# Humanities & Anthropology > Anthropology & Ethnography > Guess the Ethnicity >  My friend is a mystery

## I1a3_Young

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)


mystery3.jpgmystery2.jpgmystery5.jpg

(click to enlarge)

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## I1a3_Young

As expected, nobody has a guess :P

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

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## bicicleur

..... armenian

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## davef

Half Lebabese 3/8 Mexican 1/8 African American

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## Maleth

.....south Eastern European to West Asian

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## srdceleva

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

Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk

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## Yetos

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?

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## I1a3_Young

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.

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## Yetos

ok waiting for results and his ethnicity.

is he Greek?

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## I1a3_Young

Here:

Eurogenes K36 color map:
K36 map.jpg

Eurogenes K13
k13.PNG


MDLP K16
MDLPK16.PNG

Ancestry.com
anc1.PNG

MyHeritage:
MyHer.PNG

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.

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## davef

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

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## Yetos

> Here:
> 
> Eurogenes K36 color map:
> K36 map.jpg
> 
> Eurogenes K13
> k13.PNG
> 
> 
> ...



ok man

my only excuse is that exceptions, certify the rule  :Laughing:

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## I1a3_Young

> ok man
> 
> my only excuse is that exceptions, certify the rule


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

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## Fire Haired14

Shocker..........

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## srdceleva

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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## Angela

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.

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## srdceleva

> 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.


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

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## Angela

> 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


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.

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## srdceleva

> 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.


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

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## I1a3_Young

Beat.jpg

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)

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## Angela

This reminds me of a client I had in Atlanta years ago. We were at a company function and he stared and stared. I mean, Italians stare, so I have a high tolerance for it, but this was downright rude. I just up and asked him why he was staring. He told me he'd never known a white person who looked like me.  :Rolleyes:  :Rolleyes:  :Rolleyes: Then I introduced my husband and he was stunned into silence for a while. :Grin:  After being treated to a full on court press of charm and business acumen he offered him a job. I told my husband if he took it I'd divorce him. There was no freaking way I was going to live in Georgia. Are you kidding me? Besides everything else, I would have had to copy my cousin, who married a guy who had to do his medical residency in _Nebraska_! Instead of flying she would drive a big station wagon back and forth and fill it up with olive oil, canned Marzano tomatoes, you name it. No thank you. It smelled like an Italian deli in there.  :Laughing: 

As to the tanning thing, I do believe that a lot of southern Europeans have the mutation(s) that allows you to tan even if your normal skin color is a pale olive.

Raoul Bova




Daniele Pecci:




Unfortunately, I didn't get that gene.

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## I1a3_Young

Georgia isn't so bad, I have a lot of peeps in the tree there. Way better than Nebraska!

I married into a Sicilian family from Brooklyn. They crack me up and I know exactly what you mean about the good olive oil and ingredients!

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## I1a3_Young

He looks white except where he is permanently tanned, which never fades.

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## davef

> 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.


Wow! Rufus Sewall looks insanely Mediterranean! 

Angela, what's your secret? How could you possibly guess I13a_Young's friend as mostly English? I'm not envious, but I feel as if I saw you juggling fiery bowling balls or lift a car....it's an amazing feat to guess him as mostly Northern European and be right. Do you hang around a lot of English people?

How do you do it? 

Btw I'm glad they don't make it mandatory to take ethnicity guessing classes in college...
Professor: "Class, your exams have been graded...Mr Jones, 'A'.,.Mr Steins..B+, Mr Fanelli....see me after class..."

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## Angela

This Welsh athlete could be dropped in Napoli tomorrow and nobody would be the wiser.



Coon wrote a bit about what he called "Mediterranean" resurgence in England. I doubt these types were thrown up only in relatively modern times. 

When people inter-marry over and over again, "pure" phenotypes will sometimes appear. The same thing happens in the Apennines in Italy. Even in one family you can get a tall, rather fair person and a somewhat shorter very stereotypical "Mediterranean" person, and yet genetically their proportion of ancient population groups are the same. 

@Davef,
I watch a lot of British tv. :)

The Brit I had in mind for the subject of the post was Nathaniel Parker of the Lynley mysteries:

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## Angela

Cont'd:
Coon's Mediterranean English:


The first one looks very Italian to me. The third down is Welsh and is of a similar type to the subject of the post. Other than head shape, I don't know how "Mediterranean" he is, in a strict sense, but I think our subject is in the same general category.

Given that the English are about 40-50% "Southern", I don't know why people are always surprised that they sometimes look it.

The same applies to Germany. 
Mats Hummel looks far more southern European than my father or I.


For goodness' sakes, look at Adolph Eichmann:


Oh, here's another British actor to add to the mix...Ian McShane...

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## Diomedes

Most of the time you guys make mistakes in the guessing process. It's a nice game to play, but at the end of the day, it appears that it is tough to tell Europeans alike, except those with Viking and step descent.

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## I1a3_Young

CWFamily.jpg(one branch of subject's tree)
Back row from left to right, #1 and #4 are the dark type. #2 looks like Caligula. #3 is a very English look

Calig.jpg

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## Arnaud

What about Mr Bean?

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## Joey D

Interesting outcome - I would have said straight out 100% Balkan.

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## Jovialis

> Attachment 8801Attachment 8802Attachment 8803
> 
> (click to enlarge)




He kind of looks like the father from the Wonder Years; Dan Lauria.




> Has been told by Native Americans that he looks Native, by Mexicans that he looks Mexican, and by Iranians that he looks Iranian.


I think it's funny when people do that. It's basically them, just trying to endear the person to them. Nevertheless, I'd think he was Italian; not just saying that because I'm Italian though. lol Though I wouldn't rule out British, but it would have not been near my first choice.

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