So often at dinner on our cruise the conversation would turn to DNA and I would announce that I had taken 5 DNA tests and uploaded my results to some other sites - on hearing this some of my fellow diners' views labelled me as either an expert or a nutcase. Most of the affluent retirees had taken Ancestry DNA tests (and it was always Ancestry - good marketing at work there) but were clueless about the DNA matching side of things, they were all focussed on the ethnicity results and that is all they wanted to know about. They did the tests because it is an in thing to do. I did mention that these could be inaccurate due to the reference groups used to make these predictions but my fellow diners just wanted to know where their ancestors came from and don't question the results.
I learn lots of lessons when I travel. These conversations have reminded me not to expect everyone on my lists of matches to share my enthusiasm for hunting down cousins and to accept that others have valid reasons for taking DNA tests.
Reflecting on this has made me revisit my four Ethnicity results (still waiting on Living DNA to come back). There are no major surprises but I am pleased that all tests seem to confirm my aboriginal ancestry as Melanesian, Oceania, Melanesia and Oceania. I am kicking myself that I didn't take screenshots of the results when I first tested so that I could monitor changes over time.
Following are my results as at 4 May 2018.
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| 23andme Results |
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| FTDNA Results |
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| Ancestry Results |
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| My Heritage Results |
Terrific idea for a post Jill. I may follow suit also as a way to record and monitor any future changes in the reports
ReplyDeleteJill, soory to rain on your parade, but personally I wouldn't believe any ethnicity percentages less than 5% are meaningful. I'm as much Inuit/Eskimo as you are Melanesian/Oceania.
ReplyDelete