I received a wonderful gift from my family last week: 23andMe’s genetic ancestry test. The offering is simple: with a small saliva sample, you get access to an accurate report of your genetic ancestry. Sign me up!
The DNA sampling kit arrived in a petite package, and I was immediately impressed at how easy it was to provide my “samples” for testing.
I first took out the small test tube and registered it to my newly created 23andMe account. I then spent 3 minutes spitting into the test tube, which was the only part of the process that was harder than I anticipated. They ask for quite a bit!
I placed the test tube into a “Bio-Hazard” marked plastic bag for safe transportation, which then went back into the original box and was ready for postage.
The sampling process took less than 10 minutes, and in 3-5 weeks I should receive my results.
One thing I’m interested in understanding is the ancestry information on my mother’s side. She is, supposedly, the first person in her family to marry outside of the Chinese culture, so half of my lineage should be pretty homogenous. There is also a famous family story of a great-grandfather from the Canton region in China who was a stowaway on a boat to Malaysia a little over 100 years ago, so this region should feature heavily. I’m interested to see if the results from the test correlate with these stories.
See you in 3-5 weeks with an update!