Considering everyone’s related uf we go back far enough ti our african origins, at which point can ancestry tests and the like go “ah you are 20% scandinavian”? Were is the cutoff time period or how does this work?

Question

I may not be asking the rifht questions but i just dont get this at all

Where*

In: 5

Answer 1

These tests don’t necessarily look for where your ancestors came from so much as they compare genetic markers to today’s populations. So if Country A has a lot of people with Marker A in their DNA and you have Marker A too, then country A will show up on your heritage list.

But people move around all the time. Maybe lots of people from Country A moved to Country B 100 years ago, and at the same time your ancestors moved from Country A to Country C, where you lived now. Now Country B has lots of people with Marker A in their DNA, just like you. Your DNA score may show you being 20% Country B, despite your ancestors never having been there, just because you happen to have similar markers to today’s population of Country B.