Good News... I'm Not Adopted

Recently I had the opportunity to take an Ancestry DNA test. And it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. All I had to do was spit in a tube and drop it in the mail. No blood required. The Ancestry DNA test calculates where your DNA comes from, and my results were very interesting.

My whole life I have been told that I am one half English, three-eighths Czech, and one-eighth German. Period. While I am still "European", my Ethnicity Estimate is not what I expected.

I am primarily Western European. I am guessing that most of that would be German. After that I am Eastern European, most likely my Czech ancestors. But the real shocker was that only 20% of my DNA comes from the British Isles. Now this test does not mean that only 20% of my ancestors came from the British Isles, but that about 20% of my genes come from there. I am very interested in finding out more about my roots.

In light of all this new information, I am starting a Genealogy Worksheet where I will record information about my direct line. I will only use official documents to track my family. Hopefully I can find what I'm looking for. Like many families, a lot of what I know (or think I know) about my ancestors come from oral tradition. "My father told me that his father told him....." Let's see what has been forgot or lost. I might even post some of my findings on my other blog Cooking with the Plouzeks. I want to know more about their lives then just dates and places.

Another nice feature about Ancestry DNA is that it predicts your relationships to other people who have also taken this test. And Good News, I'm Not Adopted. It correctly connected me with one of my uncles and some of my first cousins. It also connected me with over 400 people who are fourth cousins or closer. It really is a small world. We are all Family.

So be kind to the person you pass on the street, you might be related.