Get a DNA Test

“The process itself was relatively easy. I ordered the kit on Amazon and waited about a week until the kit came. I thought I would swab the inside of my mouth, but you actually can’t smoke, drink, or eat for at least 1/2 an hour and then you spit into a test tube…which took longer than I thought it would. You seal the tube and a solution mixes with your saliva and then you send the tube in a prepaid box to the lab. I then waited another couple of weeks and then presto my results came. While I was waiting I read quite a bit online about their site and read and agreed to 4 different release of information waivers. I could have said no to all of them, but since my name would be kept private felt it was OK to release the info for research.”

“When the results came I was pretty fascinated and spent a couple of hours looking through all the data. [...] First I looked at my ancestry summary and found (no big surprise) that I am 99.7% European white. This was actually a big disappointment to me, because we had some family lore that a great-grandfather was native American which turns out to not be true.”

“Once you sign up the rest is easy. The company sends you a tube to fill up with your spit, which you seal and mail back to their lab, and after about a month they send you an email that your results are in. [...] I was a bit disappointed with how much of it came out as “nonspecific,” which is of course not very illuminating. But it’s not too surprising. [...] On the other hand I was pleasantly surprised with how much they can tell you. For instance they can tell you your percentage of Neanderthal DNA. I came in at 3%, which puts me in the 92nd percentile. My wife says that explains a lot.”