It seems like everyone wants to know where they come from these days. I understand that. And while I personally wasn't interested in getting my DNA test results, my husband had some unanswered questions into his ethnicity. With his mother passed on, it was hard to get the information we needed to share our past with our kids. We decided to review a sample of the MyHeritage DNA Test Kit and online family tree service with my husband to see what it was like!
First, we received the kit and the instructions were super simple. We swabbed the inside of my husband's cheek (twice), slipped the swabs into tubes, and mailed the whole package back with the pre-paid postage label and envelope.
We waited to hear back from the lab. I was impressed with the fact that they let us know via email when our sample was received, as well as kept us posted on every step of the way. The emails we received informed us that the MyHeritage team would do the following:
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First, we received the kit and the instructions were super simple. We swabbed the inside of my husband's cheek (twice), slipped the swabs into tubes, and mailed the whole package back with the pre-paid postage label and envelope.
We waited to hear back from the lab. I was impressed with the fact that they let us know via email when our sample was received, as well as kept us posted on every step of the way. The emails we received informed us that the MyHeritage team would do the following:
- sample is inspected and made sure it’s intact
- the DNA is extracted from cells in the vial and amplified
- DNA is placed on a custom-made DNA genotyping chip and heated to a high temperature so the DNA can attach itself to the chip (hybridization)
- the computer reads the hybridized chips, producing the DNA data
- the DNA data goes through a rigorous review to ensure it meets quality standards
- the DNA data is uploaded to the MyHeritage website, where it is analyzed and matched, and the results are emailed to us
It took about 4 weeks to get our results from the time we mailed it, which was pretty good. While we waited, we signed up for a year of the family tree membership that would help us match our results to other uploaded tests and also build out our family tree. Plus, we could use it to manually discover others, approve automated "hints" and get everything in order for when we got our results back!
What did it show?
We were amazed! While I don't want to share our private results, I can say that we found out that there were four major ethnicities for my husband. Three were known, and one was a complete surprise!
We also confirmed that his relations shared his DNA, and we found relatives we had no idea were in existence! This was the best part of the kid, in my opinion. Seeing that we shared DNA with people across the world was so fun! You could spend hours, days, and even weeks just discovering them all!
Whenever we get a new "hit" on either DNA uploads or records additions, we get an email. It's a never-ending process that I'm excited to continue on over the next few years.
Wanna Save? Right now is the best time to check out MyHeritage kits. They are on sale now through December 4th for just $59!
You can also get free shipping on your kit all year long with code MHKYLINSMOM
*Sample kit and membership received to review. Opinions are my own.
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I did this before through Ancestry.. it was awesome!! :)
ReplyDeleteKelly mcGrew