Since I was a child, I’ve wondered what the full story was on my ancestry since I am adopted. I’ve tracked ancestry testing since middle school, but I was always skeptical on if I felt like the technology matched the ancestry tools available.
Recently, I started realizing that technology + prices had reached a kind of sweet spot and seeing another adoptee pursue this for herself made me realize it was time to figure out my Ancestry DNA results! Over the last few months, my husband (who has an adopted father) and both of my parents have taken Ancestry.com DNA testing as well.
It has been really interesting to see what four genetically unlinked people would receive! This is my experience with Ancestry DNA testing as well as my Ancestry.com DNA results.
You can buy your own Ancestry.com testing kit here.
MY ANCESTRY DNA RESULTS
Over the past week, I’ve had many people ask me if I was surprised by my ancestry DNA results. Honestly, the answer is yes. I am pretty into genealogy and know my maternal biological side very well for mostly 200+ years. However, that is really only half of the story. My test was more specific than I thought in some ways, but less specific in others. For example, my largest percentage is Western European and apparently because that region intermarried so much, the description for it says this:
Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein
Also found in: England, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic
I was a little surprised by how diverse Western Europe was, but also, I found it interesting though because a native Western European usually has around 48% and mine is 43%. Most of my British ancestry on my biological maternal side is Norman French and I have a German and Swiss German line. However, this category literally covers 12 different countries…. .
My Irish ancestry was a surprise though because it must be strictly from my paternal side. It was interesting because I hadn’t known my maternal half Aunt had taken the test, and I was able to isolate where the European Jewish, Finnish/ Northwest Russian, and Caucasus ancestry came from very easily by looking at her results.
As for genealogy, it has been interesting to see the connections it has given me. The system says I have 434 4th cousins through Ancestry.com’s DNA system; however, I think I was expecting it to better be able to identify family trees with common ancestors for me from unknown lines. So far, I have a lot of options of people, but I don’t know who my common ancestor is with any of them yet so I haven’t learned any new genealogy. I have contacted over 10 of my ancestry matches and none of them have responded thus far. I am trying to remain hopeful for more information in the future though because I tend to be very persistent, and Devin is very good at finding patterns.
Overall, I thought it was a neat experience, but it wasn’t as life changing as I had built it up to be in my head. I feel the results are really helpful for people with a very well documented family tree or people who are looking for less detailed information than I was. Being adopted, I’ve always craved more to know about these unknowns, and it turns out that I have a lot in common with others: I’m pretty human.
ABOUT THE ANCESTRY.COM DNA SYSTEM
I hope this information is helpful to people who are debating whether or not they want to purchase and take the test too. After convincing my parents and husband to take the Ancestry.com DNA testing I’ve learned a few things and these are the following:
- Your results are only as good as the amount of family members you have who previously submitted the test.
My parents, husband, and myself all had various amounts of contacts generated from the test. Some of us had many suggestions, while some of us did not. Devin actually had 16+ DNA suggestions mentioned to him which apparently was just recently piloted while I only had 1. I had much fewer ancestry DNA results. However, as the system updates, so do your results!
- It really can link you with family members.
Devin was able to connect with a 2nd cousin from his Dad’s biological family and his great-Uncle who took the test also showed up on the result (we didn’t know Ed had taken the test). We thought this was fun because my biological Aunt, whom I know, had also taken the test and I didn’t realize it.
- People are not good at responding to the messages within the Ancestry.com website.
I have seen this consistently and I have had several people message me months later to explain that they don’t know how to use the messaging system.
- A lot of people buy the test, but don’t keep up their subscription for the website.
This means that they are notified when they receive messages, but they aren’t able to see them. My guess is this is a big reason why I did not receive a lot of messages back that I sent.
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Your information is constantly updated in the database as you add information or as people add the tests.
I wasn’t aware of this, but it is a really nice feature! I didn’t have a lot of information in the beginning, but as I figure out more, I am given more “hints” and “cousins” according to my DNA matches.
- It isn’t an exact science, but it is pretty close!
Your Ancestry.com DNA results are rated by many scientists and then you are given the percentages and average ranges. After being able to figure out all of my family tree, my ancestry results are pretty accurate!
- Your raw Ancestry.com data can be submitted for health research and to give you more information.
This was a huge factor for me in getting my Ancestry.com results. I was curious about some health information and so was Devin. Although it isn’t an exact science, a lot of the information has been true for what we have seen! (I will be doing a post about how we did this later.)
- Some information may not be welcomed and there is an emotional factor to this.
My Mom’s family showed no Native American ancestry. However, she showed like 15% Portuguese, North African, etc. My Mom was always told that her grandmother was Native American, however, her grandmother was pretty much orphaned at a young age and could not read. This was very upsetting for my mom as someone who is an avid genealogist and took a lot of pride in her Native American ancestry. However, this also goes to show how much of family stories are exactly that- stories. I was also told that I had Native American ancestry, but I actually had none through genealogy or DNA testing; I think family folklore like this is more common than people realize. Here is a great article on why so many people think they have Cherokee ancestry when they do not.
- Many people use Ancestry.com DNA results to find out family unknowns.
I actually fit into this category since I was looking for paternity, but many of the people who were very eager to message me back were on the same searching mission I was. In some cases, that can actually work.
My journey in submitting my information was an emotional one for me, but it also helped me feel resolved and get useful information. It was interesting to me how folk lore about genealogy can be perpetuated in families, it was fun to make the connections I have made online, and I’m glad I was able to get the information I did!
Now that I am four months post seeing my DNA results, I can confidently say that I am happy with my decision to spend the $80.