By Ann Von Debsen, February 18, 2019 — Seduced by those ads on TV where someone thinks they’re Swedish, only to find out they are Italian, I asked for and received an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas. I knew I am mostly Scottish and German, but thought I might discover I am also descended from an exotic country with exotic relatives.
So I spit into the little container and sent the kit back to Ancestry. A few weeks later, I received an email saying, “Congratulations, we’ve received your sample.” Then a week after that, received another email stating, “Congratulations, we are about to process your DNA!” followed by another mail saying, “Congrats, we are processing your DNA!” Then finally, an email saying, “Here are your DNA results!”
I excitedly opened the email that contained several fancy graphics and links that finally took me to my results… surprise, you are 46% Scottish and 46% German!! With the remaining 8% being of probable Nordic descent (which probably most White people are.)
The fancy map just displayed a boring circle encircling the United Kingdom & Germany. My only listed family members were my father and grandmother – no material relatives – so I guess my birth was quite miraculous! And my sister doesn’t exist. Eventually, I discovered a list of “possible” 2nd and 3rd cousins. The first one listed was my cousin David who lives in NJ and whom I see all the time. The other names meant nothing so I clicked on the “more information” button for the next name only to be directed to a page telling me to join ancestors family tree for more information for a mere $50. So I closed up the website, just happy to be me. The next day, my cousin David called me and laughingly told me that he had received an email from Ancestry telling him they had located another of his relatives – me.