What seems like already a long time ago, mean while it was probably only a month ago, I ordered and sent off my spit to be analyzed by AncestryDNA. Seeing as how I’ve already tested with 23andme and Genetree (Y-DNA exam), I decided to try another exam as well. The price was only $99 since I had put myself on the mailing list and was quiet excited about getting my results. I activated my account and patiently waited for my results!
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| Activating my DNA testing kit |
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| Adding information to my account |
The time it took to get my results back was very short! Before I knew it I had gotten an email saying that my results were ready to see. Below is the picture of my genetic ethnicity according to AncestryDNA. I was kind of nervous about what I would get!! Since I heard that a lot of people were getting very high amounts of Scandinavian percentage; also since I don’t know from where exactly all my ancestors are from, I thought I would get a high amount of “Uncertain”- which occurs when your DNA comes from groups that might not be well represented in the exam for the lab to be completely sure where to assign it.
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| My Genetic Ethnicity by AncestryDNA |
As you can see my top hit was Southern European at 37% which makes sense seeing as how I am Puerto Rican and have mostly a bunch of Spanish ancestors in my tree. Then came West African at 20% which as makes sense due to the African slaves brought in from West Africa. Then came British Isles at 13% which I find super interesting. Then Native South American at 9% which makes sense due to the natives of the island. Interestingly, some people I match with have both Native South and North American which I find interesting to have just one of them– I wonder what that means? Next came Finnish/Volga-Ural at 9%, followed by Eastern European at 6% and finally Uncertain at 6%.
I was quite happy with my results. Nothing seemed too off and everything fell into place from what I had known about my family’s genetic background due to 23andme’s analysis as well as other third party tools. I am intrigued by the Finnish/Volga-Ural which according to Ancestry’s explanation comes from modern-day Western Russia and Finland. I think it would be quite funny to find a connection to Russia seeing as how I studied the language and went abroad there. In my 23andme ancestry finder I do match people with 4 grandparents born in Russia, so who knows!!
Hopefully my 6% Uncertain one day will find its way into other categories or even new ones. I’m still trying to connect with the other members who have taken the AncestryDNA exam but I haven’t been able to confirm any matches yet. It’s a continuous learning process and I’m excited to see what else will come of it!
