More than two decades ago, on opposite sides of the country, two babies were cast away with slim chances of surviving.
“Miraculous Mary,” as she was called then, was found along a California highway wrapped in a towel and stuffed into a brown paper bag, while “Baby Jane Doe” was found in a box with the trash in a Bronx alley. 
Both babies survived.
Mary became Ashley and Baby Jane became Alison. Despite their dark beginnings, the two women, now 24, wanted to know about where they came from. Their stories and the story about how they traced their ancestry was told this week on Anderson Cooper’s new show Anderson.
The two women and the shows producers turned to 23andMe to help fill in the blanks.
Joanna Mountain, Senior Director of Research, traced the two women’s genetic history using samples of their saliva. 
23andMe has several tools to help customers explore their ancestry,<a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/origins/"> Ancestry Painting</a>, which break down a person’s ancestral origins and<a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/relfinder/"> Relative Finder</a> which pair people with close family matches as well as more distant cousins who may be in our database of more than 100,000 people.
Joanna was able to explain that Alison’s DNA – which included a mix of European, African and Native American ancestry – indicated that her parents were likely Puerto Rican. Looking at Ashley’s DNA, Joanna was able to determine that her ancestry was exclusively European. But in a surprising twist for Ashley, who was raised Catholic, her DNA revealed not just northern European ancestry but also Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Tracing Women’s Ancestry on Anderson Cooper’s Show

Not all the discoveries made on 23andMe are quite as profound as <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/stories-from-23andme-neil-schwartzman" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neil Schwartzman</a> finding his half-sister and mother, but even when 23andMe’s Relative Finder links distant cousins together those connections can still be electric.
Gerald Lopez, a customer who found a fourth or fifth cousin and information about his mixed ancestry, said it was like discovering “history that’s not written in history books.”
23andMe’s <a title="Relative Finder" href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/relfinder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Relative Finder</a> &nbsp;uses genetic data instead of archived records to identify family relationships. Where written paper records fail, genetic information can sometimes fill in the gaps. Pieces of DNA are passed down from generation-to-generation, so that our genetic data is our own repository of information about our ancestry. Comparing any two people’s DNA can also determine whether they are related.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-9549 size-medium" title="RF Results Sample" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/RF-Results-Sample-300x65.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="65" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/RF-Results-Sample-300x65.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/RF-Results-Sample.jpg 569w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Customers have identified more than 700 previously unknown family relationships discovered through Relative Finder. They’ve found fifth and fourth cousins like Gerald and a few, like Neil, have even found parents and siblings.
Among our more than <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/state-of-the-database-2011" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">100,000 customers</a>, Relative Finder has identified 82,000 relationships that are either 4th cousins or closer.
Recently we updated Relative Finder to make it easier to use and search. Now users can show genealogical information &#8212; surnames, family locations, etc. This makes it easier for users to sort through potential matches. We also updated Relative Finder so that users can record notes about their matches, and confirm relationships. And the information available is rapidly increasing.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a genealogist, you might be surprised how fulfilling it can be to discover a common connection. You can remain anonymous if you choose, and only information in your profile that you designate as “visible to all 23andMe members” will be shown to your Relative Finder matches, so you can share as little or as much as you like.
And if you need help tracing a connection, many experienced Relative Finder “sleuths” are available in the community to offer tips and encouragement.
If there’s something that binds all 23andMe users together, it is a healthy curiosity about themselves and their DNA. So let Relative Finder broaden your horizons and let your DNA give you more to relate to!
If you’ve already discovered something interesting about your family through Relative Finder, do tell. We’re interested in hearing your stories &#8212; simply send them along to <a href="mailto:stories@23andme.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stories@23andme.com</a>.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/category/23andme-customer-stories/">Read more 23andMe customer stories &gt;&gt;</a>

Making Connections with Relative Finder

In May, Neil Schwartzman opened an email message from a complete stranger.
“Hey,” it said. “I think you’re my brother.”
Neil is one of now thousands of 23andMe users who’ve discovered family relationships they never knew they had.
In June, we updated <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/relfinder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Relative Finder</a> to make it easier to search for family connections. In just a few weeks 23andMe users have told us they’ve discovered more than 500 previously unknown relationships. People have linked up mostly with distant cousins, but a handful, like Neil, have found sisters, brothers, and even parents.
Neil, a 50 year-old Canadian activist who works to stop the spread of junk email, has seen his fair share of fake come-ons. But the email he got in May was different. It was a message from another 23andMe user showing that they were related through DNA.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-9522" title="Neil Schwartzman" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/neil-s.-200x300.jpg" 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 found his sister, Jolie Pearl, on 23andMe
Stunned by the message he began corresponding with the woman. He had always wondered about his background and if he had relatives out there still living, because Neil was adopted when he was just 10 days old. He never knew his biological mother. Although he loved his adoptive parents, he always yearned to know more about his background. He made a few attempts to find his biological mother in the 1990s, but after getting nowhere, he gave up.
“Fast-forward to three years ago when I became a 23andMe member,” said Neil, executive director of the <a href="http://www.cauce.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email</a>. “I’d some hope to find family somewhere, but really I had just turned 50 and I thought it’d be nice to know if I had any medical condition I should be concerned about.”
In early May of 2011 in California Jolie Pearl, a 53 year-old union organizer and mother of a 13 year-old daughter, had begun to play around with 23andMe’s Relative Finder for the first time.
“I hit the button to find your closest relative and this thing popped up, ‘a predicted sibling,’” Jolie said. “I thought maybe it was a mistake or that it was my half-brother.”
The next morning, Jolie went to her mother’s house and before going in she spoke briefly with her mom’s best friend.
“She matter-of-fact said to me, ‘yeah, you’re going to want to know about him,’” Jolie said.
Her mother’s best friend was one of only three other people who’d ever knew that Jolie had another brother who’d been given up for adoption.
At first Jolie felt anger, but then was overwhelmed by the thought that she had another younger brother. She said she instinctively felt protective toward him. When she talked to her mom, Jolie’s mother explained that indeed she’d given birth to a baby boy in 1960 and just 10 days after his birth she handed him over to another couple.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-9530" title="Jolie and Sheila" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Jolie-and-Sheila-300x225.jpg" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Jolie-and-Sheila-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Jolie-and-Sheila.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Jolie Pearl with their mother
“It was the most difficult thing she’d done in her life,” Jolie said. “But she felt she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t raise both of us.”
After talking to her mom Jolie sent the email to Neil.
After the initial exchange of emails, Neil, who had a scheduled business trip to California, arranged to meet his new found sister.
The two had dinner together, talking so long that they closed the restaurant down. The next day they went together to visit Neil and Jolie’s mother. Neil stopped to buy some flowers, asking his sister what kind their mother liked. They settled on a potted orchid because it was more lasting than cut flowers.
For Neil, who had anxiously anticipated the moment, meeting his mother and sister wasn’t what he’d expected. He’d anticipated a “massive emotional event.”
What he got instead was something more “nuanced, subtle, deep.”
It was the start of a relationship, he said.
At the end of the conversation, Neil’s mother grabbed his hand and held it for a long time.
“He told me that physical connection meant so much to him,” Jolie said. “He said it was like electric shocks going through his system.”
Finding her raised so many emotions, and Neil was struck by weighty questions about what makes you who you are. His niece noticed how both he and his sister had similar nervous hand gestures. Both are union activists.
“So this caused me to reflect on what the components of a person are,” Neil said. “There are morals and values imparted on me partially by my circumstances, by my adopted parents, my experience, all the things that life brings us. Then there’s this genetic thing.”
His mother is an artistic person and so is he. They’re both highly intelligent and opinionated.
“It’s fascinating to think that for all the free will we pride ourselves in having so many things may be predetermined,” he said. “It’s something to think about.”
The family has arranged to gather again.
“Obviously I never expected any of this when I signed up,” Jolie said. “It’s been the best thing. I want to thank 23andMe.”
Neil, too, expressed his gratitude, even citing 23andMe as an example of the miracle of modern science and the promise of the internet after receiving an award recently for the work he’s done to curb junk email.
“It’s beyond awesome,” said Neil. “I couldn’t be happier. I mean I’d really given up all hope. I can’t say how absolutely grateful I am to 23andMe for facilitating this.”
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.
What&#8217;s your story? If you&#8217;re willing to share, we want to hear. Drop us a line at <a href="mailto:stories@23andme.com">stories@23andme.com</a>.
&nbsp;

Stories From 23andMe: “Hey, Bro”

<img decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7533" title="relfinder_matches" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/relfinder_matches.png" alt="" width="335" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/relfinder_matches.png 460w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/relfinder_matches-300x91.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" />
We’ve been following Sheridan’s* journey through the ancestry features at 23andMe over the last few weeks. Because she was adopted with no record of her biological parents, every piece of information has been eye-opening for her. So far, she’s learned that her <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/09/29/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">maternal haplogroup is H2a</a>, meaning that her biological mother’s ancestors were likely European, and potentially Eastern European. She’s also learned that, overall, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/10/08/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-global-origins/">her genome is most similar to Europeans</a>, followed closely by Northern Africans. Her closest mapping to indigenous populations around the world is with the Mozabites of Northern Africa. But because she may have a mixed background, she knows that this mapping needs to be interpreted as an average of where her biological ancestors were from.
When we last left her, Sheridan had received a request through 23andMe to connect with a potential 5th cousin. What does this actually mean? Well, for one thing, it means that someone has enough DNA in common with Sheridan to be predicted as a 5th cousin using 23andMe’s Relative Finder feature.
Although contacting a potential 5th cousin isn’t quite the same as contacting a biological parent, Sheridan has never contacted any biological relatives before and so is understandably a little bit anxious. Having called it a night after exploring her Global Similarity results, she now takes a deep breath and opens the contact request email.
<blockquote>Hello,
23andMe predicted that we might be 5th cousins! I am African-American and have some genealogical records that I’m willing to share if you’re interested in trying to figure out how we might be related.
Would you be interested in communicating further?
Sincerely, 
Akina</blockquote>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-7534 size-medium" title="5thcousin-videoshot" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/5thcousin-videoshot-300x222.png" alt="" width="300" height="222" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/5thcousin-videoshot-300x222.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/5thcousin-videoshot.png 596w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Sheridan is astounded. Here is what is apparently an African-American woman with genealogical records who could be her 5th cousin! She isn’t sure how to respond right away, especially since she’s new to this whole thing and doesn’t even know what a 5th cousin is. Luckily, 23andMe has an educational video titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/23andMe#p/u/0/qG6BFjoXHvY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Just What Is A Fifth Cousin?</a>” which explains very clearly what being 5th cousins means &#8212; that she and Akina might share great-great-great-great grandparents. As Sheridan thinks about this a bit more, she realizes that the ancestor that might connect her and Akina would have to have lived around 140-160 years ago.
She still has no idea how to figure out their connection, but is willing to give it a try, so she accepts Akina&#8217;s request with a quick message:
<blockquote>Akina,
I&#8217;m new to all this, and I don&#8217;t know if I can contribute much to the search because I&#8217;m adopted. But I&#8217;m eager to learn more about my &#8212; our? &#8212; family tree!
Sheridan</blockquote>
And just how can 23andMe tell whether Sheridan and Akina might be 5th cousins? Two major pieces of information go into 23andMe’s Relative Finder predictions: the % of DNA shared and the number of segments shared between people in the 23andMe database.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-7535 size-medium" title="recombination" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-300x261.png" alt="" width="300" height="261" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-300x261.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-768x667.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-1024x890.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-880x765.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination-1180x1025.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/recombination.png 1204w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Recall that everyone has two copies of each chromosome (except for the X chromosome in men), one from mom and one from dad. These copies exchange analogous segments of DNA with each other &#8212; a process called recombination &#8212; before being passed on to future generations, such that the set of chromosomes you received from your mother (or father) is a mix of the DNA that she got from her parents. Since each parent contributed 50% of your DNA, that means that the % of DNA shared between you and each grandparent is roughly 25%. Every generation you go back will halve the % of DNA shared, on average.
It also turns out that you share roughly the same % of DNA with your parents as you would with a sibling, so how can we tell what type of relationship it is? The number of DNA segments shared is also important &#8212; you would share about 50% of your DNA with a sibling but distributed over many more segments than with a parent. This is because recombination is somewhat random, so you and your sibling received different mixes of DNA from each parent, resulting in a larger number of smaller segments shared between you and your sibling. (The same principle allows us to distinguish between uncle/aunt and grandparent relationships.)
As you go farther back in a family tree to find a common ancestor, the % of DNA and the number of DNA segments shared decreases. Using data gathered from a set of people with known relationships allows us to develop a model to predict what the most likely relationship might be for a new pair of individuals &#8212; like Sheridan and Akina &#8212; using their % DNA and number of segments shared. Although the resolution drops off as predictions become more distant, and the exact type of relationship may not be accurate (e.g. “double cousins”, cousins x-times removed, and other less straightforward relationships are not included in our lists of possible predictions), the prediction is generally in the ballpark.
<img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7536" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;" title="sheridan-relfinder" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-relfinder.png" alt="" width="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-relfinder.png 779w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-relfinder-274x300.png 274w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-relfinder-768x840.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px" />
Editor&#8217;s note: The image to the left shows the Relative Finder feature prior to the Summer 2011 update. Relative Finder is now also sometimes referred to as <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">DNA Relatives</a>.
Sheridan checks the rest of her Relative Finder results (click on image on the left to enlarge) but doesn’t see any matches predicted to be her parents or siblings. Darn! That would have been too easy. As she goes down the list of results, though, Sheridan sees something intriguing. A predicted second cousin? Hovering over this result reminds her that she would share a great grandparent with a second cousin.
Once again, Sheridan is amazed &#8212; and a little nervous &#8212; at what her DNA is able to tell her. She definitely wishes she had more experience researching genealogy to navigate the puzzle pieces of her family tree. But help may be closer than she thinks&#8230;
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<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 15px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 15px;">
Other posts in this series:
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-what-can-you-learn">What Can You Learn?</a> &#8211; An overview of 23andMe&#8217;s ancestry features.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan">Introducing Sheridan</a> &#8211; We meet Sheridan and she learns about her maternal haplogroups.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-global-origins">Sheridan&#8217;s Global Origins</a> &#8211; Sheridan compares herself and her friends to various populations around the world.
(next)  <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-finding-connections">Finding Connections</a> &#8211; Sheridan and Brian bond over their fourth cousin connection.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-old-roots-and-new-horizons">Old Roots and New Horizons</a> &#8211; Sheridan and Brian put together the pieces to sketch out their shared family tree.
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<div>* The people and events described in these posts are fictional. 
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Ancestry at 23andMe: Sheridan’s Got Relatives

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7457" style="border: 1px solid black; margin-left: 10px;" title="gs-leadin" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/gs-leadin.png" alt="" width="312" height="149" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/gs-leadin.png 312w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/gs-leadin-300x143.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px" />
In <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/09/29/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">her first ancestry foray</a>, Sheridan* learned about her Maternal Line. Through her friend Mesut, she also learned about the Paternal Line feature. But these analyses only told her about a tiny part of her DNA. Other features at 23andMe use DNA contained in the other 22 pairs of chromosomes &#8212; called autosomes &#8212; and can tell her how similar she is to everyone else in the world and whether any of them are related to her through any branch of her family tree. Join us as Sheridan continues to explore her genetic ancestry.
<div style="padding: 10px; background-color: #ffc; margin-bottom: 15px;">Editor&#8217;s note: This post discusses features that are now obsolete. Global Similarity has been replaced by the new Ancestry Composition feature, and Global Similarity: Advanced is now known as Global Similarity Map. However, many of the concepts and information you can learn from these tools are still applicable.</div>
Since the last time we left her, Sheridan has received two more sharing invitations &#8212; one from her friend Hua who’s had an account at 23andMe for a while and one from a family friend named Brian who signed up at the same time as she did and is interested in genetic genealogy. She gladly accepts, figuring that both friends might help her navigate the features at 23andMe and understand the results. A message from Hua accompanies the sharing request:
“I’m so glad you decided to sign up! I can’t wait to see what your data says. By the way, my personal favorite is Global Similarity: Advanced, especially if you’re sharing with people. It’s really interesting seeing where everyone ends up!”
Sheridan can’t think of a better place to go next, so she clicks on Global Similarity. This tool compares your genome (via the roughly 500,000 SNPs that 23andMe tests) to many other publicly available “reference” genomes from individuals around the world, representing major indigenous world populations.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7474" title="sheridan-gs" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gs1.png" alt="" width="598" height="332" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gs1.png 711w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gs1-300x167.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gs1-271x149.png 271w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px" />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7460" style="border: 1px solid black; margin-right: 10px;" title="sheridan-gs-bars" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gs-bars.png" alt="" width="246" height="218">
Sheridan immediately notices that her highest similarity is with Northern Europeans. This isn’t that surprising given that her maternal haplogroup indicates probable European ancestry. But she sees that she is also highly similar to African populations, especially Northern Africans. Could this be a clue about her biological father’s origins?
As Sheridan ponders this, her eyes focus on a big, blue button in the top right of the page and she suddenly remembers that Hua had specifically mentioned an “advanced” version of Global Similarity.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7469" title="btn_pca_advanced" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/btn_pca_advanced.gif" alt="" width="155" height="34">
Clicking the button takes Sheridan to a more abstract map dotted with clusters of colored squares and larger balloon arrows. Mousing over them, she sees that the green arrow represents herself and the darker arrows her friends. She also notices that each cluster corresponds to a major world population, and clicking on one zooms in to reveal more detailed populations, like the Sardinians of Southern Europe, Mayans of the Americas, and Bedouins of the Near East. In fact, every point on the advanced map (colored square or bubble) corresponds to some person and their genotype. The map arranges all the people/genotypes so that the closer two people are genetically, the closer they appear on the map.
(Click on images to view larger)
<table style="margin: 10px;">
<tbody>
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<td rowspan="3"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7477" title="sheridan-gsa" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gsa.png" alt="" width="310" height="330"></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7478" title="sheridan-gsa-zoomed" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gsa-zoomed.png" alt="" width="150" height="158" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gsa-zoomed.png 474w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sheridan-gsa-zoomed-284x300.png 284w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7479" title="hua-gsa-zoomed" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hua-gsa-zoomed.png" alt="" width="150" height="157" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hua-gsa-zoomed.png 474w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hua-gsa-zoomed-286x300.png 286w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></td>
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<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7480" title="brian-gsa-zoomed" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/brian-gsa-zoomed.png" alt="" width="152" height="160" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/brian-gsa-zoomed.png 476w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/brian-gsa-zoomed-285x300.png 285w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 152px) 100vw, 152px" /></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7483" title="mesut-gsa" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mesut-gsa.png" alt="" width="152" height="157"></td>
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<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
Keep in mind&#8230;
All humans are over 99% identical to each other in their DNA. The smaller percentages we see in Global Similarity (Basic) are due to the fact that we’re only looking at SNPs &#8212; places in the genome that are known to vary in humans. Mousing over all of the reference populations will reveal that the least similar populations are not that different from the most similar population to the person being analyzed.
</div>
Sheridan’s green marker falls near the top of the African region, and zooming in further shows her squarely in the Mozabite population of Northern Africa. She’s not really sure what to make of this, given that her highest similarity is to Europeans. Her friends Hua and Brian, on the other hand, are more straightforward &#8212; Hua lands squarely within the Han Chinese cluster, while Brian is very clearly Irish. Mesut is a little more interesting because he places with the Near Easterners, close to Palestinian individuals but not quite. Sheridan guesses that there isn’t a reference population available that’s closer to Mesut.
Browsing through the informational links on the bottom right side of the page helps Sheridan understand what her placement with the Mozabites of Northern Africa might mean. Every one of us has many ancestors, from potentially many places in the world; what Global Similarity: Advanced does is to locate you on this map roughly at the average of the positions that your ancestors would be placed. For Sheridan&#8217;s Dubliner friend Brian, all of his ancestors are Irish going back five generations, so it&#8217;s not surprising that Brian shows up squarely in the Irish reference cluster. A person with a European dad and a Chinese mom, though, would tend to be plotted about halfway between Europe and China, nearest the reference Central Asian populations.
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 15px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
So Sheridan now finds herself with the following clues: 
 
<a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/maternal">Maternal Line</a> &#8211; H2a. Her mother must have some European ancestry, possibly from Eastern Europe.
Global Similarity &#8211; Highest with Northern and Southern Europeans, then with Northern Africans.
Global Similarity: Advanced &#8211; Mozabite (a Northern African population). Probably represents a genetic location that is intermediate between where her ancestors are from.
</div>
Sheridan’s excited to talk to her friends about what she’s learned but before she can she finds an interesting message in her inbox.
“A potential 5th cousin would like to make contact with you,” it says, making Sheridan’s heart thump.
Tune in next time as we explore Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder, and see who Sheridan’s potential 5th cousin is!
<div style="background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Other posts in this series:
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-what-can-you-learn">What Can You Learn?</a> &#8211; An overview of 23andMe&#8217;s ancestry features.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan">Introducing Sheridan</a> &#8211; We meet Sheridan and she learns about her maternal haplogroups.
(next) &nbsp;<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-got-relatives">Sheridan&#8217;s Got Relatives</a> &#8211; Sheridan responds to a fifth cousin and discovers a predicted second cousin in the 23andMe database.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-finding-connections">Finding Connections</a> &#8211; Sheridan and Brian bond over their fourth cousin connection.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ancestry-at-23andme-old-roots-and-new-horizons">Old Roots and New Horizons</a> -Sheridan and Brian put together the pieces to sketch out their shared family tree.
</div>
* The people and events described in these posts are fictional.

Ancestry at 23andMe: Sheridan’s Global Origins

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7425" style="margin-left: 10px;" title="ancestry-photo-sheridan" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ancestry-photo-sheridan.png" alt="" width="280" height="152">
Meet Sheridan*. She&#8217;s a 27 year old female who signed up for 23andMe during one of our sales. Adopted at eight months, she has no information about her biological roots and the adoption agency has no records other than where she was found &#8212; on the steps of a church in a small town near Atlanta, Georgia. She otherwise had an uneventful childhood growing up with her loving and supportive adoptive family.
Now married and thinking of having kids of her own, Sheridan wishes more than ever that she knew something about her background. Even simple things &#8212; like her ethnic heritage &#8212; are a mystery to her (the only thing she knows is that she&#8217;s likely to be mixed race). While 23andMe can&#8217;t provide all the answers, its many tools and features might reveal some interesting clues about where Sheridan came from.
Join us as we follow Sheridan&#8217;s journey through Ancestry at 23andMe &#8212; we&#8217;ll release a new clue in each Ancestry how-to post in this series. We&#8217;ll put together the whole story at the end, but feel free to speculate given the clues you&#8217;ve received so far. Top-notch sleuthing wins bragging rights. 🙂

____________________
Sheridan recently got her 23andMe results. She was a little nervous about logging in to see them at first but a few days later she gets a sharing invitation from her friend Mesut, &nbsp;who had agreed to sign up for 23andMe with her.
&#8220;Dear Sheridan,&#8221; it says, &#8220;Mesut Yavas has offered to share the following genetic profile on 23andMe: Mesut Yavas (Complete Edition).&#8221;
An encouraging email from Mesut follows, &#8220;Not certain what exactly this sharing thing is about, so I requested &#8216;Basic&#8217; sharing for now. We must walk before we can run, but soon we will be learning in leaps and bounds. Might as well make the jump, Sheridan! Let our DNA speak to us!&#8221;
&#8220;Well,&#8221; she thinks, &#8220;here goes&#8230;&#8221;
Maternal Line
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-7273" style="padding-left: 10px;" title="female_mt" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_mt1-300x225.png" alt="" width="180" height="135" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_mt1-300x225.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_mt1-768x576.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_mt1.png 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px" />
Sheridan&#8217;s a little rusty on her high school biology so she calms her nerves and beefs up her genetics knowledge using 23andMe&#8217;s &nbsp;<a href="https://www.23andme.com/gen101/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">&#8220;Genetics 101&#8221;</a> educational material. Then she accepts Mesut&#8217;s sharing invitation and clicks on the first link under &#8220;My Ancestry&#8221;: Maternal Line.
As we mentioned briefly in our &nbsp;first “Ancestry at 23andMe” post, the maternal line is traced through mitochondrial DNA, which is found in the parts of our cells that turn food into energy. All of us inherit our mitochondrial DNA from our mother, and so we can use it to learn something about where our mother&#8217;s mother&#8217;s mother&#8217;s ancestors came from. This is possible because as DNA is passed down through the generations, errors in copying, known as genetic variants or mutations, may occur. A maternal haplogroup is a family of mitochondrial DNA types that traces back to a single mutation in a specific individual, usually representative of a significant event (e.g. a migration or development) in human prehistory.
The first thing Sheridan sees under Maternal Line is a map of the world and her &#8220;Maternal Haplogroup&#8221;, &#8220;H2a&#8221; above it.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7405" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="sheridan-h2a" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-h2a.png" alt="" width="516" height="284" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-h2a.png 516w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-h2a-300x165.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-h2a-271x149.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-h2a-372x204.png 372w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px" />
The colors on the map indicate where in the world the H2 haplogroups are most commonly found &#8212; at least before oceanliners and 747&#8217;s made intercontinental travel a simple endeavor. The “History” tab at the top of the page has even more information about H2, and H2a specifically; in fact, H2a is especially common in eastern Europe. This is Sheridan’s first concrete clue about her mother&#8217;s ancestry. She&#8217;s also amused to learn that this haplogroup originated in or near what is now Turkey, since this is where Mesut is from.
That&#8217;s when Sheridan notices a list of people on the right side of the page. There&#8217;s &#8220;Chinese Person&#8221; and &#8220;Japanese Person&#8221;, and clicking on them changes the map to show their haplogroups&#8217; global distributions. Mesut is also in the list, since they are sharing genomes with each other at the &#8220;Basic&#8221; level. His maternal haplogroup is HV1, an ancient haplogroup that&#8217;s found across eastern Europe, central Asia, and northern Africa but is relatively rare in modern-day Turkey.
<table border="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7399" title="mesut-hv1" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-hv1.png" alt="" width="386" height="213" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-hv1.png 516w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-hv1-300x165.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-hv1-271x149.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-hv1-372x204.png 372w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px" /></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7401" title="sheridan-matline-shares" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-matline-shares.png" alt="" width="235" height="150"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7402" style="border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" title="sheridan-mat-tree" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-mat-tree.png" alt="" width="214" height="206" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-mat-tree.png 423w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-mat-tree-300x290.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px" />
Finally, Sheridan clicks on the last tab at the top of the page, &#8220;Haplogroup Tree&#8221;, revealing a hierarchy of all known maternal haplogroups and their relation to one another through time. From this tree, she sees that haplogroups H2a and HV1 are both descended from haplogroup HV. Since HV split off from its ancestor haplogroup R about 40,000 years ago, this means that Sheridan and Mesut share a common maternal ancestor from around this time &#8212; making them something like 2000th cousins! (Actually, it&#8217;s very likely that they share a more recent common ancestor, but this one we know for sure.)
For 23andMe customers interested in the nitty gritty details, check out the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/haplogroup_tree_mut_mapper/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Haplogroup Tree Mutation Mapper</a> under Ancestry Labs (Ancestry Tools). This will show you the SNPs used to define a particular haplogroup, starting with the mutation that defines that haplogroup&#8217;s most recent branch on the tree and working backwards to the root.
Paternal Line
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-7278" style="padding-left: 10px;" title="male_y" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_y1-300x225.png" alt="" width="180" height="135" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_y1-300x225.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_y1-768x576.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_y1.png 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px" />
The paternal line is traced through the Y chromosome, which only males have. This DNA is passed down from father to son and so can tell us something about where a man&#8217;s father&#8217;s father&#8217;s father&#8217;s ancestors came from. Although Sheridan does not have a Y chromosome, she might be able to learn about her paternal ancestry through other 23andMe features. (Note that a woman with known male relatives &#8212; father, brother, paternal uncle, etc. &#8212; &nbsp;can link their Paternal Line information to her account if they are listed as 23andMe connections in the &nbsp;Family Tree feature.)
The results in the Paternal Line analysis are presented similarly to the Maternal Line. Even if you have no Y chromosome, you can still learn about all of the different paternal haplogroups through the sample individuals and Haplogroup Tree. And since Sheridan is sharing with Mesut, she can see his paternal haplogroup, too.
<table border="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7415" title="mesut-F" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-F.png" alt="" width="395" height="205" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-F.png 513w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mesut-F-300x156.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px" /></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7416" title="sheridan-patline-shares" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sheridan-patline-shares.png" alt="" width="233" height="149"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Scratching the Surface&#8230;
In just five or ten minutes, Sheridan learned some interesting things about where her mother&#8217;s ancestors &#8212; and she, by extension &#8212; might have come from. As a bonus, she was able to find a connection, however ancient, between herself and her friend. Still, the DNA that goes into maternal and paternal line analyses makes up less than 1% of all the DNA that 23andMe analyzes, and those ancestors represent only one or two branches out of a full family tree. To fill out the other branches and the rest of her genome, Sheridan will have to look at the other Ancestry features at 23andMe.
Next time, we&#8217;ll take a closer look at the Global Similarity <del>and Global Similarity:Advanced</del> features, and reveal another clue about Sheridan&#8217;s ancestry as told through DNA.
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;">Summary of 23andMe features mentioned in this post:</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/maternal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Maternal Line</a> — Uses mitochondrial DNA passed down from your mother to trace the origins of your mother’s mother’s mother’s ancestors.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/paternal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paternal Line</a> — (Results generated for men only) Uses Y chromosome DNA passed down to sons from their fathers to trace the origins of their father’s father’s father’s ancestors.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/haplogroup_tree_mut_mapper/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Haplogroup Tree Mutation Mapper</a> (Ancestry Labs/Tools) &#8212; Reports the SNPs used to define specific haplogroups.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;">Keyword: Haplogroup &#8211; A term used to describe individual branches or closely related groups of branches on genetic family trees. Defined by particular genetic mutations that are shared by all the people who belong to the haplogroup.</div>
* The people and events described in these posts are fictional.

Ancestry at 23andMe: Introducing Sheridan

Genetic testing for ancestry is not a concept that most people encounter outside of popular TV shows and so when you hear about services such as 23andMe’s, you might be wondering what exactly it is you’re getting. Even after you’ve signed up and have your data back, you might not know where to start exploring or how to make sense of the wealth of information you’ve just received. Since many people are unfamiliar with genetics and 23andMe offers several unique features, we’ll be presenting a series of posts to help both current customers and the curious reader to understand what you can (and can’t) learn from genetics and from 23andMe in particular.
This first post is part of the “Ancestry at 23andMe” series and is an introduction to the types of information we can tell you about your ancestry. (There will also be a “Health at 23andMe” series to cover the features found in the Health portion of our service.) It may be a review for some, but should help orient those new to genetics or 23andMe (for an even more basic primer, check out our videos in  <a href="https://www.23andme.com/gen101/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Genetics 101</a>). Read on, and let us know if you have a question you would like to see featured in future articles on the 23andMe blog!  
<h6>Ancestry at 23andMe: What Can You Learn?</h6>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7225" title="family-tree-labeled" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/family-tree-labeled-300x225.png" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> 
People who have contributed to your DNA.
Using DNA to <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/ancestry/family-tree/">uncover clues about your ancestry</a> is a tantalizing prospect for many people. Adoptees and people with diverse ethnic backgrounds may be especially interested in finding out more about where they came from. But even those who have relatively thorough knowledge about their family’s roots may be curious about the more obscure branches of their family tree or the deeper ancestry that connects them to all humans on this planet. Fortunately, DNA acts as a biological record that can reveal many of the pieces of story that is us.
With 23andMe’s genetic testing services, individuals can see what their DNA says about where in the world their ancestors came from, what populations they might be a part of, and who else in the world shares that DNA with them.
<h6>Types of DNA</h6>
<div style="border: 1px solid gray; padding: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: right;">Who contributed this DNA if you are&#8230;</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">Female</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">Male</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: left; font-size: 13px;">Autosomal DNA is found in the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes passed down to us equally from our mothers and fathers, one of each pair from each parent. This is about 96% of the DNA that makes you you.</td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7188" style="margin: 8px;" title="female_auto" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_auto1-300x225.png" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></td>
<td><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7194 aligncenter" style="margin: 8px;" title="male_auto" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_auto1-300x225.png" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: left; font-size: 13px;">The X chromosome is one of the larger chromosomes and contains a large number of essential genes. Women have two copies, one each from mother and father; men have just one copy, inherited from their mother (except in rare genetic conditions).</td>
<td><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7192 aligncenter" style="margin: 8px;" title="female_x" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_x1-300x225.png" alt="" height="150" /></td>
<td><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7198" style="margin: 8px;" title="male_x" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_x1-300x225.png" alt="" height="150" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-size: 13px;">The Y chromosome is what makes someone male. Men have one of these, passed down from their father.</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">N/A</td>
<td><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7200 aligncenter" style="margin: 8px;" title="male_y" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_y1-300x225.png" alt="" height="150" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-size: 13px;">All of us also have mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), found in the chemical factories &#8212; the mitochondria &#8212; inside each of our cells that convert the food we eat into energy for our bodies. mtDNA is always passed down from mother to child.</td>
<td><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7190 aligncenter" style="margin: 8px;" title="female_mt" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/female_mt1-300x225.png" alt="" height="150" /></td>
<td><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-7196 aligncenter" style="margin: 8px;" title="male_mt" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/male_mt1-300x225.png" alt="" height="150" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
Each type of DNA has unique properties that are informative for ancestry. Because your mitochondrial DNA comes all in one piece from your mother &#8212; and she received it from her mother, and so on &#8212; we can say pretty definitively where that piece of your DNA came from. In fact, scientists can map all mtDNA onto a family tree of sorts, tracing back to a “mitochondrial Eve”, the common female ancestor that gave rise to all variations of mtDNA around today.
This mapping is possible because DNA isn’t always copied perfectly when it’s passed from parent to child. With each successive generation, the changes spread and become the background from which new changes arise, serving both to distinguish different maternal lineages from each other and to connect lineages to each other at some point in genealogical time. So one thing that 23andMe can tell you is where that piece of DNA &#8212; from your mother’s mother’s mother’s ancestors &#8212; is from. (23andMe customers can see this information in the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/maternal/">Maternal Line</a> feature of their account.)
Similarly, because the Y chromosome is passed down exclusively from father to son, we can use it to trace the ancestry of a small part of your DNA if you are male. The same principle of DNA variation spreading and building up through generations allows scientists to construct a tree for all the paternal lineages and allows 23andMe to map a man’s Y chromosome DNA to a particular branch in that tree. (Male 23andMe customers can see this information in the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/paternal/">Paternal Line</a> feature of their account.)
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="180">
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-7265 size-full" style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 10px;" title="dna-pie-labeled" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dna-pie-labeled.png" alt="" width="151" height="102" />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7216" style="margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px;" title="ancestry_tree" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ancestry_tree.png" alt="" width="140" height="105" />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7217" style="margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;" title="global-origins" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/global-origins.png" alt="" width="140" height="100" />
</td>
<td>Your maternal &#8212; and for some, paternal &#8212; line gives you an interesting piece of your DNA history, but it is a very small part. Your autosomal and X chromosome DNA make up almost 99% of all your DNA, and is passed down from both parents (except for the X chromosome in males, which comes only from the mother). This means that the DNA can be used to infer more distant relatedness between individuals on any branch of their family tree &#8212; 4th cousins, for example, who share common great-great-great-grandparents &#8212; based on the percentage of DNA shared. Thousands of people are already making connections with distant relatives through 23andMe’s database. (23andMe customers can explore our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/relfinder/">DNA Relatives</a> (Relative Finder) and  <del>Ancestry Finder</del>  Countries of Ancestry features which use these principles.)
More generally, we can compare your autosomal DNA to that of different populations around the world and show you which groups of people you are most similar to genetically. This can be done at a very high level with broad ethnic groups or global populations, or at a finer-grained level with more specific populations, such as Han Chinese or Norwegian. (23andMe customers can see these using the <del>Ancestry Painting</del>  Ancestry  Composition  <del>Global Similarity</del> and <del>Global Similarity: Advanced</del> <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/global_similarity_map/">Global Similarity  Map</a>  features.)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Unlike maternal and paternal line analysis, autosomal and X chromosome DNA analysis cannot tell us much definitively past a certain number of generations. Because each pair of chromosomes recombines, or mixes, before being passed down from parent to child, the size of possible shared segments gets successively smaller with each generation. Too small, and it’s no longer possible to tell whether the segment truly came from a shared common ancestor, or if it’s identical simply by chance. The information we can infer, however, is much more versatile. And although scientific methods using autosomal and X chromosome DNA are not as firmly established or plentiful as those used for mtDNA and Y chromosome analyses, this should change as more research accumulates.
The cool part is that all of these features we&#8217;ve just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. One thing that separates 23andMe’s services from most other genetic ancestry services is that we use data about hundreds of thousands of variants in the human genome &#8212; places where a single DNA letter can vary between individuals, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (“snips”). This offers greater resolution and versatility than more traditional methods, allowing us to provide a unique and constantly evolving set of tools for exploring your ancestry.
In the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/09/29/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">next post in this series</a>, we illustrate 23andMe’s ancestry features in more detail by following some (fictional, but based on real) customers as they explore their 23andMe data.
<h6 style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;">Summary of 23andMe features mentioned in this post:</h6>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/maternal/">Maternal Line</a> &#8211; Uses mitochondrial DNA passed down from your mother to trace the origins of your mother&#8217;s mother&#8217;s mother&#8217;s ancestors.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/paternal/">Paternal Line</a> &#8211; (Possible for men only) Uses Y chromosome DNA passed down to sons from their fathers to trace the origins of their father&#8217;s father&#8217;s father&#8217;s ancestors.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;"><a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/relfinder/">DNA Relatives</a> (Relative Finder) and  Countries of Ancestry &#8211; Uses autosomal DNA passed down from both parents to connect you to other 23andMe users who may be related to you.</div>
<div style="background-color: #ffc; padding: 10px;">Ancestry Composition  and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/global_similarity_map/">Global Similarity Map</a>  &#8211; Uses autosomal DNA passed down from both parents to place your DNA in the broader context of populations, continents, and regions of the world.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Other posts in this series:
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/09/29/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">Introducing Sheridan</a> &#8211; We meet Sheridan and she learns about her maternal haplogroups.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/10/08/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-global-origins/">Sheridan&#8217;s Global Origins</a> &#8211; Sheridan compares herself and her friends to various populations around the world.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/10/15/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-got-relatives/">Sheridan&#8217;s Got Relatives</a> &#8211; Sheridan responds to a fifth cousin and discovers a predicted second cousin in the 23andMe database.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/10/22/ancestry-at-23andme-finding-connections/">Finding Connections</a> &#8211; Sheridan and Brian bond over their fourth cousin connection.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2010/10/29/ancestry-at-23andme-old-roots-and-new-horizons/">Old Roots and New Horizons</a> &#8211; Sheridan and Brian put together the pieces to sketch out their shared family tree.
</div>

Ancestry at 23andMe: What Can You Learn?

Editor&#8217;s note: Some of the tools described in this post no longer reflect the current 23andMe product offerings.
Every family has its legends.
Maybe it&#8217;s a story about how they&#8217;re descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, a Confederate soldier or <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200205/olson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Charlemagne</a>.
<div id="attachment_3400" style="width: 279px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3400" class="wp-image-3400 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pocahontas.jpg" alt="" width="269" height="350" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pocahontas.jpg 269w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pocahontas-231x300.jpg 231w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />Pocahontas.</div>
Of all the classic American family legends, stories of a Native American ancestor are among of the most common. Many times there&#8217;s a well-documented link to a Native forbear: Two First Ladies (Edith Wilson and Nancy Reagan) and one Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson) are proven descendants of Pocahontas.
Other times, the evidence amounts to little more than vague tales about a rugged pioneer and a Cherokee princess. (Learn what&#8217;s wrong with that scenario <a href="http://www.native-languages.org/princess.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a>)
Now 23andMe customers who are curious about whether they may have Native American ancestors can look for evidence of it in their genes.
The Native American Ancestry Finder uses some existing 23andMe features – Ancestry Painting, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/maternal/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">Maternal Line</a> and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/haplogroup/paternal/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paternal Line</a> – to look for genetic signatures that are likely to have come from a Native American ancestor.

The Maternal Line and Paternal Line elements of the Finder are pretty straightforward; certain mitochondrial DNA (maternal) and Y chromosome (paternal) haplogroups are often found among Native Americans.
These include mitochondrial haplogroups A2, B2, C1, D1 and X2a – which are found exclusively among Native Americans. People in some other branches of the A, B, C and D haplogroups may also have Native American ancestry, but their maternal lines could also trace to Asia. On the paternal side, only Q3 is exclusive to Native Americans, though anyone with a Y chromosome in the C, C3 or Q haplogroup could conceivably have Native American forbears.
<div id="attachment_3392" style="width: 251px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3392" class="wp-image-3392 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/natamwoman.png" alt="" width="241" height="350" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/natamwoman.png 241w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/natamwoman-207x300.png 207w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" />An example of a Native American&#8217;s ancestry painting.</div>
The part of the Finder that uses Ancestry Painting to find evidence for Native American forbears is a little more complicated. It relies on the fact that people of full Native American descent have Ancestry Paintings that are consistently about 75% orange (Asian) and 25% blue (European).
This is due to the fact that Native Americans are ultimately descended from populations that lived in northern and central Asia about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, and the fact that those regions are intermediate between the reference populations that Ancestry Painting classifies as fully Asian (Japanese and Chinese) and fully European (European-Americans living in Utah).
Then the Finder compares your Ancestry Painting proportions to a table that contains the results of an extensive series of simulations that we performed to determine what would happen to that three-to-one Asian/European proportion over the generations if a Native American and a partner of all-European descent had a child who then reproduced with another all-European partner, and so on. We did the same analysis for a Native American marrying into an all-Asian pedigree.
Unfortunately, partly due to inadequate sampling of Africa&#8217;s genetic diversity, this method cannot yet establish Native American ancestry for African Americans.
We found that it takes at least five generations after the appearance of a single Native American in an otherwise all- European pedigree for the percentage of Asian (orange) DNA to reach zero. In an otherwise all-Asian pedigree that process is much faster – in two generations, the grandchild of that single Native American can have no trace of European in his or her Ancestry Painting.
There are, of course, plenty of Eurasian populations that also have blue-and-orange Ancestry Paintings. So the Native American Ancestry Finder performs a second analysis that can distinguish people of South Asian, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Ashkenazi descent from those with Native American ancestry.
Unfortunately, there is still some uncertainty when it comes to distinguishing people with Native American ancestry.
It&#8217;s still a work in progress – that&#8217;s what Labs are all about. But we hope customers will help us by trying out the Native American Ancestry Finder and letting us know if anything doesn&#8217;t mesh with what they know about their genealogy.
You can also contribute by taking the &#8220;<a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/23andwe/surveys/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">Where Are You From?</a>&#8221; survey in <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/23andwe/surveys/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andWe</a>.

New 23andMe Lab Searches Genome for Native American Ancestry

Since 23andWe debuted in May, we&#8217;ve asked our customers about all sorts of things: their hair color, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/earwax-type/">earwax consistency</a>, whether they tend to look on life&#8217;s bright side. Sometimes people have been surprised to learn that something like your susceptibility to motion sickness – or even which way the <a href="http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/abstract/165/1/269" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hair swirls</a> on top of your head – may be influenced by genetics.
Now we&#8217;re introducing three new surveys that ask our customers a few more thought-provoking questions that could help science understand more about genetics: 

<ol>
<li>Our new ancestry survey, &#8220;Where are You From?&#8221; inquires about the birthplaces of our customers, their parents and grandparents. We&#8217;re hoping the survey can help us do an even better job of correlating peoples&#8217; genetics to their ancestral homelands. It could also help us address questions geneticists have had little opportunity to ask in the past, such as how regional genetic differences within the United States may reflect the different ethnic backgrounds of the people who settled in the country. And finally, recent papers such as this <a href="http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/R2/R143?maxtoshow=&amp;HITS=10&amp;hits=10&amp;RESULTFORMAT=1&amp;author1=Gregersen&amp;andorexacttitle=and&amp;andorexacttitleabs=and&amp;andorexactfulltext=and&amp;searchid=1&amp;FIRSTINDEX=0&amp;sortspec=relevance&amp;resourcetype=HWCIT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one</a> suggest that ancestry information can be vital to any study that tries to associate genes and traits.</li>
<li>Our second survey, &#8220;Health Habits,&#8221; asks about things like exercise, diet, smoking and drug use. It&#8217;s not that we want to determine whether there are genetic influences on whether a person smokes (though there probably are) so much as we&#8217;d like to know these things so we can see if they are more likely than genetics to account for the way people respond to certain surveys.</li>
<li>Researchers often struggle to distinguish between the contributions of nature and nurture when they study things like personality, IQ and athletic ability. Our final new survey – &#8220;What Do You Do?&#8221; – tries to account for some elements on the nurture side of the gene-environment equation.</li>
</ol>
These new surveys are a little different from some of the ones our customers have already taken. They&#8217;re not going to tell you if you&#8217;re less optimistic than average, or whether your tendency to sneeze in bright sunlight makes you a freak of nature (It doesn&#8217;t). But they&#8217;re just as critical to helping us reach our goal of advancing genetic research. So if you&#8217;re a 23andMe customer, we invite you to visit 23andWe and take our latest surveys. And if you haven&#8217;t joined the 23andMe community yet, we invite you to read more about <a href="https://www.23andme.com/research/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andWe</a> on our public site.

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