23andMe DNA Testing - Ancestry (+Health!)

I have always been interested in genetics (I considered becoming a genetic counselor for a while!) and the idea that spitting into a small tube could provide me with information about my genetic make up and ancestral origins was quite intriguing.

I missed my first opportunity to purchase an AncestryDNA kit over the summer, but received a second invitation in October 2012. I wrote about my results here. As a recap, I am decidedly the product of a whole bunch of northwest Europeans.

The 23andMe service caught my attention for two main reasons.

1) The ability to further differentiate my DNA origins into countries. British Isles is pretty specific, but nearly all of the paper trails in my research point to Ireland so I was curious if there was a way to genetically 'prove' this.

2) Health information! I know some people are uninterested in the health data included in the service, but this was a big drawing factor for me.

It only took two weeks from the time my sample was received until I had some results in my account. Some of the genealogy data took a few extra days to populate and appear in my account, but I certainly wasn't lacking information to examine during this time!

When you log in you get two main categories on the side of your screen - My Health and My Ancestry. Here are some interesting things you can discover under each:

My Health

Traits
My eyes are likely blue (yes), my hair is slightly curlier than average (yes), and my muscles perform more like a sprinter than an endurance athlete (nice! I just thought I was out of shape for long distance running!).

Drug Responses
Analyzes your response to 21 substances (some are medications and some are not). This section was fairly uneventful for me.

Carrier Status
Tests for 48 conditions. For females carrier status of the BRCA Cancer Mutation gene is hidden until you click through another set of check boxes to ensure you really want to know this information. This also came into play in a later section (risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's for both men and women). I opted to learn information for each category.

Disease Risk
This section is broken down into "Elevated Risk", "Decreased Risk", and "Average Risk". This was quite a fascinating section for me with a few surprises in each category. Clicking on each listing will provide you with a summary of the disease, which of your genes are contributing what, and in certain cases things you can do to modify your risk.


My Ancestry 

Edit: I forgot to add 23andMe says I am 100% European (a conservative estimate is 99.1%).

Neanderthal Ancestry
Interesting! Learning what percentage of your DNA was contributed by Neanderthals is an interesting experience. The information provided suggests for humans who originated outside of Africa 1-4% of their DNA will come from Neanderthals. I'm still doing more research on this.

Extended Family
I have 987 DNA relatives participating in the 23andMe site. I have already been contacted by 4 of them (exciting!) but haven't had a chance to respond yet! My account suggests 122 of those individuals are 3rd-4th cousins and 865 are 'distant cousins'. Nobody within the 1st-2nd cousin range at this point.

Mother's Line
Female participants receive their Maternal Haplogroup and some information about where their relatives were 500 years ago. I'm still learning more about how to interpret this information as well.

Countries of Ancestry
Ah yes, what I have been waiting for! This matches pieces of my DNA with DNA from other 23andMe users. There are options to increase or decrease the size of the DNA segment included. Therefore being more exclusive [larger pieces] or inclusive [smaller pieces] with the results.

I've played with the different settings a bit.

• with the most 'exclusive' controls my list includes: Ireland.
• with the most 'inclusive' controls my list includes: Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Norway, India, France, Denmark, Bahamas.

---
I am so excited and so overwhelmed with all of the information that I still have to look through!

AncestryDNA additional information on the way!

I was pleased to read in this blog update from ancestry.com that raw genetic data from our AncestryDNA tests will be available as soon as early next year!

When I made the decision to purchase a DNA kit I was aware that this feature was not part of the package and was okay with it. I figured I would eventually try out another service to compare results and select one that offered this information.

Buuuuut...as someone who had the most uniform results ever the possibility of teasing apart this information a little further is very exciting!

In other news, WWI records from the United Kingdom are free through November 12. I have absolutely no hope of tackling the possibility that I have an ancestor documented in those records within the next 48 hours, but maybe you do!

AncestryDNA Results

This past week was very long. I ended my Friday with a 3 hour and 15 minute drive that should have taken 2 hours. Needless to say, it was a wonderful surprise to check my email upon arriving at my destination and see that my DNA results were ready! 

I anticipated receiving them sometime in November based on the estimated 4-6 week processing time...so 15 days was much quicker than I expected!

I have been building my family tree for just over 4 years now and the majority of that research has focused on individuals residing in the United States. I can trace many branches back to the 'immigrant ancestor' but that is where I stopped. I haven't yet ventured into a 'world' ancestry membership, but perhaps I will in the future.

Based on the history of my last name, family stories, and my personal research I fully anticipated a very western European slant to my genetic ethnicity...and....well...

That's exactly what I got!

Modern day: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

I couldn't help but laugh when I initially saw the results, because they are so...uniform? I do find the 1% uncertain to be interesting and I hope eventually what that is might be revealed. Like many people I have heard stories about ancestors with various backgrounds - a Native American influence on one side, or a German sounding maiden name on the other.

Throughout this venture I have enjoyed comparing my father's side of the tree with my mother's side. According to these results, the genetic origins of both are rather similar. What I have found most interesting is the vastly different time periods that each side immigrated to the United States.

Based on current knowledge about each side, all of the branches on my mom's side immigrated to the United States well before the American Revolutionary War. In contrast, all of the branches on my dad's side immigrated to the United States shortly before the American Civil War.

Along with DNA results Ancestry also provides historical information about migration patterns into and out of the areas where your ancestors came from. Interestingly enough the two migration periods highlighted match my own ancestor's activities - the 17th and 18th centuries ("the Great Migration") and later, the mid 1800s ("the Great Irish Famine").

Since receiving my results, I have already been contacted by a genetic match who is my 6th cousin! Ancestry has also identified 8 new 4th cousin matches and 1742 individuals who may be my 5th to 8th cousins. This is all very exciting!

Even though this makes perfect sense from a genetic standpoint, I was intrigued that many of the potential matches have vastly different genetic makeups than I do.

It's going to be fun to see how this evolves over time :)

Collecting my sample for my Ancestry.com DNA Kit!

I was very excited to receive this package in the mail! This little box may be the key to learning about a whole new side of my family tree. My research up until this point has lead me to believe that the majority of my ancestors originated from a specific part of Europe. We shall see if I am correct :)

Step 1: Unwrap your box!

Step 2: Inside you will find instructions on the right and your collection container on the left

Step 3: This is the collection device. The instructions say it may take 2-5 minutes to gather enough saliva to fill the container sufficiently. It actually takes much less than I anticipated and I reached the fill line in one try! (Does that make me abnormal? I'm not sure!)

Step 4: Close the lid until it snaps. This mixes some fluid into your saliva sample that stabilizes it.

Step 5: Replace the collection top with the small screw on cap. Time to shake!

Step 6: Place the tube in the specimen bag, seal it up, place it in the mailing envelope, and you're done!

I am dropping mine in the mail today!

Oops!

I am disappointed that I missed my first opportunity to try ancestry's new DNA analyzer. About a month ago I changed the way I receive my emails in the hopes of being more organized...but what I actually did was make everything less accessible! 

Hopefully another offer will be sent my way soon (as I was about 13 days late in noticing this one...). I'm eager to see what types of information it can provide me.