For Christmas, Jim got me the 23andMe DNA kit. I've been wanting to do it for a while, but it is kind of expensive and I just never bit the bullet (and part of me was scared to find out where my ancestors came from in case I wasn't actually Irish!). Anyway, I finally mailed in my saliva sample in February and waited (not patiently!) for the results.
Well, today the reports came back. While this DNA kit tells you a LOT about yourself, I was most interested to see what nationalities I'm made up of. And honestly, a little worried that I wasn't even Irish...would have been a huge blow considering I've thought I was Irish my whole life (with a maiden name of Walsh, who wouldn't?!?!) and named my three children with Irish names!
And I AM IRISH!!! Quite a bit actually. Here are my major ethnicities:
European: 99.9%
Break down of European:
German: 46%
Irish/English: 37%
Broadly Northwestern Europe: 12%
Rest: small mix of lots of others!
My strongest genetic match was with Ireland and United Kingdom, even though I have more German DNA. Weird. So I'm a stubborn, thrifty (German traits) and have a temper but never complain (Irish traits!). Yup, sounds an awful lot like me :)
There's a ton of information provided that will take a while to go through. If any of you have done it, let me know and we can link our accounts! If any family members want specific details on health or genetic things, just let me know!
So much fun, especially for me since I really thought I was just a "mutt." Now I have a concrete answer for where my ancestors came from.
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