In 2016 I suffered from an identity crisis like most people do during their college years. Instead of going and traveling or getting a tattoo (not that I have anything against that) I decided that I wanted to get DNA tested. My father is adopted so I had no idea about my heritage from his side of the family. I felt like I might understand more about myself if I understood more about my ancestors and culture. For Christmas, I decided to ask for this test and this is what happened.
Let me begin by saying that I am not being paid to promote the brand of DNA test that I used. There are many other DNA tests on the market that do similar things, but my parents chose to buy a certain test over all the other ones. This test was saliva based, meaning I had to begin the whole process by spitting in a tube. I am not a fan of saliva so that was by far the worst part. The tube isn’t small and you have to fill it to a certain point without eating or drinking before or during this part. After that, I registered my specific sample, which was a quick and easy process and sent the test to the address that was pre-printed on the box sent to me.
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I decided to do some research on the test that I was doing to see if it was worth doing and if it was valid. Now, I’m not someone who is a science genius but everything that I was doing seemed very valid. This brand’s science was approved and validated by the FDA. They use genotyping, which is scientifically valid and reliable, to help determine ancestry of individuals. They have their percentages of ancestry down to 0.1%. That being said, all of their results are estimates, but the science and technology is so advanced that the estimates are extremely acceptable.
It took around 7 weeks for me to get my results back. It takes, on average, 6-8 weeks to get results back. The results are sent on the company’s website. When I received the email that my results were ready, it took me a few moments to mentally prepare. I was nervous to see what I was and who I am. It may seem silly, but when 50% of your DNA is unknown it’s nerve-wracking to find out the unknown.
Before I share my results, this is what I look like.
I am extremely light skinned, brown haired, brown eyed. I am 5’6”, which is slightly above average and according to the BMI test I am average and health weight. To put it bluntly, I am a basic white girl. There’s nothing wrong with that, I think, but I was hoping that there was something interesting in my DNA to make me less “basic.” These are my results.
So yes, I am 99.7% European. Specifically, I am 93.6% Northern European, 3.1% Southern European, and 3.0% “Broadly European.” Broadly European means that the scientists cannot dig down any deeper into the DNA to figure out specifically where in Europe I’m from. But wait! There’s that extra .3%. 0.2% of that is Sub-Saharan African, and the other 0.1% is Middle Eastern and North African.
When I saw that result for the first time, I could not believe it. I am seriously so light skinned that I thought there was no way for this to happen. But there it was, on my screen. When I told my friends this, they asked “But aren’t we all a little bit African?” Technically, yes. But it’s almost impossible for most modern humans to go back to the beginning of humans to their specific ancestors with their DNA. That being said, the DNA Company can go back pretty far back in time.
The website has an “ancestry timeline,” that gives individuals a timeline of their ancestry through their DNA. From mine, you can see that my most recent ancestor(s) are British and Irish. The earliest ancestor for me was East African. The years given for my East African ancestor(s) were 1730-1820, meaning that the individual(s) was born between 1730-1820. There is a lot of science that I honestly do not understand but it seems very valid.
I highly recommend doing a DNA test to find out heritage and ancestry. It was an amazing and eye-opening experience and I was not disappointed in it at all. It cleared up a lot of things for me and made me feel more at peace. Even for those who think they know their ancestry, I recommend this. I thought I knew 50% of my DNA history, and I didn’t know 50% of it. Turns out, I didn’t know any of it but now I do. This was a life-changing journey that I think everyone should go through because it is fun and it is also astonishing.
