He may have seen his mother once before, but PJ Holland can’t be sure. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-19680 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-216x300.jpg" alt="" width="216" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-216x300.jpg 216w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-768x1067.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-737x1024.jpg 737w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-633x880.jpg 633w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-849x1180.jpg 849w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182.jpg 1270w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px" /> 
It’s a fleeting memory, one of his first. He would have been two or three at the time. He remembers watching two women crying and hugging each other near his room. He thinks one of the women was his mother. He remembers seeing the two women hold each other, and then they were gone.
So the first time PJ Holland saw his mother’s face, it was in a photograph. It was this August. He was 80.
The old black and white image of his mother had been taken long before his birth and he saw it for the first time only after spending decades looking for her. He, and his niece Marilyn Souders, would never have found his mother if it hadn’t been for 23andMe.
“One day I logged into his account and it said, ‘You have a match,’” said Marilyn, whose family took PJ in when he was 19, and made him one of their own.
“We spent so long looking,” said Marilyn.
PJ’s story came to us from<a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/p/about-me.html"> CeCe Moore</a>. CeCe wrote about PJ<a href="http://adoptiondna.blogspot.com/2013/10/pj-hollands-dna-journey-to-find-his.html"> here</a>. A Dallas TV station broadcast his story, and that in turn got picked up nationally. It’s easy to see why.
PJ’s early life reads like a Charles Dickens novel. His mother, Agnes, grew up in South Dakota, got pregnant out of wedlock, and moved to Kentucky to have her son. She didn’t have the means to raise him herself and put him in an orphanage run by nuns. She hoped a good Catholic family would adopt him. She’d gotten a job in the laundry there so she could be near him, and would visit him regularly. But after a while an administrator stopped her from visiting because every time she left he would cry.
PJ and his niece Marilyn pieced some of his story together after years of collecting bits and pieces of information. Many, many years ago Marilyn had even gone so far as to organize a reunion of women who worked at the hospital where he was born. Although they had PJ’s mother’s name and were able to find some of those small details of his early life, Marilyn and PJ never were able to find his mother.
Marilyn even went so far as to send out letters to everyone with his godmother’s name who lived in Ohio, only to find out that she had died in 1935. Marilyn found his godfather, but he turned out to simply be the attending physician at the hospital where PJ was delivered.
“I tried so hard,” said Marilyn.
Then one day she logged onto PJ’s 23andMe account.
&#8220;This big pop-up comes on and said, &#8216;You have a first cousin match,&#8217; and I&#8217;m like, &#8216;Oh my God! I can&#8217;t believe this!'&#8221;
The match was with Cathryn Mudon, a 30-something aspiring actress in New York, who was identified by 23andMe as PJ’s, first or second cousin. (She is a first cousin once removed, meaning her father is PJ’s first cousin.)
Cathryn, who’d tested for health reasons after reading about Angelina Jolie’s breast cancer scare, didn’t quite get that this was a momentous connection for PJ.
<div id="attachment_19681" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19681" class="wp-image-19681 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland.jpg 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />PJ, left, and his new found first cousin John Mudon.</div>
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t understand the magnitude of it.  I was like, &#8216;Oh cool. Neat to meet you.&#8217; It&#8217;s such a distant generation that I didn&#8217;t think much of it,&#8221; Mudon told the Dallas TV station that covered his story. &#8220;And (Marilyn) was like, &#8216;You don&#8217;t understand. We&#8217;ve been searching for Agnes since 1970.&#8221;
It really went back much, much farther than that.
PJ had been looking his whole life. He was one of the few Depression era kids at the orphanage who didn’t get adopted. Many of them had been deposited in the orphanage because their families had fallen on hard times and simply couldn’t afford to care for them, but they sometimes visited.
On what the orphanage called “People’s Day,” relatives would come and see the children.
&#8220;All the orphans had people visit them on &#8216;people’s day&#8217; except me, because there were no relatives,&#8221; PJ said.
By 12, considered too old to be adopted, PJ been sent to work as a farmhand, but he ran away and hid in the convent. They let him work there until he left at 16, when he lied about his age so he could join the Army. When he got out the Army, it was Marilyn’s family who took him in. They helped the then 19 year-old get a high school education and a job.
PJ’s life has been anything but tragic. He did find a family who cared about him. Marilyn knew him as “Uncle PJ.” He traveled the world, met and married a beautiful woman, the artist<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilma_G._Holland"> Vilma Isabel Gonzalez Cordova Holland,</a> and succeeded in his career. But even after he retired and neared his 80s, PJ longed to find his mother.
Within a few hours of connecting with Cathryn through 23andMe, Marilyn talked to her on the phone. PJ eventually connected with Cathryn’s father, John, PJ’s first cousin. Cathryn and her father then made arrangements to visit PJ in Texas, bringing with them photos of his mother, but also of her brothers, sisters, and his grandparents.
<div id="attachment_19677" style="width: 249px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19677" class="wp-image-19677 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-239x300.jpg" alt="" width="239" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-239x300.jpg 239w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-768x962.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-817x1024.jpg 817w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-702x880.jpg 702w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-942x1180.jpg 942w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-scaled.jpg 2043w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px" />PJ in his Army uniform in 1949.</div>
When John first saw PJ in the airport he said he immediately saw the family resemblance. PJ saw more photos of his mother, Agnes, most of them for the first time. He also heard a little bit about her from John. The family hadn’t known about the pregnancy, and after leaving South Dakota, Agnes never went back. She became estranged from her family, periodically sending letters to her youngest sister Hazel, John’s mother.
There are still gaps in the story that PJ would like to fill. For one, they know that his mother moved to Cincinnati and may have worked at a school. She died in 1989. They found the apartment where she used to live and the church she attended, but Marilyn said they’ve been unable to find out more.
They still hope that PJ’s story might prompt someone to come forward who remembered Agnes and give them more information about her life.
“But we would have never found her without 23andMe,” she said.
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.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

23andMe Helps Man Find Family

An adoptee, Cody Harden turned to 23andMe to search for medical information. Little did he know that in his search he’d find more than just data about his health, he found family. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-19653 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo.jpg 427w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> 
Cody, a 39-year-old software systems specialist, hadn’t tested with the intent of trying to find his biological family. It just happened.
“I had a great life and my adoptive parents were wonderful,” he said. “I didn’t know the circumstances of my adoption, why I was given up, so I didn’t know if it was good or bad. I   didn’t really care to find my relatives.”
His search had really been about his health and wanting to learn about what, if any, genetic risks he had. So when he discovered that 23andMe had matched him to potential distant cousins, his reaction was lukewarm.
“I thought that was neat, but it was more of a novelty than anything else,” Cody said.
A little later, 23andMe matched him with someone that could be a fourth cousin. That caught his attention. He connected with his fourth cousin through 23andMe. The cousin didn’t know where Cody fit into the family but decided to start digging around.
“That kind of got the ball rolling, and eventually there was a second cousin, and poof! There’s the family,” he said.
His excitement grew as he got closer and closer to tracking down his half-siblings and parents. He learned that his father was fifteen and his mother only fourteen when they’d had him.
“They really didn’t talk about it for the next forty years,” Cody said.
He also grew more apprehensive.
“Are there going to be hard feelings? Did I ruin someone’s life?” he wondered. “Would they resent me?”
Then last spring he talked to his birth father for the first time, who encouraged him to contact his birth mother. It took a bit more work to track her down, but he eventually found and contacted her.
“I could tell she was so nervous and excited,” Cody said. “I felt for her.”
He discovered he’d grown up only 45 minutes away from her and his half brother.
“What a trip,” he said.
Cody says he felt an instant connection when meeting his half brothers and parents for the first time.
“In the last few months I learned a lot about genetics,” he said. “Personalities are just as much inherited as they are how you grew up.”
He looks more like his mother, he says, but he’s inherited his father’s outgoing, prankster personality.
He’s since visited with his half brother on his mother’s side several times, as he lives closer than his father and his father’s son. He keeps in touch with both sides by phone and intends on keeping up with that connection.
Still, it’s amazing to him to think that just last year, he had no idea who any of these people were.
“This is all really new to me,” Cody says. “It’s exciting to know that I’ve got half-brothers here and there, and I’ll try to make the most of it with whatever time I have left.”
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.

An Unexpected Discovery

Editor&#8217;s note: This post has been changed to reflect 23andMe&#8217;s newly regulated product offering. 
Caitlin, a blogger and self-described nerd, titled her ode to 23andMe “<a href="http://desertdandelion.blogspot.com/2012/12/do-these-genes-make-my-butt-look-big.html">Do These Genes Make My Butt Look Big?</a>” 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19480" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-300x225.jpg" alt="Rob and Caitlin" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rob-and-Caitlin-1180x885.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> 
When she and her husband Rob gave each other the test kits as a gift, the two were captivated by the results, and like many things in her life, she went online to share.
The first thing Caitlin wanted to address was her relationship with Rob. The two had been together since high school, so long in fact that they began to look like each other she said. So some folks started asking, “Are you related?”
“Not so.” And 23andMe gave them the proof!
At first blush one might look at this young couple and see two fun loving, adventurous 28 year-olds. But Caitlin is a survivor of childhood cancer and Rob a combat veteran from the Iraq war. They have known their share of hardship, and yet, as a couple, life is about what’s new, what’s next and what they can learn. Testing with 23andMe was part of that exploration.
“(I)t can also show &#8230; where your family most likely came from, how much <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/deep/">Neanderthal DNA</a> you have, and what physical traits you&#8217;re most likely to have, given your genes,” said Caitlin.
When she first looked at her results, Caitlin started with the easy stuff, her predicted traits. Her genetics indicate that she’s likely to have Curly hair (check); that she would likely be near sighted (check), have green or brown eyes (check), and most likely have a big head – as Caitlin commented: “Yep, it&#8217;s huge”.
Then Caitlin moved to the health results. It did make her feel more assured about the veracity of the rest of the results and she became more proactive.
Caitlin took her report to her doctor to review.   Again, Caitlin felt empowered with the knowledge the results provided so she could have an educated discussion with her doctor.
Comparing their results, she and Rob discovered that, as prospective parents, their genes are a good fit.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-19481 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1714" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-300x201.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-768x514.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-880x589.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC_0496-1-1180x790.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />
“We also found out that our child has only a 22 percent chance of being blue-eyed, that we are not related (even though many people have suggested the possibility given the resemblance between us), and that neither of us appear to carry any of the diseases they keep track of,” She said.
But for Rob the golden nugget was this, Caitlin has 2.9 percent Neanderthal DNA which puts her in the 89 percentile.
“Rob is slightly less Neanderthal than I am, which he&#8217;s pretty proud of. So there you have it, quite possibly the most nerdy gift I have ever given and received.”
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.

Spit And Tell

Editor&#8217;s note: This post has been edited from its original to reflect changes in 23andMe&#8217;s product.
We’re posting a story about one of the participants in 23andMe’s <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19281" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Esteban-Photo-11-196x300.jpg" alt="Esteban Photo 1" width="196" height="300" /> 

One day in April of 2011, Esteban Zapiain’s life changed forever.
“No one ever wants to hear their doctor say, ‘You have cancer,’” said Esteban.
The 62-year-old retired school technology director learned that day that he had something called Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, or CML. The rare blood cancer is one of a group of similar cancers known as myeloproliferative neoplasms or MPNs. These cancers occur due to the excessive production of “myeloid” blood cells in the bone marrow.
For Esteban the diagnosis was frightening, but it also drove him to act, and he joined 23andMe’s MPN Research Initiative.
“My motivation is to help find the causes and connections between those of us diagnosed and those yet to be diagnosed,” said Esteban.
There is a strong genetic component for these rare cancers and 23andMe hopes to use the data generated by our research initiative to better understand the causes and find new treatments for these diseases. While Esteban is hopeful for new discoveries from the research, he said joining has its own rewards.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19282" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Esteban-Photo-5-179x300.jpg" alt="Esteban Photo 5" width="179" height="300" />
“Participating in this initiative was an integral part of my developing a coping strategy and positive attitude,” he said. “I refuse to let cancer defeat me. I cannot, and will not, live my life in fear. I will live for the joy of breathing, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and feeling.”
Since starting the initiative about two years ago, 23andMe has recruited almost 1500 people with one of these rare blood cancers. 23andMe’s MPN Research Initiative now has the world’s largest group of genotyped MPN patients. Within months of enrolling patients, 23andMe began reporting out new findings from its research and we continue to work on new discoveries while enrolling more participants. (Enrollment is free for MPN patients.)
Many people with one of these rare cancers also have an acquired genetic mutation in the JAK2 gene called V617F. This mutation arises during the course of a person’s life as opposed to being a change in DNA that someone is born with. The JAK2 V617F mutation is currently used as a diagnostic marker of disease and numerous companies are developing<a href="http://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2011/02250/JAK2_Inhibitors__Still_Need_to_Prove_Their_Mettle.9.aspx"> drugs to inhibit the activity of the JAK2</a> protein, though it is too early to tell if they will be successful.
Often people with one of these types of cancers don’t even know they have it. The symptoms are such that cancer can go undetected for years.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
MPN Research Initiative<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-9197" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/research_springboard.png" alt="research_springboard" width="108" height="87" />
Since our founding 23andMe has offered individuals the opportunity to explore their own DNA while also allowing them to contribute to groundbreaking genetic research.
Our work studying MPN is part of that mission. In the short time since launching the study we’ve enrolled almost 1,500 people with one of these rare blood cancers and are already gathering insights into the genetics of the disease. We&#8217;ve replicated and identified new <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-discoveries-about-rare-blood-disorders-from-23andme/">risk factors</a> for MPNs.<a href="https://www.23andme.com/mpn"></a>
</div>
In Esteban’s case, he said he wouldn’t have known he had cancer if it hadn’t been for the fact that he regularly donates blood. At one point, he was contacted by the blood bank informing him that he should talk to his doctor because of what they noticed in screening his blood. It’s profound, said Esteban that something he did to help potentially save someone else’s life, may have saved his own.
Since his diagnosis, Esteban and his doctors have been able to keep his cancer in check with new medication. He’s healthy and engaged. Esteban is the director of a mariachi band for which he plays the violin. He’s also appeared in several musical productions, including most recently a community production of Fiddler on the Roof, which won several awards.
And he continues to be positive. He’s been using 23andMe to delve into his own ancestry. Although his parents had always said he was 100 percent Mexican, his surname is Basque and Esteban has always wondered about his ancestry. Looking at his 23andMe results, he learned of his mixed ancestry that includes Native ancestry from South America and paternal ancestry that traces to the Berbers.
“My mother&#8217;s mother used to say, ‘The world&#8217;s big, we all fit,’&#8221; he said.
His decision to join the research initiative was about more than simply healing himself. In explaining his motivation, Esteban mentions something his parish priest says about little drops of water making up the ocean.
“Funny, but spit is much like a drop of water, together we are stronger than anyone of us alone,” he said.

An Ocean of Hope For MPN Research

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-19265 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-02-1180x787.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />
Mike Lattimore felt a mix of anxiety and dread about visiting Africa, so fraught it was with the scars of slavery.
But standing on the shores of what is known as the “Slave River” near the Cape Coast of Ghana, where men and women were once bathed before they were sold into slavery, Mike felt a sense of peace instead of horror.
“We had a ritual,” he said.
In his journey to explore his ancestry, Mike, a 57-year-old who lectures on cyber security, turned to 23andMe’s genetic testing to guide the way.
Using 23andMe’s ancestry tools, Mike learned more about his mixed heritage rooted in both Africa and Russia. The information has filled in big gaps in his family history and helped Mike add more pages to what he likes to call “The One Story” tracing back the lives of his ancestors.
“23and me pointed me in the right direction in terms of knowing which records to sift through, which direction to go,” he said.
Standing there with other African Americans, Mike felt he was answering the prayers of his ancestors, a plea that their children and children’s children would be better off than they were. He saw evidence of that answered prayer in his own life – his family, his job and the things he’d achieved–and in the fact that he was able to return to tell the story of what had happened there.
<div id="attachment_19260" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19260" class="size-medium wp-image-19260" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-300x200.jpg" alt="A photo of Mike's mother in front of some art from Africa." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Mike-Lattimore-08-1180x787.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />A photo of Mike&#8217;s mother in front of some art from Africa.</div>
“It was a powerful and healing experience,” he said. “Good indeed did come out of that story. Light came out of the darkness of what happened there.”
His results from 23andMe didn’t just point him to Africa, but to his European ancestry and it reminded him of the interconnections of all people.
With his results he knew that his ancestors were likely from West Africa, but here was more than the science pointing him in that direction. When he walked among the Fante people he was overcome with a strong sense of kinship. They had the same orientation toward the water and fishing his own family had.
“I was struck by the people, there was something about the music and the energy it just felt right,” he said.
He knows that his E1a haplogroup points to ancestry in West Africa, but beyond the test results, Mike felt something deeper. He felt he was one of them.
The journey back to Africa capped a more than ten-year quest to discovery his ancestry, a hunt that included finding birth and death certificates in a rural town in Kentucky, contacts in Newfoundland and a convent in Baltimore.
The results from 23andMe also linked him to his mixed ancestry, one that is rooted in Africa, but includes both Jewish and, surprisingly to him, Scandinavian ancestry.
“My ancestors came from disparate places on the planet but all have lived the story of the struggle to seek a better life,” Mike said. “When I think about it, it gives me goose bumps because I am the sum total of all that they were, and now, I am the keeper of the memory.”
Some of that history Mike had heard from his own father. He heard about his great grandfather, Rush Green, who’d been owned by a man named Miller. Upon gaining his freedom his grandfather took the name “Green,” because he liked it.
“He told Papa, ‘a man has got the right to name his-self.’”
In his chronicling of his “One Story,” Mike has found his great grandfather’s grave in Paducah Kentucky, an “Aunt Minnie,” born in Russia whose native language was Yiddish, and records of his mother’s life being raised by the Oblate Sisters of Providence, an order of black Catholic nuns in Baltimore. He found records of his grandmother, Mary Brace, a white Canadian woman who had to give up his mother for adoption.
Through 23andMe he’s found relatives he didn’t know he had and he continues to fill in more pages of his family history.
“I strongly feel that we should invest in finding our ancestry because it really helps us as human beings not only to have a legacy that we can pass down but also to help with the healing,” Mike said. “Our country has experienced a great rift in that we have never fully investigated what happened. You’ve got to know where you’ve been so that you know where you’re going.”
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.

The Keeper Of Memory

The New Yorker recently described the artist Laurel Nakadate as an “unpredictable, sometimes infuriating young photographer.”
Perhaps. But whatever description you use, the images she creates are singularly arresting.
In her latest series of portraits – called “Strangers and Relations”  – she turned to her 23andMe DNA relative matches for inspiration.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-225x300.jpg" alt="Laurel Nakadate. Photo: © Suki Dhanda, 2011, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York" class="size-medium wp-image-18738" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /> Laurel Nakadate. Photo: © Suki Dhanda, 2011, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Laurel, who was born in Texas but raised in Iowa, is of primarily Japanese and European ancestry. But what that meant didn’t really come to life for her until she opened her  23andMe results and saw  the melange of ancestry among her relatives not only on her mother&#8217;s side, but with all the distant relations she found through 23andMe.
“It did surprise me,” she said. &#8220;My mom&#8217;s family always said we were primarily English, Irish and Scottish, but I was delighted to learn that we are also part African.&#8221;
Laurel was struck by the idea that these people who were strangers to her were also connected to her by a common distant relative. And it was that incongruous mix of the familiar and foreign that spurred Laurel on her project to document these people to whom she was related. It turned into a 37,000-mile journey in which she crisscrossed the United States to photograph those distant cousins.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 275px; background-color: #eee; padding: 10px; margin-left: 10px;">An Upcoming solo exhibit of Laurel Nakadate work: &#8211; Laurel Nakadate: Strangers and Relations University Art Gallery, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, TN February &#8211; April 2014 Upcoming group exhibits that include Laurel’s work: &#8211; Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. October 24, 2013 — February 9, 2014 &#8211; Dis-semblance: Perceiving and Projecting Identity Today 21c Museum, Cincinnati, OH July &#8211; December, 2013</div>
These were all relatives she found on her maternal line. In each case she connected with them through 23andMe, which allows you to connect to your relative “matches” if both parties wish to make that connection. In Laurel’s case she made contact and sent messages explaining what she was doing and asked the people who were matched with her if they would be interested in participating. Quite a few welcomed the opportunity. As she fanned out across the United States, Laurel not only got to take photographs she also learned a little bit about their shared family history.
The portraits – all outdoors, all at night with people standing alone and lit-up by a flashlight – are all taken from a distance. The photos feel both distant and intimate – with the subjects wearing everything from what looks like a fake fur coat, to camouflage hunting gear, to a doctor’s white coat. One reviewer described the mix of photos as &#8220;a collected portrait of America.&#8221;
If you have the chance, you should check out the exhibit.
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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				Tyler, Texas #2, 2013. © Laurel Nakadate, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
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				Akron, Ohio #1, 2013 © Laurel Nakadate, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York


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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-18731" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-574x574.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				Cleveland, Ohio #1, 2012 © Laurel Nakadate, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
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Strangers and Relations

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-18559 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1704" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-768x511.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-880x586.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9696-1180x785.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Greta had given up on ever finding her mother.
From her adoption papers she had a name, Carolyn Palmer, but decades of searching never got her any closer to finding the woman who gave birth to her, or any other blood relative for that matter.
“My missing family history amounted to a million missing pieces that left me feeling vulnerable and disconnected,” she said.
So by the time she joined 23andMe it wasn’t really about finding family members, she just wanted to learn a little bit more about herself.
That all changed earlier this year when Greta got an email from another 23andMe member.
“&#8217;I am new to this <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">DNA relative finder</a> website, but it seems we are first cousins! This is a pretty neat discovery,&#8217;” said an email from her new-found cousin Laura Oliver.
Greta was stunned. It was her first contact with a blood relative.
Greta and Laura exchanged emails and then Laura mentioned her grandparents names, Thomas and Sadie Palmer.
“I gasped in disbelief as I realized that, for the first time in my life, I was hearing from such a close relative. In that initial email she also told me that she was the grand-daughter of Thomas and Sadie Palmer. My biological mother’s name was Carolyn Palmer. I began to cry,” Greta said. 
<iframe loading="lazy" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3GXYC5r1H9U?rel=0" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Then the bitter pain of learning that she was just a few months too late to meet her mother, who had died less than a year before.
“But you have a sister who is still alive,” Laura told Greta.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“The words still take my breath away. Laura went on to tell me that my living sister’s name was Stacy Arena and that she was “so beautiful.”
Unbeknownst to Greta, Stacy had been searching too.   It was just that Stacy didn’t know where to start looking. More than 20 years ago, after Stacy’s older sister died in an accident, her mother told her that she had a sister, whom her mother had given up for adoption at birth.
But her mother had told her nothing more and wouldn&#8217;t speak about it. So for Stacy, all she had were questions. Who was her older sister?   What did she look like? Where was she?
Ever since then Stacy would wonder whether she was passing her sister in the street. Sometimes she’d look out into a crowd and scanning for a women who looked like her. “Could that be her?” she’d ask herself.
It wasn’t until her cousin Laura made the connection through 23andMe, that Stacy could finally answer those questions. A few weeks after connecting online the two sisters met for the first time, hugging in the front yard of Stacy’s home in South Carolina, holding on to each other for a very long time.
Inside the living room the two sisters thumbed through family photo albums. Greta marveling at pictures of people who were strangers to her but who were her relatives. She spent a long time staring at pictures of her mother, looking at her face and eyes.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-18560 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1704" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-768x511.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-880x586.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RN4_9658-1180x785.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />
“I’m connected to all these people I’ve never seen before. This was my family,” Greta said. “It’s quite disorienting.”
With her sister sitting next to her Stacy marveled at the miracle of the two finding each other.
“If it weren’t for 23andMe this never would have happened,” she said.
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.

Sisters Connect with 23andMe

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-18448" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/unlocking-the-code-logo-300x248.jpg" alt="unlocking the code logo" width="300" height="248" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/unlocking-the-code-logo-300x248.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/unlocking-the-code-logo.jpg 326w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Sixty years after Crick and Watson showed us the double helix structure of DNA, the Smithsonian opens the exhibition<a href="http://unlockinglifescode.org/"> “Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code,”</a> showing us all how the genetic revolution continues to change our lives, our health and our understanding of the human story.
The exhibition – just opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – includes a rich collection of exhibits that explain the basics of genetics, as well as offer insight into the genetic secrets being unlocked by scientists now.
“Most people won’t know what ‘genome’ means when they walk into the building, but they will when they leave,” said<a href="https://www.genome.gov/">  National Human Genome Project,</a> Director Dr. Eric Green.
Back in April in comments he made on DNA Day, Green said that the exhibition would trigger curiosity about genetics and inspire people to think and ask questions about the science, ethics and societal implications surrounding what many have dubbed the era of the “genetic revolution.”
The exhibition, which is presented in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute as well as with contributions from other private foundations and companies, including 23andMe, also looks at the impact genetic science has on individuals. One of the exhibits includes a collection of stories from 23andMe customers.
<div id="attachment_9522" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9522" class="size-medium wp-image-9522" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-200x300.jpg" alt="Neil Schwartzman" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-587x880.jpg 587w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-787x1180.jpg 787w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s..jpg 900w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Neil Schwartzman</div>
“I’m pleased as punch,” said Neil Schwartzman, who found his biological sister, mother, father and half brother using 23andMe. “I just wish my adoptive parents were alive so that they could come and see it.”
<a href="https://www.23andme.com/stories/2/">Neil’s story</a> –as well as the stories of eight other 23andMe customers – is included in a portion of the exhibit that looks at how individuals have used DNA to discover something new about their ancestry and where in the world they can trace their roots. Researchers working with the Smithsonian also interviewed each of the individuals to learn more not just about what they discovered but what those insights meant to their own sense of self.
Neil, who was adopted, spent years trying to find out about his family. It wasn’t until he tested with 23andMe and found his sister Jolie that he got answers. The testing also informed him about his Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, as well as ancestry that he can trace back to Scotland and parts of Eastern and Northern Europe.
For Miguel Aguilera, another 23andMe customer, it was hard to top having his own story included in a Smithsonian exhibit.
“It’s really exciting,” said Miguel, who plans to travel to D.C. and attend an opening ceremony.
“I think this is probably the closest I’ll come to ever being famous.”
Miguel, along with several other 23andMe customers, will attended an opening ceremony this week.
Miguel’s story is familiar to many immigrants. He came to the U.S. from Mexico, and his ancestry reflects the rich mix of cultures there. When he tested with 23andMe, he was able to see a visualization of the vivid mix of his own ancestry: European, Native American and African. He expected to find Native American ancestry, and ancestry traced to Spain and France, but Miguel said he was surprised to also learn that he had a smattering of ancestry from Africa, Sardinia and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
“I was surprised by that,” he said.
23andMe customer Monica De Armond, also participated.
She too has a rich mix of ancestry. Her mother is Mexican-American and her father is African American. She wanted to explore her DNA mostly out of curiosity.
For Monica, the experience showed her the<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=wZpox7_7k1c#%21"> surprising interconnections</a> between people of different ancestry, blurring some of the lines that sometimes divide people.
“It really opens up your notion of identity,” she said.
This Smithsonian exhibition was developed and produced through a partnership between the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the National Institutes of Health National Human Genome Research Institute, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The plan is to have the exhibition run through September 1, 2014, followed by a traveling exhibition over the next four years.
The rapid advancement in the science has outpaced many people’s understanding of genetics.
The exhibition is meant to help people understand how the DNA inside every living thing on earth holds a complete set of instructions needed for that organism to grow and function. The intent of the exhibition is to explain that most basic kind of information as well as illustrate how scientists have identified thousands of genetic variants that contribute to disease, including different cancers and rare illnesses. The exhibit will show how the science is making health treatment more personalized and offering more insight into the human story – how our ancestors’ came out of Africa and populated the world.
For more information visit <a href="http://unlockinglifescode.org/">http://unlockinglifescode.org/</a>.
23andMe is intended for research and educational purposes only.  23andMe’s services are not a substitute for professional medical or diagnostic advice.

The Smithsonian Opens New Genetics Exhibit

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15035 size-medium" title="Alyssa photo" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-234x300.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-234x300.jpg 234w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-768x983.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-800x1024.jpg 800w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-687x880.jpg 687w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo-922x1180.jpg 922w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alyssa-photo.jpg 982w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" />
This is a guest post from a 23andMe customer, who took a journey to learn about her ancestry.
By Alyssa Gradstein
I took the 23andMe DNA test to find out who I was.
I was adopted and ethnically mixed. I can’t count the number of times in my 30 years I’ve been asked:
“What are you?”
It stung every time someone would decide for themselves what I am. I needed to know who I was and where I came from.
I was fortunate to meet my biological mother but never my biological father, who my biological mother never knew herself. In addition to the common questions regarding health and genetics, I’d always wondered about my biological father’s background. I knew he was African-American, but I wanted to know more about my roots.
Because I’ve always wondered about myself, I often lacked the confidence I see in others who know themselves fully. I believe, to be a complete person, you need to be confident in yourself and who you are before you can be that person for others.
After taking the 23andMe DNA test, I found I was most genetically similar to people who come from Ghana in Africa.
I immediately made the decision to visit. I was totally open to the journey ahead. 
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When I landed in Africa I felt like I’d finally come home.
When I first decided to go, I’d researched different trips and I found an organization I could wholly identify with. I discovered the Happy Kids Foundation.
I am a teacher with a decade of experience. I have always loved helping children find their own voice, their self-esteem. I want them to know how important they are as individuals. As an adopted person, I understand the feelings of neglect. I understand feeling disconnected and what it’s like not knowing your personal history. I understand that these children need extra love and nurturing. That’s why when I went on my personal journey of self-discovery in Africa, I pointed myself toward the Happy Kids Foundation.
Happy Kids was founded in 1995 in order to provide housing and schooling for orphans and underprivileged children in the rural region of Wegbe, Ghana. The month I spent volunteering at Happy Kids was unforgettable. It changed my life, forever.
In Africa, I learned about my culture, what it meant to be a member of a community, and what it felt like to work hard for the people you love. Touring the slave castles there gave me an incredible sense of empowerment and an appreciation for my freedom that I had so often taken for granted.
I am forever grateful to 23andMe. With their help, I was able to find my missing pieces. A few years ago, I didn’t know who I was. 23andMe helped me find my story
Most importantly, when people ask: “What are you?”
I have an answer for them.
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.

Stories — Page 19