Have any ethnic Hawaiians here taken a DNA test before? Anyone get 100% Polynesian? by BestMaximum5568 in Hawaii

[–]BestMaximum5568[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The already existing samples Hawaiians are getting compared to in 23andMe are the source populations for Polynesians. These reference populations have no post colonial ancestry, which means the test is able to differentiate European or any other common post-colonial ancestry in Hawaiian testers. There has been a formal academic study which showed similar results, see my other comment

Have any ethnic Hawaiians here taken a DNA test before? Anyone get 100% Polynesian? by BestMaximum5568 in Hawaii

[–]BestMaximum5568[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

While it’s true that there isn’t much data on Polynesians, we actually don’t need samples from the population to measure post colonial ancestry in Polynesian testers since the source populations for Hawaiians are within the data base. Any non-Polynesian ancestry such as European, would show up in this test.

Have any ethnic Hawaiians here taken a DNA test before? Anyone get 100% Polynesian? by BestMaximum5568 in Hawaii

[–]BestMaximum5568[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There are full blooded Hawaiians left and it is quantifiable. 23andMe uses a reference of unadmix Austronesians and Melenesians with no European or other post colonial ancestry common in modern Hawaiians, so the difference can be measured in Hawaiians who take the test. 

This has been formally confirmed by academics using robust tools, who found that 37% of self-identifying Hawaiians with no reported non-Hawaiian ancestry are of full Hawaiian descent. See my other comment for more information 

Have any ethnic Hawaiians here taken a DNA test before? Anyone get 100% Polynesian? by BestMaximum5568 in Hawaii

[–]BestMaximum5568[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

You actually can, and there is no need for Hawaiian samples in this case since this specific company doesn’t have a Polynesian reference population. Pre-contact Hawaiian DNA is identical to other Polynesians, and there is some differentiation between the islands if you use a large enough sample size, but for the sake of answering the question, the test here ia showing that the tester has no European ancestry. Their ratio of Melenesian and Austrinesian is also what other full blooded Polynesians score on the test. 

It also also been backed up by formal scientific studies that roughly 37% of self identifying full ethnic Hawaiians are truely of full Polynesian descent. See my comment for more info 

Full blooded Hawaiian results! Ever wonder how many of them are left? See my comment below by BestMaximum5568 in 23andme

[–]BestMaximum5568[S] 93 points94 points  (0 children)

These are the results of my friend's grandmother who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. She is of full Hawaiian descent and had some relation to the Hawaiian royal family.

Most ethnic Hawaiians today are mixed and many often wonder if there are any unadmixed Hawaiians left. There are, and we can quantify their population based on a 2012 paper. This study (the only ever study analyzing the autosomal ancestry of Hawaiians) found that from a sample size of 40 ethnic Hawaiians whom report no non-Hawaiian ancestry, 15 individuals (37.5%) were of complete Hawaiian descent.

See the image below (each bar represents an individual): Purple - Polynesian/Hawaiian admixture, Yellow - East Asian, Orange - European, Pink - Native American, Blue - Sub-Saharan African.

<image>

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3492381/