Soccer fans in the United States have a long tradition of enduring disappointment, but the US Men National Team’s elimination late last year from the World Cup left many wondering which team to cheer for at this year&#8217;s tournament in Russia.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2-300x300.png" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-26170" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-roots-2.png 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

It’s the first time since 1990 that the team has been eliminated. So fans in the United States won’t get the chance to watch their team hold Brazil to a single goal, yes that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDGxXrCb9xw">happened</a>. Or see the team notch an <a href="https://www.si.com/longform/soccer-goals/goal5.html#colombian">improbable victory over, say, Colombia</a>, as they did way back in 1994. 

So, apart from waiting until the next World Cup in 2022, or simply watching the women’s team play next year, what is a soccer nut to do?

Here’s an idea — why not pick a team based on your genetic ancestry?

23andMe makes this a breeze with a new in-product featured called “Root for your Roots.” This allows customers to use their DNA to connect with a team that’s playing in this year’s World Cup.

Starting this week, 23andMe customers who log into their report will see a new feature that will surface those countries in the tournament that they have the strongest DNA connections with. Based on our internal data, the majority of customers have direct DNA links to the following countries (in order of most prevalent):

<ol>
<li> UK,</li>
<li> Mexico</li>
<li> Poland</li>
<li> Germany</li>
<li> Russian Federation</li>
</ol>

But even if one of your strongest DNA connections isn’t with a team you are interested in rooting for, you can pick more distant matches or a “wildcard” team with whom you have no connection, maybe an underdog team such as  <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/sports/soccer/iceland-world-cup-qualifying.html">Iceland</a> or <a href="https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/04/27/how-tragedy-turned-to-talent-and-triumph-for-egypts-national-team/">Egypt</a>. 

23andMe linked up with <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup">Fox Sports</a>, the exclusive broadcaster of the World Cup in the U.S., and launched a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2r5jQfdV3k&#038;feature=youtu.be">“Root for Your Roots”</a> campaign last month. The World Cup is a truly huge global phenomenon that brings together international fans who all share the same love of what’s known as the “beautiful game.”
“We hope this collaboration becomes a new way for people to experience global events like the World Cup,” said Tracy Keim, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at 23andMe. “We are creating an authentic experience that can open our minds and bring people together to celebrate diversity, and our global teams rooted in our DNA.”
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-1024x565.png" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-26169" width="1024" height="565" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-1024x565.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-300x166.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-768x424.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-880x486.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-1180x651.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-271x149.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1-372x204.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Root-for-your-Roots-1.png 1487w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

World Cup Fans You Can Root for Your Roots

Overturning long-held beliefs about the past, new insights from ancient DNA have revealed exciting surprises about who we are as people and how we got here.
In just the last few years, the ability for scientists to extract and sequence DNA from bones that are tens of thousands of years old has changed our understanding of the human story. Perhaps there are few better to tell that tale than the population geneticist David Reich.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-199x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-26087" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-199x300.jpg 199w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-678x1024.jpg 678w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-583x880.jpg 583w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres-781x1180.jpg 781w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jackethighres.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />
In his new book, Who We Are and How We Got Here, Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, Reich explains the significance this new technical innovation has had in the study of human history and prehistory. He has packed into this book, not just an explanation of the difficulty in initially finding and sequencing DNA from these samples, but also what it means and how it has changed what we know about out our history.
“Basically, it’s a gold rush right now;” Reich said in a February 2016 interview with <a href="http://edge.org/conversation/david_reich-the-genomic-ancient-dna-revolution">The Edge</a>. “It’s a new technology, and that technology is being applied to everything we can apply it to, and there are &#8230; many gold nuggets strewn on the ground that are being picked up very rapidly. That’s what’s happening now.”
In his book, Reich describes ancient DNA researchers like himself as barbarians overturning the old and long standing approaches to studying human history.
<div id="attachment_26088" style="width: 968px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26088" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-26088 size-full" width="958" height="1146" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539.jpg 958w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539-251x300.jpg 251w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539-768x919.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539-856x1024.jpg 856w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reic_9781101870327_jkt_ap1_r1-e1521242394539-736x880.jpg 736w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" />David Reich &nbsp;&nbsp; Photo: Bizu Tesfaye (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)</div>
“Ancient DNA has allowed us to peer deep into time and force us to question our understanding of the past,” he writes.
A professor of Genetics at Harvard University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Reich opened his own ancient DNA lab at Harvard in 2013, with the help of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/15/svante-paabo-dna-neanderthal-genetics">Svante Paabo</a>, who was the first to use DNA extracted from ancient bones to sequence the Neanderthal genome. That has revealed the more than being just ancient cousins, early modern human and Neanderthal interbreed, and DNA fragments of those encounters live on today in all humans outside of Africa. Similar findings have been made around Denisovans, another ancient human cousin, and other “ghost populations” that have died out. And with each revelation comes a revision of human prehistory and mankind’s migration out of Africa and across the globe.
In his book, Reich also reveals in a chapter called “The Great Mixing” a refrain in of human history, that no matter how divergent the population, humans intermixed and that all populations today are mixed.
“The mixtures of highly divergent groups have happened time and time again,” he writes.
He uses examples <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08365">of populations in India</a>, that intermixed 2,000 to 4,000 years ago, as well as more recent mixing among <a href="http://www.cell.com/ajhg/pdfExtended/S0002-9297(14)00476-5">African Americans, Latinos and European Americans</a>. Some of that mixing also reflects the “deep history of inequality” among the different populations and sexes.
Toward the end of his book, Reich talks about his optimism that this work to highlight human connections, not their differences.
“[If] you actually take any serious look at this data, it just confounds every stereotype. It’s revealing that the differences among populations we see today are actually only a few thousand years old at most and that everybody is mixed,” he said in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/ancient-dna-history/554798/">a recent interview</a>.

Ancient DNA offers new insight into the human story

Editor&#8217;s note: We&#8217;ve included a full list of regions and countries that have been added to the Ancestry Composition report at the end of this post. 
DNA is both a blueprint for life and a record of it, allowing us to learn more about what is written in each of us as our understanding of genetics progresses.
23andMe is improving its interactive <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry">Ancestry Composition report</a>, vastly increasing a person’s power to peer deeper into their genetic origins, connect them to different populations around the world, and to learn more about themselves.
<h6>Geographic Origins of Your DNA</h6>
This new update &nbsp;— which customers will begin seeing in the coming months — will compare you to more than 150 populations and regions across the globe to create a visualization of the geographic origins of your DNA.*
We all have a DNA story, and that story is part of the broader human story. It’s a history of people migrating out of Africa and venturing out to populate the globe and build new cultures. The footsteps of those ancestors can be seen in your DNA. Over millennia, as different groups of people separated from each other to move into new frontiers, small genetic changes occurred leaving us tiny clues about our history.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-894x1024.png" alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-26042 size-large" title="Ancestry Composition" width="894" height="1024" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-894x1024.png 894w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-262x300.png 262w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-768x879.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-769x880.png 769w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report-1031x1180.png 1031w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sample-Report.png 1464w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 894px) 100vw, 894px" />
We can find these clues by looking at segments of DNA in your genome, comparing those segments to reference populations from Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa.
Traditionally, our Ancestry Composition report compared customers’ data to 31 different populations, allowing 23andMe to report the percentage of DNA that came from those regions. This helped connect individuals to their ancestry back 500 years before the advent of modern migration.
With this new update, we still make those estimates but add another layer of insights with clues to the location of much more recent ancestors. We can do this by looking for exact DNA matches between a customer and over 130,000 individuals of known ancestry from 120 regions across the globe. 
<h6>Recent Ancestors</h6>
If a person exactly matches with five or more individuals from one of those specific regions, that region is assigned as a &#8220;recent ancestor location.&#8221; We also report the “strength&#8221; of the match. This is determined by how much DNA a customer shares with people from that region, adjusted by how many people are in the reference population.

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We’re excited to roll out this update to an already incredibly powerful interactive tool for <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">exploring your ancestry</a>. Beyond dramatically increasing the number of regions, the update also includes improvements to the map. In addition it improve the experience of panning and zooming into the geographic regions you are linked to through your DNA. We’ve also relabeled some of the populations for accuracy and better understanding. For example Yakut has been relabeled as Siberian. Taken together, these changes to 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition report provide a better way to visualize your ancestry. As with all the features and reports we offer customers, this one includes details on the science behind the tool so they know how these estimates are made. 
 

<h6>The Human Story</h6>
Beyond what Ancestry Composition offers, we also have additional ancestry-related tools that are unique to the 23andMe experience. And those tools connect you to the broader human story and its deep history. 
These include the first-ever Neanderthal Ancestry report and 23andMe’s maternal and paternal haplogroup reports. The Neanderthal Ancestry report offers you another way to bring your own connection to the human story. It shows you how your own DNA includes tiny fragments of DNA from Neanderthals, our ancient human cousins. 
23andMe’s haplogroup reports connect you to your haplogroups, different lineages that descended from a common ancient ancestor. As our ancestors ventured out of Africa, they branched off in diverse groups that crossed and recrossed the globe over tens of thousands of years. Your connections to those ancient migrations can be traced by looking at your haplogroups. 23andMe’s haplogroup reports give you insight into these ancient ancestors. Together these two reports connect you to your deep ancestry, showing you how you connect with groups of people who migrated across the globe over millenia.
 

The update to our Ancestry Composition feature is another example of how much more you can learn by exploring your own DNA. New customers who purchased our Ancestry Service kit as of February 28th will see this new update when they get their results. We’ve been gradually rolling out the update to existing customers. All customers will begin seeing this 23andMe Ancestry Composition update in the coming months.
 

<a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">Check it out</a>.
 
*<a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/#toc-ancestry-composition">23andMe&#8217;s Ancestry Composition</a> update with 120 additional regions will be coming soon to all 23andMe customers.
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<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">List of Regions and Countries Included in this Ancestry Composition Update</h5>
European
British &amp; Irish
<ul>
<li>Ireland</li>
<li>United Kingdom</li>
</ul>
French &amp; German
<ul>
<li>Austria</li>
<li>Belgium</li>
<li>France</li>
<li>Germany</li>
<li>Luxembourg</li>
<li>Netherlands</li>
<li>Switzerland</li>
</ul>
Scandinavian
<ul>
<li>Denmark</li>
<li>Iceland</li>
<li>Norway</li>
<li>Sweden</li>
</ul>
Ashkenazi Jewish
Sardinian
Italian
<ul>
<li>Italy</li>
<li>Malta</li>
</ul>
Iberian
<ul>
<li>Portugal</li>
<li>Spain</li>
</ul>
Balkan
<ul>
<li>Albania</li>
<li>Bosnia and Herzegovina</li>
<li>Bulgaria</li>
<li>Croatia</li>
<li>Greece</li>
<li>Macedonia</li>
<li>Moldova</li>
<li>Montenegro</li>
<li>Romania</li>
<li>Serbia</li>
</ul>
Finnish
Eastern European
<ul>
<li>Belarus</li>
<li>Czech Republic</li>
<li>Estonia</li>
<li>Hungary</li>
<li>Latvia</li>
<li>Lithuania</li>
<li>Poland</li>
<li>Russia</li>
<li>Slovakia</li>
<li>Slovenia</li>
<li>Ukraine</li>
</ul>
Broadly Northwestern European
Broadly Southern European
Broadly European
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>
East Asian &amp; Native American
Japanese
Korean
<ul>
<li>North Korea</li>
<li>South Korea</li>
</ul>
Siberian
Manchurian &amp; Mongolian
<ul>
<li>Mongolia</li>
<li>Kazakhstan</li>
<li>Kyrgyzstan</li>
</ul>
Chinese
<ul>
<li>Hong Kong</li>
<li>Mainland China</li>
<li>Taiwan</li>
</ul>
Southeast Asian
<ul>
<li>Cambodia</li>
<li>Guam</li>
<li>Indonesia</li>
<li>Laos</li>
<li>Malaysia</li>
<li>Myanmar</li>
<li>Philippines</li>
<li>Singapore</li>
<li>Thailand</li>
<li>Vietnam</li>
</ul>
Native American
<ul>
<li>Argentina</li>
<li>Aruba</li>
<li>Belize</li>
<li>Bolivia</li>
<li>Brazil</li>
<li>Chile</li>
<li>Colombia</li>
<li>Costa Rica</li>
<li>Cuba</li>
<li>Dominican Republic</li>
<li>Ecuador</li>
<li>El Salvador</li>
<li>Guatemala</li>
<li>Honduras</li>
<li>Mexico</li>
<li>Nicaragua</li>
<li>Panama</li>
<li>Paraguay</li>
<li>Peru</li>
<li>Puerto Rico</li>
<li>Uruguay</li>
<li>Venezuela</li>
</ul>
Broadly East Asian
Broadly East Asian &amp; Native American
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>
Western Asian &amp; North African
North African &amp; Arabian
<ul>
<li>Algeria</li>
<li>Bahrain</li>
<li>Egypt</li>
<li>Jordan</li>
<li>Kuwait</li>
<li>Libya</li>
<li>Morocco</li>
<li>Saudi Arabia</li>
<li>Tunisia</li>
<li>United Arab Emirates</li>
<li>Yemen</li>
</ul>
Western Asian
<ul>
<li>Armenia</li>
<li>Azerbaijan</li>
<li>Cyprus</li>
<li>Georgia</li>
<li>Iran</li>
<li>Iraq</li>
<li>Lebanon</li>
<li>Syria</li>
<li>Turkey</li>
<li>Uzbekistan</li>
</ul>
Broadly Western Asian &amp; North African
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>
Sub-Saharan African
West African
<ul>
<li>Cabo Verde</li>
<li>Cameroon</li>
<li>Ghana</li>
<li>Liberia</li>
<li>Nigeria</li>
</ul>
East African
<ul>
<li>Eritrea</li>
<li>Ethiopia</li>
<li>Kenya</li>
<li>Somalia</li>
<li>Sudan</li>
</ul>
African Hunter-Gatherer
Broadly Sub-Saharan African
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>
South Asian
Broadly South Asian
<ul>
<li>Afghanistan</li>
<li>Bangladesh</li>
<li>India</li>
<li>Mauritius</li>
<li>Nepal</li>
<li>Pakistan</li>
<li>Sri Lanka</li>
</ul>
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>
Melanesian
Broadly Melanesian
<ul>
<li>American Samoa</li>
<li>Fiji</li>
<li>Samoa</li>
<li>Tonga</li>
</ul>
<h5 style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 640; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"></h5>

23andMe Expands Ancestry Composition

The earliest art on the European continent, the distinct red pigment paintings of animals, hand prints, and geometric shapes that decorate the walls of Spanish caves, were not made by modern humans but by our ancient human cousins, the Neanderthals.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/csm_Fig_5_La_Pasiega_panel_78_Breuil_9a886c903f.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26059" width="308" height="562" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/csm_Fig_5_La_Pasiega_panel_78_Breuil_9a886c903f.jpg 308w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/csm_Fig_5_La_Pasiega_panel_78_Breuil_9a886c903f-164x300.jpg 164w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px" />A team of researchers using carbon dating of tiny fragments taken from the images at three different sites discovered that these paintings were made long before modern humans even arrived on the continent.
&nbsp;
“Our dating results show that the cave art at these three sites in Spain is much older than previously thought,” said Alistair Pike, a research team member from the University of Southampton in the UK.
&nbsp;
The cave art predates the arrival of modern humans migration to Europe by more than 20,000 years, and adds another chapter into the human story.
&nbsp;
Neanderthals thrived in Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years before early modern humans migrated out of Africa. At some point, humans and Neanderthals crossed paths, and as shown in recent DNA studies, they intermixed. Neanderthals disappeared about 40,000 years ago, but their DNA lives on in all humans outside of <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/#neanderthals">Africa</a>.
&nbsp;
It is just another in a series of discoveries about Neanderthals — from their <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/the-neanderthal-cookbook/">culinary tastes</a> to the <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-wore-eagle-talons-as-jewellery-1.17095">adornment</a> they wore to the kinds of <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-built-cave-structures-and-no-one-knows-why-1.19975">structures they built</a> — that are forcing scientists to reevaluate our understanding of their cognitive and communication abilities. This, in turn, is pushing researchers to conclude that Neanderthals were perhaps not so much different than modern humans.
&nbsp;
Or as Dirk Hoffman, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology said, the cave art shows that <a href="https://www.mpg.de/11948095/neandertals-cave-art">Neanderthals thought like we do</a>.
23andMe customers can explore your Neanderthal Report <a href="https://you.23andme.com/reports/neanderthal/">here</a>. And if you’re not yet a customer, you can find out more <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/#toc-neanderthal">here</a>.

A Neanderthal Renaissance

Our customers often share their stories with us, which are both moving and motivating as we get to see the real impact 23andMe results can have in people’s lives.
One such story came in recently from Bev Glaspey of Lake Placid, Florida. Bev called it her ‘Family Christmas Story,’ because it was about the best kind of present, a gift of family.
This is their story.
<div id="attachment_25935" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25935" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1024x609.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25935 size-large" width="1024" height="609" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1024x609.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-300x179.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-768x457.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-880x524.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1180x702.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />At their first meeting in early December, from left to right, Florence&#8217;s half-brother Robin, her daughter Bev, and Florence.</div>
Bev’s mom, Florence Axelson was born in Chicago in 1922, and adopted when she was 1 year-old. For all of her 95 years she had almost no information about her birth family. The one exception was that back in the mid-1970s Florence applied for a passport and in the process she also had to get a copy of her birth certificate.
Getting that document also got Florence the first bit of information about her origins, her biological mother’s name. But when she tried to use that bit of information to get more details about her adoption she hit a brick wall. The records, she was told, had been destroyed in a fire.
There was little more that she had to go on, and over time life got in the way of searching. That didn’t mean it wasn’t something she thought about. In fact, all of her daughters, Bev and Bev’s two sisters, all wondered about their mother’s family. Even simple things, like what their family’s nationality was, remained unknown.
That is until Bev purchased a 23andMe kit for herself and her mom. Bev started exploring their DNA Relatives, finding cousins she never knew she had. The closest was a cousin named Cathy, who was the key to unlocking Florence’s story.
Cathy&#8217;s mom, who is still alive, is Florence’s half-sister.
“Mom found out she was the firstborn child to a young unwed mother,” Bev said.
She learned that she didn’t just have one half sibling, but her biological mother had 12 children in all, three of her half-sisters and one half-brother are still living.
Florence was able to talk to two of her half sisters, and then at 95 she was able to meet her half brother Robin and his wife Kim for the first time when he came in early December to visit her at her assisted living facility.
“I was able to find mom’s birth mother’s family,” Bev said. “This has been a wonderful gift to our family. “

One Family’s 23andMe Christmas Story

Thanksgiving is about family. A ritual that weaves together each generation, sharing old memories, making new ones, and seeing in all that, the common heritage we share in our DNA.
A few days ago 23andMe invited about half a dozen families to come together for a holiday dinner and a chance to meet a newfound father, mother, brother or sister for the first time. 
“It’s an emotional thing for me because I always thought I was as an only child,” said Barbara Saunders, just before meeting her sisters Ida Sturgill and Joyce Randall. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-25902" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1180x787.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /> The meeting in New York just before Thanksgiving was the culmination of months of talking and email after the sisters had connected using 23andMe. Now they were getting a chance to see each other for the first time.
“I have chills,” said Ida, before Barbara walked in and all three sisters hugged.
Their embrace and disbelief at seeing and touching their newfound sister were much like what rippled through each family that came together.
Standing with her son, Travis, Ida Pollock looked both excited and nervous, as she waited to meet “my son that I gave up for adoption 55 years ago.”
Barrie stood with his son, Alex, pinching himself that this was all possible. As she entered the room and their faces flushed with emotion, he uttered, “Oh my goodness,” and embraced his mom, and then his brother. 
Ida said she felt thankful. Bodie felt overwhelmed.
“To have everything come full circle like this is just beyond being thankful,” he said.
As Natosha Brown walked in and saw her biological father, William, and her four sisters and a niece, her father said he had been searching for her since he’d learned of her birth. 
“I feel like we have 36 years to make up for,” Natosha said. Smiling and crying the sisters embraced. Her father captured the feeling of everyone who was there.
“It’s a blessing and its thanksgiving, so what better time,” he said.
See more about the families that met for the first time using 23andMe <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY7JOD4eQR0&#038;list=PLFvkfbvHpp1kU9nvguZrZ2Y7nYc8_swVA">here</a>. 
&nbsp;
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zY7JOD4eQR0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

23andMe Family Stories for the Holiday

By Erica Bellman, Ancestry Content Writer
Let’s imagine that, in lieu of your Aunt Betsy from Seattle, an ancient Neanderthal woman is coming to your house for Thanksgiving this year. Hide the china and practice your grunting, right? Well, maybe not. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25886" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/iStock-596802262.jpg 1254w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Though their table manners might be lacking, the popular &#8220;caveman&#8221; stereotype is more myth than fact. Neanderthals were actually quite similar to modern humans and exhibited complex social behaviors.
“As a culture, we tend to think of Neanderthals as these brutish, bent-over, hairy individuals—a bit more ape-like than us. But there’s no evidence that supports that idea,” said Professor Tim Weaver, an anthropologist at UC Davis whose research focuses on human evolution. “I think the stereotype that’s permeated our popular culture stems from old reconstructions of the Neanderthals dating back to the early 20th century. As far as we can tell from their anatomy, genetics, and behavioral and cultural remains, Neanderthals were very similar to modern humans.”
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 320px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
<h6>More about your Neanderthal guest</h6>
<ul>
<li>She probably lives in a cave—so try to be sensitive if she’s not up on the latest in politics and pop culture.</li>
<li>Neanderthals were thought to be quite social. Your guest likely has a nuclear family and a close-knit community of hunter-gatherers, so be sure to ask about her kids, parents, and friends.</li>
<li>Her physical traits may include a heavier brow, an oval-shaped skull, and a larger-than-average nose (try not to stare).</li>
<li>She’s probably on the stockier and more muscular side, so make sure her seat comfortably accommodates her stature.</li>
<li>Based on evidence that Neanderthals possessed sophisticated <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150114101528.htm">toolmaking skills</a>, your guest may be able to handily carve up the turkey or roast using a stone or bone instrument.</li>
<li>She may or may not be able to communicate with you verbally<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a> , so be prepared to use another means of conversing.</li>
<li>Be sure to ask about her neighborhood. Neanderthals were intimately in touch with their surroundings, harvesting from the land to survive. She’ll be an expert on the best hikes and outdoor activities in her homeland.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h6>Cousin</h6>
Here’s what we know of our human cousins.
The Neanderthals were our closest extinct relatives who lived throughout Eurasia 200,000 to 40,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene Epoch. Over this time glaciers retreated and advanced, and once-abundant food sources became scarce.
Before anatomically modern humans (that’s us) left Africa, the ancestors of the Neanderthals ventured into Eurasia. Ultimately, the Neanderthals would inhabit<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> a vast expanse of land stretching from Portugal to western Siberia and from northern Europe to Israel and Iraq. The Neanderthals intermixed with modern humans emerged from Africa about 60,000 years ago, giving us both <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-neanderthal-research/">evolutionary advantages</a> (like the functioning of our immune systems<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a>) and some <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/the-neanderthal-within/">less-favorable variants</a>, such as susceptibility to certain allergies, depression, and blood clots.
<h6>Some History</h6>
For millennia Neanderthals thrived, but eventually they went extinct, and scientists aren’t entirely sure why. Some theorize that migration and random species drift<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a> (a mechanism of evolution that produces random, rather than selection-driven, genetic changes in a population) caused the disappearance of the Neanderthals, while others blame dietary insufficiencies<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a> caused by changing ecological and climatic conditions. Perhaps the most popular explanation for the disappearance was competition with modern humans for resources.
But one thing is for certain: the Neanderthals did intermix with modern humans before their demise, so segments of their DNA live on in many of us today. Unless you’re from Sub-Saharan Africa, your DNA reflects somewhere between one percent and four percent Neanderthal ancestry.
<h6>Time to Eat</h6>
Now, we’ll get to the main course of this post: what to serve your guest for Thanksgiving dinner. Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were not all die-hard carnivores, so it’s best to avoid offending your guest with a plethora of meat dishes. Rather, our ancient relatives adapted their diets to match the resources that were readily available and most abundant in nutrients, so be sure to ask where exactly she is from. Your Neanderthal guest may also be particular about what she will and won’t eat. “From what we know from the archaeological record and the bones found at Neanderthal sites, they seemed to focus more on large mammals rather than small game like rabbits. The breadth of their diets seems to have been narrower than those of modern humans,” said Professor Weaver.
Two Neanderthal individuals found in a cave in El Sidrón, Spain appeared to have consumed little to no meat. Traces of pine nuts, moss, tree barks, and mushrooms were found in this pair’s dental plaques, suggesting a mostly vegetarian diet (err, except for the evidence of cannibalism found in their cave&#8230;but we digress). After studying the dental plaques of another Neanderthal found in Spy, Belgium, scientists concluded<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6">[6]</a> that the individual ate mostly meat, as well as some mushrooms. Woolly rhino or wild sheep ragout, anyone? The bones of mammoths, reindeer, and horses were also found in the Spy cave. Other research<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7">[7]</a> reports that Neanderthals living on the Gibraltar coast may have eaten various mollusks, seals, and even dolphins. In summary, Neanderthals ate what was most readily available and nutrient-dense in their immediate surroundings; they adapted their diets<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8">[8]</a> to meet the resources provided by their environments.
Enjoy connecting with your Neanderthal guest and learning about some of the traits you might have in common. By the end of the meal, we predict you and your other relatives will be competing to see who had the good fortune of acquiring the most Neanderthal DNA.
<h5 style="text-align: center;">Curated Menu</h5>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sauteed_greens_with_pine_nuts_and_raisins/">Sauteéd Greens with Pine Nuts and Raisins</a>. Opt for wild edible greens like dandelion and chicories. High in fatty acids and calorically rich, pine nuts also contain lutein, a carotenoid that may help prevent eye disease.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/leek-and-wild-mushroom-stuffing-107292">Wild Mushroom and Leek Stuffing</a>. If your guest is from Spain, she’s likely fond of a variety of mushrooms. High in dietary fiber, B vitamins, and minerals, they’re fundamental to her diet. Bonus points if you forage for them yourself.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/crown-roast-of-lamb-recipe-2082917">A Crown Roast of Lamb</a>. Rather than turkey, opt for this earthy, gamey alternative. Your guest will appreciate the simple preparation and ample protein. If lamb isn’t available, your guest may also enjoy venison or reindeer.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baked-clams-bacon-and-garlic">Baked Clams with Bacon and Garlic</a>. Your guest may hail from a coastal region. She’d appreciate these flavorful bivalves, oven-roasted with savory bacon and spices.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.forestandfauna.com/foraging-wild-greens-miners-lettuce-salad/">Miner’s Lettuce Salad.</a> Since it’s still unclear whether all Neanderthals were as adept at controlling fire as their human relatives<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9">[9]</a>, we’re also including a raw option. This version has fresh Miner’s lettuce, a wild edible that tastes like a cross between watercress and spinach.</li>
<li><a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015198-fresh-and-wild-mushroom-stew">Wild Mushroom Stew.</a> End your meal with a cup of wild mushroom stew to keep your guest warm for her journey home.</li>
</ul>
<div>Erica Bellman is a Ancestry Content Writer at 23andMe. She writes content for 23andMe&#8217;s Ancestry product, surfacing stories that enable customers to better understand their unique results. As a journalist, Erica has interviewed performance artists, indie rock bands, and backcountry skiers. Her favorite author is Haruki Murakami. </div>
<hr />
<a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Fabre V et al. (2009). &#8220;Genetic evidence of geographical groups among Neanderthals.&#8221; PLoS One. 4(4):e5151. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664900/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664900/</a>
<a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Callaway E. (2011). &#8220;Ancient DNA reveals secrets of human history.&#8221; Nature. 476(7359):136-7. <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/476136a.html">https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/476136a.html</a>
<a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Kolodny O et al. (2017). &#8220;A parsimonious neutral model suggests Neanderthal replacement was determined by migration and random species drift.&#8221; Nat Commun. 8(1):1040. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01043-z">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01043-z</a>
<a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> El Zaatari S et al. (2016). &#8220;Neandertal versus Modern Human Dietary Responses to Climatic Fluctuations.&#8221; PLoS One. 11(4):e0153277. <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0153277">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0153277</a>
<a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> D&#8217;Anastasio R et al. (2013). &#8220;Micro-biomechanics of the Kebara 2 hyoid and its implications for speech in Neanderthals.&#8221; PLoS One. 8(12):e82261. <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082261">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082261</a>
<a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> Weyrich LS et al. (2017). &#8220;Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus.&#8221; Nature. 544(7650):357-361. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21674">https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21674</a>
<a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7">[7]</a> Stringer CB et al. (2008). &#8220;Neanderthal exploitation of marine mammals in Gibraltar.&#8221; Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 105(38):14319-24. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2567146/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2567146/</a>
<a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8">[8]</a> El Zaatari S et al. (2016). &#8220;Neandertal versus Modern Human Dietary Responses to Climatic Fluctuations.&#8221; PLoS One. 11(4):e0153277. <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0153277">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0153277</a>
<a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9">[9]</a> Gowlett JA. (2016). &#8220;The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process.&#8221; Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 371(1696). <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4874402">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4874402</a>

Erica Bellman

Six Things to Serve Your Neanderthal Guest for Thanksgiving

A remarkable aspect of 23andMe&#8217;s Ancestry Composition feature is that the innovative machine learning technology under the hood gets better and more precise as we add new customers and refine our technology.
We&#8217;ve been revving that machine up lately, so this week some customers who have tested on our latest genotyping chip will start to see more precise detail in their<a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/"> Ancestry Composition</a> results.
What’s happening here reflects both changes to our genotyping chip and our ever-increasing numbers of new customers. These new customers enabled us to “retrain” the machine learning algorithm and improve the accuracy and specificity of ancestry assignments we report. So now, for example, a customer with a percentage of their Ancestry Composition previously designated as “Broadly European,” may now see some of this ancestry assigned as &#8220;French or German.&#8221;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-1024x647.png" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-25829" width="1024" height="647" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-1024x647.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-300x190.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-768x485.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-880x556.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/24936289936_507c63c5e3_o-1180x746.png 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
These changes improve an already fantastic feature by boosting precision and recall for many ancestral populations. Customers interested in their <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/meet-your-chromosome-painting/">Chromosome Paintings</a> may also notice improvements due to our use of an updated &#8220;phasing&#8221; algorithm. 
These changes will also help set the table for 23andMe to begin to add additional reference populations in the coming months. These, in turn, will also improve results for customers. 
Currently, we use 24 reference populations from around the world to report 31 population labels, including higher-order groupings. Adding new populations will allow 23andMe to offer more details to customers. That was in part what motivated our researchers to launch the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/the-african-genetics-project/">African Genetics Project</a> last year. By adding new African reference populations, we will be able to return more precise results to customers with African ancestry. We plan to do similar work with other understudied populations around the world.
Changes to our genotyping chip will also help with this work. 23andMe periodically updates the chip we use for genotyping. We do this to take advantage of improvements in technology, to update the kind of information we can offer customers, and to offer flexibility for future research. This newest chip — our fifth version, hence the name v5 — is an Illumina<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.illumina.com%2Fglobalscreeningarray&#038;esheet=51363623&#038;newsitemid=20160616005665&#038;lan=en-US&#038;anchor=Infinium%C2%AE+Global+Screening+Array&#038;index=2&#038;md5=29b7081699c1fde5cc84559e32a3ca42"> Infinium® Global Screening Array</a> supplemented with ~50,000 SNPs of custom content. This array was specifically designed to better capture global genetic diversity and to help standardize the platform for genetic research.
Ancestry Composition is a great tool that promises to keep getting better, so if you haven’t had a look lately <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">check it out</a>. You can read more about the science behind all this by looking at this white paper on<a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry-composition-guide/"> Ancestry Composition</a>.

23andMe revs up Ancestry Composition feature

By Erica Bellman
If you’re familiar with 23andMe’s products, you know there are currently two options for how customers can receive results: <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">Ancestry only</a>, or
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-25799 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Map-of-India-1180x788.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
both <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">Ancestry and Health</a>. On the surface, these two categories might seem unrelated, but when it comes to the science, ancestry and health are intrinsically linked, and knowledge of one may provide vital information about the other.
<h6>Heritable Disorders</h6>
A <a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v49/n9/full/ng.3953.html?foxtrotcallback=true">recent article</a> in Nature illuminates this connection. The piece looks at how recent studies of certain South Asian populations’ ancestral origins have spurred important insights about recessive heritable disorders.
To understand why the South Asian studies could be so fruitful for genetic health research, it’s crucial to understand the so-called “founder effect.” In essence, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population emerges from a very small number of individuals (or founders) — who are isolated by geography or culture, for example — from a larger population.
Throughout South Asia’s “mosaic” of populations, a prominent demographic pattern has been for individuals to marry within their communities. One of the results of this pattern is the higher-than-typical frequency of certain of genetic variants that can cause recessive disorders, which in turn makes those variants easier to detect, screen for, and ultimately prevent.

<h6>Founder Populations</h6>
It’s important to note that this certainly isn’t the first time scientists have identified health implications for a population descended from founders. For example, individuals of <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ashkenazi-ancestry-and-health">Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry</a> were vital in improving our understanding of Tay-Sachs disease. The Finnish people have been studied due to their genetic uniformity and the occurrence of hereditary diseases such as congenital <a href="https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/1500/congenital-nephrotic-syndrome-finnish-type">nephrosis</a>, a kidney disease.
By continuing to study recessive disorders in founder populations, geneticists will be able to identify variants in the same deleterious gene in other populations. This helps to better understand the biology of the conditions, and develop potential treatments.
“If we know people of a certain ancestry have the same disease, we’re able to locate the regions of their genome where their ancestral background may overlap,” said Kimberly McManus, a population geneticist on 23andMe’s Research and Development team. “These sites can be informative, because they’re potential segments that may be causing or influencing the disease.”
<h6>More Data</h6>
Right now, one of the biggest hurdles to advancement in ancestry-inspired health research is the relative lack of genetic samples obtained from founder populations. Populations in South Asia, Africa and East Asia hold some of the richest genetic diversity in the world. However, they’ve historically been the least studied.
“Until a few years ago, more than 90% of genetic studies were based on individuals of European descent,&#8221; Kimberly said. &#8220;(This was) primarily due to the lack of available data from diverse populations.”
But some research-driven organizations are implementing programs that could significantly increase the diversity of the data available for study.
<h6>African Genetics</h6>
For 23andMe’s <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/the-african-genetics-project/">African Genetics Project,</a> the company distributed free kits to people of underrepresented populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim is to better serve those communities and customers who might have ancestral ties there.
“The benefits of increasing our sample sizes from these populations will be twofold,” Kimberly said. “It will allow people from these populations to better understand their ancestry. And it will allow researchers to investigate genetic health risks in these populations, as the genetics may be slightly different than in other populations.”
These new horizons for research and increased diversity of genetic samples. They present exciting possibilities for health breakthroughs. However, genetic similarities between populations around the world far outweigh the differences.
“Ancestry-inspired health is very important,&#8221; Kimberly said. &#8220;But it’s also important to remember that the vast, vast majority of variants are shared between all populations.  Sequencing genomes of understudied groups can just be useful in better understanding some of the health traits shared among these populations.”

Ancestry Service — Page 14