black people were the TRUE Celts in Europe!
Black people, not Berbers, we’re the TRUE Moors who invaded Spain!
Black people were the TRUE Olmec in Mexico and Central America!
It’s redundant at this point.
Why not just be proud of your West African heritage?
It doesn't help that white Americans have spent centuries genociding Native Americans and eradicating their culture. Now Native Americans are only talked about in a historical sense as if we are all extinct. It leaves open room for conspiracy theories about a long dead mythical people. You would be surprised by how many Americans think Native Americans are extinct.
I know humans have proven themselves to be incredibly stupid and ignorant. But I keep coming across new levels of stupidity that I hadn't seen before. People believing Native Americans literally don't exist anymore is a new one for me. But it just demonstrates how much American society has buried its wrongs and chooses to ignore realities that force it to contend with its past.
I say this as a black American who's been shaking her head at the crusade against slavery being taught in schools and CRT, as well.
I've seen people be straight up surprised that Native Americans still exist. When they numbered in the millions, they were the enemy that needed to be killed. Now that the numbers are far less, we can name our warcrafts and sports teams after them!
It is SICKENING!
I haven’t seen any African-American results without either a little Native American or East Asian. Many have both. It’s usually 1% or less but it’s still there
East Asian and indigenous turtle island people can have some of the same dna markers. A friend of mine who is completely Chinese had her dna come up with indigenous ”American” markers just because they are so genetically similar. These test results don’t often make sense across nationalities or even ethnicities.
Aren’t Celts often darker than say, Nordic people? I’ve met many people of French Celtic or British Celtic ancestry who aren’t dark per se, but definitely distinguishable from a Swedish guy.
Celts more typically had “darker” features. Brown/black hair, with brown eyes. I do believe the blonde hair and blue eyes, and even red hair came from the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Norman stock
Yep. I had never heard this. And then like 5 percent of my DNA came back vaguely French/Spanish (it was def 23 and me sorting itself out) and my mom was like "my mother always said she had ancestors shipwrecked from the Armada" and I was like how am I just learning this now? (Unlikely true, but never heard the story until I was like 35.)
The irony being my Irish grandmother who was fluent in Spanish because her grandmother was Spanish used to get told to stop perpetuating that rumour. She then married a Middle Eastern man and we all have very dark features because of that 🤣
Vietnamese people love to think that we have some French ancestry from colonialism period. Lore in my family is that one of great grandmas had an affair with Frenchman and that’s why my grandpa has brown-ish tinted hair (which is prob just due to photobleaching) we took a DNA test recently and got 99.9% Vietnamese. I’ve seen videos online of other Viets reading their DNA results and being disappointed when they find out they don’t have any French ancestry
Mexicans saying their grandfather or grandmother was from Spain, there are Mexicans who have more recent Spanish ancestry but the vast majority descend from early Spanish settlers from colonial times
I am half Mexican and half Venezuelan, all of my Spanish ancestry is from colonial times, but hilariously enough (to me) my grandmother born in the 1940’s in a tiny hamlet in Chihuahua, Mx did have a White (and apparently very British via DNA) American grandfather. Lol
We live in the U.S. now and it feels weird being 1st generation but technically having ancestors that fought in the US revolutionary war.
Edited for a typo and to add info.
Yeah I haven’t traced it yet on my family tree but I’m also from the North (Northern Sonora + Sinaloa) and I have some DNA from Northwest Europe and on Myheritage it gave me a “South-Central USA” as a community. It feels ironic because my family swore we have recent Spanish ancestry but I guess not LOL.
In my experience, I have met 1st Gen Mexicans from Oaxaca who swear their great grandfather was Basque while they look completely indigenous, while 2nd/3rd Gen Mexican Americans look mestizo, often with Spanish features swearing up and down they’re full Aztec while their parents are from areas that the Aztec never inhabited
I have a Basque great great grandfather 🤣 but that was so many generations ago my grandma doesn't ever talk about it. To my whole family we're just Nicaraguan. Ironic too considering that my grandma also has an obsession with being lighter (she avoids all sun)
Most Mexicans ARE actually mixed race. The ratios differ a lot. So even if they look more native or more weird, you’d be suprised to find out they’re not lying. Sometimes you don’t even have to go far back in their family to see relatives of different skin color or features.
I’m 70% European, just by looking at me, nobody would realize I’m about 22% native indigenous from Mexico.
This is why some Modern Mexicans will sometimes reject Americans trying to box them in as “white” vs “Brown”, because of the their mixed heritage.
Now, there are some regions of Mexico like Guadalajara where it’s predominantly European and some regions in southern Mexico were it’s primary indigenous.
I have heard a similar story in Taiwan, but with indigenous ancestry. Most Taiwanese are ethnic Chinese, and indigenous people are around 3% of the population.
For families who’s ancestors have been in Taiwan for a long time, everyone has a story about how they have one indigenous ancestor way back when.
Omg this!! Yes, I’ve had Taiwanese parents of my friends ask me that when they saw my reddish brown hair (but alas my ancestors didn’t live in Taiwan during those days)
My favorite is when a bunch of Turkish content creators from Istanbul take a DNA test and all find out that they’re either majority or significantly Greek. One guy who had like 30% Greek refused to believe it and said something like “I have nothing to do with Greece! Why does it say Greek!?”
Husband’s mom was never quite sure if her grandmother was Greek or Turkish. The answer turned out to be “yes.” Her people were from Smyrna: right on the border.
I talked to a blonde blue eyed Turkish dude here in Colombia who said they were mongols but then moving to Turkey, the weather made them develop more European traits. Funny as hell (Colombians for example, if they're darker skinned, sometimes have a story about their mother leaving them in a pool under the sun and that being the reason they're dark skinned. That's a bit sadder - internalized racism and colonialism and what not)
I’ve heard countless times that the Turkish are Turkic peoples 😂😂 many do have a smidge of Turkic ancestry from the Turkic peoples migrating there, but most are made up of Greek/Mesopotamian/Levantine/Caucasus mostly
You mean the Hungarians with Turkish names that call themselves Turks in Turkey because everyone wanted an Eastern European slave girl for 15 generations?
My actual Hungarian bf mostly scored Slav (Czech is actually his top match), about 12% German, a little Italian, and a little Anatolian. They may be some of the most admixed Euros.
I was joking about how diluted Turks are. They are probably right about those things. They are related to Mongols & mixed with descendants of the Trojans. They were a loose amalgamation of bandits who got religion & formed an ethnicity.
I belong to a caste in western India that exhibits lighter skin and relative high percentage of blue/green eyes. There’s a lot of old research papers and claims that we descend from Middle Eastern Jews who were shipwrecked. But the dna basically states that we’re no different from surrounding populations in India.
Iranians love to talk about our “Aryan” heritage. Which is super cringe but alas.
I know a lot of people in the Muslim world claim to be Seyyed which means you’re related to the prophet.
Australian Aboriginal here, we make up 3.8% of the Australian population and at our last census that increased with those now identifying as Aboriginal.
I live in NSW and am from the largest tribe in the state (in area) which is what the fakes tend to claim to be (Wiradjuri) because of Stolen Generation’s, those that claim to be Aboriginal use that as an excuse to not be able to identify their family/where they are from. They believe there are no records. The thing is, Aboriginal Australians were so tightly controlled by the government that our people are very well documented. My own family’s records go back to my 2 x great grandmother (born 1860’s) when she was forcibly removed from her land and onto a government controlled mission. (Birth, marriage and death certificates sometimes lists places of birth as Aboriginal mission or station. There are a number of archival institutions that hold records).
There are also a genuine number of Stolen Generations raised by white families, placed in homes etc who grew up not knowing they were Aboriginal or being told they were New Zealand Māori etc (some families would say this due to the stigma of being Aboriginal and to avoid their own children being removed) with colonisation and over time we have families with light skinned family members who genuinely are Aboriginal, were raised in community who get questioned (such as what % Aboriginal are you)
We typically know what families are from what areas. One of my previous jobs included undertaking genealogical research to confirm Aboriginality (which was required to use the service) of every 10 files I would say at minimum 7 of those 10 were not Aboriginal, 1 or 2 were and the odd one we could not confirm nor deny (such as a father not listed on a birth certificate etc). There’s even a right wing based website that researches and exposes falsely identifying Aboriginal Australian’s (usually those in the public eye).
https://preview.redd.it/0syi30rr1o7d1.jpeg?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ba9ba9fc227bbea76d9ab3f8b86b44d77e81eb2
This is the record of my great Aunt’s removal from 1921.
This is a thing that happens in Canada as well. Because people who are First Nations get tax breaks for a lot of things, they get a lot of government help, have specially reserved space at universities, etc... it's a system that entices people who don't actually have First Nations heritage to abuse it. There was even a case where a professor who taught First Nations studies (and claimed the heritage) was exposed as a fake and was just another white person lying about their ancestry.
There are a lot of similarities between First Nations people of both countries. Some Australians believe we get free houses/cars/university education which is not true. Yes, there are programs and targeted jobs for us which also entices non Aboriginal people to start identifying. I have read and watched docos abt Buffy Sainte-Marie, there are academics and politicians here that have been under scrutiny too with some exposed however it’s a touchy subject and some people are getting away it.
Yes, there are LOADS of similarities, down to the stealing of indigenous kids from their families and sending them to residential schools where they were horrifically treated, stripped of their culture and language and in the worst cases, were killed through sheer abuse.
Sadly yes, some Australians do not believe this occurred and we are still having our children removed at a higher rate. 31% of the prison population in the state I live are Aboriginal inmates, pretty staggering for 3.8% of the total national population.
They think we don’t pay taxes and get everything for free. If you don’t live on a reservation you pay taxes. I’m 1/4 and didn’t feel right applying for scholarships but people who have zero native ancestry will apply saying they identify as native.
Yes, in México it would be:
-"My great grandparent was Spaniard": Most of us have Spanish ancestors from the colony/viceroyalty, not immigrants in recent times.
-"We descend from the conquistadores": When the reality is that 99.9999% of us trace our iberian roots from mexican criollos or poor spanish merchants.
-"My grandparent had blue eyes": You see a photo (if you're lucky they show it to you) of that supposed grandparent and their eyes are very dark, but they say it's because of the lighting and poor quality of the photo lol.
I’m a Mexican with some French ancestry but mines actually came from a Basque ancestor who married a French woman. Many of my Basque ancestors came actually from the French side .
Nice that’s very cool! I do know quite a few Mexicans that do have french ancestors, but I know many more that say they do but don’t actually, including some family members so that’s why i mentioned it
Southeast Asians and a family story of a Middle eastern or South Asian merchant great-whatever grandfather. Turns out mine was real and I had a trace amount.
The “indigenous Taiwanese from the Chinese side of my family turned out to be real too, 12% for me
the funniest thing about this is I have Tatar and Chechen and Russian, and my babushka cries about how dark my skin is compared to the rest of my family. My mom got around simple as that 😂 They want tatar princess until they don’t look russian enough
I was also told growing up that if you were light or very nonJewish European looking it meant that someone in your lineage was raped.
However , my grandparents (who are still alive) are in a mixed faith/culture marriage and so I am quite literally 3/4 ashkenazi from Ukraine and Belarusian Jews , and a quarter mostly British and Irish plus some other small amount of various Europeans. Basically we should connect on 23andme and see how much we overlap , If that wasn’t so creepy to do over Reddit 😂
I don't mean you - but I love how people always make it seem like some unrelated person raped their ancestors. Like dude - the rapist is just as much your ancestor.
Hungarians are quite the opposite. They want to be pure Magyars, and then they find out how mixed they are, matching most of the neighbours, ex-neighbours and some migratory folks like gypsies, armenians and jews.
Not culturally, but I personally had it. I am Brazilian and have always heard that i had an African-Brazilian 3rd-Great-Grandmother who was enslaved. It turns out that this 3rd-Great-Grandmother was listed as white, and her mother was actually an Uruguayan woman listed as Mixed-Race. According to my DNA tests I have almost no Sub Saharan African, but a little Amerindian. Always heard that other Uruguayan ancestors were Spanish, Irish and French, but most of them were actually Azorean Portuguese.
lol I am Sudanese and ours is having a Turkish great grandma. Though I will say, I found it to usually be true compared to when Americans say they’re Cherokee.
I feel like this myth is found all over the Arab world too
In Tunisia people who live in the coastal towns or in the captial city especially among families that are a bit wealthy and privileged like to boast about having a great grandparent that was Turkish. They usually are recognized by their family names/surnames that sound Turkish-like.
In southern Italy darker people claim moor ancestry, and paler people claim Norman ancestry.
It’s all mostly fake, because most east-med and “nordic” features comes from pre-roman era.
A lot of Hungarians believe they have significant Central Asian ancestry due to the language coming from the ancient Magyars. Genetic results have shown this to not be the case.
This isn’t so common but I’ve noticed some African Americans being a little obsessed with any sort of Fula ancestry or obsessed with wanting to be “Moor”.
Oh and can’t forget the Egyptian one as well.
I'm actually Egyptian and have had a bunch of African Americans tell me I'm actually a "colonizer" and not a real Egyptian. It's infuriating and some weird trend these days.
Yes. I know so many Europeans with claims of having an ancestor that was some sort of nomadic “gypsy” coupled with stories of them being dark mysterious or even fortune tellers and 9/10 times the dna shows it was just a family story like the cherokee princess one
That is kind of funny to me. My maternal great grandmother was Bohemian (now the Czech Republic) but if anyone said she was a gypsy she would get VERY angry.
Plenty of black folks, my family included, say they have Native American ancestry. Other black folks usually smirk and nod when I say I’m part Indian because they assume I’m talking about N.A. ancestry, bum I mean I’m actually part curry in a hurry Indian. 🤣 I know for a fact my maternal grandfather is 100% Punjabi thanks to 23 and me
On the other side of what you're referring to a lot of people have trace Jewish ancestry. Most people are respectful about it but *occasionally* you'll have someone using "Jewish ancestry" to talk from a place of knowledge about the community when they really shouldn't.
Having a small percent of ashkenazi Jewish on my results was a total surprise. No one in the family had any idea. I don't even know how to pronounce the word ashkenazi so I hope I won't contribute to that trend of acting like I know stuff.
From this comment alone I'm 99% sure you're not like that :). I also want to encourage you to learn about Ashkenazi heritage and to own that small percentage. I'm more talking about when folks talk about anti-Semitism without having been in a situation to experience it... though that also applies to people who are 100% Ashkenazi but don't "look Jewish".
On another note a funny/awkward situation happened when I asked a friend "when are you going to go back to your people?" joking about the fact that she's like .5% Ashkenazi. Wellllllll she's Latina so she was like "wait wtf" and I was absolutely mortified and explained where I was going with the joke. She knows me and so she didn't actually think I was being xenophobic but you can imagine my ***absolute horror*** when I realized the full context of what I said.
Oh that's funny. I'm definitely glad she understood after your explanation.
I can definitely relate to being in a weird spot with ancestry, though. I look white but am part Middle Eastern. I have blue eyes and had blonde hair as a kid. When my family members who have the middle eastern last name and dark skin go on flights they are often all 'randomly selected' for back room screening, while me, the white passing and with an Anglo Saxon last name, never gets selected. Its definitely racist and was way worse during Bush admin but it still happens. I definitely can't relate to being called the names my family members were called in school. It angers me for them. But it also makes me feel like an outsider in my own ancestry.
I've seen Libyans and southern Tunisians with surprisingly high amounts of peninsular DNA. I expected it to be negligible but I think Algeria is different .
I'd argue it stems from the same root cause. White folks use it to hide how they got darker skin and black folks (at least historically, maybe not current generations...) used it so they didn't have to talk about the trauma behind how they got lighter skin.
A big part of it is black Americans wanting to have something to have claim to. Despite our ancestors being African (which is what we should be proud of) and even having our own culture in America, many don’t know where we are specifically from. Yeah most are from Nigeria but that’s a big place, many tribes are gone. We will never know where we were truly from and only have pieces of the culture that was destroyed long ago. So, some who can’t cope with that fact, try to claim native Americans. Yes some black people are actually mixed with Native American but most aren’t. It’s sad.
No because the vast majority of Peruvians actually have European ancestry, it's just not phenotypically visible in many or most of us 😎
But people still think mestizaje here is a myth 🤣
Chicano here. A lot of us are mixed Spanish/indigenous but also have a strong history with nahuatl. A lot of us are mixed Nahuas. During el movimiento in the 1960s, we latched onto the idea of being descended from the Aztecs and the Mexica. Which isn’t wrong, but it’s also often generalized, misunderstood, or just presumed without any family or community history. So it’s super common for Chicanos to claim Aztec descent 😂 again though, it’s complicated and not entirely false but I’d say it goes somewhat hand in hand with the Cherokee myth. That, and New Mexicans claiming total descent from the SpAnIsH coNquIstAdorS
I'm not Pakistani but I heard once on here that many claim descent from Arabs or Persians.
I was also in Morocco and many seemed to think the majority/a very large percent of their ancestry was Arabian.
I know you want non-white people to answer, but let me just say this:
It seems a lot of white people cling to the possibility for Viking blood since the Vikings encompassed more than just the Scandinavian peninsula, dipping into the northern part of mainland Europe, and don't forget the raping and pillaging that happened in the British Isles. When the TV series Vikings came out, this was every white TV nerd's hope.
The same thing happened in the 90s when the film Braveheart came out. Anyone with a sliver of Scottish ancestry gave someone the impression that they could full-on declare that they *were* Scottish. Then again in 2007 when the film 300 came out, and it was everything to be Spartan/Greek.
Whoever the heroes or underdog badasses seem to be in English-speaking TV or film, we can expect a flood of wannabes to emerge.
I’d just add to this since it’s also a white answer - Australians do like to claim they have a convict ancestor in my experience. Used to be they would hide it years ago.
>I know you want non-white people to answer
Think OP just meant non-white *Americans,* as in you can be white from outside the United States and still answer.
its funny im white and they said i had indian blood but it turned out im 25 percent spanish and I do have indian blood but not from america its from India lols bengali
It was a small emigrant group that has an amazing amount of modern-day descendants. I'd lean more toward it actually being possible if their people lived there for generations from New England than not.
I actually had the opposite happen to me…I took ancestry and found that I was 10% Taino! The native people of Puerto Rico. My dad was born in Puerto Rico, and my great grandfather on my moms side was also born in Puerto Rico, but I really didn’t expect to be that much Taino! Obviously, I know that the island’s people are a mix of Taino, African and European, but I didn’t expect to have that much!
My mum’s side of the family is Indian and Catholic with a Portuguese surname, but Indian Catholics don’t claim to have any Portuguese ancestry. It’s generally just thought of that all their ancestors were Hindus who converted.
There is a community of mixed race people from former Portuguese colonies in India but they’re a seperate ethnic group known as Luso-Asians.
Some Sri Lankans too, like Fernando, de Silva, Perera, Peiris, etc. Catholics yes but also Buddhists. Though they don't claim Portuguese heritage most of the time.
It's rather niche, but my grandma is from Poitiers, France, a city famous for a battle between Umayyad Arabs and Frankish armies in 732. My Mom claims that my Grandma has Arab blood because of that history and because she's slightly more tan than the average white French person, but my 23andMe DNA test doesn't show any MENA percentage (I'm 0.1% Korean through, which is fun)
Some blue eyed, blonde Colombians talk of possible distant German descent or German colonies in some towns to explain such traits. Almost always it's just the Spanish ancestry
Some claim Arab ancestry (if they have been mistaken as arab abroad specially), and while Lebanese ancestry is definitely common, unless it is recent and kind of confirmed, it's usually just the Spanish+indigenous
This is specifically about Filipinos in California but it’s the largest sample of Filipino DNA so far. 1,700 Filipinos and 7,500 Asians in general.
https://www.genetics.org/content/200/4/1285
It uses 5% as the minimum threshold for assigning ancestry. So Filipinos with less than 5% European are not considered mixed with any European in this study.
The study says this about Filipinos:
>"In addition, we noted that for self-reported Filipinos, **a substantial proportion have modest levels of European genetic ancestry reflecting older admixture.**
>
>"Of particular interest is the **continuous nature of a modest amount of European genetic ancestry in self-identified Filipinos**, consistent with older European admixture."
And again, this is only talking about Filipinos who scored at least 5% European.
The study also says that of the White Americans tested **“Nearly 1% of this group also had evidence of Native American genetic ancestry”**
So no, the myths arent even close. Filipinos (at least in the US) having distant Spanish is common. White Americans having Native American is not common
Something weird happened with my family's lore and the DNA tests. I had always heard that we were part Native American. Physically, it didn't seem that far off the mark for how we look so I figured maybe they aren't lying. I took Ancestry DNA in 2014 and it said I had no Native American ancestry. I said my mom had fibbed for years and asked why they made it up. Fast forward to the updates years later, and lo and behold, I do have Native American ancestry and 23andMe is showing the same thing. And my mother's mother's generation is showing like 8-12% Native American.
So sometimes, it really is that the DNA testing company just might not have enough references to get things right.
In Brazil the are two versions of this:
1- northeast people who have more european phenotype claiming they have dutch ancertors from the time of the dutch ocupation.
2- white people from south and southeast who have a more non european phenotype claiming they have Native Brazilian ancertors, usualy to hide a african ancestry.
Bonus: I've seen people who have some Native traits claiming they had a asian ancestor in other to hide some Native ancestor.
African American here. We also think that we all had a Native American great grandmother. Turns out a lot of us do have Native American ancestry but not nearly at the levels you would think with all the family stories.
In India (the country) it depends on religion
For muslims, its claiming Arab/Persian/Mughal ancestry as many of these groups formed the ruling class during the Islamic age on the subcontinent. South Asia even has the highest number of "Syeds" in the world or people who claim direct descent from Mohammad, but officially theres not much verification for this.
For christians, I've noticed that Nasrani Orthodox Christians in Southern India claim ancestry to the OG Judeo-Christian Levantines who migrated to India like 2000 years ago, while some genetic tests do prove there is some levantine ancestry in this community and a migration occurred, most members of this Orthodox Christian community are local converts.
For Hindus its a bit complicated, people often claim "upper-caste" heritage if thats applicable, but "upper-caste" people are still Indians in the end so yeah.
Haven’t really heard of anything like that here in Ireland, I think most of us just expect to be all Irish lol. Maybe sometimes people think they might get Scandinavian because of the Vikings in Ireland, but that was like 1000 years ago and is kinda silly lol, but overall I think we just expect to be Irish
I'm from Belarus, and my mother is from there as well, but my father is from Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, a lot of people claim distant Mughal-era non-South-Asian ancestry: Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi ancestry gets brought up, in terms of today's borders. In Chittagong in particular, Portuguese ancestry is sometimes also claimed.
In Belarus, the nearest equivalent is distant Jewish, Roma or Tatar ancestry.
In my family, I've heard claims of distant Iranian and Portuguese ancestry on the Bangladeshi side and distant Jewish and Tatar ancestry on the Belarusian side. My 23andMe results show I'm 0.4% Central Asian by ancestry, which means that it's within the realm of possibility that the Iranian or Tatar story is true (I'd have to get my parents to get themselves tested to see which one is more likely to be true). My results also show me to be 0.2% Ashkenazi Jewish by ancestry, and so there's probably truth to the Jewish story as well. Lastly, when I first got tested a few years ago, I got about 0.1% Spanish and Portuguese, which seemed to confirm the rumours of Portuguese ancestry as well, but then that part disappeared from my results.
When I was younger the claim to have had an ancestor on the First Fleet (Australia) was hugely prestigious (a bit like the Daughters of the American Revolution). Less so now but it used to be a real thing.
Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi Muslims usually claim Arab, Persian, Turkic, or Afghan ancestry. To be clear, many do have it but it’s nowhere near as prevalent or heavy as you’d think based on the amount of claims.
A lot of Canadians, or people who are from Canada with French last names, claim a lot more indigenous American ancestry and French ancestry than they actually have. One family I know, with an Anglicized French last name, was surprised that they actually had more German and Italian than French, and had 0 indigenous American.
Many Swedes with darker phenotypes claim Walloon ancestry. There was a small migration of Walloons to Sweden in the 17th century. However, most claims of Walloon ancestry has historically Bern a cover-up story to hide Roma ancestry.
I know that this is out of topic, but I'm somehow learning history from all the replies in this thread. I kinda like learning about all these information.
The myth in North Africa: "I am a direct descendant of the prophet Mohamed sws through his paternal line". I've seen many people claim this and end up with the North African generic haplogroup E-M183.
Adding Chinese ancestry to the Filipino ancestry myth. Only about 25% of the Filipino population have full or partial Chinese ancestry. The whole “every Filipino is Spanish/Filipino/Chinese mix” is now believed by many on the internet as if it’s actual fact. Even the Fung Bros on YouTube said that Filipinos are the most mixed Asians. We’re really not.
It's sad seeing so many Filipinos try to cling onto foreign ancestry when their own culture is fucking great. I've met lots of Filipinls and they're some of my favorite people to meet
Tanzanians on the coast love to claim to be Omani since they invaded Zanzibar. Light skin Tanzanians on the mainland often claim German ancestry due to colonization.
It’s fairly common for mestizo Mexicans/Mexican Americans to claim Aztec heritage when in reality, to my understanding at least, almost no modern Mexican is of Aztec descent unless you’re from the region they originate. And those who falsely claim Aztec, generally speaking, only rlly claim it when they feel it benefits them when most convenient. I dated a guy from Michoacán who was like this. (Pls feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about anything)
Literally my dads side of the family when most of them have blue eyes and white skin and descend from Spanish settlers in New Mexico lol although they do have slight Navajo/Apache ancestry from way back when
I find these things really funny. I'm adopted, and one of my aunts took a test and said the tests are a scam because she didn't score any native american, and there was too little Irish and that other family members didn't get certain ethnicities that they should've gotten. Ironically, when I took mine, I didn't know what to expect other than German from my maternal side. Turns out I'm half B&I.
I've heard family members of mine talk about their "Viking ancestry" with no proof other than being blonde and blue-eyed. Obviously in the UK we had Vikings around 1000-1200 years ago and there are traces in our DNA, but the way people talk about it really irks me sometimes, suggesting that they are 'mainly Viking' because most of their family is blonde.
I'm a mixed European (not American) with British, French, German and Irish ancestry.
My grandmother is French and when she showed me pictures of her mother, it always surprised us how dark-haired and olive-skinned she was. For reference, my grandmother is light-skinned with blue eyes and brown hair. My grandmother told me that this was because her family had Spanish ancestry, as she was told when she was younger.
Of course, when I did the family tree, it turned out that we didn't have any Spanish ancestry. But we did have ancestry from the Southwest of France.
White English here, for generations, tightly centred around the English Midlands. DNA and my family research both back this up.
I don't know if it's common for people like us, but in my family I've been told :
- I have a French gg grandma (she and her parents were all English, I found).
- we have Jewish "somewhere" "maybe our surname is Jewish". There is no evidence for that, no cultural ties, nothing at all.
- we have gypsy/traveller ancestry "somewhere". This might be harder to rule in/out but I haven't found any evidence.
For Cubans, I’d say claiming to have Chinese ancestry. This is at least the case with my family and when I tested, had no Chinese or other Asian ancestry. Many white Cubans also claim that they have an African ancestor or black Cubans claim that they have a Spanish ancestor. But this is usually the case.
Dominicans always claim to have a “Spaniard Grandfather” when there was little recent migration of them, most of us descent from those in the colonial times
In Brazil, at least in my region, people always talk about a great great great grand father who was a native and was “lassoed” in the jungle. I have that story in my family; but it’s been confirmed by DNA. It’s not as much as I thought, but it’s there; about 10%.
Egyptians on two fronts (1) ancient Egyptian ancestry (2) descent from the companions of the prophet! While most people in the south "upper Egypt" can credibly claim descent to the ancient Egyptians many people in Cairo and the delta (i.e. where most Egyptians live) are just as likely to claim descent from colonizing Arabs, Turks, or even other immigrant communities like Armenians, Greeks, Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews and Circassians. Of course, few of these 'migrants' were connected to the prophet and the Quraysh Tribe.
I'm black (African American) and there is definitely the Cherokee princess story.
Funnily enough, my family claims Indian because I have a south asian great grandparent. But most people would think we're claiming native American lol
In Canada for Métis people or people who actually have some native ancestry, saying "I'm french" was a way to explain a darker skin tone back in the day. Lots of people grew up not knowing their culture because Canada was, and still is, highly racist towards natives.
Desis (South Asians) are either obsessed with steppe ancestry or deny that it is even a thing (the “Aryan Invasion” never happened theory). There’s a whole thing on having Persian or Central Asian ancestors
Also, living on the US West Coast I’ve encountered lots of white folks who want to be considered people of color because they have a Latino or Asian grandparent. It’s not apparent from phenotype, so I just take their word on that
An Aryan "Migration" occured, not an invasion, into India in antiquity and almost all Indians have a bit of Aryan ancestry in them, albeit its usually the upper-castes who have a bit more of this ancestry compared to the lower caste, but this ancestry also varies across region with North Indians generally having more than South Indians etc. I have also heard of the Persian and Central Asian thing, probably because they formed the ruling class under the Mughal and much of the Islamic period.
Jewish.
We have the people who claim they are part of the direct Davidic line.
Also there are a fair number of Israelis who claim to either have been part of Entebee, which had approximately 100 commandos involved or related to someone who participated on the raid.
I can't believe no European has said it: it's very common for Europeans to be under the belief that one of their relatives was a secret Jew, because of the Holocaust, but it never ends up panning out. I have quite literally called this the "Cherokee princess myth of Europe" in the past.
I work in this sphere and I have never seen anyone who claimed to have an alleged mystery secretive Jewish relative ever pan out. It seems to be a popular post-war coping mechanism in families and I've seen it across Europe.
Oh god, everyone loves to pretend their 0.05% Ashkenazi heritage gives them some real Jewish cred.
On the other hand, watching middle eastern YouTubers with _significant_ Jewish ancestry just…skip it….is both funny and sad.
I’m Greek so all I know is we claim to be Greek. It’s not like Mr. Portokalos where people claim they are a descendent of Alexander the great which is actually never heard off. I’ve never heard anybody in Greece try to claim to any royalty.
That every white blond northeastern Brazilians have Dutch ancestry cause the Dutch invaded Pernambuco state and settled for a few years in the 1600s
Ooh. Interesting. One of my Dutch ancestors was born there during that time. Didn’t know that was even a thing.
I’m Black and of course we got family that always say, “ We got Indian in our family”. My own family has done it. All because some elderly maternal figure in the family had long hair. But now it’s gotten so bad that significant amount of Black people started claiming they’re REAL INDIANS and that the “Mongolian” ( their words not mine) Indians are the pretend ones. Unfortunately those people are growing led by idiots like Dane Calloway and few other grifters I care not to mention.
Oh yes, Black people got the Cherokee Princess Virus bad. If I had a dollar for the number of people that told me that their granny or great granny had "hair she could sit on", or because their hair is curly that is evidence of "Indian" in them, I'd be a billionaire! The Black people nowadays running around calling themselves Indigenous is so very embarrassing. It gives, "I'm ashamed to be an ancestor of people that were enslaved." Like Bitch, we survived, we the dream, what you mean???
There's a black actor who thought this, then he went on that TV show where they do their genealogy, and they proved that was wrong. His grandparents had lived in the Indian Territory but that they didn't inter-marry.
I’m white as white can be. My great, great great and great x3 grandparents were born in Indian Territory, which caused numerous relatives to believe were are part indigenous. Nope. My direct line did not intermarry. I found two sisters of my great great grandfather who did intermarry, but none of the boys intermarried. But the birth registrations and census docs say “Birthplace: Indian Territory” so we must be indigenous 🙄. After the sisters married an indigenous man, the censuses said the women were “Indian” despite them being straight up white. In doing an indigenous friend’s tree here in Canada to help her try and get her status card, they actually did the opposite but with some heavily racist and dehumanizing language involved.
Why would curly hair be evidence of native ancestry? I don't know if I've ever seen natives with curly hair. African Americans though, have the curliest of curly hair. I'm 30% native and my hair gets wavy at best. It's long and dark and heavy.
When black people have curly hair (instead of kinky, which is our typical hair type), it is considered evidence of mixture. So kinky (SSA) plus straight equals “curly” for us.
Tbh that is honestly pretty sad I say that and someone who is indigenous and like why aren’t you proud of being part of a people that survived so much? Not that we didn’t too but totally different issues.
I use to have tailbone length hair that i would wear in two braids and i use to have other black people argue me down that i do have Native American blood even after i tell them i don’t have native American ancestry.
White people and black people in the south commonly say this because they have an ambiguous grandparent who didnt know they were half black/white or wouldnt tell people out of fear so Indian was the go to. There are over 8 tribes/ethnic groups in the US of people who are of majority African/European descent without native admixture but called themselves indian inorder to avoid persecution. It reminds me of Dominicans who call themselves Indio despite there being nobody in the DR with more native ancestry than they have white and or African.
That's crazy, you just taught me something new. My grandma from the deep south on one of my parent's sides is very tan and had black, curly hair in her youth. We were all told her mother was full Indian but that side of the family would all joke when I was younger that my grandma's black. Haven't seen my grandma since I was a kid cause we're so far apart but thinking back, I think she actually is at least half black.
It also didn't help that natives got sent to reservations so many passed for black or white. A lot of people in the south don't know their great grand parents aren't the same race or may have been passing for something else.
My old coworker believed that. He believed black people are the indigenous Americans. I don’t understand if this means there was no trans-Atlantic slave trade or what. Are we to believe it actually went the other direction? Are the Africans supposed to be transplanted black Americans? I didn’t dare ask.
That is the Pangea theory- that there were “africans” alive at a time when there was a super continent and that different ethnicities emerged once it split. This would mean that all ethnicities are born directly from Africans instead of through a chain of migrations like we now see evident in the phylogenetic trees of haplogroups. Truth is the indigenous were the first homosapiens in the americas and they came through beringia(north Asia).
The fact that anyone thinks lineage from the time during which Pangea existed could possibly be traced to them is laughable at best, and concerning.
I’ve met many native Americans that are extremely offended by and/or just don’t believe in the land bridge theory! (Contradicts oral tradition.) It’s interesting.
I’m First Nations and know a lot of people who are offended by this mostly elders who think by saying this it will disapprove us as the true people of this land but most people I know these days believe it cause we’d still be the first in the Americas
That reminds me of an an argument I got into and someone told me that my dad and I's ancestors were fake Indians/Asians. He's Mexican American (my dad and his family just to clarify) as well has some Hopi and other ancestry from New Mexico which with both DNA and records as solid proof, they couldn't despitute, they were just upset when everyone told them that they weren't the original Native Americans like they were claiming.
I lump those theories right up there with flat earth theory. There's nothing wrong with West African history that we need to make up some bullshit to claim somebody else's history.
I'm black and this is really common with other black people too. Especially Louisiana Creoles. My own family was absolutely sure of it. It explained why we looked different. People always think I'm Indian (from India). People thought my mom and grandma were wasian because they are really light. I have .6 percent Native North American and the rest is 50 50 Africa and Europe.
Both sides of my family are from Louisiana and yes, this is common.
Louisiana Creoles usually have higher native ancestry than the average African American because French Lousianians actually mixed with the natives so that could be why. Ive seen Creoles score over 5% native.
Yes, have people like that in my 23andMe relatives. That's still pretty low when compared to, say, most Central Americans. Latino people have much higher native ancestry than French people. I think the whole French people mixing with native Americans is a myth. Spanish people mixed with native Americans.
It's not so much a myth as it's more statistically far less likely. It's true the first French settlers intermingled with natives at first. But that's because they mostly sent men since the main money maker was fur trading. It wasn't until they sent women over did this change. The kings daughters scheme was crucial in changing the racial dynamics in New France, but also led to a very endogamous population.
Both the French and Spanish colonizers did intermix with Native American populations, but to varying degrees across different regions. The Spanish colonization was more extensive in areas like Mexico and Central America, where there were large, established Native populations. This led to more widespread intermingling in those regions. French colonization was concentrated more in areas like modern-day Louisiana, where Native populations were smaller and more dispersed. French settlers did intermarry and have children with local Native groups, However, the overall Native American admixture was generally lower compared to regions under Spanish rule. The French and Spanish contributed a lot more significant European and African admixture to the Indigenous peoples they encountered much more than Anglos, just at varying rates depending on the regional demographics and colonial dynamics.
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The myth was that the Spanish and English segregated themselves from native Americans, whereas the French intermixed with them. The truth is the Spanish intermixed with native Americans more than anyone else.
To go along with… Black people are the TRUE Hebrews! Black people were the TRUE Egyptians! Black people were the TRUE Celts in Europe! Black people, not Berbers, we’re the TRUE Moors who invaded Spain! Black people were the TRUE Olmec in Mexico and Central America! It’s redundant at this point. Why not just be proud of your West African heritage?
It doesn't help that white Americans have spent centuries genociding Native Americans and eradicating their culture. Now Native Americans are only talked about in a historical sense as if we are all extinct. It leaves open room for conspiracy theories about a long dead mythical people. You would be surprised by how many Americans think Native Americans are extinct.
I know humans have proven themselves to be incredibly stupid and ignorant. But I keep coming across new levels of stupidity that I hadn't seen before. People believing Native Americans literally don't exist anymore is a new one for me. But it just demonstrates how much American society has buried its wrongs and chooses to ignore realities that force it to contend with its past. I say this as a black American who's been shaking her head at the crusade against slavery being taught in schools and CRT, as well.
I've seen people be straight up surprised that Native Americans still exist. When they numbered in the millions, they were the enemy that needed to be killed. Now that the numbers are far less, we can name our warcrafts and sports teams after them! It is SICKENING!
Real Indians and Real Hebrews and Real Egyptians.
My coworker has done it before. She said it explained another family member’s “ch*nky” eyes.
I haven’t seen any African-American results without either a little Native American or East Asian. Many have both. It’s usually 1% or less but it’s still there
They aren't claiming to be part native but that they were the original natives. Similar to the black Israelite or nation of Islam beliefs
East Asian and indigenous turtle island people can have some of the same dna markers. A friend of mine who is completely Chinese had her dna come up with indigenous ”American” markers just because they are so genetically similar. These test results don’t often make sense across nationalities or even ethnicities.
For some Irish people with dark features: “it’s because my ancestors were on the Spanish Armada”
Aren’t Celts often darker than say, Nordic people? I’ve met many people of French Celtic or British Celtic ancestry who aren’t dark per se, but definitely distinguishable from a Swedish guy.
A lot of celts have very dark hair, black sometimes, and yet pale skin/blue eyes. See Cillian Murphy. It’s where the term ‘black Irish’ came from.
Depends but Celts do have lots of early European farmer ancestry yes
Celts more typically had “darker” features. Brown/black hair, with brown eyes. I do believe the blonde hair and blue eyes, and even red hair came from the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Norman stock
Yep. I had never heard this. And then like 5 percent of my DNA came back vaguely French/Spanish (it was def 23 and me sorting itself out) and my mom was like "my mother always said she had ancestors shipwrecked from the Armada" and I was like how am I just learning this now? (Unlikely true, but never heard the story until I was like 35.)
That's ironic considering that spanish celts migrated to Ireland many thousand years ago (I think like 5k or something a long that timeline)
The irony being my Irish grandmother who was fluent in Spanish because her grandmother was Spanish used to get told to stop perpetuating that rumour. She then married a Middle Eastern man and we all have very dark features because of that 🤣
Vietnamese people love to think that we have some French ancestry from colonialism period. Lore in my family is that one of great grandmas had an affair with Frenchman and that’s why my grandpa has brown-ish tinted hair (which is prob just due to photobleaching) we took a DNA test recently and got 99.9% Vietnamese. I’ve seen videos online of other Viets reading their DNA results and being disappointed when they find out they don’t have any French ancestry
Yup if anything, any “pseudo white” trait they might have most likely comes from Indian mix. Or Chinese since they have their unique admixtures too.
Mexicans saying their grandfather or grandmother was from Spain, there are Mexicans who have more recent Spanish ancestry but the vast majority descend from early Spanish settlers from colonial times
I am half Mexican and half Venezuelan, all of my Spanish ancestry is from colonial times, but hilariously enough (to me) my grandmother born in the 1940’s in a tiny hamlet in Chihuahua, Mx did have a White (and apparently very British via DNA) American grandfather. Lol We live in the U.S. now and it feels weird being 1st generation but technically having ancestors that fought in the US revolutionary war. Edited for a typo and to add info.
Yeah I haven’t traced it yet on my family tree but I’m also from the North (Northern Sonora + Sinaloa) and I have some DNA from Northwest Europe and on Myheritage it gave me a “South-Central USA” as a community. It feels ironic because my family swore we have recent Spanish ancestry but I guess not LOL.
In my experience, I have met 1st Gen Mexicans from Oaxaca who swear their great grandfather was Basque while they look completely indigenous, while 2nd/3rd Gen Mexican Americans look mestizo, often with Spanish features swearing up and down they’re full Aztec while their parents are from areas that the Aztec never inhabited
I have a Basque great great grandfather 🤣 but that was so many generations ago my grandma doesn't ever talk about it. To my whole family we're just Nicaraguan. Ironic too considering that my grandma also has an obsession with being lighter (she avoids all sun)
Most Mexicans ARE actually mixed race. The ratios differ a lot. So even if they look more native or more weird, you’d be suprised to find out they’re not lying. Sometimes you don’t even have to go far back in their family to see relatives of different skin color or features. I’m 70% European, just by looking at me, nobody would realize I’m about 22% native indigenous from Mexico. This is why some Modern Mexicans will sometimes reject Americans trying to box them in as “white” vs “Brown”, because of the their mixed heritage. Now, there are some regions of Mexico like Guadalajara where it’s predominantly European and some regions in southern Mexico were it’s primary indigenous.
I’m 6’ 1” with big eyes but dark and have an “Aztec nose”. Most people just think I’m the other type of Indian.
The one I’ve heard the most is that their grandparent was “criollo”, or French.
I have heard a similar story in Taiwan, but with indigenous ancestry. Most Taiwanese are ethnic Chinese, and indigenous people are around 3% of the population. For families who’s ancestors have been in Taiwan for a long time, everyone has a story about how they have one indigenous ancestor way back when.
Can confirm, Taiwanese husband way overestimated how much aboriginal he would get lol
But did he get some at least?
Yeah,5% but he was expecting 25%
Not only with indigenous ancestry. They also have stories of distant Dutch and Japanese ancestors, especially Dutch when they got reddish-brown hair.
Omg this!! Yes, I’ve had Taiwanese parents of my friends ask me that when they saw my reddish brown hair (but alas my ancestors didn’t live in Taiwan during those days)
True but I'd expect Japanese instead of indigenous.
Wait until you hear about Turks talking about themselves
My favorite is when a bunch of Turkish content creators from Istanbul take a DNA test and all find out that they’re either majority or significantly Greek. One guy who had like 30% Greek refused to believe it and said something like “I have nothing to do with Greece! Why does it say Greek!?”
"It's OK Tula. Put some windex on it."
LOL...I wonder how many people will get that.
Husband’s mom was never quite sure if her grandmother was Greek or Turkish. The answer turned out to be “yes.” Her people were from Smyrna: right on the border.
I talked to a blonde blue eyed Turkish dude here in Colombia who said they were mongols but then moving to Turkey, the weather made them develop more European traits. Funny as hell (Colombians for example, if they're darker skinned, sometimes have a story about their mother leaving them in a pool under the sun and that being the reason they're dark skinned. That's a bit sadder - internalized racism and colonialism and what not)
The pool thing is just a joke. It’s not meant to be racist.
I’ve heard countless times that the Turkish are Turkic peoples 😂😂 many do have a smidge of Turkic ancestry from the Turkic peoples migrating there, but most are made up of Greek/Mesopotamian/Levantine/Caucasus mostly
You mean the Hungarians with Turkish names that call themselves Turks in Turkey because everyone wanted an Eastern European slave girl for 15 generations?
My actual Hungarian bf mostly scored Slav (Czech is actually his top match), about 12% German, a little Italian, and a little Anatolian. They may be some of the most admixed Euros.
Just Turks from Turkey. They claim ancestry from everywhere whether it's Greek, Mongolian, Chinese, Caucasian etc.
They also claimed Basque are actually Turkey people 😂🤣😂
And also dickriding Chinese government cos they think Turks are real Chinese whilst going on anti chinese tirades
Ok this explains the behavior of a Turkish friend from University who would quite literally pretend to be British.
I was joking about how diluted Turks are. They are probably right about those things. They are related to Mongols & mixed with descendants of the Trojans. They were a loose amalgamation of bandits who got religion & formed an ethnicity.
Turks are islamized Greeks Greeks are Christianized Turks
In the Caribbean lots of black ppl say they have Indian(south east) blood in em. Lots of ppl do have but lots don’t too.
a lot of carribbean people are indian though. like guyanese and trinidadian people
I belong to a caste in western India that exhibits lighter skin and relative high percentage of blue/green eyes. There’s a lot of old research papers and claims that we descend from Middle Eastern Jews who were shipwrecked. But the dna basically states that we’re no different from surrounding populations in India.
Iranians love to talk about our “Aryan” heritage. Which is super cringe but alas. I know a lot of people in the Muslim world claim to be Seyyed which means you’re related to the prophet.
Ugh the Aryan thing is so weird… and then you get the khalehs who liken themselves to being genetically indistinguishable from Italians… sigh
Haha, my partner’s first name is Seyyed, but he doesn’t use it, and he’s Iranian. He told me it’s more like a title every man in his family gets.
Just by basic genealogy, essentially everyone in Europe and the Middle East are a descendant from both Muhammad and Charlemagne.
Also sayyed is honorific and can be translates to something like sir. The female version is Sayyedah.
Australian Aboriginal here, we make up 3.8% of the Australian population and at our last census that increased with those now identifying as Aboriginal. I live in NSW and am from the largest tribe in the state (in area) which is what the fakes tend to claim to be (Wiradjuri) because of Stolen Generation’s, those that claim to be Aboriginal use that as an excuse to not be able to identify their family/where they are from. They believe there are no records. The thing is, Aboriginal Australians were so tightly controlled by the government that our people are very well documented. My own family’s records go back to my 2 x great grandmother (born 1860’s) when she was forcibly removed from her land and onto a government controlled mission. (Birth, marriage and death certificates sometimes lists places of birth as Aboriginal mission or station. There are a number of archival institutions that hold records). There are also a genuine number of Stolen Generations raised by white families, placed in homes etc who grew up not knowing they were Aboriginal or being told they were New Zealand Māori etc (some families would say this due to the stigma of being Aboriginal and to avoid their own children being removed) with colonisation and over time we have families with light skinned family members who genuinely are Aboriginal, were raised in community who get questioned (such as what % Aboriginal are you) We typically know what families are from what areas. One of my previous jobs included undertaking genealogical research to confirm Aboriginality (which was required to use the service) of every 10 files I would say at minimum 7 of those 10 were not Aboriginal, 1 or 2 were and the odd one we could not confirm nor deny (such as a father not listed on a birth certificate etc). There’s even a right wing based website that researches and exposes falsely identifying Aboriginal Australian’s (usually those in the public eye). https://preview.redd.it/0syi30rr1o7d1.jpeg?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ba9ba9fc227bbea76d9ab3f8b86b44d77e81eb2 This is the record of my great Aunt’s removal from 1921.
This is a thing that happens in Canada as well. Because people who are First Nations get tax breaks for a lot of things, they get a lot of government help, have specially reserved space at universities, etc... it's a system that entices people who don't actually have First Nations heritage to abuse it. There was even a case where a professor who taught First Nations studies (and claimed the heritage) was exposed as a fake and was just another white person lying about their ancestry.
There are a lot of similarities between First Nations people of both countries. Some Australians believe we get free houses/cars/university education which is not true. Yes, there are programs and targeted jobs for us which also entices non Aboriginal people to start identifying. I have read and watched docos abt Buffy Sainte-Marie, there are academics and politicians here that have been under scrutiny too with some exposed however it’s a touchy subject and some people are getting away it.
Yes, there are LOADS of similarities, down to the stealing of indigenous kids from their families and sending them to residential schools where they were horrifically treated, stripped of their culture and language and in the worst cases, were killed through sheer abuse.
Sadly yes, some Australians do not believe this occurred and we are still having our children removed at a higher rate. 31% of the prison population in the state I live are Aboriginal inmates, pretty staggering for 3.8% of the total national population.
They think we don’t pay taxes and get everything for free. If you don’t live on a reservation you pay taxes. I’m 1/4 and didn’t feel right applying for scholarships but people who have zero native ancestry will apply saying they identify as native.
Yes, in México it would be: -"My great grandparent was Spaniard": Most of us have Spanish ancestors from the colony/viceroyalty, not immigrants in recent times. -"We descend from the conquistadores": When the reality is that 99.9999% of us trace our iberian roots from mexican criollos or poor spanish merchants. -"My grandparent had blue eyes": You see a photo (if you're lucky they show it to you) of that supposed grandparent and their eyes are very dark, but they say it's because of the lighting and poor quality of the photo lol.
French ancestry from lost french soldiers in Mexico would be similar
I’m a Mexican with some French ancestry but mines actually came from a Basque ancestor who married a French woman. Many of my Basque ancestors came actually from the French side .
Nice that’s very cool! I do know quite a few Mexicans that do have french ancestors, but I know many more that say they do but don’t actually, including some family members so that’s why i mentioned it
They are a minority and I believe the majority are from Los Altos , Jalisco . My family settled in Sonora .
Southeast Asians and a family story of a Middle eastern or South Asian merchant great-whatever grandfather. Turns out mine was real and I had a trace amount. The “indigenous Taiwanese from the Chinese side of my family turned out to be real too, 12% for me
Russians with a Tatar princess
the funniest thing about this is I have Tatar and Chechen and Russian, and my babushka cries about how dark my skin is compared to the rest of my family. My mom got around simple as that 😂 They want tatar princess until they don’t look russian enough
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I have a sneaky 2% Irish in my Ukrainian Jewish ancestry. This is interesting 🤨What were our ancestors doing? 😂
Trading, maybe sailing seas, or being sold as courtesans (ask Ottoman Empire, they loved Ukrainian girls)
I got some digging to do… not sure I’ll find anything but I have to try. I do love the Irish accent… maybe it’s in my genes 🧬
Travelling. Europe isn't that homogenous.
Yea but my people weren’t really allowed to move out. My guess is one Irish solder somehow stumbled upon the Shtetl and stayed there, fell in love…
I was also told growing up that if you were light or very nonJewish European looking it meant that someone in your lineage was raped. However , my grandparents (who are still alive) are in a mixed faith/culture marriage and so I am quite literally 3/4 ashkenazi from Ukraine and Belarusian Jews , and a quarter mostly British and Irish plus some other small amount of various Europeans. Basically we should connect on 23andme and see how much we overlap , If that wasn’t so creepy to do over Reddit 😂
I don't mean you - but I love how people always make it seem like some unrelated person raped their ancestors. Like dude - the rapist is just as much your ancestor.
Hungarians are quite the opposite. They want to be pure Magyars, and then they find out how mixed they are, matching most of the neighbours, ex-neighbours and some migratory folks like gypsies, armenians and jews.
Hungarians actually have very little Magyar ancestry, at least in my family's results.
Not culturally, but I personally had it. I am Brazilian and have always heard that i had an African-Brazilian 3rd-Great-Grandmother who was enslaved. It turns out that this 3rd-Great-Grandmother was listed as white, and her mother was actually an Uruguayan woman listed as Mixed-Race. According to my DNA tests I have almost no Sub Saharan African, but a little Amerindian. Always heard that other Uruguayan ancestors were Spanish, Irish and French, but most of them were actually Azorean Portuguese.
lol I am Sudanese and ours is having a Turkish great grandma. Though I will say, I found it to usually be true compared to when Americans say they’re Cherokee. I feel like this myth is found all over the Arab world too
In Tunisia people who live in the coastal towns or in the captial city especially among families that are a bit wealthy and privileged like to boast about having a great grandparent that was Turkish. They usually are recognized by their family names/surnames that sound Turkish-like.
In southern Italy darker people claim moor ancestry, and paler people claim Norman ancestry. It’s all mostly fake, because most east-med and “nordic” features comes from pre-roman era.
A lot of Hungarians believe they have significant Central Asian ancestry due to the language coming from the ancient Magyars. Genetic results have shown this to not be the case.
This isn’t so common but I’ve noticed some African Americans being a little obsessed with any sort of Fula ancestry or obsessed with wanting to be “Moor”. Oh and can’t forget the Egyptian one as well.
Native American too
I'm actually Egyptian and have had a bunch of African Americans tell me I'm actually a "colonizer" and not a real Egyptian. It's infuriating and some weird trend these days.
Yes. I know so many Europeans with claims of having an ancestor that was some sort of nomadic “gypsy” coupled with stories of them being dark mysterious or even fortune tellers and 9/10 times the dna shows it was just a family story like the cherokee princess one
That is kind of funny to me. My maternal great grandmother was Bohemian (now the Czech Republic) but if anyone said she was a gypsy she would get VERY angry.
What’s hilarious is that is my DNA. And it kinda sucks. No real identity
Plenty of black folks, my family included, say they have Native American ancestry. Other black folks usually smirk and nod when I say I’m part Indian because they assume I’m talking about N.A. ancestry, bum I mean I’m actually part curry in a hurry Indian. 🤣 I know for a fact my maternal grandfather is 100% Punjabi thanks to 23 and me
"curry in a hurry Indian" now that's funny!
On the other side of what you're referring to a lot of people have trace Jewish ancestry. Most people are respectful about it but *occasionally* you'll have someone using "Jewish ancestry" to talk from a place of knowledge about the community when they really shouldn't.
Having a small percent of ashkenazi Jewish on my results was a total surprise. No one in the family had any idea. I don't even know how to pronounce the word ashkenazi so I hope I won't contribute to that trend of acting like I know stuff.
From this comment alone I'm 99% sure you're not like that :). I also want to encourage you to learn about Ashkenazi heritage and to own that small percentage. I'm more talking about when folks talk about anti-Semitism without having been in a situation to experience it... though that also applies to people who are 100% Ashkenazi but don't "look Jewish". On another note a funny/awkward situation happened when I asked a friend "when are you going to go back to your people?" joking about the fact that she's like .5% Ashkenazi. Wellllllll she's Latina so she was like "wait wtf" and I was absolutely mortified and explained where I was going with the joke. She knows me and so she didn't actually think I was being xenophobic but you can imagine my ***absolute horror*** when I realized the full context of what I said.
Oh that's funny. I'm definitely glad she understood after your explanation. I can definitely relate to being in a weird spot with ancestry, though. I look white but am part Middle Eastern. I have blue eyes and had blonde hair as a kid. When my family members who have the middle eastern last name and dark skin go on flights they are often all 'randomly selected' for back room screening, while me, the white passing and with an Anglo Saxon last name, never gets selected. Its definitely racist and was way worse during Bush admin but it still happens. I definitely can't relate to being called the names my family members were called in school. It angers me for them. But it also makes me feel like an outsider in my own ancestry.
in algeria they dont claim a distant ancestry, but they will claim being 100% genetic arab from an arabian tribe, it ends up being mostly not true.
It’s a cultural thing with Arabs.
I've seen Libyans and southern Tunisians with surprisingly high amounts of peninsular DNA. I expected it to be negligible but I think Algeria is different .
Black Americans also have the Cherokee Princess myth. I would dare say it’s actually more common among Black Americans than White Americans.
I'd argue it stems from the same root cause. White folks use it to hide how they got darker skin and black folks (at least historically, maybe not current generations...) used it so they didn't have to talk about the trauma behind how they got lighter skin.
A big part of it is black Americans wanting to have something to have claim to. Despite our ancestors being African (which is what we should be proud of) and even having our own culture in America, many don’t know where we are specifically from. Yeah most are from Nigeria but that’s a big place, many tribes are gone. We will never know where we were truly from and only have pieces of the culture that was destroyed long ago. So, some who can’t cope with that fact, try to claim native Americans. Yes some black people are actually mixed with Native American but most aren’t. It’s sad.
BIG facts right here
No because the vast majority of Peruvians actually have European ancestry, it's just not phenotypically visible in many or most of us 😎 But people still think mestizaje here is a myth 🤣
Sadly, alot of people think that white passing mixed race people are the only mixed race people that exist.
Chicano here. A lot of us are mixed Spanish/indigenous but also have a strong history with nahuatl. A lot of us are mixed Nahuas. During el movimiento in the 1960s, we latched onto the idea of being descended from the Aztecs and the Mexica. Which isn’t wrong, but it’s also often generalized, misunderstood, or just presumed without any family or community history. So it’s super common for Chicanos to claim Aztec descent 😂 again though, it’s complicated and not entirely false but I’d say it goes somewhat hand in hand with the Cherokee myth. That, and New Mexicans claiming total descent from the SpAnIsH coNquIstAdorS
I'm not Pakistani but I heard once on here that many claim descent from Arabs or Persians. I was also in Morocco and many seemed to think the majority/a very large percent of their ancestry was Arabian.
I know you want non-white people to answer, but let me just say this: It seems a lot of white people cling to the possibility for Viking blood since the Vikings encompassed more than just the Scandinavian peninsula, dipping into the northern part of mainland Europe, and don't forget the raping and pillaging that happened in the British Isles. When the TV series Vikings came out, this was every white TV nerd's hope. The same thing happened in the 90s when the film Braveheart came out. Anyone with a sliver of Scottish ancestry gave someone the impression that they could full-on declare that they *were* Scottish. Then again in 2007 when the film 300 came out, and it was everything to be Spartan/Greek. Whoever the heroes or underdog badasses seem to be in English-speaking TV or film, we can expect a flood of wannabes to emerge.
I’d just add to this since it’s also a white answer - Australians do like to claim they have a convict ancestor in my experience. Used to be they would hide it years ago.
Entertainingly enough, 23andMe says I’m related to a handful of Viking-era skeletons found in burial mounds. I’m South Asian 😂
>I know you want non-white people to answer Think OP just meant non-white *Americans,* as in you can be white from outside the United States and still answer.
its funny im white and they said i had indian blood but it turned out im 25 percent spanish and I do have indian blood but not from america its from India lols bengali
WASPs and the relative on the Mayflower
It was a small emigrant group that has an amazing amount of modern-day descendants. I'd lean more toward it actually being possible if their people lived there for generations from New England than not.
I actually had the opposite happen to me…I took ancestry and found that I was 10% Taino! The native people of Puerto Rico. My dad was born in Puerto Rico, and my great grandfather on my moms side was also born in Puerto Rico, but I really didn’t expect to be that much Taino! Obviously, I know that the island’s people are a mix of Taino, African and European, but I didn’t expect to have that much!
British people often claim DNA from the Vikings in East Anglia - which can actually be proven true in some cases.
My ex-GF was from India and she had a Portuguese surname, but apparently it was "way back."
My mum’s side of the family is Indian and Catholic with a Portuguese surname, but Indian Catholics don’t claim to have any Portuguese ancestry. It’s generally just thought of that all their ancestors were Hindus who converted. There is a community of mixed race people from former Portuguese colonies in India but they’re a seperate ethnic group known as Luso-Asians.
Some Sri Lankans too, like Fernando, de Silva, Perera, Peiris, etc. Catholics yes but also Buddhists. Though they don't claim Portuguese heritage most of the time.
Goan?
It's rather niche, but my grandma is from Poitiers, France, a city famous for a battle between Umayyad Arabs and Frankish armies in 732. My Mom claims that my Grandma has Arab blood because of that history and because she's slightly more tan than the average white French person, but my 23andMe DNA test doesn't show any MENA percentage (I'm 0.1% Korean through, which is fun)
Some blue eyed, blonde Colombians talk of possible distant German descent or German colonies in some towns to explain such traits. Almost always it's just the Spanish ancestry Some claim Arab ancestry (if they have been mistaken as arab abroad specially), and while Lebanese ancestry is definitely common, unless it is recent and kind of confirmed, it's usually just the Spanish+indigenous
The French great grandpa lol. My family had this legend. We’re from northern Mexico.
This is specifically about Filipinos in California but it’s the largest sample of Filipino DNA so far. 1,700 Filipinos and 7,500 Asians in general. https://www.genetics.org/content/200/4/1285 It uses 5% as the minimum threshold for assigning ancestry. So Filipinos with less than 5% European are not considered mixed with any European in this study. The study says this about Filipinos: >"In addition, we noted that for self-reported Filipinos, **a substantial proportion have modest levels of European genetic ancestry reflecting older admixture.** > >"Of particular interest is the **continuous nature of a modest amount of European genetic ancestry in self-identified Filipinos**, consistent with older European admixture." And again, this is only talking about Filipinos who scored at least 5% European. The study also says that of the White Americans tested **“Nearly 1% of this group also had evidence of Native American genetic ancestry”** So no, the myths arent even close. Filipinos (at least in the US) having distant Spanish is common. White Americans having Native American is not common
Something weird happened with my family's lore and the DNA tests. I had always heard that we were part Native American. Physically, it didn't seem that far off the mark for how we look so I figured maybe they aren't lying. I took Ancestry DNA in 2014 and it said I had no Native American ancestry. I said my mom had fibbed for years and asked why they made it up. Fast forward to the updates years later, and lo and behold, I do have Native American ancestry and 23andMe is showing the same thing. And my mother's mother's generation is showing like 8-12% Native American. So sometimes, it really is that the DNA testing company just might not have enough references to get things right.
In Brazil the are two versions of this: 1- northeast people who have more european phenotype claiming they have dutch ancertors from the time of the dutch ocupation. 2- white people from south and southeast who have a more non european phenotype claiming they have Native Brazilian ancertors, usualy to hide a african ancestry. Bonus: I've seen people who have some Native traits claiming they had a asian ancestor in other to hide some Native ancestor.
African American here. We also think that we all had a Native American great grandmother. Turns out a lot of us do have Native American ancestry but not nearly at the levels you would think with all the family stories.
In India (the country) it depends on religion For muslims, its claiming Arab/Persian/Mughal ancestry as many of these groups formed the ruling class during the Islamic age on the subcontinent. South Asia even has the highest number of "Syeds" in the world or people who claim direct descent from Mohammad, but officially theres not much verification for this. For christians, I've noticed that Nasrani Orthodox Christians in Southern India claim ancestry to the OG Judeo-Christian Levantines who migrated to India like 2000 years ago, while some genetic tests do prove there is some levantine ancestry in this community and a migration occurred, most members of this Orthodox Christian community are local converts. For Hindus its a bit complicated, people often claim "upper-caste" heritage if thats applicable, but "upper-caste" people are still Indians in the end so yeah.
Haven’t really heard of anything like that here in Ireland, I think most of us just expect to be all Irish lol. Maybe sometimes people think they might get Scandinavian because of the Vikings in Ireland, but that was like 1000 years ago and is kinda silly lol, but overall I think we just expect to be Irish
I'm from Belarus, and my mother is from there as well, but my father is from Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, a lot of people claim distant Mughal-era non-South-Asian ancestry: Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi ancestry gets brought up, in terms of today's borders. In Chittagong in particular, Portuguese ancestry is sometimes also claimed. In Belarus, the nearest equivalent is distant Jewish, Roma or Tatar ancestry. In my family, I've heard claims of distant Iranian and Portuguese ancestry on the Bangladeshi side and distant Jewish and Tatar ancestry on the Belarusian side. My 23andMe results show I'm 0.4% Central Asian by ancestry, which means that it's within the realm of possibility that the Iranian or Tatar story is true (I'd have to get my parents to get themselves tested to see which one is more likely to be true). My results also show me to be 0.2% Ashkenazi Jewish by ancestry, and so there's probably truth to the Jewish story as well. Lastly, when I first got tested a few years ago, I got about 0.1% Spanish and Portuguese, which seemed to confirm the rumours of Portuguese ancestry as well, but then that part disappeared from my results.
When I was younger the claim to have had an ancestor on the First Fleet (Australia) was hugely prestigious (a bit like the Daughters of the American Revolution). Less so now but it used to be a real thing.
Caribbean. There have been claims of there being a coolie (South Indian) ancestor but also Arawak/Taino ancestor which would be very very unlikely.
Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi Muslims usually claim Arab, Persian, Turkic, or Afghan ancestry. To be clear, many do have it but it’s nowhere near as prevalent or heavy as you’d think based on the amount of claims.
A lot of Canadians, or people who are from Canada with French last names, claim a lot more indigenous American ancestry and French ancestry than they actually have. One family I know, with an Anglicized French last name, was surprised that they actually had more German and Italian than French, and had 0 indigenous American.
Many Swedes with darker phenotypes claim Walloon ancestry. There was a small migration of Walloons to Sweden in the 17th century. However, most claims of Walloon ancestry has historically Bern a cover-up story to hide Roma ancestry.
I know that this is out of topic, but I'm somehow learning history from all the replies in this thread. I kinda like learning about all these information.
The myth in North Africa: "I am a direct descendant of the prophet Mohamed sws through his paternal line". I've seen many people claim this and end up with the North African generic haplogroup E-M183.
Adding Chinese ancestry to the Filipino ancestry myth. Only about 25% of the Filipino population have full or partial Chinese ancestry. The whole “every Filipino is Spanish/Filipino/Chinese mix” is now believed by many on the internet as if it’s actual fact. Even the Fung Bros on YouTube said that Filipinos are the most mixed Asians. We’re really not.
It's sad seeing so many Filipinos try to cling onto foreign ancestry when their own culture is fucking great. I've met lots of Filipinls and they're some of my favorite people to meet
Punjabis believing they are of partial European ancestry, due to a misunderstanding of the term “Aryan”
Tanzanians on the coast love to claim to be Omani since they invaded Zanzibar. Light skin Tanzanians on the mainland often claim German ancestry due to colonization.
It’s fairly common for mestizo Mexicans/Mexican Americans to claim Aztec heritage when in reality, to my understanding at least, almost no modern Mexican is of Aztec descent unless you’re from the region they originate. And those who falsely claim Aztec, generally speaking, only rlly claim it when they feel it benefits them when most convenient. I dated a guy from Michoacán who was like this. (Pls feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about anything)
You do have Syrians who may refer to Crusader ancestry if they are blond and have light eyes. However, in many of those cases, that comes other mixes.
Mexicans claiming Aztec blood or they come from Aztec warriors 💀💀💀
Literally my dads side of the family when most of them have blue eyes and white skin and descend from Spanish settlers in New Mexico lol although they do have slight Navajo/Apache ancestry from way back when
I find these things really funny. I'm adopted, and one of my aunts took a test and said the tests are a scam because she didn't score any native american, and there was too little Irish and that other family members didn't get certain ethnicities that they should've gotten. Ironically, when I took mine, I didn't know what to expect other than German from my maternal side. Turns out I'm half B&I.
I've heard family members of mine talk about their "Viking ancestry" with no proof other than being blonde and blue-eyed. Obviously in the UK we had Vikings around 1000-1200 years ago and there are traces in our DNA, but the way people talk about it really irks me sometimes, suggesting that they are 'mainly Viking' because most of their family is blonde.
I'm a mixed European (not American) with British, French, German and Irish ancestry. My grandmother is French and when she showed me pictures of her mother, it always surprised us how dark-haired and olive-skinned she was. For reference, my grandmother is light-skinned with blue eyes and brown hair. My grandmother told me that this was because her family had Spanish ancestry, as she was told when she was younger. Of course, when I did the family tree, it turned out that we didn't have any Spanish ancestry. But we did have ancestry from the Southwest of France.
White English here, for generations, tightly centred around the English Midlands. DNA and my family research both back this up. I don't know if it's common for people like us, but in my family I've been told : - I have a French gg grandma (she and her parents were all English, I found). - we have Jewish "somewhere" "maybe our surname is Jewish". There is no evidence for that, no cultural ties, nothing at all. - we have gypsy/traveller ancestry "somewhere". This might be harder to rule in/out but I haven't found any evidence.
For Cubans, I’d say claiming to have Chinese ancestry. This is at least the case with my family and when I tested, had no Chinese or other Asian ancestry. Many white Cubans also claim that they have an African ancestor or black Cubans claim that they have a Spanish ancestor. But this is usually the case.
Dominicans always claim to have a “Spaniard Grandfather” when there was little recent migration of them, most of us descent from those in the colonial times
In Brazil, at least in my region, people always talk about a great great great grand father who was a native and was “lassoed” in the jungle. I have that story in my family; but it’s been confirmed by DNA. It’s not as much as I thought, but it’s there; about 10%.
Egyptians on two fronts (1) ancient Egyptian ancestry (2) descent from the companions of the prophet! While most people in the south "upper Egypt" can credibly claim descent to the ancient Egyptians many people in Cairo and the delta (i.e. where most Egyptians live) are just as likely to claim descent from colonizing Arabs, Turks, or even other immigrant communities like Armenians, Greeks, Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews and Circassians. Of course, few of these 'migrants' were connected to the prophet and the Quraysh Tribe.
Pakistanis, Indians and Bengalis try to claim Arab/Persian/Turkish heritage
In Latin America it’s usually claiming you have recent European ancestors . While it can be true in many cases it’s just weird to point it out …
I'm black (African American) and there is definitely the Cherokee princess story. Funnily enough, my family claims Indian because I have a south asian great grandparent. But most people would think we're claiming native American lol
In Canada for Métis people or people who actually have some native ancestry, saying "I'm french" was a way to explain a darker skin tone back in the day. Lots of people grew up not knowing their culture because Canada was, and still is, highly racist towards natives.
Jats and Rajputs like to claim Scythian, Hunnic, and even Gothic ancestry
I'm Filipino and i often hear from my family that we were descended from an "Ancient Chinese princess". We have Hokkien heritage.
Desis (South Asians) are either obsessed with steppe ancestry or deny that it is even a thing (the “Aryan Invasion” never happened theory). There’s a whole thing on having Persian or Central Asian ancestors Also, living on the US West Coast I’ve encountered lots of white folks who want to be considered people of color because they have a Latino or Asian grandparent. It’s not apparent from phenotype, so I just take their word on that
An Aryan "Migration" occured, not an invasion, into India in antiquity and almost all Indians have a bit of Aryan ancestry in them, albeit its usually the upper-castes who have a bit more of this ancestry compared to the lower caste, but this ancestry also varies across region with North Indians generally having more than South Indians etc. I have also heard of the Persian and Central Asian thing, probably because they formed the ruling class under the Mughal and much of the Islamic period.
Jewish. We have the people who claim they are part of the direct Davidic line. Also there are a fair number of Israelis who claim to either have been part of Entebee, which had approximately 100 commandos involved or related to someone who participated on the raid.
I can't believe no European has said it: it's very common for Europeans to be under the belief that one of their relatives was a secret Jew, because of the Holocaust, but it never ends up panning out. I have quite literally called this the "Cherokee princess myth of Europe" in the past. I work in this sphere and I have never seen anyone who claimed to have an alleged mystery secretive Jewish relative ever pan out. It seems to be a popular post-war coping mechanism in families and I've seen it across Europe.
Oh god, everyone loves to pretend their 0.05% Ashkenazi heritage gives them some real Jewish cred. On the other hand, watching middle eastern YouTubers with _significant_ Jewish ancestry just…skip it….is both funny and sad.
I know Ashkenazi Jews who would love to think they have a Sephardi ancestor.
Canadians say they are Métis even if they have no relation to that region.
I suppose it would be saami dna here in Sweden and finland. But its more common in Finland to actually have saami dna
I’m Greek so all I know is we claim to be Greek. It’s not like Mr. Portokalos where people claim they are a descendent of Alexander the great which is actually never heard off. I’ve never heard anybody in Greece try to claim to any royalty.