I love family. Modern families. Blended families. Adopted families. And, DNA families.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-24348 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-300x229.jpg" alt="Anne and her sisters." width="300" height="229" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-300x229.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-768x585.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-1024x780.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-880x671.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters-1180x899.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Anne-and-her-sisters.jpg 1252w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Over the last ten years, I’ve seen the ancestry part of our genetic service change lives. Every day I watch people connect with their DNA family, and see how the concept of family can evolve into something greater – and even more meaningful.
There’s always been the possibility of learning about your family’s past through historical documents and public records, but the scientific data – your genetic data – can make the story of someone come alive in another way. From sperm donor brothers and sisters finding each other; to adoptees meeting cousins; to co-workers finding out they are related; to simply seeing what you share with the family you already know, DNA gives us deeper insight into ourselves. In fact, customers write in and tell me how they’ve been able to discover records and photos and share the oral traditions of their rich family history, through their new, 23andMe connections.

<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">23andMe Ancestry Service Highlights
• In 2008 we were the first to conduct comprehensive autosomal analysis for ancestry across all 23 pairs of chromosomes to inform ancestry reports.
•  In 2009 we launched our Relative Finder tool (now called DNA Relatives) that allowed users to find relatives in our database based on shared segments of DNA.
•  In 2011 we introduced our Neanderthal Report, allowing people to see how much Neanderthal DNA they carried.
•  In 2012 we broke new ground with our Ancestry Composition Report, based on a proprietary machine learning algorithm, that provided insights into ancestry from 21 populations. We have since updated that report to use an even more reference populations – 31.
• In 2016 we launched our Relatives in Common tool, which allows customers to see how their known relatives and mutual relatives are related to each other based on their DNA.</div>
We all have a beautiful rich genetic story inside each of us. I believe looking at your genetic ancestry is as important as being able to look at yourself in a mirror. Understanding who you are and where you come from is one of the most powerful ways to learn about genetics.
From the very beginning, 23andMe has been focused on two things: providing people with access to information from their own DNA, and building a world-class scientific organization to push the boundaries of genetics research in both health and ancestry. While I firmly believe in the power of everyone accessing their genetic health data, I understand some people want to explore genetics through the journey of their family first. (And family is first for me!)
Today, I want to enable more families to come together to learn who they are and where they are from – and have the choice to see the world as one big, modern DNA family. All of us here at 23andMe are excited to offer a $99 ancestry service with ancestry-only reports.
Our population geneticists, statistical geneticists and computational biologists have worked with our engineers and designers to build fun and engaging features backed by our research.
We feel this standalone ancestry service offers some of the best features on the market, as we pioneered many of the most powerful DNA ancestry tools including autosomal analysis, ancestry composition and DNA relatives since the beginning.
The future of genetic ancestry is exciting.  We are all in this together.
Coming together as a global genetic family can only help all of us understand how we are genetically related to the world around us. (Remember we are 99.9 percent genetically the same!)   As the world of genetics continues to expand with new health and ancestry discoveries, so do the personal insights we each will gain, deepening our own understanding into who we are as individuals, as humans, and possibly as part of one big DNA family.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Reinventing The Way We See Family

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Maria felt conflicted.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-24234" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-300x300.jpg" alt="Maria quote" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Maria-quote.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


Here she was celebrating her parents’ 63rd wedding anniversary, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset her elderly mother. But on the flipside she had to ask her.
Maria now knew her mother’s secret, a secret that brought up many questions, serious questions. Maria wanted to know why her mother hid her true origins. Maria wanted to ask those questions and so many more, and her mother was the only one who could answer them.


“So I said to myself: ‘If she mentions the necklace, I’m going to say something,’” said Maria, a mother of young twins who lives with her husband in New Jersey.

<h6>A Mother&#8217;s Secret</h6>

Her parents had come back to New Jersey for their anniversary celebration. The couple met in New York City at a high school dance. Maria’s mom was 18 when she married her father. The couple raised four kids together, part of a large extended Italian family. But that large family was all on Maria’s dad’s side of the family. She knew nothing about her mom’s family.


“My mom’s story was that she was adopted and her parents died and she had no siblings,” Maria said.
Her mother told her kids very little about her biological family except to say there was a rumor that they were Italians who’d immigrated through Argentina to the United States.
Yet after testing with 23andMe and seeing her results, Maria discovered that her mother’s story just didn’t add up. Maria was only half Italian, and almost 20 percent African.


“When I saw it at first I was like ‘wait a second!’” Maria said.
She thought it was wrong.
When she told her sisters and brother they were in denial.
“Mom can’t be black?” they said.


Or could she?
<h6>Hidden African Ancestry</h6>
Both Maria’s sister and brother tested and they too had close to the same percentage African ancestry. So after that initial shock, Maria started to dig a little deeper, connect with cousins found through 23andMe, and that’s how she pieced together her mother’s family story.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-24235 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_4769-e1471282681353-300x213.jpg" alt="IMG_4769" width="300" height="213" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_4769-e1471282681353-300x213.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_4769-e1471282681353.jpg 723w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The family’s story is surprising, but finding “hidden African ancestry” is much more common than many know. While most African Americans are aware that they have “white” ancestry – a vestige of the ugly history of slavery – fewer “white” Americans know that they may have “hidden African ancestry” in their families. This too is a legacy of slavery and segregation in America. For those families with hidden ancestry, it means that at some point in history someone in their family likely “passed” for white.
Each story is unique but commonly this was to escape the consequences of racism directed at African Americans that limited job and education opportunities.
For Maria learning this about her mother, didn’t so much change her identity as it changed how she looked at her family.
“It’s strange,” Maria said. “I grew up thinking I was one way and actually I’m not who I thought I was.”

<h6>Identity</h6>

Maria wanted to know why had her mother kept this secret for so long, but before she asked her questions she wanted to be sure, so she dug a little deeper. And then that day at church she said a prayer. She told herself that if her mother asked about the necklace she’d take it as a sign that it was OK to ask her mother.
As they left the church her mother noticed the necklace telling her daughter how much she liked it. Maria took it as a sign to start asking questions.
“It’s your sister’s necklace,” Maria told her mom.”


Her mother, who had always told her children that she’d been an only child, was stunned.


“’My sister? What do you mean my sister?’” Maria’s mother said.

<h6>The Great Migration</h6>

Maria told her mom whom it had come from and that she had not just found her mother’s sister but connected with a brother and a few more aunts.
Maria had learned that her mother wasn’t of Italian origin, nor was her biological family originally from Argentina, as she’d once told her kids. Her mother was born in Illinois. Her parents were African Americans from Mississippi, and her mother had had at least 19 siblings. Her mother’s family had moved from the Mississippi to Chicago for job opportunities, part of the wave of African Americans to move north in what is called the “<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444">Great Migration</a>.”


Maria had learned that at some point her mother and three of her siblings, who could pass for white, moved to New York City. Maria’s mom was 15 at the time. The four siblings used a Latino sounding last name. Over the years they either lost ties or cut off contact with the rest of the family back in Illinois and Chicago. Maria’s mom soon met the man, who would be her husband at a school dance. When they got married it caused another rift in the family. After the marriage, Maria’s mother lost contact with her three siblings in New York.
Maria learned about this from relatives she found through 23andMe. One of the connections she made was with cousins in California who were the children of her mother’s brother.
<h6>Siblings Connect After Decades Apart</h6>
After making the connection Maria told her mom and together they traveled together to visit her mother’s 96 year-old brother. The two hadn’t seen each other in 64 years. Maria was also able to find two of her mother’s sisters who were still alive. She talks to them weekly and recently traveled to Chicago to meet one of them and her newly found cousins in person. These connections have given Maria a chance to see family photos of her grandparents, her mother as a young woman, as well as aunts and uncles she never knew she had.


“It’s fascinating and crazy,” Maria said. “I never knew these people existed and now it&#8217;s like I&#8217;ve known them my whole life.&#8221;


As for learning about her and her family’s African American ancestry, Maria said it didn’t really change how she thought about herself. It did change how she thought of her family, and the power of being connected to all these family members she never knew before.


“To me it’s an amazing story of a family’s racial divide, but with a very happy ending,” she said.

Bridging A Family’s Racial Divide

An accomplished scientist and businessman, Stephen Levine has spent his whole life <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-23645" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Stephen-Levine-200x200.jpg" alt="Stephen Levine" width="200" height="200" />searching.


That restlessness is driven by a quest that is both emotional and intellectual, a desire to learn more about the world around him and himself. It was also driven by what he calls a deep emotional trauma. But that intense curiosity about who he was and where he came from was recently rewarded with a family connection he could have only made with the help of 23andMe.
“There is a lovely tender, tear rendering story here,” said Stephen, a Ph.D., who lives in Northern Washington and works in nutritional medicine.


He’d been adopted and grew up in Brooklyn in a family in which he felt alien and disconnected to his adoptive mother.
Using details from a story his adoptive mother told him about his birth, Stephen tracked down his biological mother when he was in his early 30s.
It wasn’t the kind of reunion he’d hoped for, however.
“She was a broken person, a street person,” he said.
His mother had agreed to meet him at a White Castle fast food restaurant in Brooklyn. It was a strange place for a mother and son reunion, and while he drove to the meeting, Stephen questioned whether he’d really found the right person at all.


“Intellectually I knew it was her, but emotionally I was so shaken up I just didn’t know,” he said.


But he thought to himself:
“If this is really my mom, then when I look at her face, I will know 100 percent,” he said. “And, she’ll have green eyes.”


Just after he parked his car at the restaurant a woman knocked on his window.
“I saw her face and I saw my face within it, with her green eyes,” he said.
Wanting to get to know her and learn more about his biological family, Stephen spent two days with her in a large hotel suite that he’d rented.
“She was obviously mentally imbalanced and depressed,” Stephen said. “I asked her many questions including the name of my biological father. She did give me his last name.”


After that initial meeting, he tried to develop a relationship with her, but it was too painful and difficult for her, he said. She eventually asked him to leave her alone.
His reunion with his mother stopped any additional searching for family for three decades until his own daughter, Ariel, reignited it when she tested with 23andMe.
Ariel’s 23andMe results showed a close connection with a woman she didn’t know. That woman, Marilyn, sent her a message. Marilyn wanted to figure out how they were so closely related. 23andMe showed that Marilyn was either Ariel’s aunt or a close cousin, and Marilyn’s father matched her as a grandfather.
Ariel told Marilyn, who was from Brooklyn, about her dad being adopted and originally being from Brooklyn. Marilyn and Stephen then connected and in an email exchange Marilyn asked Stephen if he knew his biological father’s last name. He told her he didn’t, only that it was a short name and started with “Z.”


“My maiden name is Zwick,” Marilyn emailed back.
“I knew in that instant, that this was the name that my mother had told me, over 30 years ago, and that this was my father’s family,” Stephen said. “I’ll never forget that moment.”
Stephen quickly booked a flight back to New York, renting an apartment where he met his sister Marilyn as well as his biological father and a collection of other relatives
At first his father, a retired sociology teacher, was standoffish, but as they talked it became obvious that Stephen was genuine. The two men looked a lot alike and even have similar mannerisms. At some point, it seemed to dawn on his biological father that Stephen was indeed his son.
He got up and walked over to Stephen, embracing him and saying:


“I have always wanted a son.”


It was more than Stephen could have hoped for, he said. They sat together and talked and Stephen learned that he and his father shared some of the same interests. They both liked doing yoga, meditation, and that they have some of the same sensibilities. For Stephen, who’d been searching for so long, meeting his biological family was a revelation.
“They accepted me,” Stephen said. “In my mind why should they love me, but they do. It’s very deep healing.”

Deep Healing

Listening to Wendy Spencer’s decades-long search for her biological father, the improbability of finding him, and then her shock after learning about the legacy of hatred he inherited from his own father, one would forgive Wendy if she decided to forget she ever found him.



<figure class="wp-block-image alignright wp-image-23624 size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="225" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wendy-spencer-a-1024-300x225.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-23624" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wendy-spencer-a-1024-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wendy-spencer-a-1024-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wendy-spencer-a-1024-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wendy-spencer-a-1024.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Wendy, right, her father, Bill, and her daughter Cosette.</figcaption></figure>



But Wendy thought perhaps her love and her family could change that legacy.



“I know people can change,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I have witnessed it before. I see it slowly happening.&#8221;



Wendy’s story of connecting with her biological father, Bill Miller, is a testament to using love to conquer hate, confronting the truth about her biological family’s history, and, even more broadly, coming to terms with America’s own history of racism. People magazine recently featured Wendy&#8217;s story and how she&#8217;s attempting to change that family legacy.



“With all the hate in the world and misunderstandings, I wish people could see each other as human beings with similar hopes and desires,” she said.







Wendy, a 50-year-old hair stylist in Sacramento, is Jewish. She married an African American man, and they have four children. One of their sons is married to a Latina, and the other is married to a Filipina. After learning from her mother more than two decades ago that she’d been conceived during an affair, she began searching for her biological father.



Last year, she tested with 23andMe. In October, when Wendy logged into her account right after her grandson’s brit milah, the Jewish circumcision ceremony, she had a notice that she had a new DNA relative. Thinking maybe she had found a new cousin, she clicked on the file.



“There was a picture of a man, it said ‘Father 50 percent match 24 segments,’” Wendy said. “Then his name, ‘William Miller.’ Needless to say, I was shocked my family heard me shout from the other room!”



She soon was able to connect with Bill. They exchanged email messages and then talked on the phone.



“We talked for an hour and a half,&#8221; Wendy said. &#8220;He cried off and on and seemed so happy.&#8221;



He’d told her that he had seen her twice after she was born but that when her parents moved and then later divorced, he’d lost track of her, although he never stopped looking. Wendy found out that he was in a cancer ward in San Antonio, recovering from surgery. She arranged to go and visit him and then flew to Texas.



He picked her up at the airport after being discharged from the hospital, and took her meet her great aunt, and a cousin.



“After a few family stories and my aunt pulling out pictures, the beginning of a nice connection was being made,” Wendy said.



The next day she went and stayed at her biological father’s house. He lived alone and had never married. The house was a wreck, but the visit allowed for Wendy to learn more about him and his family. It was almost too much for her to bear.



“He told me the reason he had the DNA test was because he was always concerned that he had a little African American in his DNA and he wanted to find out once and for all, (he does not),” she said. “It was very obvious that my dad is a racist!”



The more he talked, the more uncomfortable Wendy became as he put everyone in racial categories or sprinkled his conversation with racist terms.



“It was like a minor stab in the heart every time,” she said.



But she wanted to know “the good, the bad, and the ugly” about her biological family. Her father obliged, telling her about his father, Wendy&#8217;s grandfather, Emmett Elliot Miller.



“He told me his dad had done evil things,” she said.



Emmett Miller had been an organizer in the KKK.



He’d been involved in trying to bomb an all-black college and helped to organize the picket to stop the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.



“I felt sick to my stomach; the thought of getting up and leaving occurred to me,” she said. “At the same time, I felt God&#8217;s presence with me. It was a very gut-wrenching conversation.”



She told him how hurtful his racism was to her and asked that he stop using some of the racist words that were part of his vocabulary.



“I could tell his honesty was mixed with all the emotions he had been feeling,” she said. “This lonely older man was genuinely happy to have a daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but his emotions were all mixed up, and he needed to share the conflict that was going on in his soul.”



His daughter is Jewish, married to a black man, and his grandchildren were all mixed, his great-grandchildren even more mixed.



Hearing her father&#8217;s stories about his family was almost too much for Wendy to process. She thought that even in her own lifetime as she was growing up in California surrounded by a family known for tolerance, her grandfather had been working so hard to prevent desegregation and the rights of black people to vote. When she eventually came home from Texas, Wendy said she was “an emotional wreck.”



She talked to her husband and her mother-in-law, who’d always had such sage advice about other matters. But on this, her mother-in-law had nothing to offer. Both of her mother-in-law&#8217;s parents had been murdered during the pre-civil rights era in Mississippi because of the color of their skin. Wendy&#8217;s mother in-law just didn&#8217;t have it in her to forgive.



“I’ve never seen my mother-in-law speechless, with no words of comfort or wisdom,” Wendy said. “She tried, but I could tell how shocking my news was to her.”



Still struggling with what she learned, Wendy continued to talk regularly with her biological father, and then he came to California to visit, arriving for Hanukkah. Wendy’s family welcomed him into their home. He stayed for five days, and became the center of attention. He connected particularly with Wendy’s son Michael and her youngest daughter Cosette. But on the fifth day of his visit, he stayed alone at home with Wendy’s husband. It did not go well.



But even after that, Wendy is trying to maintain the connection. Her father has sent Cosette gifts. He regularly emails, sends cards and calls.



From his point of view Bill said in a comment he made to People that although his language is sometime coarse he is not a racist or a bigot. At one point in the early 1960s, he and a friend were considering moving to Mississippi to help register voters, he has close friends who are Jewish and he regrets that there is tension between him and Wendy&#8217;s husband. <img decoding="async" class="ajT" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif" alt="">



“He says he loves me and does not deserve me,” Wendy said. “I am glad we have found each other.”



But she doesn&#8217;t know how it all will end up.



“I do not regret finding him and learning about the other half of me,” she said. “It has not been easy, but all of the story has been told.”

Ending a Legacy of Hate

Several media stories in the last few months have highlighted the potential of 23andMe to help adoptees.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-6586 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg" alt="An image of 23andMe's logo." width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog.jpg 350w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
One of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/nyregion/a-son-given-up-for-adoption-is-found-after-half-a-century-and-then-lost-again.html">more touching pieces</a> highlighted a woman’s 50-year search for the son she’d given up for adoption at 19. She was able to find him using 23andMe, only to lose him again to cancer. Another interesting <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-21/korean-adoptees-are-using-dna-kits-get-glimpse-their-ancestry">story on PRI</a> looked at Korean born adoptees using DNA to learn more about their ancestry.
Inventor and scientist Thomas Park Clement, who was among the first wave of Korean adoptees to come to the United States in the 1950s, set aside a million dollars of his own money to cover the cost of other Korean adoptees who want to get tested.
&#8220;Everyone on the planet has the right to know who their relatives are,&#8221; Clement is quoted as saying.
Those stories and others highlight that while it’s not designed with adoptees in mind, 23andMe has become a resource for many wanting to fill in the gaps in what they know about their ancestry, their inherited traits or family history. 
For many of us we take for granted knowing this basic information about ourselves, but for many adoptees using a DNA test is the only way they could find out this kind of information.
<div style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 650px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/more-than-just-luck">More Than Just Luck</a> 
With the help of a genetic genealogist and her 23andMe results, a woman abandoned behind a grocery store as an infant is able to identify her biological mother.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-22519 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of brothers who found each other using 23andMe with a quote that says &quot;Stories of this kind, they are hard to believe…”" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
Not an adoption story, but this story tracks some of the same kind of ordeals adoptees have to go through to find out about their biological families. In this case, half brothers– one who lives in Brazil, the other in the United States – connected through 23andMe. Their story, which spans over several decades and includes some harrowing childhood trauma, ends with the two brothers meeting for the first time.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/goodnight-son/">Goodnight Son</a> 
Not every reunion between an adoptee and his or her biological parent or sibling is a happy one, but for Mike Reed the meeting with his biological father couldn&#8217;t have gone better. His biological father welcomed into the family and introduced him to his nine half siblings.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21929 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of Liz with the quote: “To site and talk with someone who is your sibling, or your biological parent … who you have never met… incredible.” " width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
Abandoned in a laundry mat as an infant, Liz Kellner used 23andMe and ultimately found her sisters and biological parents.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/an-unexpected-discovery">An Unexpected Discovery</a> 
Cody tested to find out more about his health, but in the process he found his biological parents and half siblings. He also learned that he&#8217;d been conceived when his mother was a young teen and that&#8217;s why he&#8217;d been put up for adoption.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/its-a-girl">It’s A Girl</a> 
Although not an adoptee story, Kelli&#8217;s story highlights some of the anxiety many go through when trying to connect with a biological parent. They simply don&#8217;t know how it will play out. For Kelli the experience was a good one. She used 23andMe to help her find her biological father. Once she made the connection her biological father, who hadn’t known of her birth, welcomed her into the family.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21348 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of an adult son who found his biological father using 23andMe and how the two later became friends: “I am awed by how this happened.” " width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote.jpg 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
An adult son connects with his biological father and they become friends.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/a-siblings-story-from-23andme">A Siblings Story</a> 
Using 23andMe Tricia found her half brother and half sister. They were able to tell her more about her biological father and the three of them met and became friends.
</div>

Searching With 23andMe

Today’s post explains what “Sharing Genomes” means at 23andMe, describes several points to consider when sharing, and introduces some exciting new developments in sharing at 23andMe.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-7846 size-medium" title="snp-people" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/snp-people-300x226.png" alt="" width="300" height="226" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/snp-people-300x226.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/snp-people.png 608w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
23andMe has revolutionized how people think about DNA. What used to be hidden inside heavy textbooks can now be the subject of cocktail conversation. It’s not just because our unique <a href="https://www.23andme.com">Personal Genome Service</a> ® gives people a chance to explore their own DNA — it’s also because 23andMe represents the first genetics-based social network.
<h6>By “sharing” your genome with other 23andMe customers, you can trace shared ancestry, get a glimpse of the diversity in different people’s genetics, or simply brag about how you’re more Neanderthal than your friends. Through 23andMe you can share a little bit or a lot, or not at all &#8212; it’s up to you. 
 
What can I share at 23andMe?</h6>
<div style="width: 280px; background-color: #eee; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin-left: 15px; padding: 10px; float: right;">Currently, the option without Health reports is called “Basic” sharing on the site, and the option with Health reports is called “Extended” sharing. Within the next two weeks, we plan to relabel these options as follows:
<ul>
<li>&#8220;Basic Sharing&#8221; will be &#8220;Sharing, without health reports&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Extended Sharing&#8221; will be &#8220;Sharing, with health reports&#8221;</li>
</ul>
We want everyone to understand how sharing works at 23andMe and these new labels more clearly describe the distinction between the two options.
</div>
At 23andMe, all customers have the option to share genetic results with others by “<a href="https://www.23andme.com/user/profile/sharing/">Sharing Genomes</a>.”
Sharing genomes always allows you to see each other’s results for ancestry features including Maternal and Paternal Lines, Ancestry Painting, and Global Similarity. You can also use the Compare Genes feature to see how genetically similar you are, and the Family Inheritance feature to see which segments of DNA you might share.
Optionally, you may also choose to see each other’s results for most Health reports.
Currently there is no way to directly view or download each other’s raw genetic data or results for Health reports that require an opt-in. These include BRCA Cancer Mutations (Selected), Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease.
<h6>What should I consider before sharing at 23andMe? 
</h6>
The vast majority of things we learn by sharing with others at 23andMe are interesting and positive experiences. For many customers, the ability to compare DNA with friends, close family, and distant cousins is one of the most useful and rewarding aspects of this service. 
However, there are some aspects of sharing that you should be aware of. Within two weeks, we plan to expand our descriptions of sharing throughout the site to address these aspects more fully.
First, some of the information that you directly share can be sensitive, including ancestral origins, family relationships, and health risks. Some people are very comfortable sharing this kind of information, some are not &#8212; it’s a personal choice, and the system allows you to be flexible.
Second, some features, like Compare Genes and Family Inheritance: Advanced, allow you to compare DNA between two people you’re sharing with. Similarly, your shares may compare your DNA with that of people they’re sharing with. This aspect of sharing allows customers to compare people to each other and opens up new genealogical vistas by allowing customers to find evidence of family relationships. These new-found family relationships can be unexpected and sometimes upsetting, but more often they are exciting pieces of a genealogical puzzle.
Third, there is some chance that someone you’re sharing with could learn something about you that you didn’t directly share. For example, if you and someone you’re sharing with have a matching segment of DNA that overlaps a health-associated gene, you might infer something about their genotype on the basis of your own, or vice versa. The one way to be absolutely sure that health information about you is not learned in this way is to abstain from sharing entirely. However, it takes substantial effort to learn things like this.
If you’re unsure, we recommend sharing with people you’re comfortable with. Sharing allows you to use more of the features on the website and adds a new dimension to what you can learn about yourself and your family. Many customers share openly with each other and have only benefited from the experience. As you learn more about genetics and develop a finer sense of the issues involved, you might begin to share more openly yourself.
<h6>New developments in sharing at 23andMe 
</h6>
Today we&#8217;d like to announce a few exciting sharing-related changes coming to some popular 23andMe Labs. Previously in <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/multi_ibd/">Family Inheritance: Advanced</a>, you could only run comparisons between your shares and close family members. Now, you’ll be able to compare any two of your shares. In Ancestry Finder, you&#8217;ll now be able to view the results for any of your shares.
These changes are expected to go into effect within the next two weeks. We are adding this time period to allow customers to absorb and adjust preferences in advance of the changes. If you’re not comfortable with these capabilities, sharing might not be for you. For others, we hope that these changes enhance your experience at 23andMe and speed genealogical research. Sharing and comparing makes your genetics that much more interesting, and we encourage everyone to share at whatever level they wish.
If you have questions or concerns you’d prefer not to post, please send them to sharing-feedback@23andme.com.

Understanding Sharing at 23andMe

This is a repeat of a post we ran back in September. While you&#8217;re sitting around the table with your loved ones, don&#8217;t forget that it&#8217;s National Family History Day!
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-2086" title="thanksgiving" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/thanksgiving.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="215" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/thanksgiving.jpg 325w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/thanksgiving-300x198.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px" />
I’m a bad patient.
Every time I go to a doctor she asks, “Do you have a family history of any diseases?”
I’m ashamed to say that my answer is always “I don’t think so.”
Your family health history is a powerful tool for your doctor; it can help him or her make vital screening and treatment decisions. Yet a recent survey (Porter Novelli Healthstyles 2004) found that although 96% of Americans recognize the importance of their family history, only 33% have ever tried to gather and organize this data for themselves.
23andMe helps people see what their DNA might have to say about a host of common and not-so common diseases and conditions; but we don’t want anyone to think that purchasing our Personal Genome Serviceâ„¢ is a substitute for a detailed family health history.

For example, the effect of the SNPs 23andMe reports on for breast cancer pales in comparison to that of mutations in the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which run in families and can increase a woman’s breast cancer risk three- to seven-fold (23andMe does not report data on these mutations). So even if your 23andMe data says that you have average or even below-average risk for breast cancer, a strong family history of the disease indicates the strong possibility of a genetic mutation that trumps the information we have gleaned from your SNPs.
In other cases, your family health history might dovetail with your 23andMe data, giving a fuller picture of, and perhaps increasing, your predicted risk for a certain disease. For example, a report published just last week in the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18780872?ordinalpos=1&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Journal of the National Cancer Institute</a> showed that a SNP recently associated with lung cancer (customers can see their data in Health and Traits) has a significantly larger effect in people where three or more first-degree relatives have been diagnosed than in people who develop a sporadic case of the disease.
The bottom line: It is very helpful to be aware of your family health history and share it with your medical provider. Here are a few resources to help you get you started:
<ul>
<li>The U.S. Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative 
For the past four years the Surgeon General has designated Thanksgiving, a time when families naturally gather together, as National Family History Day. You can use the online tool “My Health Portrait” to help guide you in collecting your own family’s health history. (Also available in Chinese, Polish, Spanish, French and Portuguese from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital National Family Health Initiative Website.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The Genetic Alliance 
Links to sites that can help with collecting a family health history, including resources for family reunion organizers who want to incorporate this into their next gathering.</li>
</ul>
Mom, get ready for some questions.

Family — Page 2