Confirmation: I have some percentage of Central American ancestry. My grandmother always insisted that her California heritage included some early Spanish explorers (but no ‘Mexicans’). It would make sense that it would include a mix of some indigenous peoples. Especially since I am very blonde/blue-eyed and fair skinned, no one believes me that I have this heritage.
Surprise: I have some percentage of Finnish ancestry. Have never seen this in any of our research. Asked my parents, who are elderly, and they have no idea where this is from.
Another surprise: the mother of one of my son’s best friends contacted me - evidently we are related! Especially interesting since we didn’t grow up anywhere near each other (she’s from the Midwest, my family originally from the west coast). Her mother was adopted so that makes it even more interesting.
My H had tests from two different companies. They came out pretty much identical, except that one has some percentage as Swiss, while the other has that same percentage as Belgian instead. So I’ve been teasing him whether he prefers Swiss or Belgian chocolate?
My ancestors intentionally came to America from Sweden, Ireland, Germany by their own choice. My German ancestors probably lived in a German-speaking area and kept speaking German, as many German speakers did. My ancestors could keep as much of their European culture as they wanted.
African-Americans’ ancestors were ripped from their homes and came here in chains. They were sold away from their parents. My family history tells me where my ancestors are from, but probably her family history can’t tell her anything about where in Africa her ancestors came from. Maybe she feels like she’s taking back something that was stolen from her.
I’m really interested to have my kids done. There is a “family rumor” that possibly the relatives that immigrated to the US on my husband’s side were Jewish, but hid that info when they got to the US. Certainly some people with their last name died in the Holocaust. No one alive knows for sure. I’m also kind of curious in general about mine (any surprises?).
BUT… I have grave concerns about the security and privacy of the data, and for that reason alone I’m not planning to do it soon or encourage my kids to. Especially if one of these companies goes bankrupt/out of business, I’m not convinced every copy/backup of the data would be destroyed. And ANY company can be hacked these days, as we well know. I really, really don’t want this information falling into the hands of health insurance or life insurance companies in particular.
You could use an alias. That would make the hooking up with relatives harder, but you could remain behind the curtain and still find out your own information.
@intparent I don’t know about the other companies, but 23andme allows registering under anonymous names, Mickey Mouse, etc. The only real-name connection that we have is that I paid for the kits with my credit card and had the kits shipped to me. For us, stuffed animal names identify which kid is which on the 23andme website.
In one case, a woman who grew up believing she was all Irish discovered that she was 50% Jewish. She thought it was a mistake. But, a paternal cousin registered and DNA said she was unrelated to him. Eventually she figured out that her father was not related to his parents!
It took years, but eventually, she figured it out.When her father was born at a hospital in the Bronx in 1913, he was switched with a baby born within a few minutes. The child of a poor working class Irish family was switched with the child of a middle class Jewish family. The poor kid grew up in good circumstances. The child born to middle class Jewish parents ended up in a Catholic orphanage.
The woman was glad her dad never knew. He was super proud of being Irish—even though he really wasn’t.
The Irish born, raised Jewish child faced a skeptical father in law who refused to believe he was Jewish. He had to bring his birth certificate to "prove " it because his future father in law insisted that there was no way that guy was Jewish! It turns out he was (sort of) right!
My husband has a medical problem with his hands that is unique to people with Scanenavian genes. His family background is Welsh and German. My daughter took the test and sure enough. Funny thing is she always claimed to be part Viking long before his diagnosis. She’s blond and blue eyed and we are both brunette
My dad has that hand condition, too, if it is Dupuytren’s. I assume I’ll get it eventually as well. He was 89 before he needed active treatment, fortunately, and now I know to look for symptoms. FYI, it seems to be genetically related to frozen shoulder (which I have now had twice).
I told my dad it meant he had Viking blood. It didn’t seem to be much consolation to him!
For what it’s worth, I’m not sure the credit card/mailing are associated with the kit itself. The kit arrives with a bar code on it. The bar code is then used to register the kit online before sending in the sample. 23andme would have to record the number of the bar code sent in order to connect the data to the credit card holder. (In that case, at most, they could connect 8 sets of DNA to my name as purchaser. Still only I know who is who.) I haven’t asked, but 23andme is pretty good about answering questions within a day, if someone wanted to ask about whether there is a connection between purchaser and bar code.
Wait, isn’t 23andme available at some Target stores? There’d be no connection at all if you buy at Target. I just checked, and there are some Targets near me that carry this in-store. Pay cash, use a pseudonym and an unidentifiable gmail.
H had his done, and confirmed that his Mexican maternal grandma was (of course), part (about 25%) Native American, not 100% Spanish/European as she had always insisted. H’s said about 6.5% NA. With each generation, the % should decrease by about 1/2. H’s maternal aunt had hers done, and it said she was about 1.5% African. H’s was the same, so he assumes he has African ancestry on both sides of his family (we actually thought it was only on his father’s side, as his paternal grandma was said to be French/Cajun, but at H’s aunt’s (her daughter’s) funeral, they said she was “Creole.” Her Irish husband was disinherited for marrying her. They had 7 kids, but separated when they were middle-aged, both dying before H was born. (H’s dad was their youngest child, grew up with only his father, and married late, so little connection with grandparents). He also had 11% Spanish, some German/French, a lot of British/Irish. A true mutt. Some branches go back to the 1600s in the US.
While doing research on ancestry.com on one branch of H’s family a couple years ago, I was contacted by a man who had been adopted as a young child who was trying to find his biological dad’s family. He is in his 60s, and this was the first contact he made–I was happy to help him and gave him the info. I had. He and H are 2nd cousins–and they do have some family resemblance.
I am getting mine done now through 23andme, but results aren’t in yet. I am mostly interested in the health/disease aspect of it. Not worried about privacy. I am 100% Polish from 20th century immigrants, and I know all the branches of both sides of my family in the US–very easy to trace since only a couple generations. I think that, just being from Poland, I could have some Jewish ancestry. And I already know I have a little East Asian ancestry (common among Russians/Poles). I did the Genographic test a few years ago. Most Europeans have Neanderthal ancestry–mine was 2%, and 3% Denisovan, which is a little more than average.
Not interested - count me in as one who is concerned about privacy. Also have good health info from long-lived family, I don’t want to be surprised by unsuspected discoveries.
My mother did do Ancestry. Her family has long been proud of the Irish heritage. Turns out those ancestors were Norman, not Irish. No surprise. Just looking at appearances through many generations, I predicted it.
We have family genealogies for my direct lines going back to the 1600 in some instances and 1700s in others. I don’t think Ancestry or 23andMe would tell me anything I don’t already suspect. Every time I am in Germany, I am taken as a German - Dad’s heritage. Every trip to England I look like one of the crowd.
I have made contact with known relatives in Germany, but would be a bit leery of being contacted by unknown “relatives”.
They have a new treatment (approved in the past couple of years, my dad had it) where they can inject an enzyme and dissolve the tissue without surgery. My dad had it at the nearby university hospital, said it was pretty painless.
My daughter who speaks Finnish has scoured our family tree endlessly looking for a Finn, but we’ve never found one. Maybe there really is one hiding there, though.
@Momofadult, we also can trace back to the 1600s and 1700s for many branches. But I always think that is what everyone SAID the lineage was – but who knows what was really going on?
