Learning More About Myself
The older I get, the more I crave more knowledge of self. For years I have watched my husband gather his family history - he takes pages of questions about relatives to his family functions, has binders and books full of information stacked in our house - and I've envied him. So for Christmas this past year, I only asked for one thing. I wanted to know where I was from. I wanted a 23andme ancestry report.
Being very candid with you all, my family is pretty disjointed. I don't speak with too many of my family members and haven't gotten tons of historical info out of my elders. My Grandma was "55 years old" for ten years and I didn't find out her actual birth name until about three years ago. So I've always been eager to know more, I've never felt a connection to the Earth like most of my friends have. I just know some of my family is from down South and most of my family were raised in New York City.
So here I am...almost 90% African. Growing up with my lighter skin and slanted eyes, many people joked that I were Asian (my Grandmother loves to talk about the Asian women who would give me free toys growing up) so I believed it. I for sure thought my test would come back with at least 20% Asian, but nope!
After reading my results, I felt an immense sense of pride. Pride in my heritage and a hunger for more information. I want to know which communities in Africa, which countries. Which one of my family members is European? So many open-ended questions that have fueled the beginning of a journey for me. I've always just resolved that I were born of slaves, but where did they originate? who, who, who?
THE 23ANDME EXPERIENCE: MY REVIEW
So what is my review of the 23andme experience? Overall, I'm happy to have a starting point. Of all of the information the 23andme reports provides, the ancestry report has been the most exciting. But there's so much more that 23ndme offers. There are health reports - more specifically a Carrier Status report for carrier traits - that was very interesting. My husband and I were most concerned about Sickle Cell traits, which neither of us carry, but there's 40 other traits they test for. There are also 7 wellness reports that give you information about which foods are best for your genetic makeup, how to sleep, etc. It is well worth the money.
As far as the actual process goes, it's very easy. My husband ordered a tube kit and it was delivered to us. We spit into the tubes, sealed them and dropped them into a prepaid box. We did this the week of Christmas, and by Valentine's Day my husband and I had our results. 4-6 weeks for results, as promised.
My one critique? The pool for information for people of African descent is very shallow. I think relates very much to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Henrietta Lacks' cell cloning, and many, many other experiments that leads Us not to trust the government. This feeling is valid and honestly, warranted. But without enough of Us within the database, there isn't much for the 23andme systems to connect dots to. There needs to be commonalities in order for them to form correlations. So a lot of my reports, especially the Traits reports, were inaccurate.
Overall, this was a fantastic experience and a wonderful catalyst for my self-discovery and exploration. Want to try for yourself? Sign up for 23andme here. Have your own 23andme experience to share? Please sound off in the comments!