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Monday, August 7, 2017

DNA test

Our kids gave me the gift of an Ancestry DNA test for Mothers Day.   It's very simple - you just spit in a tiny test tube and send it in.  Then you wait for about 6 weeks, and your results are e-mailed to you.
I have relatives who are very interested in genealogy who have traced my family, both on my Dad and my Moms side so I had an idea of what they would find, but I was kind of hoping for a little surprise of some sort.  They say most everyone has maybe 1% African American, or maybe American Indian or even a little Jewish blood.  That being said, from what I knew, most of my ancestors were from the Netherlands, with just a few from England and Germany.
Last week my results came back.


Here is my map:
48% Great Britain
28% West Europe
25% Scandinavia
1% Finland
That is the report from thousands of years back.  They say the Scandinavian part is because of the Vikings who conquered Europe and Britain, then people migrated from there.  Those areas are represented by the larger circles.
The smaller section that is orange is where my ancestors were hundreds of years ago.  Guess where they were?  You got it - the Netherlands!
The report also gives you links to others who have done the testing who you are related to.  I got 50 matches, 2 are second cousins, 4 are third cousins and the rest of 4th cousins.  There is a link that you can send them a message.  When you send your sample in you can choose if you want to be part of this, so if you choose not to, others would not receive your link.
I didn't get any surprises, except for the Scandinavian link from way back.  It's very interesting though!



22 comments:

Ramblings of a Retired Lady said...

That is so neat and very interesting. I would love to do that. Now you know for sure!!!

terri said...

That is so interesting! Glad I know my background too

Terra said...

Interesting, and it would be informative to contact newly found relatives.

Joyful said...

I'm interested in taking such a test but am concerned about ethical issues and accuracy of the testing.

Amy at love made my home said...

Glad to know you have so much English in you!! How amazing they can pick out just the 1% of Finnish!

LL Cool Joe said...

As an adopted person with no blood ties it would be an odd thing for me to do. Interesting though!

Dianna said...

Oh, what fun, Mari! This is something I've wanted to do. I just keep putting it off. Now that you have shared your results it makes me want to do it more. :) I find it quite interesting.

Laura said...

Glad you got the results back! So it sounds like yours are very similar to Dad's then!

Arlene G said...

I have thought of doing one of these tests but I think I know it would come back all English, Scottish and Irish with a bit of Viking thrown in!! I would like to meet some relatives I do not know so that would be fun.

Linda said...

One of my professors did that and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Smiles.

Have a great day friend.

Sally said...

How neat is that! I haven't done the DNA test, but genealogy on our dad's side from the 1530's began in England, then some came to Virginia, and Kentucky. :)

xoxo

Karen said...

I didn't know that you could link up to relatives if you choose. My kids are all adopted and I've thought it would be neat for them to get to do this.

Terri D said...

Joe and I did the Ancestry DNA a few years ago, when it was just out of the Beta testing. The more people who join, the better the results you get back. I've corresponded with quite a few cousins doing genealogy and even one cousin who had been adopted on my paternal grandpa's side of the family. It's been SO interesting. Here are my results.... and I was very surprised about the Scandinavian results. I always thought I was mostly Irish (Kelly).

Great Britain 48%
Scandinavia 19%
Europe West 16%
Ireland 11%
Low Confidence Region
Italy/Greece
West Asia

Aritha V. said...

Great! I love this!

Jenny said...

I'm pretty sure my ancestors were Scots-Irish pirate scallywags, haaahahaha xoxo

Sandi said...

Very interesting!

Betsy Brock said...

How very fun! I've done this and we had a big surprise. What my mother's side always claimed to be English really turned out to be Irish. You just never know!

Cherdecor said...

That is all very interesting.

Michelle said...

My husband and I did these tests. Surprises for both of us. I love history so I enjoyed all of it.

Sylvia said...

Hooray, we're nearly related Marie. I'm very happy about that!!

Patsy said...

You And The Bennie could be cousins.
He likes that he is now a Viking.

carrie@northwoods scrapbook said...

My Dad and relatives from my Mom's side did it and no real surprises - knew a lot of our family history. But know little about my Hubby's side so I had him do it recently and were surprised by several of the results that his family had info wrong! Now my kiddos know all of the parts of the world their ancestors are from. ;) So interesting isn't it? xoxo