Indigenous Ancestry

Like everyone else, we succumbed to genetic testing. Using AncestryDNA, which is said to sometimes inflate the indigenous ancestry of people with roots in the Spanish Caribbean, we found we do indeed possess "Amerindian" ancestry from the Caribbean. Playing around with GEDMatch has led me to think the "hacked" score of around 7% for Indigenous Puerto Rico may be more accurate than the 9% assigned in the official AncestryDNA results. Overall, this is not surprising. If the average Puerto Rican, according to studies by researchers, possesses around 14 or 15% indigenous ancestry, then someone who is half Puerto Rican will probably inherit some of that. 

We suspect the Bolivia & Peru ancestry detected at 1% might just be from the indigenous Caribbean ancestry. After reading studies on the "Taino" genome and their relations to South America, including the around 14% Ceramic-related ancestry found in Puerto Ricans, we found allusions to some degree of overlap with populations in Andean South America. While the genetic, linguistic, and archaeological evidence points to an origin among Arawakan-speaking groups of the Amazon region, the "Taino" also overlaps with other South American populations. Indeed, one study found links between pre-contact ceramic Puerto Rico and Amazonia and the Andes, although the strongest similarities in terms of mtDNA variation and haplotype frequency was with Eastern Tukanoan groups. What surprised us is that Ancestry reported the Bolivia & Peru was inherited from both parents. Perhaps our Haitian mother does indeed have very distant indigenous ancestry? 

Playing with GEDmatch also pointed to some "Amerindian" ancestry. Various admixture calculations suggest about 6-7% indigenous Americas ancestry, and the "archaic" matches did point to indigenous people in Brazil. Autosomal DNA comparison with the kit for an indigenous woman of the Bahamas who lived around 1000 years ago showed very minor connections, with the longest segment at 6.7 cm for a match. G25 simulated coordinates also included a prehistoric Brazil sample. This all seems about right, although I am sure I do not have mtDNA or Y-DNA haplogroups of indigenous ancestry. Indeed, playing around with raw data suggested J for Y-DNA, which also seems about right. Alas, sub-Saharan African ancestry is never easy to analyze here...