Genetic Ancestry: Round 2

Rather than spreading my DNA in the world through my reproductive organs, I decided to try a new DNA sequencing service: MyHeritage.

I picked MyHeritage for two reasons: dirt cheap ($35) and they have the biggest database of Europeans people.

This article is a callback to my previous DNA sequencing adventures with 23andMe. Remember I was raging and cursing the world after this company updated their dataset, losing me my Portuguese connection.

Turns out they were right.

First of all, on MyHeritage, the ethnicity reveal is very kitsch. As soon as I heard this old fashioned Italian music I knew it was going to be good. Then, the map shows up.

Just for the callback, 23andMe showed this.

Awfully similar if you ask me. Let’s get the breakdown:

Others include Dutch, Germanic, Spanish and even Britanny. In those results, my Frenchness got taken away by a bit more of Italy. My mom will certainly be happy. It is also quite hillarious North & South Italy are broken appart versus France being a single block.

Those databases, either 23andMe or MyHeritage, can extract your main ethnicity quite reliably. Is it very interesting? Not really. As advertised this website is mostly oriented to genealogy and building your family tree. In that regards, I have hundreds of matches from people sharing my ancestry. 23andMe in comparison seemed more geared toward health analysis.

Maybe now I will be able to get away with my favourite Family Guy joke.