Image courtesy of Dan FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It would be really cool to have a crystal ball to tell us what we don’t know about our heritage.  DNA testing is probably as close as we’ll come.

What can you learn by sending spit and money to a laboratory?  The first thing is finding out where your ancestors originated from, about 500 years ago before the age of travel.  The second is to find clues to certain health predispositions that are happily waiting for an opportunity to show themselves in your body.  There is more to learn from DNA testing but it may take a degree in DNAology to understand it.

The science of knowing about ourselves through genetic composition continues to develop.

Recently two kindred family members sent DNA to be tested by the company ’23And Me’.

If you descend from Charles Eugene HOPKINS you will share a bit of what a  grandchild learned from the testing.

Basically, you are 99% European.  Within that percentage, you are about 28% British & Irish, 1.2% French & German, about 60% Northern European, and about 9.8% Nonspecific European.

The remaining 1% that is not European interestingly enough has .4% West Africa, .1% Oceanian (Australia area), and .4% unassigned.  There was no American Indian found in this DNA.

If you descend from Evelyn Roberta Barker DEAN and Brad DEAN:

You are 99.7% European.  The other .3% is unassigned.  The breakdown on your mostly European heritage is 22.7% British & Irish, 1.2% French & German, .5% Scandinavian, 46.7% Nonspecific North European, 11.3% Ashkenazi, 17.2% Nonspecific European.  Again, no American Indian.