23andMe Gift from My Kids (American, eyes, find, search)
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I got this from my adult kids for Christmas and I've mailed in my saliva sample. It will be interesting to see what the results are. I've never done anything like this before, nor have I had much interest. We shall see.
I will be interested in my ethnicity. From what I know of me: born to Filipino parents, my father is of Filipino ancestry with distant Spanish and Chinese roots; and my mother is of Filipino and Russian and Polish ancestry. From that, I'll see what the results are.
Now, I just wait. Who has done this and what was your experience with it?
Testing your parents is useful because they have DNA that you don't, but testing your kids isn't very useful unless you want info on their other parent's side and the other parent isn't available for testing. If the other parent is available, it's best to test them instead of the child. Your kids don't have any of your DNA that you don't so when testing multiple people, it's best to go with the oldest family members.
OP, I'm waiting for my results, too. It's fun and I am looking forward to it. I think the ethnicity part is just an educated guess. As accurate as they can get it, but still a guess (and still fun). What I am hoping for is to find relatives I haven't met.
If your adult kids are having theirs done, too, your information will help them. I wish my parents were still alive so I could talk them into getting tested.
This is better than buying a lottery ticket, because for sure you get a "winning ticket" every time.
My priest also got it as a gift from his wife for his birthday. He was born in Italy and moved to the U.S. as a young man.
He found out that he is only 43 percent Italian. He has a substantial amount of middle eastern heritage as well as Northwestern Europe and Iberian peninsula, and then he has a bit of Asian in him, as well. He said when you look at migration patterns and the ways people traveled to Italy around the mountain ranges, none of it is really surprising after all.
My priest also got it as a gift from his wife for his birthday. He was born in Italy and moved to the U.S. as a young man.
He found out that he is only 43 percent Italian. He has a substantial amount of middle eastern heritage as well as Northwestern Europe and Iberian peninsula, and then he has a bit of Asian in him, as well. He said when you look at migration patterns and the ways people traveled to Italy around the mountain ranges, none of it is really surprising after all.
A lot of Italians also have North African blood. Italy is very mixed and diverse.
I ordered 23&Me as a Christmas gift for my parents & it's going to be interesting to see the results. A year ago, this never would have even crossed my mind but earlier last year I started researching a medical anomoly that I have & it ended up uncovering a few family mysteries.
As I started uncovering layers, I discovered some things that not even my 85 year old uncle, who has been published several times on our geneology, knew. What I discovered may end up solving the incompleted deathbed confessions of both my paternal grandmother & her sister (my great-aunt).
They both, within hours of dying, had told family members "There is something I have to tell you about our family ..."
And then died before revealing what it was!
I think I may know what it was and my "medical anomoly", in the form of a genetic trait that waited 6 generations before re-appearing in me, is what started it all.
The funny thing is, all my research prompted my mother to clue me in on something I otherwise would have been unaware of.
My mother, would seem to be a slam-dunk 100% obvious "no brainer" when it comes to heritage. She is 1st generation American born Greek. Didn't learn english until her "sink or swim" experience of being enrolled in public school in Denver. Both my grandparents immigration records confirm the known family history.
I WAS aware that her family had a "strain" of what is known as "Adonis Greeks"; including her paternal grandfather who stood 6'4", with blond hair & blue eyes. Adonis Greeks have always been a curiosity for anthropologists, as they seem to have the appearance depicted in the ancient Greek mythological artwork of tall, fair skinned & light-haired vs the swarthy, dark & shorter statured typical Greek.
What I didn't know, is that there was a discrepancy of sorts regarding her fathers surname (her maiden name). It's a linguistic translation issue that has been problematic for some Greek citizens being able to obtain passports:
A presumed Greek surname, that starts with a Latin letter, that does not translate back into Greek.
So; this should be interesting! I decided to go with my parents testing (they had already expressed interest) because I'm not sure, honestly, how relevant mine would be or if my results might contain atypical or unusual combinations.
The odds of a very mutation-resistant trait, that is only dominant in less than 13% of the global population, to emerge after lying dormant for 6 generations is around 3.0625% & I was afraid my results would complicate rather than clarify the situation.
It's also a little bit of a relief to me that the OP seems to have a positive & interested attitude about her gift. Even though my parents had been wanting to do this for several months now I was worried it implied a lack of trust or that I didn't believe them regarding "where I came from".
Thats never been a concern of mine, even when in the 1980's my blood type results initially implied that I was not the biological child of at least one of them; I really never questioned them at all. My "gut" instinct was that there was some scientific loophole that allowed it to happen ... & I ended up being right.
It's also a little bit of a relief to me that the OP seems to have a positive & interested attitude about her gift. Even though my parents had been wanting to do this for several months now I was worried it implied a lack of trust or that I didn't believe them regarding "where I came from".
It never was a lack of trust, at least not in my case. Memories (including those of my parents) can be fallible. The DNA results are expected to provide a richer dataset, a more complete explanation, of my ethnicity. It will be evidence with which I can cross reference the information given by my parents. If there are any inconsistencies between the two, it'll be hard to discount the DNA evidence and I would have to discount the 'tribal knowledge' shared by my parents.
I got this from my adult kids for Christmas and I've mailed in my saliva sample. It will be interesting to see what the results are. I've never done anything like this before, nor have I had much interest. We shall see.
I will be interested in my ethnicity. From what I know of me: born to Filipino parents, my father is of Filipino ancestry with distant Spanish and Chinese roots; and my mother is of Filipino and Russian and Polish ancestry. From that, I'll see what the results are.
Now, I just wait. Who has done this and what was your experience with it?
I haven't done 23 and me, I've done ancestry because I like the family tree feature; it's made doing the DNA a better experience. I've also uploaded my results to my heritage for free, am waiting to see if I match anyone there.
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