Hugh's DNA Results

Back in June, we had Hugh's AncestryDNA House Party here at our house to reveal his ethnic background. We were hoping that his birth mom would be able to come to the party and celebrate the big reveal with us, but due to circumstances beyond her control, she was not able to come.

We invited a few close friends to come over and be here to hear the news. AncestryDNA sent us a party pack and a map was included, so we played a game with guessing where Hugh's results would be from.

It was fun to watch everyone try to guess where he's from, and to see the different areas on the map where our friends had guessed he had roots.

We had some snack foods for everyone to munch on, and then we headed into the living room, where Steve was able to open up ancestry.com and show it on the television. Everyone was able to see his results at the same time, and we all discussed his results and our thoughts on them.

Here are the official results (in approximate amounts):
Europe  56%
- Europe West 29%
- Great Britain 10%
- Italy/Greece 7%

Africa  39%
-Ivory Coast/Ghana 28%
- Africa Southeastern Bantu 8%
- Benin/Togo 1%
- Mali 1%
- Cameroon/Congo 1%

Asia  5%
- Middle East 3%
- Caucasus 1%
- Asia South 1%

The results are quite interesting to me. Hugh's birth mom is almost totally German, so the huge European dominance isn't shocking. I was surprised by the Ivory Coast/Ghana part. I was honestly expecting him to be Caribbean or some type of Latin.

The main thing that we were looking for was general information about his paternal roots, and we have that. The test wasn't for any sort of genetic information, and I'm sure there are tests that give even more specifics, but for now, this is more than enough information for us to have for Hugh when he's older.

What's been interesting is that there are people on ancestry.com that have also taken the DNA test, and the website has "matched" them with Hugh. I actually just got a message from someone that says:

I've recently received results from my DNA test and my results indicates we possibly may be related. I have posted my family tree and I am wondering if you have reached the stage in your family research where you have a tree that you possibly could post. I'd love to see if there is a definitive familial link for the two of us.

As always, thank you for your assistance with this request.

I'm so incredibly torn on this. Do I respond? Do I ignore this? I mean, there are so many "what ifs" that come to mind. The site says this person lives in Greensboro, NC (where Hugh's birth mom lives) and that that he and Hugh are predicted to be 3rd cousins with a 98% accuracy. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on exploring this!!

AncestryDNA House Party

A few weeks ago, I applied to host an Ancestry.com DNA House Party. I thought it'd be so great to do the test with Hugh and see what his paternity lineage is.

We'll never know his paternal side, and due to how he was conceived, we'll never be able to tell him anything about his paternal side. Children wonder about this kind of thing, and so I thought I'd apply for the party with the hopes of being selected.

Well... I was selected! Hugh's DNA test came at the end of March and it was not the typical cheek swab that I was expecting. We had to have him fill up a container with spit!! Not an easy task with a 15 month old!!

It took about 35 minutes to get the vile filled with enough saliva! We mailed it to Ancestry.com and then a few days ago, I got an email saying that they received the sample.

So now we wait. And then on June 7th, we will announce to friends and family what the results were at the House Party! I'm eager to see what it says but not very hopeful that it'll be as specific as I'd like. 

I was looking online and reading blogs about this, and most people disagree with their findings and many said it was inaccurate. Without having anything to go on with his paternal side, we'll just have to hope that we get accurate info. We may choose to do another test later down the road, that's more specific, but for now, I'm hoping it'll give us a better idea of his ethnicity.

I want to be able to give him some information about where his roots are when he asks. I am so thankful to have an open adoption with his birth mom, and have already been asking her about her lineage and started a family tree with the information. It's interesting that Ancestry.com doesn't have an easier feature for creating a tree with an adopted child. It won't let us merge trees to create (what we like to call) an orchard.

No matter what the results are, I'm excited that we were picked and I am eager to hear anything that they were able to capture from his saliva.

Anyone want to guess what his paternal ethnicity is?