23andme does a Neanderthal % mine was surprisingly high 

The highest Neanderthal variants on 23&customer is 387. 

I had to research why the hell mine were so high and this is what I found. 

I was assigned a haplogroup. *Females can only inherit the maternal haplogroup. Men inherit two haplogroups maternal/paternal

This essentially defines what I inherited from my mother.

Some subclades of H you can find exact reference populations, however for H18 the only information I could find concerning it’s point of origin is that it occurs on the Arabian Peninsula. *shrugs*

BUT Basques are a reference population for Haplogroup H. 

What Are The Odds?

Okay backtracking a bit- before I reviewed my results I had never heard of the Basque population but it kept hinting in multiple areas of my report. I came to the conclusion that Basque could very well account for my Iberian and Neanderthal heritage based on this information I came across researching. Though it’s a tiny % it’s pretty significant. The Basques inhabit northern Spain and southern France. They have unique customs and a language - Euskera - that is unrelated to any other spoken in Europe, or the world. High percentages of Neanderthal DNA is commonly found in Basque people. The also have the highest % of rh negative blood types found in any population of the world. 

I’m rh negative and so is my mom. Only 15% of the world is rh negative. 

I know this off the bat bc in blood bank I have to know percentages per ABO, rh type and antigens so I can assess the probability of finding a unit in stock for a patient that’s compatible  vs. straight out ordering from our regional ARC chapter for rarer types. It helps me save time and money knowing how the odds are stacked up.  After I read an interesting article (linked below) about how Neanderthals were likely rh neg (O Neg is the universal donor) made the percentages click. My neanderthal ancestry is 86% higher than the average. I guarantee the top 15% of the others that were high are also rh negative. 

I’ve attached some links that helped me with my conclusions. 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16386-neanderthals-might-have-made-good-blood-donors/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/02/the-basques-may-not-be-who-we-think-they-are/#.Vndm7RHgvww

http://www.aoi.com.au/bcw/neanderbasque.htm

Oy Vey! 

The last conclusion I had to come to with my ancestry report is another unexpected detour. 23andme has a DNA tool that matches you to your closest DNA relatives based on their user database. It tells you how many segments of DNA you share with them and gives you a degree of relation. My closest match was a second or third cousin somewhere. They identified as Ashkenazi Jew. As did my next 20+ closest DNA matches. This left me thinking . . . “WHO’S THE JEW!?” I’m looking at you Ma. Anyways Ashkenazi Jews are an enigma of their own. When you sign up and send off your kit to 23andme they ask you to participate in surveys (you are research). I remember they singled out that particular population multiple times- I think they even have their own survey. But 23andme is very concerned with if you identify as Ashkenazi jewish and here is the article explaining why:

https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/the-uniqueness-of-ashkenazi-jewish-ancestry-is-important-for-health/

I broke the news to my mom and told her she was Jewish and she snap backed  with the biggest southern drawl  “I ain’t no Jew!”  But she is and she’s like super jew bc she annihilated my DNA relative tool with her jewiness. We promptly set up a trial membership on ancestry.com to investigate this matter and discovered her grandma’s maiden is Shuman. Surname origin is Jewish (Ashkenazic) I immediately canceled Christmas after that. 

However, my mom and I are not Jewish based on Jewish law. Are Jews a race or religion? Eh it’s complicated this can explain it better than me 

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/07/09/are-jews-a-genetic-race-or-population-12-examples-of-jewish-genetic-distinctiveness/

 Ideology wise the jewish community would ostracize me because “jewish” is only passed down maternally. My mother is jewish based on her father’s side (his mother) but that’s not how the rules work for it to be “legit” it would have to come from her mother’s side. DNA wise it’s a different story, genetics are less biased. 

What does this mean? Am I jewish? Am I not? Basically now if I convert to judaism the bridge trolls will reinstate my jew (but that goes for pretty much everybody). 

Real answer: I’m not jewish because I do not practice judaism but I may share genetic diseases exclusive to the Ashkenazi jews bc my DNA does not care about religious affiliations. 

*I’d like to note some of my jokes may have an anti-Semitic undertone but I actually have no problem with jewish people. I was actually a little bummed to find out “the rules” that excluded my new found heritage. I can't have that deeper relationship with Broad City now that I really, really wanted. 

More:

I pulled some more surnames from Ancestry.com and my mom gave me a couple of scrapbooks. Here are some Interesting finds. 

My mother’s father and mother

I think my mother’s mom has some French on her side. I found the surnames Louvincey and Lafontaine in her tree. 

My greek side of the family lived on the Isle of Crete, Greece  (this may also mess up my true balkan % bc it’s not inland). 

My Grandfather’s name was  Minos George Kountis, one of my great uncles is named Themistocles. There is also a Kalonia Kountis and Despina Chriasidokis. They were about that life. 

***My father’s mother side had a genealogist do a report on there side years ago. I haven't pulled it recently but I remember it was mostly british. So I don't have many questions there. 

Raw DNA Data

23andme will allow you to download your raw DNA data that they generate for you. I employed a couple of different programs that would analyze it. 

I used 

https://www.promethease.com

 for health information. It gave me %s of what conditions I was genetically predisposed to. 

***

BOOM    Red Wine 4 life 

I used 

http://v2.gedmatch.com

for admixture estimations (and to help verify some 23andme) 

1. Amerindian - the modal component of the Native American 2. ANE - the modal component of the Northern Eurasians, which has been isolated from the common cluster with WHG - the highest values ​​in the samples of MA1, AG2, as well as the ancient genomes from Sintashta, Andronov, Afanasievo, Yamnaya. Among the modern populations the highest percentage of ANE has been detected in Kalash population.  3. Arctic - modal component with peak populations Koryak, Chukchi, Eskimos and Itelmens 4. ASI - еру modal component of South Indian populations (i assume that this component is identical to ASI in (Reich et al. 2009). 5. Caucasus-Gedrosia - ancient Gedrosia, Balochs, Brahuis, and Makranis. 6. EastAsian - the modal component of East Asia 7. ENF - the component of the ancient European Neolithic farmers with the peak in the ancient samples of LBK culture. Among the modern populations - the highest values ​​have been detected in Sardinians, Corsicans and Basques. 8. NearEast - the modal component of Middle Easterners 9. Oceanian - the modal component of the aboriginal inhabitants of Oceania, Austronesian, Melanesia and Micronesia(the peak in modern Papuans and Australian Aborigines) 10. Paleo-African - the modal component of African Pygmies and Bushmen 11. Siberian - the modal component of southeastern Siberia 12. Subsaharian - the second African component (Mandinka, Yoruba and Esan) 13. WHG-UHG - the native component of the ancient European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Lazaridis et al. 2014, Haak et al. 2015). Among the modern populations - the highest percentage in the population of Estonians, Lithuanians, Finns and others.

Overall

I was impressed with the results. I was able to confirm a couple of results it came up with that I originally had no background on. I didn't go into the other tools you have access to. It does a carrier/trait report. I was not a carrier for any genetic diseases and the traits was kind of like you are 90% more likely to have dark hair and I was just kinda like . . . Ok check. 

Money wise it’s a nice chunk but think of it as an investment. If technology updates so will your results. Also they give you your Raw DNA data so the possibilities with what you can do with that is endless.

I work in a lab and I know how much tests cost. They are fucking ridiculous. Ladies, I do a test that you can buy at the store for under $5 and do at home with accurate results for a lil under $100 in the lab. Comparing that to sending off a tube of salvia to get analyzed, with tests repeated multiple times for accuracy over 6 weeks to generate multiple reports doesn't sound like such a bad deal, huh? 

I’m glad I waited, researched and saved for this particular kit.