About six weeks ago I provided a saliva sample to DNA testing company 23andMe after purchasing a kit on sale. Along with many others, my results have now come in.
Health and haplogroups
Carole Riley has blogged about her haplogroup and health results here. I won't cover that ground again in full. In short: my maternal haplogroup is U2e which is fairly uncommon but not unknown in people of European background. There were no surprises in my health results (phew!) except for the trait "Likely sprinter" and having half the average risk for breast cancer. That was a pleasant surprise, given my family history, but not a result I'll be counting on too heavily.
Relative Finder and Public vs Private
I had 325 matches when I first looked, but as more kits were processed the number increased through the day to 337. My closest predicted match was at the fourth cousin level. I had 28 predicted fourth cousins. Most of the rest were predicted fifth cousins but often with a range of 4th to 10th cousins. There were more matches that I expected, but it would have been nice to see a few third cousins in amongst the results!
Linda McCauley has posted some comments about the Relative Finder here. Following on from Linda has said, I have found it a little confusing to know where and how the different public/private setting are applied but like her I have come to the conclusion that I will make my profile public, and make sure that it is public also in Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder.
There are separate tick boxes for the Relative and Ancestry Finders, so make sure you've checked them. It seems to be different to making your profile searchable. The importance of this setting for genealogists is that you are limited to 5 invitations to Relative Fnder matches per day. However, public matches can be contacted without using up a daily invitation hence making it clear that you are interested in contact and making it easier for others to contact you.
I've seen arguments on discussion boards within the site for keeping your profile private (so people won't just skim your surnames and leave if they think there's no match, or take all your information without sharing) but for now I am trying it out with a public profile.
In my next post I will talk about the Ancestry Finder. This is where it gets interesting!
