A wise Chinese proverb says: “To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root”.

It’s hard to disagree, isn’t it?

Since the high school course of genetics I have been swept off my feet with a dear dream of discovering my family heritage.

I think it’s rather important to know where you come from in order to determine your life path, set up new goals to achieve and rediscover yourself. And sometimes your ancestry can explain your choices and preferences that made you wonder like “why do I like French chanson music so much?” or “why do I dream of living on an island?”.

Anyway, today I took the first baby step towards exploring my ancestors’ roots. My DNA heritage report brought me quite a few surprises. So-called Recent Ancestry Report represents my last 5 generations. According to the data extracted from my genetic material, I am:

55% Scandinavian

9% Southern, Central Slavic

8% Western Slavic

7% German

6% French

6% British Isles

6% Russia/Ukraine

3% Jewish

Then, I viewed an Advanced Ancestry Analysis. It became the source of surprises. Apparently, my DNA was compared to reference populations that have been discovered and genotyped from all over the world. The genetics company factored in the known history of human migration patterns over the last several thousand years before assigning them to my final report.

In accordance with the data obtained, I am:

88.3% European ( well, that’s very predictable). Although…

16.4% of these percentages come from British Isles. I had no idea that my genuine interest in the United Kingdom, royalty and historical films, actually, has an explanation! What is even more amazing is that ancestors from the Foggy Albion were traced a generation after generation in my DNA, it looked like a constant gene marker.

5.2% South Asian ( Indian and Sri Lankan).

Moreover, they traced a Gujarati Indian ancestor of mine only 5 generations back. He or she lived around the year 1875 A.D. Accuracy of this stunning fact is 99% although I was not aware of my Indian roots until today.

4.5% of AdMixed American ( ¡Hola Perú, México, Colombia y Puerto Rico!).

1.6% East Asian ( Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese). Hmmm, my ancestors were quite mobile.

0.2% Esan in Nigeria ( we all come from the African continent, as scientists claim. My ancestral “motherland” is Nigeria).

Getting to know your genetic heritage is helpful in understanding yourself better. It has provided me with an insight into the life of my long gone ancestors and their migration patterns.

The next step in my self-discovery journey will be reaching out to our family’s distant relatives as well as working with archives. I have a lot to accomplish on my way but the information I get is priceless.

I would recommend everyone to get their DNA analyzed. It’s definitely worth the money!