Non-African Ancestry in Bainet

In terms of non-African ancestry, 23andme results were mostly consistent with the other major company's estimates. Instead of 11% European, our close relative is now closer to 10%. The distribution of ancestry between Northwestern Europe and Southern Europe is split, which is probably due to the problems of capturing French ancestry through genetic analysis. So, 23andme only assigned this relative 3.4% French & German and 3% Spanish & Portuguese. One suspects that this is a sign that the mostly France-derived European ancestry came from both northern and southern France. Although it is possible this person does have distant ancestry from Spain as well, we could not prove it yet. What was more surprising for us was to see trace ancestry derived from Askenazi Jews (0.2%). However, this is not too shocking when one recalls that Jews or people of Jewish origin were in Saint-Domingue and 19th century Haiti.

For Indigenous Americas ancestry, 23andme estimated a higher trace amount than Ancestry. Ancestry DNA assigned her a trace ancestry at 0.26% Indigenous Bolivia & Peru. 23andme, however, assigned her 0.5% (which appears at all confidence levels) without any specific region or area of Indigenous Americas. We suspect that our Haitian side does harbor trace "Amerindian" ancestry that may be a mix of South American-derived groups and/or others. While some would love to see this as proof of partial "Taino" heritage in Haitians, it is difficult to say given that our relative did not receive any score like Indigenous Dominican or any significant overlap with Dominicans or other Caribbean populations with indigenous Caribbean Ancestry.

The most surprising find of our relative's trace ancestry as a 0.1% Malayali Subgroup estimate. This also appeared in every confidence level, although we are not sure how reliable such a low estimate can be. While there were small numbers of Asian Indians trafficked to Saint Domingue by the French (something that can occasionally still be seen in Dominicans from the Southwest and Haitians in the South on some consumer DNA tests, see here), the amount is so small and difficult to find. Furthermore, South Asian DNA estimates do not appear at all in this relative's estimates from Ancestry DNA. We suspect it is one of the following scenarios: statistical noise, possible ancestry from an Asian Indian brought to Saint Domingue in the 1700s, or perhaps something inherited through a European ancestor that did harbor small amounts of South Asian ancestry.