Growing up my family never really knew where we were from. We knew we were German on my dad’s side, and my mom was always told she had a bit of Cherokee Indian, but that was all we were told. So, on every school project about where my family came from that’s all I ever put. A lot of my friends always knew exactly where their families came from, most of them had documentation of it. So, when the DNA tests first started coming out I always wanted to get one done.
Last year, around Christmas time, MyHeritage DNA was having a buy one get one free sale. My Uncle ended up getting them for his entire family, but had 1 left over that my dad used. That inspired me to get my test results done. After my dad and I did the cheek swabs and sent it in and about three weeks later, we had our results!. What we found out really surprised us both.
I found out that not only am I not German, but I am 54.2% Scandinavian. I always thought that I would have a ton of low percentages from places all over the world. I never thought I would be over 50% of one thing. I am also 24.3% English, 15.5% Iberian, 5.1% Greek and South Italian, and 0.9% Italian. My dad got his DNA test done and I share 49.8% DNA with him, that is 23 shared segments. We both had high percentages of Scandinavian ancestry and English ancestry. My mom did not get a test done, but I would assume the rest of my ancestry comes from her side, and I assume she has some of the same as my dad.
I went from only “knowing” that my family was German, to actually knowing everything about my heritage. I think it is so cool to know where you come from and some of your family’s history. I encourage everyone to get one, even if you already know where your family is from. You never know what surprises might be in store for you!