What ethnicity am I? Discover that and more with MyAncestry

Sabina Muminović Last updated: 27 October 2023

Track your genetic history, discover the Neanderthal in you, and explore fascinating physical traits with MyAncestry DNA test.

Where does your lineage originate from? How did your ancestors move across the globe, what is your genetic history? You can explore all that and more, getting fascinating insights into your genetic ancestry with our newest Home DNA test, MyAncestry.

In this article

Go back in time
Ancestry
Physical traits
Go one step further

Go back in time

It is always intriguing to hear stories from our parents or grandparents. How they lived their lives, maybe even travelled the globe. Imagine how much more interesting would it be tracing your history back hundreds, even thousands of years?

You can’t ask your predecessors, but you can ask your genes.

By analysing your DNA and comparing it to populations around the world, we can reveal how your ancestors moved through time. You can even discover how much you have in common with Neanderthals.

Let’s take a closer look at what you get with MyAncestry! The test includes two chapters – Ancestry and Physical traits. Read on to explore what you’ll learn in each.

Ancestry

The Ancestry chapter will reveal which ethnicity predominates in your genes, follow the origin of your maternal ancestors, trace your ancestry, and uncover how alike you are with Neanderthals.

Let’s take a closer look at each of those analyses!

Learn your ethnicity estimate

Your results show how similar your DNA is to different populations from around the world. The more similarities, the more likely it is that you have a common origin.

By identifying markers in your genome associated with different ethnic groups, our Ethnicity estimate analysis reveals which ethnicities predominate in your genome. You will learn what percentage of your DNA corresponds to each ethnicity and see them on the world map.

Ethnicity estimate

Trace your maternal lineage
The analysis of your maternal lineage allows you to follow the origin of your maternal ancestors and how they moved around the world over thousands of years.

To understand how, let us stop for a moment at the name “maternal” – meaning, on your mother’s side. It is all based on a phenomenon called maternal inheritance.

During conception, the male sex cell (sperm) joins with the female reproductive cell (egg) to spark new life. Now, if you remember biology textbooks, the egg is significantly bigger than the tiny, long-tailed sperm cell. That’s because the egg already has everything prepared to develop into a fully functioning human – except dad’s half of genetic material. So everything inside the egg, that one cell that will divide into millions of cells making a human being, comes from the mother.

So how does this play into our story?

In short, mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively on the mother’s side and dad chimes in with only his nuclear DNA (sorry, guys!).

Looking into mitochondrial DNA enables researchers to trace the origin and migration of your predecessors on your maternal side. Mitochondrial DNA can also help identify diseases that are inherited through the mother’s line.

Maternal lineage trace on GenePlanet's mobile app

Trace your chromosomes

With ethnicity estimate, you learn where you came from. With chromosome mapping, you can learn the ethnic origin of each of your individual chromosomes and trace their ancestry.

Chromosome mapping is a technique that can be used to visualize your DNA and help you see the segments of DNA you inherited from your ancestors. Based on your DNA results, we can create a map of your chromosomes! A map shows segments that are inherited from specific ancestors.

Discover how alike are you with Neanderthals

Travel 40,000 years back in time and discover how closely you’re related to Neanderthals. You will learn how much DNA you share with them and discover a number of interesting traits if you carry the same genetic variation as your ancestors.

Neanderthal DNA and COVID-19

Having Neanderthal genes is not just a curious feature or a dormant remnant of our shared past.

Studies showed that the variants we have inherited from Neandertals are relevant today!
For example, COVID-19 research uncovered genetic variants with both protective and risk variants for higher susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and disease severity.

If you want to know how susceptible you are to developing severe COVID-19 symptoms based on your genetic predispositions, buy our Home DNA test MyHealth.

If you want knowledge about both your ancestry and your health, choose the Premium DNA test. It consists out of over 70 health, wellbeing, and ancestry related genetic analyses.

Neanderthal DNA results on GenePlanet's mobile app

Physical traits

Your genes determine everything about you – from the way you look to the way you function. Physical traits report reveals your genetic predispositions for exciting traits such as red hair, sensitivity to pain and resilience to cold.

Your report provides a list of physical traits. By clicking on the individual trait, you can see your results, analysed genes and your genotype in the Result tab. In the About tab, you will find more info and fun facts about this trait, as well as relevant scientific references.

By comparing your results to how this trait is actually expressed in you (phenotype), you can see how the environment impacts you and directs your genes to a certain outcome.

A group of people from different race and ethnicity

How do I get the test?

As with other Home DNA tests, you can order the test on our website. You can choose to get only MyAncestry DNA test or get it as part of our Premium DNA test.

Go one step further

If you’d like a deeper look at your genetic predispositions for traits that can influence your health and wellbeing, check out MyLifestyle DNA test. It includes over 70 analyses related to diet, body weight, sports, recreation, body, and mind.

Want to get a complete look at your genome? Choose the Premium DNA test, which includes all available Home DNA tests. You will receive results from over 90 analyses covering your lifestyle, health predispositions, and everything described in this blog.

Interested? Grab yours here.

Sources

https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Mitochondrial-DNA
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/maternal-inheritance
https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-neanderthalensis
https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2019.00104
https://www.the-scientist.com/features/neanderthal-dna-in-modern-human-genomes-is-not-silent-66299
https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/dtcgenetictesting/neanderthaldna/
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/09/health/neanderthal-genes-human-health-covid19-scn-wellness/index.html

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