My Ancestry DNA Results

Today is my 34th birthday. My sister Chandra gave me an early birthday present just after Mother's Day: an Ancestry DNA kit. She knew that I'd been interested in getting my DNA tested for several years, so when Ancestry ran a Mother's Day special and was selling the kits for $59 (instead of the usual $99), she bought three of them–one for me, one for her, and one for her husband. She was too excited to wait to give it to me for my birthday, so she gave it to me as soon as it arrived. The three of us wasted no time in getting our kits ready. It was super easy; you just register online, spit in the little tube, seal it up, and mail it back to the lab. Your results are ready anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks later.

My results were no real surprise. I knew I largely had European roots, and that's what my results reflected. The one thing that did surprise me is that I didn't have more Irish ancestry–I thought I did. I also found it interesting that the migration portion of the results showed that my people migrated to Pennsylvania. I DID have ancestors in Pennsylvania... in fact, that's where my dad was born.

Europe West 

Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein

Great Britain

Primarily located in: England, Scotland, Wales

Iberian Peninsula

Primarily located in: Spain, Portugal

Caucasus

Primarily located in: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey

Scandinavia

Primarily located in: Sweden, Norway, Denmark

European Jewish

Primarily located in: Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Israel

Europe East

Primarily located in: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia

Ireland/Scotland/Wales

Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland

Europe South

Primarily located in: Italy, Greece

As excited as I was to get my DNA results, I think I was even more excited to see Chandra's. We obviously aren't biologically related, so hers was much more of mystery to me. Her husband, Joe, is Caucasian, but some of the Coleman family lore is that some of their ancestors were Native American, so I was eager to see if the test would confirm that as fact. Sadly, it did not. Too bad, because that would've been neat.

Here are their results:

It's amazing to me just how much your DNA can tell you about yourself and your ancestors. DNA is your own personal calling card, and it's been used to solve crimes decades after they've been committed. In fact, there is cutting-edge technology that has recently been developed that investigators have utilized where they take the DNA that's been recovered from crime scenes, and they use the different characteristics (that's not the right word, but I can't think of how to describe it) to come up with a composite picture of what the person would look like, based on what your DNA says about your heritage, and what your facial features would look like, etc. It's pretty amazing, and has aided law enforcement in nailing criminals. Don't go committing any crimes, because you never know when your DNA will be your downfall!