A Puerto Rican look at: AncestryDNA

What seems like already a long time ago, mean while it was probably only a month ago, I ordered and sent off my spit to be analyzed by AncestryDNA. Seeing as how I've already tested with 23andme and Genetree (Y-DNA exam), I decided to try another exam as well. The price was only $99 since I had put myself on the mailing list and was quiet excited about getting my results. I activated my account and patiently waited for my results!

Activating my DNA testing kit

Adding information to my account 

The time it took to get my results back was very short! Before I knew it I had gotten an email saying that my results were ready to see. Below is the picture of my genetic ethnicity according to AncestryDNA. I was kind of nervous about what I would get!! Since I heard that a lot of people were getting very high amounts of Scandinavian percentage; also since I don't know from where exactly all my ancestors are from, I thought I would get a high amount of "Uncertain"- which occurs when your DNA comes from groups that might not be well represented in the exam for the lab to be completely sure where to assign it.

My Genetic Ethnicity by AncestryDNA

As you can see my top hit was Southern European at 37% which makes sense seeing as how I am Puerto Rican and have mostly a bunch of Spanish ancestors in my tree. Then came West African at 20% which as makes sense due to the African slaves brought in from West Africa. Then came British Isles at 13% which I find super interesting. Then Native South American at 9% which makes sense due to the natives of the island. Interestingly, some people I match with have both Native South and North American which I find interesting to have just one of them-- I wonder what that means? Next came Finnish/Volga-Ural at 9%, followed by Eastern European at 6% and finally Uncertain at 6%. 

I was quite happy with my results. Nothing seemed too off and everything fell into place from what I had known about my family's genetic background due to 23andme's analysis as well as other third party tools. I am intrigued by the Finnish/Volga-Ural which according to Ancestry's explanation comes from modern-day Western Russia and Finland. I think it would be quite funny to find a connection to Russia seeing as how I studied the language and went abroad there. In my 23andme ancestry finder I do match people with 4 grandparents born in Russia, so who knows!!

Hopefully my 6% Uncertain one day will find its way into other categories or even new ones. I'm still trying to connect with the other members who have taken the AncestryDNA exam but I haven't been able to confirm any matches yet. It's a continuous learning process and I'm excited to see what else will come of it!