More attempts by scientific community to speciate a "Mormon race"

So, I like Discover magazine.

I like science.  I'm not religious, although I grew up that way. 

But, I think it's interesting the subtle ways that some of them still fall prey to a kind of snarky racism, a la Social Darwinism or eugenics.  I may be overstating my case a little bit, but.....

I suppose if I'm honest, I just viscerally disliked being thrown into a category when I first took this genetic test.  (The whole "CEU" thing.)  I didn't choose to be born Mormon, even though Mormons think I did.  (A Pre-existence condition.... inside joke, possibly influenced by current news.)

I had to make peace with the idea that I was genetically part of a group.  I also liked the genetic test for the ability to deconstruct that identity into its component parts, to better understand myself and my environment.  And now that I've been made into an ethnicity (let's go all the way, and call it a race), I can be actively offended at racial slurs that stereotype me according to my presumed background and presumed beliefs. (tee hee)

And just now, as I am looking at Discover magazine, and I am a little appalled at the way they talk about Mormons.  Do a search term for "Mormon" on their website.  It appears that since Mormons are the least favorite group of mainstream Christians, they are ripe for a flogging from the snarky bloggers who verbally strut their stream of consciousness over yonder.

I'm just not sure how an article with a title like this, especially in a blog called "Gene Expression," would get past a thoughtful editor:  Is Mormonism relatively weird or absolutely weird???

Two years later, the author appears to have a change of heart, or more like he feels some social pressure to not be so, um, xenophobic -- Mormonism isn't that weird  he lets us know, as he has crowned himself Decider of the Weird.  Interesting, since my Super Scientific Face Peering Technology has alerted me to the fact that in the US, he is a genetic outlier.   (That's what the scientists call oddballs, and I've seen a few comments on 23andme boards where some of them are happy that they aren't THAT....)







Then we have this one -- What does a generic Mormon look like? The answer probably won't surprise you.

So, I am trying to figure out just why I am offended by this.  It's kind of funny.  I think we all do it. My husband and I claim to have Mo-Dar -- the analog to gaydar, where you just kind of know when a person is Mormon.  "It's just that special spirit."  

I think it goes back to being pigeonholed. 

 No one has mistaken me for a Mormon recently, so it isn't that.

 I think you have to be actively living the lifestyle to give off the aura.  It could be the "eternal smile" of special underwear peering through one's shirt that really lets people know.  The lowdown from the urban mythology in Discover appears to be that Mormons are more shiny or something because of their intense spirituality....

"Perceptions of health were also responsible for differences in perceived spirituality, explaining folk hypotheses that Mormons are distinct because they appear more spiritual than non-Mormons."

Yes, they misspelled "Background".  And what the !@#$ is an "ecologically important group distinction"?  By face peering (it's like Joseph Smith and his peepstones, yo), you are saving the environment...?  I guess the "ROFL" is a clue that this is done at least partly in jest.

For some reason, the face in H reminds me of the Nauvoo Temple sunstone.  It's probably the focus on the face....

Dad's Dodecad Oracle X -- Population Fitting

These results illustrate a little bit of why we wonder about the accuracy or exactly what we can say with precision about any of these tests:

Dodecad V3

 

Dodecad K12B

Dodecad K7B

Dodecad World9

What I find a little odd about these Oracle X results, is that they don't really seem to mesh with the Mixed Mode population results.  For example, in Dodecad K7B, my dad consistently shows up as Moroccan, Mozabite, Moroccan Jew at a small percentage.  I believe this is accurate, since I have looked at his Rare SNPs and found matches with Haiti only, Morocco only or both Haiti and Morocco.  However, here K7b on Oracle X comes up with some new, unmentioned groups that I want to learn more about, but with whom connections are probably most like distant cousins than descendants.  (If that makes sense.)

I'm going to make a list now of new groups found through Oracle X, that haven't been mentioned in the other Oracles.  A few of them show as 0%, or 0% in one option but some percentage in the other option.  My understanding is in this tool, if it shows up at all, it is because it registered something, although obviously slight.  Also ASW -- is African American from Southwest. (Surely they mean South East US...?).  IBS is Iberian Spanish.  CEU is Utahns.

Athabaskan -- A Native American link, possibly.  Definitely think it could be possible, based on the Mormon lore.  Although the groups in Wikipedia appear to be geographically unlikely -- I think Algonquian is the term for the Native groups of the Northeast, and that seems most probable to me, since that is the side of America that was colonized first.  However, it could still be a stand-in for that -- although why not Finnish, too, if they are linked via Siberia?

Ecuadorian -- Ecuadorians appear to be primarily indigenous (Native American), Spaniard & also sub-Saharan African.  Soooo, it's possible we have all three of those, they just weren't 'assembled' in Ecuador.

Colombian / CLM 30 (also Columbian) -- " Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, Middle Easterners and Amerindians."  So, also possible we have the Middle East in my dad, along with the other three ethnic groups also found in Ecuadorians.

Papuan --  From New Guinea.  I'm just not sure how this fits in.

Hadza-He -- From Tanzania, lower east Africa.  This could be the Subsaharan.  I understand that African DNA has had much more time to 'speciate' or differentiate itself, so I wonder why it isn't possible to get a finer-tuned reading on the African DNA.  (I also get Yoruba, Luhya, Bantu-Zulu, Masaai....)

Dominican -- This seems plausible, given the Haiti/ Morocco rare SNP finding.

Khasi -- "The Khasi are an indigenous or tribal people, the majority of whom live in the State of Meghalaya in north east India, with small populations in neighbouring Assam, and in parts of Bangladesh."  Perhaps one of our English folk is a gypsy......

Bonda -- "The Bonda (also known as the Bondo, Bondo Poraja, Bhonda, or Remo) are an ancient tribe of people numbering approximately 12,000 (2011 census) who live in the isolated hill regions of the Malkangiri district of southwestern Odisha, India, near the junction of the three states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh." -- Perhaps the same gypsy connection....

Paniya--- Appears to be another  way of naming an India connection

Gara -- Wikipedia isn't finding an ethnicity that corresponds to this name.  Interestingly, it is a Basque newspaper, part of several Romanian village names, a village in Iran & a town in Morocco -- all which may or may not be what is meant here.

Cambodians -- Not sure how this would apply.  I have heard Davidski or others on 23andme forums say something about Asian being a stand-in for the proto-European, since Europeanism apparently evolved from Asianism.  (I know those aren't words.)

Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4%.^[3]

Juang -- "One of the primitive tribes, surviving from the stone age, of Odisha, India".  My dad gets several cave men type results on another tool on GEDmatch.  More so than anyone else I saw on the 23andme forums.  He's just primitive somehow.  Most of those cavemen are from Europe, like Otzi the Iceman.  I guess this is just another one of his cave-people ancestors.

Gadaba -- Another way of naming an India connection.  "The Gadabas are one of the Scheduled Tribes of India."

Cypriots -- From Cyprus, the Mediterranean country.

Cantabria -- Sounds pretty.  "Cantabria (English /kænˈtɑːbriə/, /kænˈtæbriə/; Spanish: [kanˈtaβɾja]) is a Spanish historical community^[2] and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community (province of Biscay), on the south by Castile and León (provinces of León, Palencia and Burgos), on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea (Bay of Biscay)."

Sardinian -- A Mediterranean island.  Possibly more evidence of my dad's primitive essence.  (haha)  They are a very interesting group from a genetic perspective -- 

"Sardinians are one of the most genetically isolated populations in Europe, though they are the single population that encloses all of the genetic characteristics of the Europeans, such as the highest variability of the Y chromosome found among the European peoples.^{[32][33][34][35]}

According to some studies, along with the Basques they represent an example of a pre-Indo-European population surviving in Europe from the Paleolithic period.^[36][37]

Pulliyar -- Appears to be another India reference

Russian -- Garsh.  Maybe his R1a1a haplogroup?   That haplogroup has high saturation there -- 33.4 to 49%.  The average is 46.7%.
"Autosomally, Russians are generally similar to populations in central-eastern Europe^[48]"

Sidi -- Well, I think it's supposed to be spelled "Siddi" -- that would be another way of naming an India connection.  Or, maybe Pakistan....

Fulani -- A West African group -- They are in Guinea, but are they in New Guinea? I just keep thinking about a phrase in Spanish -- "Fulano de tal" -- which is the Spanish (Mexican?) way of saying "What'shisname".  Which is sometimes what this genetic exercise makes me feel like.

Bulala -- African.  A Muslim people from Chad.  Apparently influenced by French colonialism.

Mada -- I'm not sure, but I think it's another way of naming an India connection.  I like this statement I found about an exemplar of this group, also known as the Yousafzai, a Pashtoon tribe: 

The Yousafzai is an agriculturist, generally fine, well-limbed man, of a good physique and appearance with great deal of race-pride, well dressed and cheery, while his hospitality is proverbial.

”

My father's Dodecad 4 grandparent results

Again, my dad is 1/4 British, 1/4 colonial American, 1/4 more British, and 1/4 Danish.

Here are what the 4 Dodecad tools have to say about his 4 grandparents.

Dodecad V3:

Dodecad K12b:

Dodecad K7B:

Dodecad World9:

My father's Dodecad Mixed Mode Populations

Not going to speculate about anything just yet.

Here's my dad on Dodecad V3, Mixed Mode:

Here's my dad on Dodecad K12b, Mixed Mode:

Here's my dad on Dodecad K7b, Mixed Mode:

Here's my dad on Dodecad World9, Mixed Mode:

I find these results somewhat different from Eurogenes.  I try to get a more precise answer as to why they differ, but I haven't yet received a satisfying answer.  There is overlap that might not be readily obvious.  For example -- Yoruba in Eurogenes may be partly accounted for with Moroccans, Canarias, Puerto Rican and/or Brazilian.  Basque may be a subset of the English population somehow.  His Family Tree DNA results also show French, Spanish & Basque DNA.

And then there's this guy:

It may just be the moustache, but I think he has a bit of a Spanish look.

My father's Dodecad results - 1. Pie charts

The Dodecad tool was the first tool I used at GEDmatch to parse out my DNA, and I was somewhat shocked when it knew immediately that I was from Utah.  (Technically I have lived elsewhere, but really Utah is the locus of many family generations....)  This is where I first heard the term "CEU".

 Dieneke's anthropology blog is a formidable read for someone who has no background in anthropology, but still covers many interesting threads.  There are four tools through GEDmatch from Dienekes that section up the world in different ways and provide interesting perspectives, which we are then left to interpret and analyze.

I am going to show the pie charts for the four tools together, so I can compare them against each other.

This is Dodecad V3 -- this is the first calculator I used and the one that immediately showed Utah (CEU) as the top result in the population finder.

This is Dodecad K12b.  I like it, because it uses 12 populations and so gives more choices to compare. 

This is Dodecad K7b for my dad -- the world is grouped into only 7 types, and so results vary.  However, it should be mentioned that each test still has sample populations that test out with an average percentage for each type.  So, for example, there are British participants in each test with known, full British ancestry.  They will test differently with different amounts of each component in each test.  So, in other words, it's likely that your main group that you align with should still be available for comparison to see how much you coincide with or trend away from the average.

Below is World9 -- World9 is unique compared to the others, in that it actually creates an Amerindian component.  This shows a little higher than what I have estimated were possible if my g+ grandfather Solomon Mack were actually 100% Native American in a previous post, which we know he isn't.  So, it's either a Finnish thing, or a Finnish and hint of Native American that can account for this result.

One thing I might want to try later is narrowing down which chromosomes for my dad show high in Amerindian with World9 and see how that compares with other tools -- like the East Asian & Siberian above, his McDonald painting, my painting, etc.  I have already found a Finnish person linked to the largest "Siberian" segment, but haven't ruled out a small segment on the 17th chromosome as Native American.

Dad's Eurogenes, chapter ii -- Oracle X

I'm having difficulty with Blogger, so I'm starting a new post for the Eurogenes Oracle X results for my dad.

Oracle X has given me some exotic results on other tools, although Eurogenes, for my dad at least, seems pretty true to his acknowledged family tree.  I will be posting all of the different tool's results for review and contemplation in other posts.

Oracle X does acknowledge that the results are speculative at this time, and may change in the future.

Here is Oracle X, option 1, EU test for my dad:

Here is Oracle X, option 2, EU test for my dad:

Here is Oracle X, option 1, J test for my dad:

Here is Oracle X, option 2, J test for my dad:

My father -- Several Genetic Perspectives -- 1. Eurogenes -- EU & J tests

This is my dad according to Eurogenes, the EU test on GEDmatch.  It is supposed to be the best test for Europeans, as it is uses more European samples (I think that's why).  More about Davidski and his EU test (for Europeans) and J-Test (for Jews) can be found on his blog.

There is a feature called Mixed Mode populations that I love dearly, but I think I overuse it.  I think you are not supposed to over-believe in the secondary populations.  Basically what it does as I understand it, is it takes all of your ancestors, via your SNPs that have been tested, and makes them separate into two camps on the globe.  And it does that 30 times, since there are many different poles that can be found within a person's genetic story -- to give you many different perspectives.  It cannot pin down specific ancestors and tell you who they are and where they came from.  I believe it is theoretically possible to do that, but you'd need lots of people providing samples, who also happen to have really thorough paper-based pedigrees. (Ancestry.com, anyone?)



I'm going to now show the pie chart for my dad on the J-test, and then get to mixed-mode populations after that.  Then I'll show you some other charts of  different tools by different geneticists.  (Dodecad & Harappa World.)

Just so you know, my dad's results look pretty standard for a British person.  The West African (which is definitely there, but isn't enough to make it onto the pie chart) may be the exception.

Also, my dad is 1/4 recently British (Lancashire, Nottingham, etc), 1/4 colonial American (British, Scots Irish, others), one more fourth recently British (Chedworth), and 1/4 Danish.

The Oracle-4 feature is nice -- it goes from 1 set of possibilities to 4.  I am going to just show the four grandparents presented in each test, to see how it compares to what we know about his grandparents through their paper trail.

Here are the 4 grandparents through the EU test.  Seems pretty close:

Here are the 4 grandparents through the J test.   Very similar results:

The Mixed Mode population on Eurogenes doesn't veer very much from our published family tree information.  We know he has 50% British, 25% Danish and 25% American which includes more British, Scots Irish, French Huguenot, Irish, Palatine German and possibly others, including African most likely.   However, as I shall show on other tools, other ethnicities do come up, although it could always be an average or composite of different kinds of people -- similarities, instead of actual descendency.

Here is the mixed mode population results for the EU test:

 Here is the mixed mode results for the J test:

NO means Norwegian. DK is Denmark.  IE is Irish.  EE is Estonian.  The other ethnicities with 0% are just placeholders, as you can tell from the fact that they are in alphabetical order, starting with A.

Crypto-Jews..... meet Crypto-Mormons

I just found this story today, which I think is cute. Yes, "cute".


 Perhaps I should have something more profound to say about it... like... somehow it gets at the heart of what I'm researching here. .... The heart's inexplicable attractions.

Why is it that religious traditions that are mocked or deemed inferior still struggle on in the hearts of man?  I don't have a good answer, and maybe this is all spin, but religious fervor that lives on in secret -- when there is no apparent social or economic motive to sustain it -- is something that does puzzle me and I think even delights me. (Although I am not much of a believer in anything, and I definitely see the downside of zealotry.)


Ok here it is -- there are Crypto-Mormons in Russia!!

Western Folklore link

 "'Whole tribes of Native Siberians call themselves Mormons. Many people in villages around Orenburg and Samara are Mormons but will deny it if you ask them. My grandfather was a Mormon, but he died long ago,'" are paraphrases of the more common story types."

 I have to pay more to read more... $16.  Maybe later.

Anyway, I just find this fascinating given prior discussions about Native Americans and Siberians having an ancient link.  Also a segment of one of my dad's chromosomes was believed to be Native American but then turned out to be Siberian with a more recent Finnish expression....

  Read more here

Marlow, New Hampshire & the Missing Squidoo

Silly title, because -- my source for this post has been taken down.

There was a very informative Squidoo lens, which apparently had to be locked due to spam infiltration.  I hope they didn't mean me....

Here's the link in case it comes back up...

http://www.squidoo.com/marlowhistorynh

So, the lens was a very interesting page from "owlperson" -- here's owlperson -- http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/owlperson

They had a lot of good local history about Marlow, New Hampshire and a lot of it related to the Mack family.  I will keep checking the link to see if it comes back up.  Anyway, a good chunk of it had to do with the Mack family, which as previous blog posts indicate, intrigue me due to the relationship to Joseph Smith.  I posed the question to owlperson about the possibility of African ancestry coming from the Mack line.  I received this reply, and I am posting it here because it's very informative and has new leads for me to follow:

owlperson said:
Hi, I'm really sorry that the Marlow-Lyme lens had to be withdrawn because of spammers coming through links to a Forum which turned out to be spam-heaven; however, I found your last message still intact. 

 I wouldn't be in the least surprised to find African blood in any of the descendants of the Marlow folk for exactly the reason you state. I looked up some members of the Mack family in one of the Carolinas (I think) and found them to of quite dark skin tone. I believe Macks had plantations on Barbados. I suspect that Aaron Huntley I of Lyme, related to the Macks, had an alternative family in the Carolinas. I would not be surprised if they were people of color. 

Also, although Solomon Gee, one of our early settlers from Lyme and also related to the Mack family, was apparently a clothier, that would have involved, at the least, importation of cotton and exotic fibers, but probably also cotton cultivation. The related DeWofe family of Lyme and RI was involved in every sort of trade you can imagine, including slave trade. I have a puzzle here in Marlow, a fellow living with or beside Lois Huntley (" called a widow" before the death of her husband Christopher Ayers) called Libares Aries (Libares Ayers?). Doesn't it sort of make you wonder who he was, what his role was, what his ancestry was, and what he looked like??

Joseph Smith and Jewish Privateers

I have been accumulating some interesting sources about the possibility of Sephardic Jewish ancestry for Joseph Smith.  I didn't want to just let the cat out of the bag, but I have to start somewhere.

First of all, there is the fact of Balthazar DeWolf.  I was quick to research him, because I like his name.  He is a great grandfather (exact greats presently unknown)  to Joseph Smith, through Solomon Mack.   Also, my 10th great grandparent.  You can find a lot of information about him and his family on the web. 

First off, the DeWolf family is supposed to  be responsible for funding around 25% of the slave trade in North America.  Beyond embarrassing.  The internets tell me there was a tradition of privateering in the family, which basically amounts to government-sanctioned piracy. 

And several sites have indicated the DeWolfs and others involved in the Triangle Trade were crypto- Sephardic Jews.  One of these sources was even the Rhode Island Jewish Community Center. They are facing facts, so why shouldn't we?

I found a new article today from a Dr Elizabeth Hirschman that cites there is DNA evidence for a group of Crypto- Jews in England who were involved in naval activity and privateering. 

She says:

The research to be presented argues that a large, but largely unacknowledged, group of crypto-Jewish Britons of Sephardic descent was present in England from the reign of Henry VIII onward to that of his daughter Elizabeth I, and that this community played a key role in guiding Britain’s naval development and New World colonization efforts. In particular, the new data source of DNA will be introduced as a way to support efforts of historical revision.

http://h06.cgpublisher.com/proposals/343/index_html

She does give some names of which the names of my family units are not mentioned, so the link is through occupation, place and intimation of religion. 

I found this particularly interesting:

Among the most prominent of this set of mariners were Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Phillip Sidney, Robert Cavendish, John Hawkins, Richard Grenville and Martin Frobisher. This group was united by its origins in southwestern England (Cornwall and Devon), its fervent Protestantism and marked anti-Catholicism, and its antipathy for Spain. Less known, but perhaps of even greater importance, is that the group of privateers was also bonded closely by marriage, kinship and business dealings – in some cases spanning several generations.

This gives me something to check for when looking at individuals surrounding the DeWolf line. I have noticed some strong intermarriage tendencies in other lines neighboring the Mack/Smith connection but I do not believe they originate from Southwestern England. 

Hutterite Cousins Possible?

23andme sent me an automated email today, saying my daughter had fifteen new cousins. 

I have ceased actively trying to make new genetic connections, since the searching is often futile and I am not sure what my real objective in looking is, or should be. 

However, I found something interesting in the new cousins which I am not going to use to make grandiose religious genealogies.  It's just cool to learn about new people. 

Anyhoo, some of these new cousins have the rare mitochondrial DNA of X2C1. I found out this gene, which is rare in Europeans is found commonly in the friendly-sounding German religion known as Hutterites. Apparently they are Anabaptists and as such have a link to the Amish and the Mennonites. 

23andme article can be found here.

 

I think this is most likely a link to my husband.  He has members in his family tree who were Amish or Mennonite.   At some point at least one, maybe more, became Mormon.  Also this individual has J man-DNA. Which is interesting since I have also heard there may be a Jewish link to Mennonites. ( Need more sources.)

Confusingly, the J grandpa is an adoptive grandparent. So we aren't sure if my husband has a genetic link to the Anabaptists or not. 

Maybe this piece of information indicates that he does.  Or maybe it is just a fun and fabulous coincidence, further illustrating the connectivity of the human family. 

William Wines Phelps --

One thing I did like growing up in the LDS church was the music.  I enjoyed singing with a group and the feeling of belonging that brings.  I am sure many people stay in their respective churches more from the spiritual feeling you get from singing as part of a group than from the rhetoric and tall tales you are expected to digest as reality.  I think I probably stayed in church longer than most persons with a similar agnostic bent, because I accompanied the singing on the piano frequently during various church meetings.

One of the songs I actually really liked that my husband informed me just now is "creepy" is one of the songs written by William Wines Phelps,  a man with a pretty interesting life story, who went in and out of allegiance to Mormonism.  (I still like the song and do not feel it is at all dogmatic -- just full of friendly wonder.)

The song is called "If You Could Hie to Kolob".  Kolob being the planet God lives on, according to Mormon theology as dictated by Joseph Smith.  Rereading the lyrics while thinking about the possible genetic origins of  Mormons gave new life to the tune for me:

There is no end to matter

There is no end to space

There is no end to spirit

There is no end to race. 

There is no end to glory

There is no end to love

There is no end to being

There is no death above


Husband thinks I am reading too much into the "race", and must think that means we are all little hamsters on our running wheel, forever trying to get ahead of everyone else.  Well, Mormonism sometimes feels like that, but I don't think that's what the line means.

Here's a photo of the author of those lines:

I am interested in his pheno-genotype just based on his picture, and also on his biography.  I was chatting with a poster on a 23andme forum with a fellow of mostly British origins who studied genealogy and DNA for a career, and who lives in Canada with the Mohawk nation.  While I was wildly speculating about the genetic origins of Mormons, I brought up a photo of W.W. Phelps.  He informed me that there was an individual by the last name of Phelps who temporarily joined the Mohawks in Canada, but then returned to English society in America.  Whether there is a true link there or not, I do not know.  But, I can tell you some interesting facts I learned about him reading Wikipedia.

Born in Hanover Township, New Jersey, his father Enon Phelps and mother Mehitable Goldsmith moved the family to Homer, New York, in 1800. 

In 1827 he relocated to Canandaigua, New York, where he began publishing and edited the anti-Masonic newspaper Ontario Phoenix through 1828. Phelps has been referred to by Dean Jessee as "one of [the] founders" of the anti-Masonic movement in New York.<sup>[1]:650-51

(Interesting that he is anti-Masonic, given the presumed Masonic bent of the Mormon faith.)

 a I suppose I am just highlighting these facts and omitting other details because they hint more at ideological, political, genetic and religious identity.  I am interested in the synergistic nature of Mormonism, and I believe that can be evidenced through struggles between conflicting ideology.  I'm curious about the name Goldsmith.  I wonder why he's Anti-Masonic.  I know he has mostly English heritage.  And I am continuing to explore the tension that gives rise to the formation of a "new race", if such a thing is possible, or was desired by early Mormon pioneers.  Curious why people feel the need to break away, and why others decide to join them......</sup>

Photo-- Almira Mack Scobey Covey

This is my 4th great grandmother, Almira Mack.  She was Joseph Smith's first cousin.  

23andMe Voted me off the Native American Island

So, I first got tested with 23 and Me.

I am happy with their service, for all the information I learned from a very talented and informed group of commenters in their community forums.  I still would recommend them, despite the fact that they appeared to make a decision, based on my chatter on aforementioned forums about the possibility of Native ancestry for Joseph Smith.  There could be some other explanation, but since they didn't provide me with one, I'm not going to bother to have them explain themselves.

They originally assigned me a Native American segment on chromosome 17.  The same segment appears on my dad's Doug McDonald painting.  It also appears on my daughter's 23 and Me painting.

So they assigned it to me, and then they took it away, and I have screenshots to prove it.    I do feel I was targeted, since they failed to remove it from my daughter.  It seems pretty silly, because I am asking these questions out of genuine curiosity, motivated by questions brought up from growing up Mormon, and not out of disrespect for anyone.  I know there could be some other explanation, but if the other explanation is about new information found, then they are a bit remiss in their thoroughness.  To wit, my daughter's DNA.

Original painting --

New chromosome painting, no longer showing 0.1% Native American:

It looks like I now have more Scandinavian.....They also seem less certain about my Southern European.  Maybe they were trying to give me credit somehow for what I found out about my dad's 8th chromosome being Finnish.  The problem is, I was talking about the 8th chromosome segment on my dad who was tested with Family Tree DNA, not the segment three generations share on chromosome 17 that has yet to be fully explored.

Oh well.....I don't suppose any of this is "gospel" just yet....that includes all of my speculation and all of theirs.  This was the "speculative" view.