Who Am I?
Universal questions. Where did I come from? Who were my people? Am I lost royalty because I certainly feel like I should be?
I decided to do a DNA test to answer those questions. I went with MyHeritage because I'm lazy. My Dad's brother had already built a big family tree there so it was easy to glom on to his work.
I sent off my sample and eagerly awaited my results with the highest of hopes that something exotic would pop up. There might still be some Romanovs around (I choose to believe) and maybe I am one.
I skimmed my results and saw Nigerian. What?!?! So awesome! I imagined some distant ancestor making his or her way to Great Britain and joining our family tree. Of course, it might not have been a pleasant journey for him or her, all things considered.
Before I booked a flight to Africa to research in country, I looked at the rest of my results. Greek? 11.4%? That didn't seem likely at all. However, it did make me wonder. Was there some between the sheets shenanigans that no one knew/talked about?
I started to have some doubts. Not about my ancestors' fidelity but about the results. My paternal Great-Grandparents emigrated from Switzerland. Known fact. There was no Switzerland, Germany or even Austria on my results although my Uncle had them on his. Since I'm a honeymoon baby, I'm pretty sure my Mom wasn't inappropriate and I'm also pretty sure neither was my Grandma.
I called BS on the results and decided to do another test.
This time, I bought a Groupon and used Accu-metrics. My results were what one would expect for a pasty white person whose tree has been traced back to Switzerland on one side and Ireland on the other.
But, Finnish? Where did that come from? Did the Fins raid what is now Great Britain's coast? I thought they mostly battled the Danes. Regardless, I still wasn't satisfied so I wanted a tiebreaker.
I finally bit the bullet and bought the "expensive" test which is from 23andMe. I have a friend who does genealogy for a living and she said it was the best test out there. After waiting months for a good sale, I coughed up the dough.
There was Switzerland! And, those raiding Scandinavians. Based on the commercials I've seen for The Vikings, I would expect everyone in Northern Europe to have some DNA from those dudes.
The Ancestry Timeline feature also tied out to what I already knew about when my peeps crossed the Atlantic. I don't know how they calculated that data but it was impressive.
Sadly, still no Romanov possibility. Ripoff.
Reasonable results aside, the one thing that makes me want to believe 23andMe was what I consider a truly wonderful result.
I'm a Neanderthal, y'all!
Genetically, less than 4% isn't much but, still, exotic, right?
Of course, I know that all of these results are only as good as the databases they're comparing your genes to. And, as more and more people provide their DNA and other data, results could change.
I still have a shot at the Romanovs.
After much thought and discussion, I decided to also do the Health test with 23andMe. Scary. For example, what if you find out you have genetic markers for early onset Alzheimer's but don't get it? How much stress would worrying about it harsh your calm for the rest of your life? I rolled the dice and nothing alarming came out of it all, thankfully. I have a higher possibility of getting Celiac disease but that was about it on the negatives.
The worry about negative results was worth it to get the trait info.
I knew mosquitos loved me more than others! The musical pitch result made me LOL. I can't carry a tune for the life of me. Fear of heights? Check! Here's the scientific detail behind that one: Some scientists believe that people with an extreme fear of heights may depend more heavily on visual input for balance control than other people who can use physical sensations as well as visual input to keep their balance. As a result, they may feel especially unstable when standing at an elevation, triggering a fear response.
The earwax result just cracks me up. Like, how is that newsworthy?
All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with these answers. I'm still going to measure my big brained Neanderthal head for a new tiara just in case. I hope Putin will be OK with me taking over.
I decided to do a DNA test to answer those questions. I went with MyHeritage because I'm lazy. My Dad's brother had already built a big family tree there so it was easy to glom on to his work.
I sent off my sample and eagerly awaited my results with the highest of hopes that something exotic would pop up. There might still be some Romanovs around (I choose to believe) and maybe I am one.
 |
| That's exotic, all right! |
I skimmed my results and saw Nigerian. What?!?! So awesome! I imagined some distant ancestor making his or her way to Great Britain and joining our family tree. Of course, it might not have been a pleasant journey for him or her, all things considered.
Before I booked a flight to Africa to research in country, I looked at the rest of my results. Greek? 11.4%? That didn't seem likely at all. However, it did make me wonder. Was there some between the sheets shenanigans that no one knew/talked about?
I started to have some doubts. Not about my ancestors' fidelity but about the results. My paternal Great-Grandparents emigrated from Switzerland. Known fact. There was no Switzerland, Germany or even Austria on my results although my Uncle had them on his. Since I'm a honeymoon baby, I'm pretty sure my Mom wasn't inappropriate and I'm also pretty sure neither was my Grandma.
I called BS on the results and decided to do another test.
This time, I bought a Groupon and used Accu-metrics. My results were what one would expect for a pasty white person whose tree has been traced back to Switzerland on one side and Ireland on the other.
 |
| Seems more likely. |
But, Finnish? Where did that come from? Did the Fins raid what is now Great Britain's coast? I thought they mostly battled the Danes. Regardless, I still wasn't satisfied so I wanted a tiebreaker.
I finally bit the bullet and bought the "expensive" test which is from 23andMe. I have a friend who does genealogy for a living and she said it was the best test out there. After waiting months for a good sale, I coughed up the dough.
 |
| This "feels" right. |
There was Switzerland! And, those raiding Scandinavians. Based on the commercials I've seen for The Vikings, I would expect everyone in Northern Europe to have some DNA from those dudes.
 |
| Pretty cool. |
The Ancestry Timeline feature also tied out to what I already knew about when my peeps crossed the Atlantic. I don't know how they calculated that data but it was impressive.
Sadly, still no Romanov possibility. Ripoff.
Reasonable results aside, the one thing that makes me want to believe 23andMe was what I consider a truly wonderful result.
I'm a Neanderthal, y'all!
 |
| Did you know Neanderthals had bigger brains than Homo Sapiens? |
Genetically, less than 4% isn't much but, still, exotic, right?
Of course, I know that all of these results are only as good as the databases they're comparing your genes to. And, as more and more people provide their DNA and other data, results could change.
I still have a shot at the Romanovs.
After much thought and discussion, I decided to also do the Health test with 23andMe. Scary. For example, what if you find out you have genetic markers for early onset Alzheimer's but don't get it? How much stress would worrying about it harsh your calm for the rest of your life? I rolled the dice and nothing alarming came out of it all, thankfully. I have a higher possibility of getting Celiac disease but that was about it on the negatives.
The worry about negative results was worth it to get the trait info.
 |
| A small selection of my results. |
I knew mosquitos loved me more than others! The musical pitch result made me LOL. I can't carry a tune for the life of me. Fear of heights? Check! Here's the scientific detail behind that one: Some scientists believe that people with an extreme fear of heights may depend more heavily on visual input for balance control than other people who can use physical sensations as well as visual input to keep their balance. As a result, they may feel especially unstable when standing at an elevation, triggering a fear response.
The earwax result just cracks me up. Like, how is that newsworthy?
All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with these answers. I'm still going to measure my big brained Neanderthal head for a new tiara just in case. I hope Putin will be OK with me taking over.
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