Expanding the family tree that I made in 2012 was the reason for my renewed interest for our family history. Since both sides of my family were not interested in genealogy, I naturally had a lot of unanswered questions.
- What were the names of my ancestors?
- How did they live their lives? (obviously won’t be answered by DNA test kits)
- How accurate were the stories of us having certain ethnicities?
- Where do our distant relatives live in the present time?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I chose MyHeritage because that’s where I built my family tree. There’s already a sense of familiarity in using the website, so I didn’t hesitate to buy a kit. I briefly considered AncestryDNA, but I was worried that the Japanese customs might be too strict and would return my package. I also thought that sending a cheek swab was safer and less risky than sending a tube of saliva (NOTE: I did end up buying an AncestryDNA kit shortly after shipping my cheek swab to MyHeritage lab).
MyHeritage Timeline:
I understand that this could vary among people, but here’s how mine went:
- Kit Ordered: March 12, 2023
- Kit Shipped to Japan: March 13, 2023
- DNA Sample Shipped to MyHeritage Lab in Texas, USA March 27, 2023
- Sample Received at the Lab: April 5, 2023
- DNA Extracted: April 6, 2023
- Microarray Processed: April 18, 2023
- Raw Data Produced: April 19, 2023
- Results Available: April 21, 2023
The entire process was fairly smooth, and I didn’t encounter a single problem from ordering the kit to receiving the results.
My Expectations
I was pretty sure that I’d have around 10-12% Chinese because of my great grandfather on my mother’s side.
Like other Filipinos, I was also told that we had Spanish ancestry from a distant past. My grandmother on my mom’s side had grayish eyes and a sharp nose. Meanwhile, a number of relatives on my dad’s side have sharp noses, and they have always claimed that their grandfather was fluent in Spanish. Had I not expanded our family tree, I would have expected at least 3% of Spanish in my DNA, but I did, so I decided not to expect anymore. In the end, I only expected Filipino and Chinese to come up in my results.
Ethnicity Breakdown
According to MyHeritage, I only have three ethnicities. There are:
Well, there’s Filipino and Chinese as expected. I am just skeptic about that 1% Finn ethnicity. I read online that having a trace Finn percentage on MyHeritage could mean Northeast Asian ancestry. I would just add this to Chinese and Vietnamese, making my East Asian percentage to 4.9% rather than 3.9%.
DNA Matches
I had watched numerous videos of people showing just how many matches they have on MyHeritage. I was actually expecting to have no matches at all because I don’t think any of my relatives have taken the test.
Lo and behold, I have 70, and almost all of them live outside the Philippines. They’re also all distant matches. The closest match is a 2nd cousin of one of my parents. The other matches are at least 3rd cousins, and our most recent relative was a second great grandparent.
I am thankful that MyHeritage has made it convenient to see how each DNA match is connected to the users.
Here are some screenshots related to DNA Matches:
I saw matches of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese ancestry (without a drop of Filipino in them) with a 4th-5th cousin relationship. According to MyHeritage, our most recent common ancestor was a 4th great grandparent who lived in the 1840s. Unfortunately, I only have one set of grandparents in my tree from that generation, and they were Filipinos.
I honestly don’t know how I’d be able to trace these ancestors since it’s over a hundred years since our last common ancestors. Also, since I can’t find any more records online, there’s no way for me to even check if the ancestral surnames of my matches are even related to mine.
My Thoughts and Realizations
- While I wish for a better and more specific ethnicity estimate, I am satisfied with my matches and how easy it is to explore our connection with each other.
- Seeing how far in the past my matches are and how little Chinese I got, I am inclined to think that our Chinese ancestor was not in the recent past. My great grandfather must had been a Tsinoy and not a full or even half as what we had been told.
- I needed more information. I’ve mentioned earlier, I also bought a kit from AncestryDNA, and I have just gotten my results yesterday! Also, I uploaded my raw data to other DNA companies such as Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), WeGene, Living DNA, and GEDmatch.
Hyphenized Changjo 