I have always been curious about my family’s past. I constantly ask everyone if they knew about our ancestors’ origin stories, but the knowledge was limited and I was always left without answers. So, when the ancestry tests started to come out, I kept my eyes on them. It took me a while to be able to buy one. I constantly monitored their prices until a good special offer came up. I tracked the package with the precious cargo religiously until the 23&Me Ancestry Test reached my hands. So, here are my results.
To the surprise of absolutely no one,but extreme disappointment on my part, 72% of it came back with European blood. That was not difficult to see since my mother’s family has a lot of Spanish physical features attributed to them as well as my two last names. However, the ancestry test traces my European roots straight from the Canary Islands, which corroborated the words of my aunt, who is always fighting with her siblings about it. A big surprise, however, was the 0.6% Ashkenazi Jewish. While a low percentage, it is still there to show, and compared to my mom’s sister, who also did the test, it can be inferred that it comes from my dad’s side.
But what about the other 28%? Well, the next big chunk of my DNA comes from approximately 15% of Indigenous American blood. Once again, it seems to come mostly from my dad’s side of the family. I would love to explore and learn more about this side of my DNA. Sadly, the history about our Taínos was mostly erased and forgotten. Hopefully, one day I will be able to take the time and do some more research about it.
The other percentages are divided almost evenly between Sub-Saharan African, with 5.8%, and Western Asian & North African with 5.3%. I would also love to learn more about this part of my ancestry. Sure, it’s not the biggest percentage, but it’s still part of my story, one I’m eager to understand. But once again, the school system only shows European history from their point of view of the events.
Of course, the recent ancestry is all around the Caribbean. The other percentages are either decimals that I didn’t count or unidentified DNA. Even if the results weren’t all that surprising, I’m glad I finally have some answers.
So, if you ever want to find out about your ancestry, go ahead and do it. Find out more about yourself and add to your family with the ever growing list of relatives.