My friend is a mystery

After hounding him for months to get an Ancestry test to find his family, here is my buddy who was adopted (results obtained yesterday):

Hints: American, not "one" ethnicity, brown eyes, very dark brown hair that appears black, does not grow chest hair.

Has been told by Native Americans that he looks Native, by Mexicans that he looks Mexican, and by Iranians that he looks Iranian. His supposed ethnicity has been a running joke in our circle of friends but the mystery was just solved. How close can the experts here get?

(I have obtained permission to post these photos)




(click to enlarge)

As expected, nobody has a guess

So far nobody (in person) has correctly guessed this fellow or even gotten close.

..... armenian

Half Lebabese 3/8 Mexican 1/8 African American

.....south Eastern European to West Asian

I have a friend who is Turkish and they look alike.

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he has some typical meditterean charactristics,

No Not Armenian,

the problem is his nose, and hears

he has nose that looks East Europe (towards up) but wide at low base
his ears are towards outside,

as face seems to be a mix of East Europe and mediterrean,
so I would put him Balkans and Turkey,

a zone from Albania N Greece S Serbia Slav-makedonia, S Bulgaria, and all North parts of Turkey From Adrianoupolis/Edirne to Kastamone Pontos Laz till Sohoumi Georgia.
ok Armenia is not excluded but not so strong for me
Not South Greece and S Turkey though

photo 3 the nose is reaching very law,
in photo 2 the nose shows a bit looking up

If am forced to enter a more specific region,
I would say North and East Turkey (all possible ethnicities)
and N and West Greece (Albania Fyrom Serbia included)


are you sure 2nd and third photo is same person?

Yes, it's the same person and there's at least a few years between #2 and #3 so maybe it's an aging effect.

The varied guesses are interesting, most Americans don't know what Armenian or Albanian even are, so it's good to hear the guesses from people who are familiar.

ok waiting for results and his ethnicity.

is he Greek?

Here:

Eurogenes K36 color map:


Eurogenes K13



MDLP K16


Ancestry.com


MyHeritage:


No known relatives outside of Great Britain, Ireland (few), Germany (few), Norway (1 recent).

Something is picking up though from the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, or the East but the estimates recognize it differently.

I could get photos of parents and grandparents, and possibly more.

i am really surprised at how northern he is genetically! He's just shy of 100 percent English.

I1a3_Young said:

Here:

Eurogenes K36 color map:
View attachment 8889

Eurogenes K13
View attachment 8890


MDLP K16
View attachment 8891

Ancestry.com
View attachment 8892

MyHeritage:
View attachment 8893

No known relatives outside of Great Britain, Ireland (few), Germany (few), Norway (1 recent).

Something is picking up though from the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, or the East but the estimates recognize it differently.

I could get photos of parents and grandparents, and possibly more.

Click to expand...

ok man

my only excuse is that exceptions, certify the rule

Yetos said:

ok man

my only excuse is that exceptions, certify the rule

Click to expand...

Like I said, it doesn't make any sense and nobody guesses correctly. The whole "guess the ethnicity" thing is highly variable.

Shocker..........

This guy doesn't look British isles at all....I mean I've seen some dark people from Wales but this is amazing.

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It's because we all think stereotypically. The whole problem with trying to place him was that the pigmentation didn't match the features.

There are other Brits that might fool you.

Angela said:

It's because we all think stereotypically. The whole problem with trying to place him was that the pigmentation didn't match the features.

There are other Brits that might fool you.

Click to expand...

Most of those actors have light eyes, they just have a darker complexion they still look very European to me. The guy from poldark is dark but he looks like the Irish / Welsh kind of dark. This guy's friend looks really west Asian to me. Similar to a Turkish friend of mine, but I guess he's just a dark British type. Amazing

srdceleva said:

Most of those actors have light eyes, they just have a darker complexion they still look very European to me. The guy from poldark is dark but he looks like the Irish / Welsh kind of dark. This guy's friend looks really west Asian to me. Similar to a Turkish friend of mine, but I guess he's just a dark British type. Amazing

Click to expand...

I didn't guess him because I couldn't make immediate sense of his combination, but he absolutely didn't look West Asian to me.

My best guess would have been British plus some Mexican.

Not to be nit-picky, but most of that selection doesn't have blue eyes, and neither Catherine Zeta Jones nor David Gandy nor Rufus Sewall have "British" features to me.

Angela said:

I didn't guess him because I couldn't make immediate sense of his combination, but he absolutely didn't look West Asian to me.

My best guess would have been British plus some Mexican.

Not to be nit-picky, but most of that selection doesn't have blue eyes, and neither Catherine Zeta Jones nor David Gandy nor Rufus Sewall have "British" features to me.

Click to expand...

Well a lot of people guessed turkey so I guess there is something to it. And I didn't say all of them have light eyes, but most of those actors look pretty Atlantic to me even if they are dark, this guy looks quite a bit different. I mean I did know dark white people growing up in the south but they looked a bit different and I always assumed they were part native American or something. I guess they all night have been just white. Crazy

Put Angela's Brits and these fellows outside in the sun for a while.

As for eye color, the lineage was supposedly 5 or 6 generations of black haired and blue eyed men until a dark headed but very pale Norwegian lady came in with Brown/Brown dominant eyes.

I wonder about the genes for ability to tan, or even perma-tan. Some Brits go from white to lobster red and then back to white. Some tan easily and seem to absorb sunburns. I wonder if this gene has been identified, the melanin adjuster or whatever.

I'll ask for some family photos. (btw he did find family who appear to have at least 1 genealogist in the bunch)