Question of the Week: Do you have Asian roots?

+7 votes
1.0k views

imageDo you have any Asian ancestors? Or did any Asian ethnicity turn up on a DNA test?

Please tell us with an answer below. You can also answer on Facebook, or share the question image on social media to get your friends and family talking.

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)

26 Answers

+10 votes
my husband and family have Asian roots

Ethnicity is not very accurate, depends on testing company.

23 & me is most accurate.
by Karen Brown G2G Crew (500 points)
+6 votes
Family records show that I have an ancestor who was a slave in the Cape, by the name of Helena van Malabar. I have no information about her ancestry. Her surname would indicate that she came to the Cape from Malabar, India.
by Amanda Hayes G2G Crew (380 points)
+8 votes

In my DNA test there was 10.8% Chinese and i was at a loss to know where it came from.

Well my paternal grand father was adopted and no parents could be found it turns out that the son of the adoptive father was my grand fathers father and he had made a local girl pregnant and she was half Chinese.

So I had an answer to my quandary.

This was all done by a friend who could read DNA and foll things up.

Regards 

John

by John Plowright G2G1 (1.6k points)
+8 votes
I was born in what is now Indonesia, and about 25% of my DNA is Indonesian.  My mother, grandmothers, great grandmothers and beyond were all born there.  My brick walls are mostly women, presumably native, whose partners were Dutch men.
by Marianne van der Spek G2G Crew (440 points)
+7 votes
Chow Moon  Born1826 in China, he was a builder/ Carpenter, at Fremantle until his death in1877.Chow married Mary Ann Thorpe in 1847.
by Daisy Craigie G2G4 (4.0k points)
+6 votes
Yes, well according to AncestryDNA, I have 6% SE Asian and 1% Indian. All my DNA matches that I have looked at do not show any Asian DNA. Most of my matches are Cornish, Irish or Scottish. I do however have an unknown Paternal line and and my mother's Paternal line is also unknown.
by Paul Gage G2G Crew (380 points)
+6 votes
I have Eurasian descent on my mother's side. My Portuguese, Dutch and German ancestors were 18th century settlers in Malacca in Malaysia, who married into Eurasian / Asian families.
by Peter Underwood G2G Crew (380 points)
+7 votes
My Grandmother was born in Hong Kong to an Asian mother and non-Asian father in 1902.  I have had no luck in trying to find the identity of the Asian mother.
by Janine Kenny G2G1 (1.7k points)
+7 votes
Yes, I do. My 2GGF was from somewhere in Canton. He's the reason I started really delving into my ancestry. I thought it was going to be easy and all the blocks would just fall into place. That was a decade ago and I this week I am actually still working on it. You see my 2GGM Lydia Mary Cassull had children, all girls, to three different men. The first was to an typical Anglo Australian. Her name was Ethel.Shortly after she married Mo(w) Shing also known as James Mo Shing. They had Sophia and Amy. James came to Australia in the late 1800s. By 1904 James disappears from the records and I haven't been able to find him. In 1904 my GGM, Queenie, is born and no father is listed on her certificate. In 1914 Lydia's last child, Georgina, is born. Her father is listed as George Ding. George lived behind the Cassull's in Surry Hills around the time Queenie was born. He was even stated as being her father on her marriage certificate. But for some reason after his death and Lydia's Queenie had the certificate amended. His name is struck out and replaced with Mo Shing. Queenie was also the informant for George's death certificate and she stated he was never married and had no children. Funny thing is George is buried in the same grave as her and her husband.

Over the last few days I have been trawling the DNA matches of my nan, aunt and myself to see if we have any shared matches with a cousin from Georgina's line. I'm hoping to at least prove or disprove they had the same dad even if I don't know who that was exactly.

Hopefully one day someone from Amy's line will have their DNA done and I can see if they shared the same dad or not too.

I just keep chipping away...

One thing I have discovered is that I am related to people with 100% Asian ethnicity who were born in Jamaica.
by Melissa Medway G2G Crew (870 points)
+7 votes
Both my parents were from Guangdong, China but i was born in Jamaica. Apart from my maternal grandparents, i have been unable to trace any other ancestors since i don't read Chinese. I expect that there are jiapu for both lines but i cannot access them.
by Larry Chang G2G Crew (630 points)
+6 votes
My spouse is half Japanese from his maternal side, and I read that Asian is Halop group ‘C’.  He has yet to match any Asian persons on ancestry, working to branch out to sites that attract non-USA persons, but not being pushy!

His paternal half DNA contributed a swath of Czechoslovakian /USSR/Slovak mixture! Lots of matches of family in the Pennsylvania Area, but do not expect matches from outside the USA (even if DNA is added to My Heritage; and/or GEDmatch also). His DNA, His Choice!

So All that said and he is a Leo, to boot!

Our daughter is a blend from my spouse, namely the above mentioned male’s DNA combo where she inherited %24.9 Asian & %26 Slov plus my DNA contribution of generous DNA swirls filled with Scottish/Scandanavian/UK British/German blend stated in descending order, that is most to less percentages all from her maternal side, that’s me! And she is a Fun summer Cancer sign, too! Phew!

Nothing short of amazing in having the opportunity to learn more about so many cultures that the 3 of us are comprised!

And oh, an Aquarian I am, I am!
by Emily Smyder G2G Crew (380 points)
+5 votes
A Y-500 DNA test showed my father's haplogroup to be Q-M242 and my husband is O-M175. Both Q and O are nearly exclusively found in Asia. Both men have a genealogical paper trail to England. We figured their Asian male line ancestors probably migrated to Scandinavia, became Vikings, and invaded England! Except a Google search says that the Huns never invaded Scandinavia.
by J. Salsbery G2G6 Mach 3 (31.9k points)
When you look at a map of the Mongol Empire, you might not be to off the mark with your conclusion.  While the Huns didn't actually invade Scandinavia, their Empire did include Novgordo in North West Russia and  areas around Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the North. It also included Keiv in Ukraine and areas in Belarus and Romania. So border areas like Finland, Poland, and Hungary are completely possible for migrating East Asian males during this time period.
Interesting! Thanks Michelle!
+5 votes
Yup about 20% Asian, mostly from South Asia, Burma, and Indonesia, all part of multiracial Eurasian communities that grew up around the British East India Company. Plus a little Filipina roots.
by Julia Whitty G2G1 (1.7k points)
+5 votes
It was unexpected to find Asian show up on my DNA test and I haven't totally tracked it down yet. I am currently working on another shocker which DNA testing threw at me.  Most likely when I figure this out it will lead me to the Asian connection.
by Lisa Ankrum G2G6 Mach 1 (11.1k points)
+4 votes
It’s come up in my DNA that I took with my heritage it seems to be on my mothers side .. I also have a rare blood group which I assume it comes from there.  As I have only just found out I have not researched this as I am new at this.

Thank you

Jacqueline Humphries - Ruel
by Jacqueline Humphries G2G Crew (750 points)
+5 votes
Two of my grandparents were born in Asia as children of partially military British Raj families. My Ancestry DNA results indicate an overall 15% Asian ethnicity. While I have managed to trace my grandfather's ethnicity back some distance, tracing back beyond my great grandparents on my grandmother's side has proved somewhat difficult. That, I guess, is not surprising in the circumstances. Any ideas that might help would be welcome.
by John Mayes G2G3 (3.4k points)
+5 votes
Yes I have Indian roots going way back on my father's side. This was confirmed by a 23&me DNA test.
by Living Baseley G2G Crew (350 points)
+4 votes
my great grandfather was a Chinese Miner in Tasmania - he married a daughter of an English convict (m) and Irish convict(f) in Launceston in 1879

He was known as Wah Sing but not certain if correct or changed for local understanding
by Allan Kemp G2G Crew (320 points)
+5 votes
MyHeritage revealed I have 10.4% West Asian DNA. LivingDNA revealed 31.5% Far East. A cousin once told me that our grandfather said we have Japanese ancestors. Ancestry site revealed a 3rd cousin who has 46% Japanese DNA. I don't know what to make of all of this. I've always known myself as Italian, Sicilian and Irish. I've never come across any Asian ancestors while researching my family history. Where could the Asian have come from?
by Cristina Saitta G2G Crew (690 points)
+5 votes
My DNA test shows Southern China 5%. This ethnicity, I learned, is from my maternal grandfather who had been something of a mystery. I knew that he was born in Ballarat, Australia in 1902, but there were several people with the name James Lee living around Ballarat at that time. I discovered that he was baptised James Lee Chung, the 3rd in a line of James Lee Chungs, the 1st of whom arrived in Australia on a ship named 'Canton' - presumably from Canton, China, in 1846. My grandfather's father died within  months of his birth, and his mother remarried. He and his 2 sisters dropped the 'Chung' from their name and were known in adulthood only as 'Lee'. I have not been able to find any information about my 2nd GG before his arrival in Australia.
by Laurel McKenzie G2G Crew (350 points)

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