You can get your very own MyHeritage DNA test here.
When I was in elementary school, there were a group of girls called "The Irish Girls." They would only let people sit at their lunch table if they claimed they were more than 70% Irish. Taking a step back from the fact that I am from Southern California and probably very few people here are 70% Irish, as well as the innate racial issues of elementary students self-segregating, I asked my parents what percent Irish I was. They had no idea. Needless to say, I did not end up sitting at their lunch table. Throughout my life, when individuals would ask what my heritage was I would just shrug it off and say, "Probably a European Mutt, I have no idea." My great great grandparents were born in the United States, and I have no connection to any cultural heritage. Even back in the 1800s my family was living in the United States. My best bet was to try and derive my heritage from my last name. One of my last names is Scottish, and the other is German, so I just assumed that was my ancestry.
I was content to continue on having no idea about my actual ancestry when I saw this commercial.
My mother had expressed interest in getting a DNA test done since she didn't know her heritage either. As a surprise, I got both of my parents DNA tests from 23andMe for Christmas, and figured that if I knew what my parent's results were, I would know mine. In a wonderful twist of fate, I received a MyHeritage DNA test kit from our family holiday gift exchange.
When you order a kit from MyHeritage you receive a box with instructions, two test tubes, and mouth swabs. While some DNA tests require you to spit into the test tubes, MyHeritage asks you to swab the inside of your cheeks. Make sure to follow the instructions, especially the one about registering your kit with the correct serial number.
You mail back the samples to MyHeritage, and then you wait. The entire process took around 8 weeks. After each step in the process (DNA arriving at lab, samples being tested, results) you receive an email notification informing you of the next step. In short, it was like sitting around waiting for Maury Povich to deliver my DNA test results.
And the results are in! I am....
I was shocked. While I knew that I likely had ancestry in the British Isles, I was surprised to see my other results. I am predominantly Scandinavian (hello blonde hair and blue eyes). In addition, 19.4% of my DNA comes from Spain and Portugal, and I am 3.4% Ashkenazi Jewish. I had absolutely no idea that any of these groups would be represented in my DNA.
An extra note: My parents and I took different DNA tests at the same time and came up with different results (I am not adopted), likely due to the random pattern of DNA inheritance. I tested as more Scandinavian than either of my parents (2% and 3.2% respectively, though they both tested high as 'Broadly Northwestern European'). In addition, French and German showed up in my parents DNA tests but not mine, and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry showed in my tests but not theirs. My father's test also showed him having <.1% Native American and Japanese DNA. The main similarity was that all of our DNA tests had a high proportion of British and Irish DNA.
I cannot recommend doing an ancestral DNA test enough. Even if you think you know your entire genetic makeup, there will likely be something that surprises you.
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