Love, Life & Beauty After Fifty

If you've been following my blog, you'll remember that back at the beginning of May, I decided I wanted to do a couple DNA tests to see if I could determine where my ancestors immigrated from on my Mom's side of the family (you can check out that blog here ) I ordered two tests - one from Ancestry DNA and one from MyHeritage DNA - and you'll also remember that I had some issues with the MyHeritage DNA test, so chose to do a third test through 23andMe (you can check out that blog here ) Now onto my 23andMe DNA results (I will be doing a comparison of ethnicity percentages from both Ancestry and 23andMe in a future blog) The 99% European can be further broken down: The other 1% is a mishmash of ethnicities - which according to 23andMe goes back 8+ generations: With the 23andMe test, you can trace your Ancestry Timeline which outlines how many generations ago your most recent ancestor for each population was from: 23andMe delves furt...

They are in!  I was so excited when I received the email from Ancestry.ca that my DNA results were available to view. As I mentioned in my first blog (you can check that out here ), I had a very good idea of where my ancestors immigrated from on my Dad's side of the family but did not know very much about where my ancestors came from on my Mother's side. I clicked on the email with excitement! My genetic ethnicity results indicated 93% Europe and 7% West Asia Europe West (This corroborates my Dad's research) Italy/Greece Europe East Great Britain (This one indicated that it was a low confidence region) Caucasus and Middle East (Both of these were also indicated as a low confidence region) First off - what is a low confidence region? Taken directly from Ancestry.ca - To calculate your ethnicity, we run 40 separate tests on randomly selected portions of your DNA. The bottom number in a range is the smallest amount of an ethnicity that app...

After my bad experience with the MyHeritage DNA test (see that blog here ), I decided to try the 23andMe DNA test in spite of it being the fairly pricey option (which was my hesitation when first looking for DNA tests).  Yes I know, I should have just gone with 23andMe in the beginning - live and learn. I saw that 23andMe was having a sale for Father's Day where the kits were $199 CDN vs $249 regularly, so placed my order on June 2nd, and received my kit on June 9th. I excitedly opened the box, although from doing the Ancestry DNA test, I knew what to expect. What I liked about this test, is it is returned prepaid to 23andMe here in Canada, complete with tracking (for privacy I will not be showing the tracking information) As with the two previous tests, prior to mailing the package back to 23andMe, you are required to active your tests online.  The process was again quick and easy, although with 23andMe you are required to answer a few additional ques...

I posted an update on my Ancestry DNA vs MyHeritage DNA kits on May 28th, however, feel I need to post another update as an issue has come up with the MyHeritage kit. My test was sent back to MyHeritage on May 8th, and since I had not heard from them that they received my test, I sent a message to MyHeritage on May 23rd to get an update as to the status of my test.  This was the test that was sent from Canada to Texas so it should have been received within a week (give or take a day) - the test sent from Canada to Ireland arrived within a week. Sadly I never received any reply, however, noticed when I logged into the MyHeritage website on May 26th, my test had been marked as received on May 25th.  I found this very interesting. Fast forward to a few days ago to when I received an email from Paypal indicating that a refund had been completed by MyHeritage on June 5th.  What the heck??? Sure enough, I logged into the MyHeritage website and all signs of my DNA test ...

In my blog of May 8th comparing two different DNA sample tests, I mentioned I mailed off the two samples - one to Ancestry and one to MyHeritage on May 8, 2017.  Today I will update you on the results so far. Ancestry DNA I received notification that the Ancestry DNA test was received on May 16th, which surprised me as this was the test that was sent to Ireland. Ancestry says that the sample will take 6-8 weeks for processing, which would mean the results should be available to me sometime between Jun 27, 2017 and July 11, 2017. MyHeritage DNA The sample sent to MyHeritage wasn't received until May 25th - this also surprised me as this was the test that was sent to Texas (I thought it would be received first). MyHeritage indicates that the estimated time for online results will be available sometime between Jun 22, 2017 and July 6, 2017. You can check out my first impression on both of these DNA tests here * This is not a sponsored blog. All opinions are ...

As an only child, I've always been curious about my genetic genealogy and ethnicity, especially on my mother's side of the family.  I am very lucky as my father had meticulously researched the genealogy for his side of the family (before the internet no less) and because of his efforts, I can trace our roots back to Alsace, Germany. Unfortunately family on my mother's side never really discussed their ethnicity or genealogy and I just assumed that they were either Ukrainian or Romanian.  Sadly there are no longer any living relatives on my mother's side that I can ask, so I decided to do the next best thing and do one of those fancy DNA tests they advertise.  But which one? As with any industry that has become popular, especially quickly, there are the front runner companies you always hear about - Ancestry, 23andMe and another I recently came across MyHeritage. Pricewise, MyHeritage is the cheapest at $99, Ancestry is next at $129 and then 23andMe at $249 (prices q...