Your test results are a direct reflection of you as a person (and common misconceptions about results)

Before I took my first DNA test, I was a relatively well-adjusted late twentysomething living in the Houston, TX suburbs. I had just lost some weight, had a nice job, and had relatively decent hygiene. I took my complimentary test on my first day of work here (as a perk) and didn't think much of it. I left the conference room where the testing was administered and headed to the restroom to do restroom-type activities. How was I supposed to know that, on the other side of the office wall, my tiny samples were all being transferred to the lab as part of a sinister plot to destroy my humanity? Here, this is what I looked like before I tested:

After I was notified of my results, I went into my account and viewed them. I was no longer a decent guy from the suburbs. I was now a grotesque, reptile-like creature who fed solely off of small bugs and low-hanging fruits from within the deep interior of the Amazon rainforest. If another snake saw me as a match, they would change their match settings. Here is a photo of me from just after my results came in:

Look away! I'm hideous!

This overly-dramatic introduction is meant to show that nothing and nobody else can change who you are. A DNA test may uncover clues as to where you came from, but where you are now, and where you are going, are completely up to you. It is really easy for me to sit here and say that not to worry if your father doesn't show up as a match to you. That can potentially be devastating. My only point is that a test result should not ever negatively affect the way you feel about yourself. It won't take away your accomplishments and shouldn't alter your well-being.

I've had customers over the years that their percentage breakdown has a percentage they don't want/believe or they have a match they don't want or don't have a match they do. If you go back far enough, everyone matches everyone and all of our percentages are the same.

That being said, it can be jarring to uncover something you were not aware of. There are some misconceptions regarding 'surprising' results. This will not cover all of them.

First, Y-DNA haplogroups are being reported shorthand now (Haplogroup-Terminal SNP/ie: I-M253). If this is your haplogroup, all of your Y-DNA matches should be the same general group as you (I). However, even an extremely close match may not share the same Terminal SNP as you (M253). You could have a perfect match that is I-L287. Your haplogroup is the same! However, your perfect match may have had a different level of SNP testing, which would cause this to happen. This is no cause for concern.

Second, if you are tracing a specific ancestral group, and it doesn't show in your results, this doesn't necessarily mean that you do not have it. As I had hinted at in an earlier post, genetic testing cannot always disprove ancestry. If you know you have Native American ancestry and your autosomal percentage breakdown does not show a Native American percentage, this simply means that you did not inherit enough Native American markers from your recent ancestors to meet the testing system's minimum percentage requirements. It is not definitely saying you have no Native American ancestry.

Third, if a cousin does not show as a match, this does not necessarily mean they are not a cousin. This is more in regards to autosomal testing. With this test, because it is based on genetic markers you randomly inherited, there is about a 99% chance that two 2nd cousins or closer will match, about a 90% chance that two 3rd cousins will match, about a 50% chance that two 4th cousins will match, and only about a 10% chance that two 5th cousins will match. This leaves a considerable amount of room for some 3rd, 4th, etc. relatives to not show.

There are many more examples and I will cover them in later posts.

Now that you are the exact same person you were before you read this and before you tested, enjoy the rest of your afternoon!