It's funny when you think you're one thing and then you end up being another. Did I tell you that my daughter Laura (and I suppose Caity as well) was told she was at least a quarter Choctaw Native American, because her father's side of the family told her so? They told her so over and over. They stated that their mother really never talked about it, but when she did, she stated she was nearly half Native, which would make her son, the girls' father, about a quarter, unless his father was also Native (which he isn't), and that would leave my girls being around one eighth Native -- which they are not. (but still, my girls couldn't have been a quarter Native either way!)
Turns out, after doing the whole MyHeritage DNA testing, that my daughter Laura is far more British than I am! Go figure. She could be the Queen someday! She is 42% English, 34% Scottish/Welsh, and 5% Irish. (The rest of her is a mix of Dutch, German, Danish, Breton, and that all very important 1% French! I will never let her live that one down. She didn't get it from me.) Well, she and I both were a little shocked at that, but we must survive, so survive we will.
MyHeritage is a good company. Its results are clear and as accurate as any of these tests can be. It does make me want to try another test from another company to see just how close they are. That would be interesting. My results from 2016, then 2021, and now 2025 haven't really changed. By "changed," I meant to refine the results: in 2016, they were rather generic, and in 2021, they were a little more defined; a few percentage points shifted from the majority result to a secondary one. This time, nothing changed for the majority, but the third through fourth saw a bit of change.
The numbers change because more of your related people have taken the test, and their unique markers affect yours as the technology evolves, making the whole thing a bit clearer. It will likely never be completely accurate, but I really wanted to know how much of my "blood" was Anglian rather than Viking. We all know that the Vikings came down from the North in the late 8th century; why go back that far to tell me what my heritage is? Why not start around 1300-1400, after the invasions? It just makes sense to do so.
My 2016 results showed I was 38% Scandinavian, 22% English, and 22% Scottish, Welsh, and Irish. I had a bit of Iberian and Italian blood running through my veins, but I was more English than Scottish, and that bothered me. It bothered me because I knew that when "my people" came down from the North, they went primarily to the Isles we now call Ireland and Scotland, not to the east, where they ended up in England, Germany, and France. I don't feel Norwegian. I don't feel Swedish. I don't feel like a Dane. I know I'm a Celt.
I haven't received the 2025 results. I thought I had. They're going over them again after I asked them to try again, this time without using the same old 2021 test. They literally sent me the same result with the 2021 Order #, and I requested that if they're going to do that, they can refund my money; at least give me the Order # I paid for in 2025. If I paid for another test kit, which I did, send me THAT one with the matching Order # so I can see that in 4 years, no differences were found.
I got a call yesterday from MyHeritage because they had "inadvertently" charged me $149 for a yearly subscription that I had NOT authorized. They called me to apologize and to say they were refunding the money. I asked the man if they could send my 2025 results, and he said he would ask them to do so, but that he could look on his end to see if there were any changes, and there were two. I am now more Iberian and more Italian than I was before. I am less Scandinavian. Nothing changed on the British front, so I guess a few more of my Viking ancestors continued their southern expedition and ended up in Spain, Portugul and Italy. There you go. More spaghetti for me!
I am now 12% Iberian and 5% Italian. My dad did have darker features. Mom was born with auburn dark thick hair and green eyes - she had more of the traditional Irish traits, I suppose, but her name, her parents, and her grandparents surnames were unmistakably English; Edwards, Free, Hague, and I can't remember the others, but all of them were Angelian. Dad's, of course, was Scottish and English, but in the midst of it all, a few of those Stringfellows went off and married darker women from more exotic parts of the world. I ask myself why I didn't inherit a spec of that beauty...But I digress.
I didn't expect my DNA to change dramatically, nothing like that, but I was told in 2016 that in a few years' time, they would have better technology, and I should keep doing the tests to see the changes. As long as the kits were under $25, I didn't mind. I think I paid $27 this time, so there you go, the Scottish is showing, but that Italian in me sprang for the last $2 to make it happen. I don't mind being Scandinavian, it's just that if you think about it, we're all related to Noah, so why not go back another few thousand years and just be done with it? I think they should go back to 1400, not 800 A.D. Maybe in time, they'll be able to accommodate my whining. We'll see.
Photo Credit: BBC
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