A Puerto Rican Look at: Generational 23andMe African Ancestry

/ 23andme, ancestry, Congo, Genealogy, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Puerto Rican, Puerto Rico, Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Sub-Saharan Africa / By
This blog post will be an updated report on my African ancestry from 23andMe. Last month I had posted about some of my new European Ancestry reports from 23andMe while last year I wrote about my generational African mixes from AncestryDNA (which I’ll have to update at some point as well!). Since 23andme has updated their African scores for most (I think at this point all of their past clients as well) I figured now would be a good time to go over these new results and what they look like now.

My Results

Before 23andMe upgraded their results to their current configuration, most of my African results were only listed as “West African”, this ancestry tied to my sides of the family that were enslaved in Puerto Rico and my one branch which was from Martinique and Guadeloupe from my maternal side. So when I saw that 23andMe had updated their results to be more specific, I was excited to see what they were and compare them to my AncestryDNA ones. My current Ancestry Composition is listed as being updated “February 8, 2019” which isn’t a full month since they’ve been up – it’s also important to note that these results are not set in stone. As more genotypes from around the world are included and updated, there will be more diversity most amongst their samples and the more likely it is to become clearer. Below is a screenshot of my results:

23andMe African Results – Luis Rivera [23andMe]

As you can see there are few categories of African DNA for me, these mainly being: Senegambian & Guinean; Congolese; Nigeria; Ghanian, Liberian & Sierra Leonean; as well as some “broad” categories. For the rest of the blog, I am going to concentrate on percentages assigned to current day countries* and not to those under the “broad” African categories. Also, from my results I have attached my Ancestry Timeline (screenshot below) as well as the Sub-Saharan African genes highlighted across my chromosomes.

*Though these genes are tried to current day African borders and countries, it is fairly likely that some of this DNA poured over from other nearby countries before the modernized African countries as we know them were created post-colonization. This is important to note seeing as how tribes were not necessarily restricted to these modern borders.

Ancestry Timeline – Luis Rivera [23andMe]

From there results, there are a couple of takeaways. To begin with though my Nigerian DNA is listed at 3.1% my Ancestor Timeline shows that this ancestor was probably born between 1840-1900, the only other ancestry at that similar generational spot is “Spanish/Portuguese”, which I attribute to my 3rd great-grandfather who came from Mallorca. Also, notice that the other African groups are listed at the early-mid 1700s-1840.

Highlighted Sub-Saharan African DNA – Luis Rivera [23andMe]

In my DNA above, notice that many of the segments are short, meaning that they were probably introduced into my family early on while other segments are a bit longer meaning that they aren’t that far back in history. Some of the longer stretches are Chromosome 2 (Senegambian & Guinean), Chromosome 11 (Nigerian), and though Chromosome 14 seems to be a long stretch of DNA it’s more of a chopped up mix of various regions and countries. You may also note that I have not included my X-chromosome in the photo above, this is because no West African DNA was transmitted to me through this chromosome, there is a piece of North African DNA but I am focusing on my West African results in this post seeing as how the North African piece can be most likely tied to Southern Spanish Moorish influence or even from the Canary Islands. 

Since I have tested both of my parents, you can see that each of my parents gave me different pieces of African DNA, most of it coming from my mother’s side of the family. Notice that “Senegambian & Guinean” and “Ghanian, Liberian & Sierra Leonean” is fairly equal on both sides of my family, while “Congolese” and “Nigerian” mainly comes from my mother’s side of the family. 
African DNA Parental Inheritance – Luis Rivera [23andMe]

Referencing FonteFelipe’s blog (linked directly to Puerto Rican AncestryDNA results) has been very helpful when it came to breaking down my AncestryDNA results. Not only did it allow me to learn more about my breakdown but it gave me some historical insight to the results as well. These were some of the main points I took away which I posted on my blog that were helpful for me when it came to understanding my DNA results:

  • It seems that on average, Senegal, N. Africa, and Mali were high and/or main ancestral contributions to the DNA gene pool for African DNA in Puerto Ricans. 
  • Senegal and Mali specifically create an “Upper Guinea” Founder effect in Puerto Rico, where the genes were entered into the families’ genetic pool early on and kept passing down through the various generations. 
  • South-central Hunter-Gatherers can be from an ancient gene-flow from the Pygmy/San people into the Bantu areas. 
  • These higher Senegal and SE Bantu results can be from the 1500-1600s, again causing a Founder Effect. 
  • “Mali” in the AncestryDNA categories is a hard category to fit into a box. From the colonial period, “Mali” DNA can be from Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone. Some of the slaves from the region were known as “Bambara” and others as “Zape” (these mainly the Temne from Sierra Leone) and there was definitely a presence of these peoples throughout the slave trade in Puerto Rico. 
  • There are three main regions that FonteFelipe works with when looking at the African DNA break down in AncestryDNA, these are: 
    • A) Upper Guinea: Senegal, Mali 
    • B) Lower Guinea: Ghana/Ivory Coast, Benin/Togo, Nigeria
    • C) Central Africa: Cameroon/Congo, SE Bantu, Pygmy/San (South-Central Hunter-Gatherers) 
A couple of things to notice in-regards to the differences between 23andMe and AncestryDNA:

  • On 23andMe Mali isn’t a high contributor to DNA as it was on AncestryDNA, this has also since changed on AncestryDNA with my own Mali scores drastically dropping from what they were before. I also have not seen a specific “Mali” category on 23andMe. 
  • Senegal on 23andme is roped into the region of “Senegambia and Guinea” which I would argue still creates a “founder effect” in Puerto Rico which we will see as I compare various family members. This would mean these genes were probably introduced on the earlier side of Puerto Rican history. 

Intending to organize my ancestry into similar categories of Upper and Lower Guinea as well as Central African, some of the 23andMe categories fit nicely while others not so easily. For simplicity’s sake, I am going to group my regions as such:

Linked above are FonteFelipe’s description of each region with information and maps included!

Family Results

Taking various family members and placing their results into a table on Excel allowed me to compare between them their results and find trends amongst them as well. Below is a chart I created using various family member’s results. Note: I used my great-aunt and great-uncle, both siblings of my paternal grandmother, to give me an idea of what my grandmother’s results might look like if she were alive. I also grouped the family members that belonged to each side either under my father or mother, hopefully making it easier to see how each of these members contributed to my parents and ultimately to me.

African Results [23andMe]

It is important to note that this is not the total for my family’s African results, for example “Broadly West African” was not included into this table and might be added later on when it is associated more clearly as these other groups are. Equally, North African is missing from the chart as well. There are a couple of things that stand out to me right away: 
  • The first being the “Upper Guinea” column, as FonteFelipe had mentioned there seems to be a founder effect occurring in Puerto Rico via this category and I think that trend still stands here on 23andMe, you can see that each of my family members for the most part hover between 3-8% range and each of my family members has received a similar amount. 
  • The second column of “Ghanian, Liberian, & Sierra Leonean” seems to be fairly small across many of my family members. The highest on my paternal side is my paternal great-aunt on my Rivera side with 1.3% while my mother’s results are at 2.9%, my maternal grandmother at 3.0% and my maternal grandfather at 6.8%. Since my maternal great-grandfather only has 0.8% it is likely that my great-grandmother contributed more to my grandmother under this category. 
  • The third column of “Nigerian” is very interesting, as you can see many of my family members receive rather low scores. However, myself, my mother, and my maternal grandfather are amongst the highest received percentages. It seems that via my maternal grandfather my connection to Nigeria is rather strong, which I’ll talk about more down below. Similarly, my grandmother via her father seems to have some Nigerian DNA there but not as strong as my maternal grandfather. 
  • The fourth column refers to Congolese DNA which I seem to inherit mainly from mother’s side, specifically my maternal grandmother. Though my maternal grandfather scores 4% himself. 
  • Lastly, the 5th column is Sudanese which is interesting seeing as how it’s Eastern Africa but my mother and her grandmother receive a small percentage of 0.2% and 0.1% – I don’t see it as something super important but I figured I’d add it seeing as how two people in my family inherited in different generations. 


Nigerian DNA


Amongst my three brothers, the difference were inherited is basically zero (only a 0.4% difference really) of the Nigerian DNA. You can also see other African scores as well between us. My little brother received the most African DNA at 18.7% while I come in second place at 17.5% and older brother at third with 16.8%. 
Nigerian DNA [23andMe]

As you can see, we’ve each inherited about ~3% of Nigerian DNA, this number goes up to 12.2% with my maternal grandfather. This unusually high percentage in his DNA makes me question where it’s from. I imagine that not all of it came from one specific ancestor, especially after seeing that others in my family have inherited Nigerian DNA who are not connected to him, but it does raise the question of who specifically? My grandfather’s ancestry timeline says that this Nigerian DNA came about in the years 1820-1880, this would mean that somewhere in his 2nd-3rd great-grandparents someone carried Nigerian DNA and a good amount of it. My grandfather does have long stretches of Nigerian DNA, his entire Chromosome 8 on one side is entirely Nigerian.

Grandfather’s Nigerian DNA [23andMe]

There is no perfect science to how much an ancestor will give you but there is an average per each generation. At 12.5%, that would be a great-grandparent’s DNA, and I know that I have no Nigerian ancestor that close. However, there is the case of my grandfather’s great-grandmother María Paulina Gustave Lautin born in Puerto Rico in the year 1867, could most of this Nigerian DNA come from her parents? Both of Paulina’s parents were born slaves on Martinique and Guadeloupe so having recent Nigerian DNA from them is very possible. Paulina’s own grandmother (Eglantine Lautin) was born in Africa around the year 1821, fitting into the DNA timeline provided by 23andMe.

Conclusions

For now, I can’t be too sure if I am on the right track in terms of finding out if my Nigerian DNA is mainly from my Gustave-Lautin line. I would have to test some cousins from this line to see what their Nigerian score is and see if I can add a brother of my grandfather to see what his score is as well. I also understand that these results feel like they are ever changing, so who knows what they’ll look like in a year or beyond. For now, I’m taking my results with a grain of salt but it’s interesting to see how each of my family members has inherited different amounts and how those get passed on to different generations and even to people within one generation.

A next step would be to identify on DNAPainter where I can attribute these Nigerian segments along my DNA and find potentially cousins that also fall under those areas in order to find out our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA).

I am also excited for the day my DNA will be tied to certain individuals in the “old world” and hopefully provide me a glance to where my ancestors were from in Africa before the slave trade.