Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Saturday, December 24, 2016

The DNA Adventure Begins: I receive the DNA Testing Kit


Some time ago, I finally decided to "bite the bullet" and take a DNA test. Of course, I decided to start with MyHeritage.com because I have already got over 100,000 SmartMatches and that means I already have a large number of "relatives" on the website. Unlike many, I am not seeking to find any more relatives. I have written a number of posts about DNA testing and if you want an interesting perspective on DNA testing you can do a quick Google search on "James Tanner genealogy DNA" and get some interesting posts and other information.

I got the test kit in the mail on December 24, 2016. Since I am involved in family Christmas activities, it will probably be a couple of days before I take the test and send it back to the testing facility which I understand is in Texas.

Here is the packaged opened.


Here is the testing part of the packaging:


You can assume that in the next few days, I will have taken the DNA test (I am worried I might fail!) so the next post on this particular subject will be on the test results. Now, this does not mean that I won't write some rank speculation about the results before they come. It will be interesting to see if my well-developed expectations will match the matching.

Stay tuned.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, the suspense. Let me guess. Does it show ethnicity? If so, it'll show you're 1/4 Danish and almost 3/4 British Isles with a little bit of other European.

    In all seriousness, I'll be glad if it clears up the Defriez question, since a distant cousin once explained the problem with that line, and how a test from this side of the family could clarify the genealogy.

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    1. It is possible that there will be some surprises.

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  2. I and my husband did the Ancestry DNA testing and got interesting results that match pretty much with what research we've done on our lines. But I am interested in what you say about the size of the samples on MyHeritage. Ancestry reported only about 180-195 people that I was being compared with. That doesn't sound like enough to be conclusive. I hate to spend the money, but maybe I'll also take MyHeritage's offering.

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    1. The size and composition of the comparison group is very important.

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