MyHeritage DNA Results and Relatives Revealed

DNA Processing Timeline

Although it can take longer, I got my results back in less than 4 weeks after the lab received my samples. MyHeritage sent me 2 emails with updates before providing the final email containing my results.

• • May 6th: Used the kit and packaged my DNA samples.

• • May 7th: Sent samples to a local lab for processing

• • May 11th: Sample arrived at the MyHeritage DNA Lab

• • May 18th: Status: DNA Extraction in Progress

• May 27th: Received my results!

The Results I’m Expecting

I really don’t think the My Heritage DNA report is going to show anything unknown about my background. Having relatives that are interested in tracking family trees, I know that my grandfather on my mom’s side has traced his ancestors back to England in the 1600s. My father’s side can be traced back to when the family arrived at Ellis Island in the late 1800s when they immigrated from Germany.

Knowing this information and the common last names in my families, I am expecting to get results that mostly or almost completely highlight the United Kingdom, Scotland, and Ireland. I also expect Germany and possibly Eastern European to be the next listed after the UK area. I do not believe that anything other than these areas will show up in the results, other than maybe 1% of something unknown to me at this time.

A picture of me and Reed so that you can take your best guess as to what our reports will say.

The Results Reed Expects

Reed has already seen his dad’s DNA report and is expecting to get results that point mostly to the United Kingdom. His dad’s report found small percentages of genes tracing to the areas of Finland, Italy, Mexico, and Kazakhstan. Who knows what Reed’s result will show!

My Actual Results

I laughed when I read my results because I couldn’t believe I’d been so wrong with my expectations! Not only did I have ancestry that I had no inkling about, I have absolutely no German in my DNA. My last name before becoming a Gibson was Hausenbauer, so this was very surprising! (I have since learned a little more about German history and found that my Balkan ancestry does fit with my German name). As it turns out, I have significant percentages of Balkan and Italian ancestry.  Now I’m left wondering where the Italian genes came from? I guess there’s a lot about my family history that I don’t know!

You can click on your map to view details about each highlighted area.

The biggest surprise for me was my Italian ancestry.

While I was correct with expecting to have a high percentage of genes trace back to the United Kingdom, I was surprised that my DNA only ties to Scottish, Irish, and Welsh and doesn’t include English. I was shocked to have such high percentages linking me to Italy and the Balkan peninsula. I was thinking that I may have some other European genes but thought that they would highlight Germany and the Czech Republic, not Southeastern Europe.

Reed’s Results

One of the interesting aspects of Reed’s results were that his Dad also has DNA results in the MyHeritage system. Reed Compared his results to his dad’s and found differences indicating that his mom is of North and West European and Scandinavian descent. The MyHeritage database automatically linked Reed’s dad in the DNA matches section of the site along with his aunt and uncle who had submitted DNA kits. Interestingly, Reed did not inherit any of the 4.4% Italian in his dad’s DNA or the small percentage linking to Central America.

Comparing our DNA

Reed was the most excited about the 0.8% link to Central Asia because it may indicate that he’s an ancestor of Genghis Khan. Comparing our results allowed us to easily see why I have a different skin tone than Reed and gave me a good idea as to why I’m only 5’2 while my mother’s side of the family is very tall. My DNA background was more of a surprise than Reed’s because my biological father and his family are all deceased. I will probably never get real answers about my DNA from my dad’s side, so I’m thankful for the MyHeritage ethnicity estimate.

Contact from a DNA Match

I wasn’t planning on trying to connect with any of my DNA matches, but one of mine contacted me. I was a little nervous to chat with someone that I’ve never met, especially since we only shared 1.1% DNA. My top two matches were listed as “1st cousin twice removed – 4th cousin”. What would this person want to know about me?

Once I realized that my match was an elderly lady who keeps track of a large family tree, I felt much more at ease. Her name was Muriel, and we shared the same last name. Muriel commented that she couldn’t figure out how I shared DNA with her and her son and asked me about my family tree. Oddly we weren’t related through our 2 common family last names. It took some time to figure it out, but we were able to determine that we share a grandmother (great-great on my side). It was tricky to determine because her father and my great-grandfather were half-siblings.

I immediately shared my findings with my grandmother, who was able to say hello to Muriel through email. My grandmother was a young girl when Muriel was a teen and they met at family gatherings many moons ago. Muriel shared some of her memories of my great-grandfather and some pictures. She told me that her grandmother’s parents owned a boarding house, and a photographer rented one of the rooms. This explains why she has multiple pictures from the early 1900s. I now have photos of my great-great-grandmother, Grace Truman Dunn. How neat is that!?

Grace Truman Dunn, born March 13th,1888

An Eye-Opening Gift

I’m so glad that I used the MyHeritage DNA Kit if for any reason just to correct my wrong ideas about my ancestry. The process was quick and easy and it was fun to get results back with contrasting information from what I had always believed! While I was surprised by my DNA report, I was amazed to have received pictures of my great-great-grandmother from the experience! I’ve since purchased kits for some of my family members, and can’t wait to learn about their findings! I definitely recommend using MyHeritage as a fun family activity and to provide you with some interesting information about your ancestry.

photo of my great-great-grandmother (on the right) est. year: 1904-1907