My Heritage

So back in June, I took 2 DNA tests (one from 23andMe, one from Ancestry.com) in hopes of FINALLY discovering my exact ethnicity.

This is something I've been wanting to do for years!

First, let me officially introduce myself. My name is Jessica Rivers. I'm African American, and I live in the Southeastern United States (Georgia, to be exact).

Growing up, I was always told that I had Native American ancestry, due to the fact that I (and my mother & sister) had long hair. I was told that I had Catawba Indian ancestry on my maternal grandfather's side, and also some Native American ancestry on my paternal grandmother's side. And I believed it, especially after seeing a picture of my grandmother's aunt-- she looks like she's 100% Native American.

I was also told that I had some European ancestry. My maternal grandmother told me that her dad was "raised by white folks" and my paternal grandmother says that her (paternal) grandfather "could take some water and slick his hair back, because his daddy was white."

I thought that was sooo interesting! I've always been intrigued by other cultures, so the thought that my heritage could be made up of multiple cultures excited me. And not just non-African heritage. My (paternal) grandmother also told me that her mother was Geechee (also known as Gullah in South Carolina).

Looking at my immediate family, we look almost the same. Of course my parents look different, but my sister, brother, and I all look like a pretty good blend of both parents. My mom and her sisters don't all look the same, and my dad and his siblings look totally different (some look alike). My dad has siblings that are brown-skinned, dark-skinned, and light-skinned (like, really light). This is because his (maternal) grandparents are almost complete opposites. My great-grandfather Lonnie was really tall and light-skinned (due to having a white grandfather), and my great-grandmother Winnie was short and dark-skinned (possibly due to being Geechee?).

So to go more in depth, I took two DNA tests. The only problem? I got different results.

23andMe says I'm mostly of Nigerian descent (at ~34%). Ancestry says I'm mostly Central/Southern African (at 43%) and only 2% Nigerian. 23andMe says my Central Southern African ancestry is at ~13%.

Both were pretty similar on my European ancestry. 23andMe's total percentage on my European ancestry is ~12% (including 5% British/Irish, 1% Southern European, and 1% Broadly European). Ancestry's is the same, 12%.

Another difference is that 23andMe detected 0.5% Native American ancestry, and Ancestry detected none.



Why so many differences?

Well for one thing, the probably (most likely) use different algorithms to calculate DNA.
Ancestry.com has the largest database, but 23andMe is better at detecting Native American Ancestry.

Another reason my ethnicities are almost complete different is because Nigeria, Benin & Togo share some similar DNA. Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia probably share some genetic similarities, due to being in the same region.
The same is probably true for Southeastern Bantu tribes, and they probably mixed and intermingled with West African tribes. This probably goes back to the two different DNA tests using different algorithms.


Nevertheless, it is still pretty confusing, although both companies do give updates, based on data.


I also took the Health Test with 23andMe, which gives me a list of traits
You can watch a video of that here.