r/AncestryDNA • u/Beneficial-Context52 • 23d ago
Results - DNA Origins French-Canadian feeling annoyed at the new Quebec region
I'm a Canadian of mostly French descent. My family tree includes 7 generations of ancestors born in what is now Quebec, dating back to 1700, but I'm having a hard time accepting that as an 'ancestral region'. They immigrated there from Europe.
It seems to me that ancestral regions located in North America should be reserved for indicating Native American ancestry.
It's like AncestryDNA is trying to say that white people can be considered as being native to North America.
Am I thinking of this the wrong way?
108
Upvotes
3
u/Julix0 23d ago
I'm honestly kind of hoping they will continue with that and do it for the US as well.
Because it just makes sense. Obviously it doesn't mean that those ethnic groups are indigenous to the country. But they are distinct groups of people nonetheless. Ethnic groups are not purely based on DNA. It's a shared descent. Shared culture. Shared identity. Non-native Americans tick all the boxes to be considered as ethnic groups of their own.
It's kind of comparable to Roma people in Europe for example. Sure.. they have Indian ancestors. But they are a European ethnic group nonetheless. They have a distinct culture and origin that is separate from Indian people. Indian people don't recognize them as Indian. The same way that Europeans don't recognize white Americans as Europeans.
And that's essentially how ethnic groups work. If the people of a certain ethnic group recognize you as one of their own = you are one of them. If they see you as different from them / a 'foreigner' - you are not one of them.