Like moving to the top of a ridge to suddenly see the landscape anew, Bob Hutchinson’s 23andMe gave him a new view of himself, of his family history and even of the world around him.
<div id="attachment_25693" style="width: 243px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25693" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/dd64ff48-353c-45ec-9144-586d6b79c45f-11-233x300.jpg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-25693" width="233" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/dd64ff48-353c-45ec-9144-586d6b79c45f-11-233x300.jpg 233w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/dd64ff48-353c-45ec-9144-586d6b79c45f-11.jpg 359w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" />Bob Hutchinson&#8217;s parents.</div>
“It was a surprise,” Bob told the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/science/dna-tests-ancestry.html?_r=0"> New York Times</a> recently.
His story was featured both in the paper and online in a weekly<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/nytimes/videos/?ref=page_internal"> Facebook Live</a> episode called “Conversations on Race.”
Bob grew up in northern New Jersey, thinking his family was white with Swedish and Italian ancestry. But using 23andMe told him something else. His <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">Ancestry Composition</a> showed that he is in fact more than an eighth sub-Saharan African.
“I think it’s great, it’s who I am,” Bob said during his live conversation with Times reporter Rachel Swarms. “It’s great to be so mixed.”
The surprised revealed as secret about his family, helping him connect with cousins he didn’t know he had, but who knew who he was, about his family and about the family secret.
Check out his story in the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/science/dna-tests-ancestry.html?_r=0"> New York Times</a>, or watch the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/nytimes/videos/?ref=page_internal"> recorded conversation</a>.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

DNA Testing Helps Reveal Hidden Family History

For the first time, researchers have identified genetic variants that put some women at a higher risk of having a premature baby — findings that may ultimately help scientists prevent what is the leading cause of childhood mortality worldwide.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-300x202.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25593" width="300" height="202" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-300x202.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-768x516.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-1024x688.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-880x591.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Premature-Baby-1180x793.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Published in the <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1612665">New England Journal of Medicine</a>, the new study was led by researchers at the<a href="https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/h/human-genetics"> Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center</a> and the March of Dimes Prematurity Research, along with researchers from Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 
<h6>Genetic Risk Estimates</h6>
Funding was provided by the March of Dimes, the National Institutes of Health, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study relied on data from 23andMe customers who consented to participate in research.
“Previous research has suggested that about 30 to 40 percent of the risk for preterm birth is linked to genetic factors,&#8221; said Louis Muglia, MD, PhD, who coordinated the study and is the co-director of the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children&#8217;s and principal investigator of the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center.
This new study is the first to provide robust information on some of those genetic factors, Muglia added. 

<h5>Study Size Helped Pinpoint Associations</h5>
The work suggests that integration of genomic information on women, and likely their offspring, with birth timing, can provide new options for preventative and therapeutic measures, according to the researchers.
The scientists of this study found that the genetic variants associated with preterm births are in genes that have a role in uterine development, maternal nutrition, and vascular control. This insight offers important clues into the biology behind what influences premature births and may help in directing research for ways to prevent them. 
The study is also significant because it is the first time scientists have been able to pinpoint specific genetic variants associated with preterm births. Although researchers have long known that genetics plays a role — twin studies suggest that genetics contributes between 30 to 40 percent of the variation in risk for preterm birth — up until now, studies were too small to detect any genetic variants involved in gestation length.
For this study, researchers were able to overcome those limits by working with 23andMe, using aggregated, de-identified data from 45,000 female 23andMe customers who consented to research.
“In the past year, there have been several successful large genome-wide association studies of reproductive behaviors; in that context, I think this study is particularly important because of the immediate clinical relevance of gestational timing,” said David Hinds, Ph.D., 23andMe Principal Scientist, and Statistical Geneticist, who helped to co-author the paper. “This work shows that genetics can improve our understanding of variation in timing.” 
<h5>Study Included A Second Stage for Replication</h5>
The scientists broke their work into two stages — a discovery stage and then a replication stage. All of the data were from women who are of European ancestry.
In the first stage, the researchers used the 23andMe data to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify several loci associated with the timing of birth — some of these were associated with a higher risk of premature births, while a few were associated with a lower risk. After that discovery stage, the researchers then attempted to replicate their findings by running another GWAS using three different cohorts from Finland, Norway, and Denmark.
Those groups included data from about 8,600 women, and it allowed the researchers to replicate all four of the loci found in the discovery stage in the genes EBF1, EEFSEC, AGTR2, and WNT4. Also, the researchers replicated five other loci that had a more modest association.
The researchers believe that increasing the study size may yield even more insights and “further refine our understanding of human pregnancy, the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, and targeting of new preventive strategies for preterm birth.”

Genetic Links for Risk of Premature Births

Over the last year or so, we’ve been working hard to update some of our most popular tools here at 23andMe, and sometimes in the<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-300x300.png" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-25344 size-medium" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup-574x574.png 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/haplogroup.png 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> flurry of all that activity, we make a mistake.
This week one of our customers alerted us to outdated information provided within one of our paternal haplogroup summaries. Although the erroneous reference occurred in just one section of one report, the error has big implications for people with Ashkenazi ancestry.
The reference, which we missed in the editing process, was to a discredited theory about the origins of the Ashkenazi Jewish population. 23andMe corrected the error within 24 hours of being alerted about it. Our mentioning the so-called “Khazar theory” was an unfortunate mistake for which we apologize, and 23andMe does not endorse the theory. In fact, one of our scientists was co-author on one of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3928">papers</a> that discredits it.   
 
 
We regularly field questions, concerns, and suggestions from customers. These communications help us make the 23andMe experience the best it can be. Don&#8217;t hesitate to contact our Customer Care if you have questions or concerns of your own.

Haplogroup Report Edit

Last week, 23andMe released two new genetic health risk reports for customers.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-25671 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eye.001-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eye.001-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eye.001-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eye.001-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eye.001.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Taken together, 23andMe’s Genetic Health Risk reports remain the only direct-to-consumer genetic health reports authorized by the FDA. They can tell you about genetic variants that may increase your risk of <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">developing certain serious health conditions</a>, such as late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.
The two new reports focus on two other conditions: <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/amd">Age-related macular degeneration</a> (AMD), and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/hereditary-hemochromatosis/">Hereditary Hemochromatosis</a>. AMD is a leading cause of irreparable vision loss and blindness in older Americans. Hemochromatosis, which is a genetic condition characterized by the absorption of too much dietary iron, can lead to iron overload and which in turn can cause damage to the liver, heart, and pancreas.
These reports look at genetic variants with well-established and meaningful effects on risk.
<h5>Age-related Macular Degeneration</h5>
Our new report on AMD looks at the two most common variants associated with the risk of developing the condition — Y402H and A69S.
There are two kinds of AMD— Dry AMD, which progresses more slowly and is milder, and it accounts for about 90 percent of all cases; and Wet AMD, which is more severe, progresses rapidly and accounts for the remaining cases.
A common symptom as AMD progresses is the development of a blurred area near the center of vision. Over time, the blurred area may grow larger or individuals may develop blank spots in their central vision. In addition objects may be less bright as the condition progresses.
Genetics plays a major role in developing both forms of AMD, although other factors also influence the risk, including diet, smoking, age, ethnicity (this report is most relevant to people of European ancestry) and exposure to sunlight. Lifestyle changes, like eating more leafy green vegetables, wearing sunglasses, and not smoking, can help reduce the risk of AMD.
While there are no treatments that can successfully reverse the damage from AMD, there are treatments that can help slow its progression. Researchers are looking to see if genetics influences the effectiveness of some of these treatments, such as the use of the injectable drug ranibizumab.
<h5>Hereditary Hemochromatosis</h5>
The 23andMe Genetic Health Risk report for Hereditary Hemochromatosis covers the most common forms of the condition caused by variants in the HFE gene. The HFE gene contains instructions for making a protein that helps to regulate the amount of iron absorbed into the body. The two genetic variants used in 23andMe&#8217;s report — C282Y and H63D — cause 91 percent of all HFE-related hereditary hemochromatosis. But, having these two variants doesn’t mean one will develop the condition.
Hemochromatosis tends to develop in older men, and it is most common with men of European ancestry. Women rarely develop the condition. With sometimes-vague symptoms that include fatigue, joint pain, and darkening of the skin, hemochromatosis can be hard to diagnose without genetic testing, such as this. But it is very treatable — often by regular blood draws — and if caught early, lasting damage to the liver, heart or other organs can be prevented.

23andMe Adds New Genetic Health Risk Reports

Adoptee Night at Tuesday’s Major League Baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox in Minneapolis, will be a return home for Holly Choon Hyang<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mixed-Roots-Foundation-Portrait-Logo-with-IDU-Tagline-Centered-01-300x284.png" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25666" width="300" height="284" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mixed-Roots-Foundation-Portrait-Logo-with-IDU-Tagline-Centered-01-300x284.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mixed-Roots-Foundation-Portrait-Logo-with-IDU-Tagline-Centered-01-768x727.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mixed-Roots-Foundation-Portrait-Logo-with-IDU-Tagline-Centered-01.png 806w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> Bachman, founder, and president of the LA-based<a href="https://mixedrootsfoundation.org/"> Mixed Roots Foundation</a>
This is the 5th annual Adoptee Night at the Twins home field. The night is meant to honor those touched by adoption and foster care. For Holly it’s become an annual affair since founding the Mixed Roots Foundation in 2011. It’s also something that she’s duplicated elsewhere putting together a few dozen similar events with other MLB teams, as well as professional soccer teams, the NBA, and soon the NFL.
“We want to raise awareness and funds,” said Holly, herself an adoptee from Korea who was raised in Minnesota.
She hopes that adoption and the journey of adoptees and foster kids become as familiar to everyone as America’s pastime, baseball.
<div id="attachment_25664" style="width: 190px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25664" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1a-180x300.jpg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-25664" width="180" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1a-180x300.jpg 180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1a.jpg 261w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px" />Holly just prior to her adoption.</div>
Holly wants to connect with the families who often flock to these games. As little as a generation ago, it was more taboo to talk openly about adoption, but that has changed. An estimated 100 million people are “touched by adoption” in the United States, meaning that someone in their family is adopted or that they know someone who is adopted, according to the Council for Adoption. There are about 500,000 children are in the foster care system.
Holly hopes that this generation will recognize that adoption and foster care is about more than just finding homes for kids who need it; it also involves supporting families and adoptees beyond the actual adoption process, she said.
“Because I&#8217;m adopted, I know that there needs to be more post-adoption resources,” Holly said. “With that, two of our core initiatives for Mixed Roots Foundation are mentoring and DNA testing.”
In particular, testing is used to find biological relatives, but it also helping with family medical history or learning about ancestry. Up to half of all adoptions cross some cultural or ethnic line, according to Mixed Remix Foundation.
For Holly, with her roots from South Korea but adopted into a family with European ancestry, her journey started in high school when she first traveled to Korea and connected with her own Korean ancestry.
With the power of science and technology, adoptees now have access to tools to help them search for biological family, or to connect with their ethnic and cultural roots. Up to half of all adoptions cross some cultural or ethnic line, according to some estimates.
With assisting adoptees and their families discover their biological and cultural roots, Mixed Roots Foundation’s name “mixed roots” came out of this idea of the intermingling of an adoptee’s cultural, biological and adoptive families roots. Part of an adoptees journey is reconciling all of that with their identity, and that’s why there’s a strong diversity message in everything that Mixed Roots does, Holly said.
“We all have mixed roots,” she said. “Learning about that is fundamental to our identity.”
Hosted by the MN Twins and Mixed Roots Foundation, the night is co-sponsored by 23andMe, and the<a href="https://mixedchicks.net/"> Mixed Chicks</a>, maker of the multicultural hair products for men and women with mixed ancestry will be throwing out the First Pitch. Native MN Korean Adoptee singer and song writer,<a href="http://www.kimberlymichaels.com"> Kimberly Michaels</a> will perform the National Anthem.
To learn more, donate or volunteer with Mixed Roots Foundation, please visit <a href="http://www.mixedrootsfoundation.org">www.mixedrootsfoundation.org</a> or follow on social media@mixedroots.

Adoptee Night in Minneapolis

Up until recently, genetic research on personality has yielded few results, but that has changed with the availability of massive datasets for <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000015521781Small-300x199.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-21718 size-medium" width="300" height="199" />genome-wide association studies.
In a series of papers published since mid-2016, scientists have established promising new findings that rely on vast amounts of data from the likes of the the<a href="http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/"> UK Biobank</a>, the international<a href="http://www.med.unc.edu/pgc"> Psychiatric Genomics Consortium</a>, and 23andMe.
By conducting genome wide association studies — or meta-analyses — with data from hundreds of thousands of people, researchers have found genetic associations where they could not before. In the last year alone, they’ve found associations for such traits as <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7604/full/nature17671.html">educational attainment,</a> depressive symptoms, <a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v48/n6/full/ng.3552.html">neuroticism</a>, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v48/n6/full/ng.3551.html?foxtrotcallback=true">risk-taking behavior</a>. 
The success on these fronts has opened up the hunt for more genetic signals associated with psychological and behavioral traits. Scientists are also doubling back on the research over the last year attempting to replicate the findings — when replication was not conducted in the initial study — to ensure the associations are valid. 
<h5>The Big Five</h5>
In July, scientists from St. Louis University, the University of Cambridge and 23andMe zeroed in variants in two genes, CADM2 and MSRA, found to be associated with personality, specifically risk-taking behavior and irritability. The gene CADM2 is important in organizing the synapses in the brain, while MSRA encodes a family of enzymes in the body.
By going back and conducting a replication study, the researchers were also able to broaden the range of traits they looked at, and include additional personality traits beyond the so-called “Big Five” —neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. 
For this <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017317346?_rdoc=1&#038;_fmt=high&#038;_origin=gateway&#038;_docanchor=&#038;md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb">replication study</a>, researchers included 19 additional measures to more fully describe the Big Five, adding in data for such things as anxiety, risk-taking, order, altruism, and self-discipline.
The study replicated the associations with a variant in the CADM2 gene for risk-taking, agreeableness, and extraversion. The researchers were also able to replicate the variant in the MSRA gene associated with irritability.
While both exciting and promising, the new findings are also tempered by the hurdles faced by genetic research in general. Just finding the associations is not enough — researchers are still trying to learn more about the genetic architecture and biological mechanisms underlying these complex traits. Also, these associations often have a small effect on the traits. But the findings suggest that with even larger sized studies may offer more insight.
You can read the full replication paper <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017317346?_rdoc=1&#038;_fmt=high&#038;_origin=gateway&#038;_docanchor=&#038;md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb">here</a>.

Research Confirms Genetic Associations For Personality Traits

When Ryan’s mother and father adopted him as an infant, there was a typewritten note slipped into his adoption records with a message from his birth parents:
“We pray that you are happy,” it said.
For most of his 36 years, Ryan has been happy, and for most of his life, he’s been searching for his birth parents to tell them that in person.
“I was [happy]. I am, and I always will be,” Ryan said recently.
This year on his birthday, after all those decades of searching, he typed out his own message listing the reasons he feels blessed. At the end of that list he said this:
“Today, July 29th, my family and I met my birth parents and their families,” Ryan wrote. “Today, on my birthday … for the very first time I can see them, hug them, and tell them ‘Thank You,’ which is the greatest birthday gift that I could ever receive. Today my family gets new members. Today I can share with them all the happiness and love in my life. Today, I am so thankful.”
<div id="attachment_25615" style="width: 970px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25615" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20479643_10207976905895232_8908593567052941357_n.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25615 size-full" height="540" width="960" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20479643_10207976905895232_8908593567052941357_n.jpg 960w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20479643_10207976905895232_8908593567052941357_n-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20479643_10207976905895232_8908593567052941357_n-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20479643_10207976905895232_8908593567052941357_n-880x495.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />Ryan on the right meets his biological father Ed, his biological mother, Karen and his biological sister Caroline  for the first time on his birthday. Photo: <a href="http://www.jacpfef.com/">Jackie Foley</a> </div>
But like all good things, this good thing didn’t come easy.

<h5>Where it started </h5>
Ryan&#8217;s parents adopted him in North Carolina, which has closed adoption records. So even though he always knew he was adopted, finding out more about his origins was problematic. On top of that, because his dad was in the Army, the family moved a lot. 
<div id="attachment_25619" style="width: 970px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25619" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20604263_10207976904415195_3109513256002552356_n.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25619 size-full" height="640" width="960" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20604263_10207976904415195_3109513256002552356_n.jpg 960w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20604263_10207976904415195_3109513256002552356_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20604263_10207976904415195_3109513256002552356_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20604263_10207976904415195_3109513256002552356_n-880x587.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />Ryan meeting his father for the first time. Photo: <a href="http://www.jacpfef.com/">Jackie Foley</a></div>
His parents, Jack and Terri Moore, picked up the family — Ryan and his younger sister Allisen — as they moved to posts that ranged from Kansas to Korea. That made it harder for Ryan to track down records. But it didn’t stop him from looking or asking questions. When Ryan was in 5th grade, he did an oral report for class at Spencer Elementary School in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The assignment was on what was unique about his family, and his topic was his adoption. 
&nbsp;
<h5>Life Gets In The Way</h5>
Two years later was when he first read that note from his birth parents.
But as he got older, even though he was still trying to find his biological family, he eventually had to put his search on hold. 
“Life got in the way,” Ryan said.
There was college, the Army, deploying to Afghanistan, starting a new career, and getting married. The years slipped by, and his search was pushed to the side until he and his wife Debby decided to have kids — two sons, Ian, 5, and Ellis, 3. 
It was that last milestone that again stirred in Ryan the need to know more about his biological family.
“I always wanted to know,” said Ryan, 36. “But having a family that sparked in my mind, ‘OK I got to find this out.’” 
Like most adoptees, when Ryan visited a doctor and had to answer questions about whether he had medical issues in his family, he was at a loss.
“I have no idea.” 
That was easy to brush off when it was just about him, but having kids changed that.
“I realized that I didn&#8217;t have any health history information for our son,” Ryan said.
<h5>We have to find them </h5>
At first, that meant just diving back into his adoption records; he found “crib notes” from a foster parent that took care of him before his parents adopted him. Ryan’s wife immediately saw in those notes parallels with the type of things she’d seen with their first son.
<div id="attachment_25616" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25616" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20526063_10207976905815230_2891730427791474607_n-300x200.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25616 size-medium" height="200" width="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20526063_10207976905815230_2891730427791474607_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20526063_10207976905815230_2891730427791474607_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20526063_10207976905815230_2891730427791474607_n-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20526063_10207976905815230_2891730427791474607_n.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Ryan&#8217;s parents, Jack and Terri Moore watch as he meets his biological parents. Photo: <a href="http://www.jacpfef.com/">Jackie Foley</a></div>&#8220;We have to find them,&#8221; she told Ryan.
But the paper records didn’t get him very far with closed adoption policies. Then last year, his wife gave him a 23andMe kit for Christmas. He saw it as a chance to learn about his ancestry and health, and maybe find more about his biological family. The health and ancestry information offered a refreshing opportunity to learn things he hadn’t know about himself. The family stuff came later.
About a month ago, someone popped up on his DNA Relatives as a predicted uncle. It’s hard to convey how momentous something like this is for an adoptee. It was the first person he was ever connected to biologically, his first blood relative.
Ryan took a long time working on the wording of his message. He was afraid that he might say something that would turn this newly found relative away. That’s not what happened.
Almost immediately after sending a carefully worded note, he got a response.
&#8220;He is my uncle,&#8221; Ryan said, describing the response. &#8220;He knows of me. He wants to help.”
<h5>Contact</h5>
When in the past it had taken years, decades even, to find the smallest of details, Ryan found himself on the edge of learning the whole truth in just hours. Two days after that exchange with his uncle, while he and Debby sat and watched a performance of Hamilton on Broadway, Ryan got a text that changed his life forever:
&#8220;Ryan, your biological mother, Karen, and myself, Ed, your biological father, have hoped and dreamed of this day.&#8221;
Soon, they talked on the phone, and Karen and Ed spoke with Ryan&#8217;s parents Jack and Terri. His wife spoke with them. So too did his sister Allisen. Ryan learned that he had another sister, a full sister, named Caroline. And he learned a bit of the back story.
His biological father, Ed, had been in North Carolina helping his dad open a new restaurant while on summer break from college when he met his biological mother, Karen, who was also in college but working a summer job. They started dating but went back to school in the fall, and that&#8217;s when she found out she was pregnant. They agreed that adoption was the best option. After Ryan&#8217;s birth, Karen and Ed drifted apart, but several years later they met again and married, and had Caroline, Ryan&#8217;s biological sister. It was a few years after that they got a divorce but remained amicable, and continued to live near each other in the Boston area.
<h5>Best Birthday Present Ever</h5>
<div id="attachment_25614" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25614" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20597315_10207976901815130_2834176105222409161_n-300x200.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25614 size-medium" height="200" width="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20597315_10207976901815130_2834176105222409161_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20597315_10207976901815130_2834176105222409161_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20597315_10207976901815130_2834176105222409161_n-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20597315_10207976901815130_2834176105222409161_n.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Ryan, center, with his new extended family on his birthday. Photo: <a href="http://www.jacpfef.com/">Jackie Foley</a></div>
After Ryan finally found them, they all arranged to get together in person at Ed&#8217;s home on Ryan&#8217;s birthday. It turned out to be the best gift.
It was a shock, seeing family members who looked like him and even shared some of the same mannerisms. Ryan and his biological father share an odd trait of raising their voices an octave or two when they kid around, and they both love Formula 1 racing.
&#8220;That whole nature versus nurture thing is hard to get your head around,&#8221; Ryan said.
But Ryan was just as excited that his biological parents could meet his parents, Jack and Terri. He wanted them to see how lucky he was to have the life that they had given him.
&#8220;I have lived a happy life,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know how hard the decision was that they made 36 years ago, but I wanted to express to them how thankful I am for it.&#8221;

Ryan’s Search For Family

We are all 100 percent human.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-300x300.png" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-25658 size-medium" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-768x768.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-880x880.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-574x574.png 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB-980x980.png 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AllHuman_FB.png 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The DNA that 23andMe empowers customers to explore is fascinating not because we are so different but rather because we are so similar — 99.5 percent the same.
Any two of us can find a common ancestor. Many of us can find relatives around the world that connect us to people and cultures we never before experienced. It is only the tiny fraction of our DNA — the 0.5 percent — that is different and leads to the amazing variety and talent in the world.
23andMe condemns all forms of racism, including people who are using genetic testing to advance hate-based dogma. If we see it on our site, we ban it and close the offenders’ accounts. These individuals, who use their data in this way, are missing the fundamental point that their DNA is connected to the world and everyone on it.
There is no superior DNA;  we are all from the same common ancestors and we share the same building blocks of life.
We are all 100 percent human.
&nbsp;

<div style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Here are some answers to questions on this issue:
• How does 23andMe moderate its forums for hate speech?
We do not tolerate hate speech and other forms of abuse on our forums, blog and messaging applications within the 23andMe product. 23andMe’s customer care team moderates these 23andMe-specific channels, along with a team that monitors our social media profiles. If we identify hate speech or any other abuse of 23andMe-specific channels, we remove those comments and ban the users. If we identify inappropriate comments on our social profiles we remove those wherever possible.</div>
<div style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">• Have you kicked any white supremacist customers off your forums, or taken any other action against them?</div>
<div style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">We have banned people from our forums and from commenting on our blog. These bans were based on inappropriate comments and forum behavior, but we have not had a case that specifically involved a white supremacist. 
We condemn racism in all forms. We consistently promote a message of inclusion, and we believe our service has the power to change minds. Our hope is all individuals see our test as an opportunity to learn more about themselves, and also understand we are more alike than different. In fact science tells us we’re 99.5% genetically identical.
</div>

All Human

Paul Leventhal is a patient man.
<div id="attachment_22516" style="width: 278px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22516" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul1-268x300.jpg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22516" width="268" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul1-268x300.jpg 268w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul1.jpg 449w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px" />Paul, right, and his brother Jimmy.</div>In his 70s now, he’s been searching for his biological father since he was 18.
More than two years ago, we wrote about Paul finding his half brother, Jimmy, using 23andMe. <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/a-fantastical-story/">Their story</a> — spanning decades and several continents — was dramatic and inspiring, but for Paul, at least, there were still chapters to be written.
“I joined 23andMe …primarily to trace down my genetic father,” he said. “Never did I imagine I would find a half brother on my maternal side who was born three years after me.”
It was a joyful surprise, and the two have built a relationship.
“(Jimmy) and I get along well. We bonded, and that’s never going to fall way,” Paul said.
And finding Jimmy using 23andMe gave him hope that perhaps his patience might pay off and he would uncover the identity of his biological father, too.
“I just waited for somebody to match,” Paul said of continued search on 23andMe.
It was a long shot.
<div id="attachment_25634" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25634" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20116871_10214016903441210_8432463590217499637_o-225x300.jpg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-25634" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20116871_10214016903441210_8432463590217499637_o-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20116871_10214016903441210_8432463590217499637_o-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20116871_10214016903441210_8432463590217499637_o.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Paul&#8217;s (and Jimmy&#8217;s) biological mother.</div>
<h5>Waiting on a Match</h5>
Paul’s story is complicated, and like his brother, his childhood has a Dickens kind of bleakness.
Paul’s mother and father had divorced when he was just a year old. She’d become pregnant with Paul when his father was serving in Europe during the Second World War. The timing was odd, but Paul didn’t know that until later.
His mother, who he only has vague memories of, was hospitalized off and on for psychological problems throughout her life. When Paul was just one year-old, she put and him his older brother in a foster home where he stayed until he was almost five.
Around then, her former husband (and the man Paul at first thought was his father) brought him to Chicago to live with him and his new wife. Throughout his childhood, his father and stepmother remained distant to him. As for Paul’s connection to his mother, it was almost non-existent.
He has one fleeting memory of sitting on his mother’s knee — everything else he knows about his mother is from relatives. It wasn’t until Paul was 18 — when his father died suddenly of a heart attack — that he learned that his father wasn’t his biological father. 
“He was on my birth certificate, but not my father,” Paul said. “My life was turned upside down.”  
Paul lived with this, his mother’s rejection and her family shunning him. Paul still feels deep disappointment toward her family for letting him be shipped off to a foster home for five years.
“I must have been quite an embarrassment to them and my maternal grandmother, who was still living at the time.”
Paul’s half-brother Jimmy’s young life was more filled with physical abuse, but Paul suffered more from emotional abuse.
Rejected by his mother and her family, Paul spent years trying to find his biological father. That’s part of why he eventually got his DNA tested with 23andMe. Connecting with Jimmy more than two years ago opened up a door into his family history, and renewed his hope of finding something out about his father.
So he waited.
“All I did was spit into a tube and sit back and wait,” Paul said.
<h5>Finding His Sisters</h5>
<div id="attachment_25635" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25635" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-300x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25635 size-medium" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/20032047_10214011921236658_8904163204533659120_n.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Paul&#8217;s biological father Bennett White.</div>
And then earlier this year, a new relative named Catilin popped up on his 23andMe results.
“Without DNA, I never would have found Caitlin, I never would have made this match,” said Paul. “It was like a bomb going off.”
Caitlin was a niece, the daughter of a half sister with whom he matches on his father’s side. Over the next few weeks, he met Caitlin’s mother, his half-sister, and his two other sisters. They shared with him a photo of their and Paul’s father, Bennett White, who died in 1960.
“He looked like me,” Paul said.
Tall and thin, his father hadn’t been a great dad to his daughters or husband to his wife. A teacher, his drinking problems drove him to quit and take a factory job. How Bennett and Paul’s mother met, he does not know, but his mother was at one point at a state hospital in Ohio where Bennett lived. Paul thought it was possible that his biological father could have been in detox at the hospital when his mother was there being treated for her psychological problems, but he does not know. 
“I believe I was the product of a brief affair,” Paul said. “I don’t even think he knew I existed.”
Paul has communicated with his sisters, Penny, Pam and Jane. They had one other sister who died as a baby. One of the sisters lives near him at his home in Florida, and they have met in person. Paul learned that his father had numerous affairs. It turns out he was married, and his wife was two months pregnant when he had an affair with Paul’s mother.
Later, he married another woman with whom he had two children, both of whom died at a young age. 
As with meeting his brother Jimmy, Paul is trying to get to know his sisters, seeing what they have in common, and how they are different. And answering this question that has lingered with him almost his entire life has changed him a bit.
“It’s both a big relief to know who he was and to put a face and name and character to this man,” Paul said. “It has put my mind at ease a bit, but I don’t think I’m done searching.”
He also notes that none of this would have been possible without 23andMe.
“I never would have found Bennett or Jimmy without it,” he said.

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