<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20269" alt="Depression infographic" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Depression-infographic.jpg" width="690" height="447" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Depression-infographic.jpg 690w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Depression-infographic-300x194.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" />
For the live-updated, fully-labeled, interactive version of this infographic, <a href="http://curetogether.com/depression/ig/treatment-effectiveness-vs-popularity">click here</a>.
By Alex Carmichael, Co-Founder of CureTogether
The top treatments for depression are simple lifestyle changes, according to patients who contributed to a new study by CureTogether, a free resource owned by 23andMe that allows people to share information about their health and treatments.

Participants in the study said they found that interventions like exercise, spending time with pets, and listening to music were the most effective for them in treating their depression. Conversely, some popular treatments such as alcohol, Paxil, and caffeine were among the least effective, according to the participants in the CureTogether survey.

Depression is the number one condition among participants in CureTogether, with 11,443 members contributing data on what works and doesn’t work for them. While many people feel sad from time to time, depression is a serious mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It often goes untreated, according to the National Institutes for Health. The participants in the CureTogether survey may not be diagnosed with clinical depression. They are self-reporting that they have depression and the associated symptoms. There are a number of causes and treatments for the condition. In this survey, participants pointed to stress and social isolation as the most common <a href="http://curetogether.com/depression/ig/treatment-effectiveness-vs-popularity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">causes of their depression</a>. 
study.

<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Top-Rated Treatments for Depression in Survey
1. Exercise
2. Spend time with a pet
3. Play outside
4. Music with exercise
5. Music therapy
6. Daily aerobic exercise
7. Daily sunlight exposure
8. Art therapy
9. Psychotherapy
10. Psychotherapy
*For a list of all the treatments listed in the survey go <a href="http://curetogether.com/depression/treatments/ae/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</div>

Participants in this survey also did not rank some of the most commonly used drugs for treating depression in their list of the top 25 effective treatments. But among the medication that many participants listed as effective were SSRIs, Xanax and  Low Dose Naltrexone.
Where did this data come from? This is the result of a five-year CureTogether study on <a href="http://curetogether.com/depression/treatments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">depression,</a> in which people suffering from the condition shared information about their symptoms and treatment effectiveness.
We’d like to thank those who participated. And just as they shared their experience with depression treatments, we’re freely and openly sharing the results of the Depression 
This is part of a regular series of CureTogether <a href="http://curetogether.com/blog/category/research-findings/">research findings</a>. CureTogether’s research findings are different than <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/factoids/">those made by 23andMe</a>, which look at genetic associations with illness, traits and drug response. But as we continue our work with the CureTogether community, 23andMe hopes to incorporate more of this kind of self-reported information into our own research. CureTogether present its findings just as they are — patient-reported data — to stimulate discussion and generate new insights for further research.


Please tweet, blog, or pass this along to anyone who can benefit or is interested in Depression. Thank you!

Alexandra Carmichael

What Patients Say Works For Depression

In honor of the <a href="http://traditions.cultural-china.com/features/horse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chinese New Year</a>, we’re taking one last look at the genetic milestones of 2013, with our 2013 year in review.
From a Supreme Court ruling on patenting genes, to Angelina Jolie’s bold revelations about her genetic risk for breast cancer, to the FDA ordering 23andMe to stop offering health results pending a regulatory review   – 2013, and the Year of The Snake was filled with notable news in genetics.
So take a look back at last year with us and prepare for another galloping year in the world of genetic science in this, the <a href="http://traditions.cultural-china.com/features/horse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Year of The Horse.</a>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20283" alt="012814_YearInReviewSocial" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial.jpg" width="600" height="2173" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial.jpg 600w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial-83x300.jpg 83w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial-283x1024.jpg 283w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial-243x880.jpg 243w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/012814_YearInReviewSocial-326x1180.jpg 326w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

23andMe Looks Back One More Time

Daniella had always pestered her father about details of their ancestry, but apart from a few bits and pieces he never gave her a clear picture of their family background.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20247" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-300x300.jpg" alt="Daniella" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Daniella.jpg 1152w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
When he began his battle with terminal cancer, Daniella decided that it was time to learn more about their ancestry together using 23andMe.
Both Daniella, a co-host of a local TV show in Brooklyn, NY, and her father had always shared a love of science. Testing allowed them to bond over the science of DNA. It also allowed Daniella to learn more about her family.
What she knew about her family only went back two or three generations and that most of that information was hazy at best.
“I had been asking my Dad to write down what he knew of our family tree. The names he knew. The stories he knew. This foray into 23andMe was intended to supplement that and wake us all up to how connected we are to people we did not know and places we did not know and makes us all feel deeply that we are all woven into the human tapestry.”
Daniella saw 23andMe offered as a way to make her father feel that connection, so she shared her own results with him.
As a chemical engineer, the science behind genetic testing piqued her father’s interest. His 23andMe results came in just as the Christmas 
holidays were beginning.
“We are really good at being a family. I knew that we would all be getting together looking at some old Kodak slides. I just thought that 23andMe would just be another way for us to feel connected, for him to feel connected. It was pretty powerful.”
They went through the results together. Of course, they found his Italian heritage, which they knew, but there was a Middle Eastern line that ran through his DNA as well. They linked their accounts and compared their DNA. It was obvious what came from her Mom and where she aligned with her Dad.
“We always connected through science. Both of us loved new technology, the latest innovations and discoveries,” Daniella said. “It was a real intellectual connection and with 23andMe here was something we could really discuss and see how it would enlighten us.”
Going through their ancestral results prompted Daniella’s father to talk in detail about his childhood and family ancestors. The process had the desired effect &#8211; he could see himself in the bigger picture not just a man fighting cancer.
Even after the holidays as he would remember something more he would send her an email. One of his last correspondences included another treasured piece of family history shared &#8211; his great grandmother’s last name.
“The timing of getting the results was impeccable. I wanted to make him feel part of a really big family. And it worked. My mom said “You had a very special connection and this allowed you to find your own closure.”
Results not typical. Results vary due to unique differences in each individual’s DNA. On average, users receive at least one or two results that may help with proactively managing health. 23andMe’s services are not a substitute for professional medical or diagnostic advice.

The Ties That Bind

Scientists at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences, report that they can zero in on remnant Neanderthal DNA in modern humans.
They have identified specific regions in our genome where that ancient DNA resides, and they can do this even without access to actual Neanderthal DNA samples from fossilized bones.
<h6><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-20253" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Neanderthal_model.jpg" alt="Neanderthal_model" width="260" height="270" />Neanderthal Traits</h6>
The study published this week in Science promises to help researchers working not just in addressing questions about human evolution, but those investigating the underpinnings of human traits and complex diseases.
Up to this point, scientists using tools – like the one developed by 23andMe – could make estimates about the amount of overall Neanderthal DNA in modern humans, but this new technique could help researchers bore down on where in the genome that DNA resides.
That could give us greater insight into how the Neanderthals DNA changed modern humans, including what sort of traits and conditions they conferred onto Homo sapiens.
<h6>Evolutionary Success</h6>
There are many theories regarding the influence Neanderthal DNA had on modern humans. Some have pointed to Neanderthal DNA as a culprit in certain cancers, in autism and diabetes. But it is also likely that modern humans benefited from interbreeding and that Neanderthal DNA may have played a large role in<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-with-other-human-species-might-have-been-secret-homo-sapiens/"> our evolutionary success</a>.
Over the last few years, we’ve learned that most non-Africans carry some remnant Neanderthal DNA. But what that might mean – what characteristics, diseases or conditions that we modern humans carry with us because of that DNA – is still unclear.
<h6>Neanderthal Sequence</h6>
Just last month researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology sequenced the full genome of a Neanderthal woman. They did this by extracting DNA from her 50,000-year-old fossilized toe bone found at a site in Siberia. The sequence was done at a quality comparable to what would be done for a living person. And the researchers were able to use the sequence to show how genes flowed between these populations.
This and other breakthroughs have only increased the pace of our changing understanding of early human evolution. As we learn more, our curiosity about those early cousins only seems to grow.
Take a look at these new illustrations of Neanderthals done for an exhibit called Britain. It&#8217;s called One Million Years of Human History and was put together by the National History Museum in the UK.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/znUvFxsrMOs" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-14049" title="neanderthal icon" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/neanderthal-icon-96x150.jpg" alt="" width="50" height="77" />
Got Neanderthal DNA?
23andMe customers can find their inner Neanderthal or at least how much Neanderthal DNA they have. Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store">Visit our store</a>!

More Neanderthal

Working with researchers from Australia’s<a href="http://www.qimr.edu.au/"> QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute</a>, 23andMe scientists completed the first-ever genome-wide association study combining asthma and hay fever phenotypes.
<a href="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000003241516XSmall.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5814" alt="inhaler_asthma" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000003241516XSmall-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000003241516XSmall-300x199.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000003241516XSmall.jpg 425w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />T</a>he susceptibility to both asthma and hay fever are known to often run hand-in-hand. But the study published this week in the<a href="http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749%2813%2901643-6/fulltext"> Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology</a> found 11 genetic variants that are associated with having both conditions.
In addition two of those variants found in the study had never before been associated with any allergic condition. 
<h6>New Associations</h6>
While the nine other genetic variants found in the study had been linked to different allergies in the past, this is the first time those associations were found to be associated with both asthma and hay fever.
“In this first-of-its-kind study, we’ve identified new genetic associations that can provide the means to identify people at risk for allergic disease with greater efficiency,” said David Hinds, Ph.D., study author, and 23andMe Principal Scientist in Statistical Genetics.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Allergies of a Feather Flock Together 
People with allergies tend to be allergic to <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-9185" alt="allergy" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/allergy.jpg" width="139" height="123" />multiple things. Sometimes this makes sense – being allergic to cats and dogs for instance – other times the groupings make you scratch your head. Based on our research survey data, we found that if you are allergic to one insect’s sting, it is more likely that you’ll be allergic to another. But food allergies do not appear to be associated with other kinds of allergies. You can learn more about these associations<a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/factoid/factoid_allergies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> here</a>.</div>
About one in five American children have a respiratory allergy like<a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/allergic-rhinitis/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier"> hay fever</a>, and nearly one in 10 have asthma.
<h6>Serious Illness</h6>
While for many of us, allergic reactions are a mere annoyance, for others they can be life-threatening. We know that both environmental and genetic factors are involved in triggering asthma and allergies. But a deeper understanding of those causes will help in both identifying risks as well as potential treatments.
This new study – led by scientists at QIMR – included data from more than 15,000 23andMe customers who agreed to participate in research. The work also adds to the body of existing research already done by 23andMe on allergies and asthma.
<h6 dir="ltr">More Research</h6>
Last year, 23andMe researchers and scientists from the University of Bristol’s<a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/"> Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) i</a>n the UK, completed the largest genome-wide association study ever conducted on common allergies.<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.2686"> That study</a> included data from more than 53,000 people. It also found new genetic associations for the conditions. The study added to our knowledge of the genetic link between common allergens and a person’s susceptibility to experiencing an allergic reaction
Researchers hope that these studies will improve their ability to detect genetic risk factors for allergies and asthma. In turn, this information can also shed more light on the biological underpinnings for the conditions.

New genetic variants found to influence risk of asthma with hay fever

A friend of Gwen Schroeder once told her: “Don’t cheer from the sidelines if you can run the race.”<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20235" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-214x300.jpg" alt="Gwen " width="214" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-214x300.jpg 214w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-842x1180.jpg 842w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-768x1076.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-731x1024.jpg 731w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-628x880.jpg 628w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Gwen-1-scaled.jpg 1828w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px" />
So when her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Gwen laced up her shoes.
<h6>The First Step</h6>
A post-production manager who works in New York City for the TED Conferences, Gwen signed up to run a marathon to raise money for the<a href="https://www.michaeljfox.org/"> Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research</a>.
Since that first marathon, Gwen has run in three more, even strapping a camera to her head as part of the effort. In the process, she has raised over $20,000 for Parkinson’s research.
Not content with just fundraising on her own, Gwen has also joined clinical trials for Parkinson’s research and become a mentor for Team Fox, the grassroots fundraising arm of the<a href="https://www.michaeljfox.org/"> Michael J Fox Foundation</a>.
<h6>Participating in Research</h6>
On top of all that, Gwen signed up with 23andMe specifically to help in the company’s<a href="https://www.23andme.com/pd/"> Parkinson’s Research Community.</a>
“For a while, I avoided even thinking about sending a kit off,” she said about testing. “But the more I considered it, the more I felt like this was a tiny step towards a greater understanding of Parkinson&#8217;s disease. My participation could someday help another family. So, I took a deep breath, spit into the little jar and sent it off.”
But once she decided to test, Gwen said her concerns evaporated.
&#8220;Once I made the decision to do it I was fine,” she said.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t curious about what she would learn, but much more comfortable with it. And for Gwen what was most important was helping the Parkinson’s community.
“The knowledge that I’ve furthered research makes everything I’ve learned about my genes far less scary.”
Results will vary due to unique differences in each individual’s DNA. On average users receive at least one or two results that may be relevant to proactively managing health. 23andMe&#8217;s service does not diagnose disease. 23andMe is not a substitute for professional medical or diagnostic advice.

Getting In the Race

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-20229 aligncenter" alt="High Cholesterol Infographic" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/High-Cholesterol-Infographic.jpg" width="693" height="448" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/High-Cholesterol-Infographic.jpg 693w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/High-Cholesterol-Infographic-300x194.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 693px) 100vw, 693px" />For the live-updated, fully-labelled, interactive version of this infographic, <a href="http://curetogether.com/high-cholesterol/ig/treatment-effectiveness-vs-popularity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">click here</a>.
By Alex Carmichael, Co-Founder of CureTogether
If part of your plan for 2014 is to eat healthier, exercise, and lower your cholesterol, this post is for you! Some of the most popular treatments for High Cholesterol are not necessarily the most effective, according to a new study by CureTogether, a free resource owned by 23andMe that allows people to share information about their health and treatments.
Participants in the study said they found that some drugs – including Statins, Crestor, and Lipitor – were the most effective. Conversely some popular treatments such as Fish oil and Vitamin D were among the least effective, according to the study. High Cholesterol affects millions of Americans. Finding treatments that work well is important to improve quality of life, so CureTogether asked people living with High Cholesterol to rate the effectiveness of different treatments.
CureTogether’s study compiled responses from 1,862 people with High Cholesterol, who rated the effectiveness of 19 different treatments. Among the most helpful treatments were statin drugs, weight loss, exercise, and quitting smoking. Also effective for those in the study were diet changes including reducing carbohydrates. The people in the study also said that cinnamon and garlic – both folk remedies –  were not as effective.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Most Effective Rated Treatments for People with High Cholesterol 
1. Statins 
2. Crestor 
3. Lipitor 
4. Quit smoking 
5. Zocor 
6. Weight loss 
7. Niaspan 
8. No carbohydrates 
9. Exercise 
10. Red yeast rice</div>
Where did this data come from? This is the result of a four-year CureTogether study on <a href="http://curetogether.com/high-cholesterol/treatments/">High Cholesterol</a>, in which people suffering from the condition shared information about their symptoms and what treatments worked best for them. We’d like to thank those who participated. And just as they shared their experience with High Cholesterol treatments, we’re freely and openly sharing the results of the High Cholesterol study.
This is part of a regular series of CureTogether <a href="http://curetogether.com/blog/category/research-findings/">research findings</a>. CureTogether’s research findings are different than <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/factoids/">those made by 23andMe</a>, which look at genetic associations with illness, traits and drug response. But as we continue our work with the CureTogether community, 23andMe hopes to incorporate more of this kind of self-reported information into our own research. CureTogether present its findings just as they are — patient-reported data — to stimulate discussion and generate new insights for further research.
Please tweet, blog, or pass this along to anyone who can benefit or is interested in High Cholesterol. Thank you!

What Patients Say Works For High Cholesterol

23andMe offers people the chance to explore their own DNA, but for Jason Gullickson, that wasn’t enough.
Jason wanted to touch his data. He wanted to hold it up to the light and turn it around. He wanted to make it tangible.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20194" alt="jason g" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jason-g-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jason-g-300x199.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jason-g-768x510.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jason-g-880x585.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jason-g.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
A programmer who likes to make things, Jason is fascinated with what he can do with data, and for him, the magic happens when the data takes form.
“As a programmer, I am always dealing with complex data in a two-dimensional format on a computer screen,” he said. “I am always looking for ways to make that data easier to understand and digest using 3D modeling.”
<h6>Visualizing The Code</h6>
Using new 3D printer technology Jason likes to translate data into objects.
“Instantaneously when it comes out of the printer, I can understand so much more about the thing I have designed,” he said.
That is what went through his mind while he looked at his 23andMe data.
Jason works with code, using it to control the function of computers. In a way that’s how he sees DNA working in the human body. The three billion letters that make up the human genome are also a code. That code controls the production and function of proteins in the body and makes us what we are.
“Genetics has been something that’s been really interesting to me because I view DNA like a programming language for building cells. So I find it interesting to use that complex data as a method of encoding to create a three-dimensional display.”
<h6>Seeing 23andMe Data</h6>
23andMe tests about more than half a million locations in a person’s genome. The results are used to create customized reports and they help 23andMe give individuals detailed information about their genetic ancestry. But customers can also download their raw data – all the As, Ts, Gs, and Cs that make up the different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that 23andMe tests.
At the start, Jason and his wife were motivated to join 23andMe to trace the family’s ancestry. So Jason, his wife, and daughter all sent in their 23andMe kits at the same time. When the results started coming in Jason recognized a familiar challenge. Jason wanted to transform the data into objects that can be held, compared and appreciated. One of the fascinating aspects of 23andMe is when family members get tested they can share their results.
Jason downloaded the 23andMe reports for his family and says with a laugh, “I thought, this is a lot of data.”
<h6>Using the Data</h6>
This time, however, the data was not just numbers. It was his family’s personal genome. He wondered if he could find a way to map their DNA onto something that was not just an on-screen visualization. Again he wanted to create something that could be touched and held.
Now he is toying with imprinting his and his family’s DNA results onto vases, even overlapping the information to create a genetic portrait of his family.
“The idea is to print one of these vases from each of my family&#8217;s gnome data and compare how the differences and similarities manifest themselves visually and texturally in the physical, tangible results,” he said.
He hopes that efforts like his to visualize his and his family’s genetic data will offer people a way to see themselves as both unique and connected. He’s even made available for free as an open-source document the <a href="https://github.com/jjg/3dna" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">computer code</a> to generate a three dimensional model of your own genetic data.
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

23and 3D

Not long before his grandmother died, DeSean Stokes sat with her as she shared stories of her life.
<div id="attachment_20206" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20206" class="size-medium wp-image-20206" alt="DeSean with his grandparents Evelyn and Isham Brown." src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Evelyn_Brown_Isham_Brown-300x221.jpg" width="300" height="221" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Evelyn_Brown_Isham_Brown-300x221.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Evelyn_Brown_Isham_Brown-768x567.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Evelyn_Brown_Isham_Brown-880x649.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Evelyn_Brown_Isham_Brown.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />DeSean with his grandparents Evelyn and Isham Brown.</div>
One of 15 children brought up in the segregated south, his grandmother, Evelyn, was the first in her family to go to college – Alabama State University, Class of 1954. She became an elementary school teacher, working for 50 years in the classroom. Evelyn was happily married to Isham Brown for 56 years and the couple raised three bright and successful kids.
When she died in early 2013, DeSean said it was the stories she told him that kept running through his mind. He wanted to know more, not just about her but where she came from and the generations that came before.
That’s where 23andMe came in.  It helped him delve into parts of his ancestry that he wouldn’t have been able to find just from the stories his grandmother told him.
“23andMe opened up even more doors to my ancestral story,” he said.
<h6>Stories Become Songs</h6>
An actor and musician, DeSean said much of his work involves telling or even inhabiting the stories of others.
“As a musician and actor, my job is to tell interesting stories,” he said.
But after his grandmother’s death, it was his own family’s story that he wanted to tell.
“There is so much history you can learn about yourself and family just from sitting down and talking with your oldest living relatives,” DeSean said.
Those conversations with his grandmother also inspired him to write a<a href="https://youtu.be/nEW9m5VGHVw"> song for Evelyn</a>.
“Music is in my DNA &#8212; I live it, breath it and feel it in everything I do,” DeSean said.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20207" alt="DeSean_Stokes_Photo_By_Jeffrey_Hornstein" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DeSean_Stokes_Photo_By_Jeffrey_Hornstein-256x300.jpg" width="256" height="300" />
<h6>Sharing with Evelyn</h6>
He played the music for her just before her death in early 2013. After she died he felt a need to learn more, not just about her but about her ancestors. His grandmother’s stories could only take him back so far.
An African-American, he knows the history of slavery and what that meant – mixed-ancestry and very little information about where in Africa his ancestors came. Looking at family photos he also couldn’t help but notice the different shades of color in his family. It left him wondering. He’d heard from Evelyn and his grandparents about their families, but not much more.
“They only knew the details of a couple generations before and the rest was unknown,” he said.
<h6>DNA Testing</h6>
Using DNA testing, DeSean could peer into the past that was locked away by time.
From his 23andMe results, he learned that his ancestry, was, not surprisingly, mostly from West Africa. But DeSean also learned that about a quarter of his ancestry was from Europe and included connections to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, and Poland. He even found that his ancestry included Jamaican ancestry, Native American ancestry, and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
Using 23andMe, DeSean has connected with newly discovered relatives from around the world.
“I am so thankful for the time I had with my grandmother,” he said. “She will always be a part of me. The freckles on my face remind me of her every time I look in the mirror.  I am thankful for everything she passed down to me.  I am also grateful to 23andMe for opening up even more doors to my ancestral story.  It is the music I&#8217;ve been longing to hear.&#8221;
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

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