Discovering my Ancestors Through 23 and Me

I've always wanted to do an ancestry test and six weeks ago, I finally ordered a kit from 23 and Me.  Before the test, I always said that I was 50% British (my maternal grandpa once traced his ancestry back to the year 1500 in England and Chilcott is a British surname so I presumed that was my paternal grandpa's heritage too), 25% German (from my maternal great-grandparents), 12.5 % Yugoslavian, and 12.5% Czechoslovakian (one great-grandparent from each country.)  While my DNA is consistent with a lot of this, there were some surprises!

My results show lots of Irish and British, French and German, and Eastern European, which was expected.  Everywhere I travel, people ask me if I'm French.  Looks like I might be a bit French after all! There is more Balkan DNA (modern day countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, and Greece) than I would have expected, but that is likely from the Yugoslavian side of the family.  There is also .1% Scandinavian! Maybe, I have a Viking ancestor!  Perhaps most fascinating are the .1% North African and less than .1% East Asian.  I'm curious if my hair comes from the .1% North African DNA.  The East Asian is very unexpected and I wonder how that slipped into my DNA.  Interestingly, both are on Chromosome 6.  I need to do some more research on genetics and ancestry to try to learn more. 

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Okay, the Neanderthal part of this was the most fascinating to me!  My whole life, I've had dreams that I could telepathically communicate with Neanderthals.  I realize that these are very bizarre recurring dreams, but no wonder!  These are my people; I have more Neanderthal DNA than two thirds of the people who have taken a 23 and Me DNA test!  Since the Neanderthal valley was in modern day Germany, and I have German ancestry, I guess it isn't super surprising, but it is cool to know that I have one Neanderthal variant directly influencing my height and had a Neanderthal in my direct line of ancestry!

Overall, I found this ancestry kit very interesting and it provided me with lots of inspiration for writing material! Leave me a comment below if you've ever done an ancestry test!