“It’s Frankly Embarrassing”: Woman Confronts Mom About Their Ancestry After Taking A DNA Test

Retracing your family history can be pretty exciting, as it often reveals something you never knew before. It can also prove something you did know to be false.

That’s what happened to redditor u/Sad_Personality_7881 when she did a deep dive into her family’s background. With the help of several genealogy companies, she found out that her family members are 99.9% European, with no Native American ancestry. However, her mother was not convinced about having no such heritage. Scroll down for the full story as shared with the AITA community.

Thanks to advanced technology in genealogy, nowadays, we can learn more about our family history dating as far as hundreds of years back. Even though we might have heard a thing or two about it from the elders in the family, certain companies can provide more details by browsing huge genealogical, historical, and related databases. According to a 2020 study, over 26 million people worldwide have turned to such companies for genetic ancestry testing.

Such testing is carried out using genetic data that allows researchers to estimate the geographic origins of a person's recent ancestors. The study revealed how it works by detailing that ancestry testing involves comparing a large number of DNA variants in an individual with frequencies of such DNA variants in reference populations sampled from different parts of the world. The region where the individual DNA variant boasts its highest frequency is considered to be the most likely location of the tested person’s ancestor.

This way, people can not only learn more about where they come from, but find relatives as well. A survey by YouGov revealed that out of the people interested in taking such a test, 80% say they’d like to do it to learn more about where their family comes from and roughly 50% would like to connect with relatives they didn’t know they have.

Another study, carried out by Ipsos in 2021, unveiled that the majority of Americans think it’s important to know your family’s history. As many as seven out of ten believe so, with the older generations emphasizing it more. According to the survey, 76% of representatives of GenX think it’s important to be familiar with your family’s background, compared to 70% of Baby Boomers, 66% of Millennials, and 65% of Gen Z.

Even though people are eager to learn more about their ancestry—with genealogical curiosity being the main driving force behind it—they also have privacy concerns. According to NPR, nearly 50% of people whose family or they themselves have undergone genetic ancestry testing admit to having similar worries.

CNBC pointed out that with a growing interest in such testing and somewhat easy access to it—some kits sell for under 60 dollars, and there are millions of them sold every year—privacy concerns are not baseless. It suggested that the growth of DNA databases “has made it possible to trace the relationships between nearly all Americans, including those who never purchased a test.”

According to CNBC, Ancestry and 23andMe—two of the three companies the OP turned to—are “the two main players in the genetic and ancestry testing business, with Ancestry collecting 14 million DNA samples as of Jan. 1 and 23andMe collecting 9 million samples. The other companies reported a combined total of 3.5 million samples collected.”

Another concern related to genetic ancestry testing is its accuracy, which made some redditors consider everyone in the situation a jerk to some extent. In the comments, Reddit users pointed out that before judging the mother’s beliefs, it’s important to understand the way genetic testing works and pay attention to the notes or any additional information the companies provide.