Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Is George Lopez really 55% European?

Megan Smolenyak has some doubts about the type of genetic testing used on Lopez Tonight:
When Larry David responded as if his 37 percent Native American results were a joke, his instincts were correct. The best known quirk of the test Lopez Tonight is using is its problem distinguishing between Asian and Native American (understandable, given that if you go back far enough, Native Americans originate from Asia), but a lesser known quirk is its tendency to assign Native American percentages to many of Iberian, Italian and Ashkenazi heritage - and Larry David is Ashkenazi. Sorry to burst any "imagine that!" bubbles, but more sophisticated testing would likely produce significantly different results.

So George, are you really 55 percent European, 32 percent Native American, nine percent Asian and four percent African? Maybe, but I have my doubts. This same test pegged me as eight percent Native American and six percent African, which is curious, given that I'm half-Irish/half-Slavic and most of my family has only been in America for three or four generations. More current testing identified me as one hundred percent European - admittedly blander, but certainly more credible for someone of my ancestry.

I truly am grateful to Lopez Tonight for shining a spotlight on genetic genealogy and I hope the show will continue to encourage its guests to take DNA tests, but please, call me so I can save you some serious backpedaling down the road! I'll even spring for your retesting, George!

Many of the commercial DNA tests available to the general public are still works in progress and the results should be taken with a large grain of salt particularly if they conflict with information you already know about your ancestry.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, you sound like you are mad but don't blame George blame the tests. You don't like the results because you want to be 100% European and you're not and that's sad. I've notice even if you haven't that some Slavic people have Asian features.

Average Joe said...

I am not mad. I am interested in the area of population genetics which is why I linked to the article. The problem is that many of these tests are still in their early development phase and still have major bugs to be worked out.