in ancestery DNA are Maori classed as Polynesia or Oceania

[frederickay]

Hi I dont know how ancestry DNA works in respect to NZ Maori being specifically Polynesian New
Zealand or are they in the Oceania group. I am looking for someone who we dont know if they are Polynesian Pacific Islander . Samoan or  Polynesian  NZ Maori. Any help welcomed.. Fred

[kiwihalfpint]

Hi Fred,

Someone in our family had theirs done, not full Maori, and it was put down as Polynesian (Hawaii, Samoan and Tongan) 24%.  Another member wants to get theirs done, just to see if they get the same results.


Cheers
KHP

[minniehaha]

This article may be of interest to you......

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11837408


Minniehaha.

[whiteout7]

Finding families that share your DNA is more helpful though if you are adopted or ancestry unknown as this can point to a clearer origin of ancestry?

[hurworth]

The ethnicity/admixture results alone can not distinguish between NZ Maori and ancestry from places like Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa etc because genetically there is very little difference.

They are so closely related that your friend may even get cousin matches in places as far away as Hawaii. 

[minniehaha]

This may be of interest...........

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=786838.0


Minniehaha.

[hurworth]

frederickay - would you mind explaining what you are trying to find out?  Is someone trying to understand their results or hoping that a DNA test result might tell them the heritage of an ancestor?

[frederickay]

Yes we are trying to decipher dna results of an unknown grandfather. with the Hawaii /Samoan /Tongan .. suggestion and being in New Zealand we are trying to find out if there was an obvious DNA differene between NZ Maori and the Pacific islands.  fred

[hurworth]

I'm assuming the person who has tested is a grandchild of the unknown grandfather.

I think your best bet for finding out more about the grandfather would be to look at the cousin matches.  However Polynesians are an endogamous (intermarried) population so often the shared DNA with a relative is higher than in non-endogamous populations.  Also, other people with Maori ancestry who appear to be quite closely related due the amount of shared DNA aren't all that closely related.

I manage a few DNA kits, and a few relatives of the testers have some Maori ancestry.  What I have noticed is paternal relative Gt-Uncle Jim's son might be a mutual match with my relative and also with maternal relative Gt-Aunt Margaret's descendant.  I was scratching my head about this because I couldn't understand how they matched each other until I realised that both of these cousins had some Maori ancestry, and not from the same hapu, tribe or even the same island.



In the end I realised that they were matching each other through their Maori ancestry.  .  I couldn't make sense of some known maternal matches being mutual matches with some known paternal matches until I remembered that these various mutual matches that weren't making sense had some Maori ancestry.  Now when I find a mutual match tha