Not as "Italian" as we thought

[mpinchera]

So...my 100% Italian father is, at most, about 25% Italian, according to 23andme results--and that's assuming all of his "broadly" categories are Italian, which isn't likely. Technically, he came back as 16% Italian. While I'm definitely his biological son, 23andme says I'm 1.8% Italian. (Says my father is 66% Northwestern European--and I'm 86% of the same.)

Point being, don't be surprised with your results as few, if any, people are "100% Italian" genetically.

Putting the raw data through Gencove (which imputes data), he came back as 51% Northern Italian, based on the Jan. 2018 revision from that site. It puts me at 15%. And that's still curious because our Italian ancestors were from Southern Italy.

Really underscores the fact that this science is not yet a perfect science.

[brogie62]

Don't put too much weight on these results. The margins of error are huge.

[jennabet]

Interesting. Awaiting results myself. Initially, I wasn't interested in this type of testing until I saw a YouTube video of the DNA results for George Stephanopolis. He has four Greek grand-parents and his results came back 98% European. I have four Italian grand-parents all from the same region and province of Italy and they and their ancestors have been there for nearly 2,000 years so I'm expecting my results to be also mostly European and will be surprised if they are not.

[jennabet]

I just received the results of the DNA test I took with 23 and Me and as I suspected there are NO surprises. Like George Stephanopolis who has four Greek grand-parents and his results were 98% European, I have four Italian grand-parents who have been on the Adriatic Coast in Italy for at least 1,000 years and possibly as long as the Romans. My breakdown is as follows:

European - 98.6%

. Southern European 97.4%

ITALIAN - A whopping 85.4%
Balkan - 5.2%
Iberian - 1.3%
Sardinian - 0.6%
Broadly So. European - 4.9%

I also have more Neanderthal variants than 67% of the people who took this test. I also have a common ancestor who is Marie Antoinette.