I had my DNA tested

What exactly is my heritage?

The results were not exactly what I expected

These days, there are many DNA testing companies out there. I never really thought that I’d have any interest in having my DNA tested. That all changed in January 2020, though.

Shortly into the New Year, I was talking with my son, Aaron, on the phone and he told me that his girlfriend had bought him a DNA test for Christmas. He had sent in his test and was waiting for results.

A few weeks later, his DNA results came back, and he shared them with me. I was pretty surprised.

I had always been told that I was mostly Irish

All of my life I was told that I was Irish. Irish with a mix of other things, but never really very specific.

By chance, a year ago or so, I started thinking about my last name, Martin. I was unsure that Martin was very Irish, and I was thinking it sounded more German. Much of my life, especially when I lived in the Philippines, people always told me I looked German, and some even thought for sure that I was German. So, I wondered just how Irish I was.

And then Aaron got his DNA results

A few weeks later, Aaron got his DNA results. His test revealed that he was:

• Filipino
• Irish/Scots/British
• South Asian (Indian)
• Peruvian

Hmm… strange. The way the percentages added up, it seemed that he got the Filipino and Peruvian from Feyma. I was shocked, because the percentages indicated that he probably got the Irish/Scots/British from me, but also the South Asian.

I thought about it, and I was pretty sure I must be partly South Asian. India was a colony of Great Britain at one time, and I figured that maybe one of my Ancestors went to India and hooked up with a woman there. Who knows? Also, my mother always said that she was partially Indian, but she said American Indian, not South Asian. I figured maybe it got mixed up as the story passed down through the family, and maybe she had a bit of South Asian blood that she passed to me. Frankly, I was feeling that it would be kind of cool if I had some Asian blood since I lived in Asia for 20 years!

I was intrigued, so I decided to have my own DNA tested. I opted to use the same DNA testing company that Aaron used, My Heritage. I ordered a kit and sent it off. Feyma also decided to get her DNA tested, so she sent hers in the same day that I did.

My results left me feeling disappointed

When my results came back, the big build-up that I had experienced, thinking I was part South Asian crashed. I was excited to confirm that, but it did not happen.

The results, nonetheless, were pretty surprising to me. It came back that I was:

• 40% Scandanavian
• 34.5% Irish/Scottish/Welsh
• 25.5% English

Kind of plain vanilla! I had kind of built up my expectations that I was somewhat “exotic” compared to just a bunch of White Europeans!

But, Scandanavian? I had never in my life heard from my parents that we had any Scandanavian blood. Yeah, they said a bunch of mixture, but mostly Irish, and not a word about Scandanavia. Hmmm… As time passed, though, I accepted it and I am OK with it (I might as well be, it’s not like I can change it!).

Feyma’s results

Feyma’s results came back the next day. She turned out:

• 97.6% East Asian (of course)
• 2.4% South Asian

So, Aaron’s South Asian blood came from Feyma. The percentage results on Aaron’s test did not make it seem that he got his Indian blood from Feyma, but he did.

Surprisingly, Aaron showed partly Peruvian, but neither Feyma nor I had any Peruvian blood. Oh well…

Family Tree

Last year, coincidently, I got interested in doing family research and started gathering documents to do so. After I decided to have a DNA test, my family research kicked into high gear.

My DNA results revealed a number of DNA matches with other people who are cousins and such. I have yet to contact any of them, but I am considering it. That might be interesting and fun, or maybe not. We’ll see.

I will be writing more about my Family Tree and the research leading to the things I have discovered in a series of other articles in the future.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share about my DNA test and the ancestry that I discovered about myself. I am considering having DNA tests done by one or two other companies to see how the results compare. Maybe 23 and Me, and Ancestry.com. We’ll see.