23andMe

The first test I did was with 23andMe. Over the years 23andMe have made, and are in the process of making, changes to how they do things and the format of their website so what I am discribing is the "old format." I have not been changed over onto the new format yet so I don't know what changes have been made so some of this may be different on the new format.

One of the things I really like about 23andMe is their Family Inheritance Advanced tool. With the FI:A tool you have your name (or the name of any person you are sharing with) in column one, then in column two you can put upto five other people into this tool then hit compare. The results are shown in a chromosome browser allowing you to see on what chomosomes (and where on those chromosomes) person one matches person two through six.

You might wonder the what benefit of that is. I will explain by using a real life example of a discovery I was able to find using that tool.

Two of my children have also tested on 23andMe, they have several matches that are predicted to be second cousins (meaning they share great-grandparents). The paper trail on Cousin was clear, the match was on their dad's paternal side. The paper trail on Cousin Two was also clear, the match was on their dad's maternal side. However, Cousin Three was adopted and didn't know anything about their family. So I put Cousin Three in position one, and I put my kids, Cousin One and Cousin Two in positions 2-5 and then hit compare. Cousin Three did not share any DNA with Cousin One but did share DNA with Cousin Two. This allowed me to tell Cousin Three who her great-grandparents were! She was eventually able to get in touch with her birth mom and both were happy to be able to meet.

Most discoveries aren't quite so dramatic, but being able to compare dna matches does help to find groups of people that are all related to each other and have matching segments of DNA on the same segment of the same chromosome, which means they probably all share a common ancestor. This can give you a better chance of figuring out who the match is.

Another plus with 23andMe is they do have health reports, which can be helpful as long as you are careful when reading them. Science still has not fully mapped out all our genes, nor do they have all the answers in what genes cause what illnesses. Maybe someday, but not yet. In the meantime the health report can give CLUES as to whether or not you have a higher than average chance of developing something, an average chance or a lower than average chance based on what is currently known. Again remember scientist are learning new things daily so what we thought might be true last week may be proved wrong next week.

I have also heard that 23andMe ethnicity results seem to be the most acurate. Just remember figuring out our ethnicity by looking at our genes is a NEW science. As more people of differeing ancestries test the more accurate they will become, for now it is just a fun thing to look at, not gospel fact!

Besides myself and two of my children, I have a paternal 1st cousin (Newman/Boyer lines) and a maternal 3rd cousin once removed (Busch line) who have tested with 23andMe.

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