Thetraveljunkie.org – This year, I did what million people from all over the world have done and surrendered my spit to a home DNA-testing company. I hoped an AncestryDNA test would bring me the peace I needed; my Javanese family had never been able to give me any information about our family tree. I’d always longed for a country to attribute my brownness to, or for help answering the ubiquitous “Where are you from?” question. I’d spent years making up exotic-sounding combinations to justify my appearance (some days Javanese-Japanese-Swedish; other days half Polynesia, or half New Caledonian).
AncestryDNA looked at the first DNA sample that I sent in and reported back that my results is not successfully process. Then, on 1st April in Melbourne, I sent off second DNA samples to AncestryDNA in Australia.
In second time, I sent my spit over to Ancestry to see what the company could tell me about my heritage. My AncestryDNA kit arrived in the mail in a small box the size of a hardcover book.
When I opened it up, I found a collection tube (and a bag to seal it in once I was done), a set of instructions, and a smaller box to send it all back in.
After a few minutes of dutifully spitting into the collection tube, I was ready to get my sample ready to ship. Following the kit’s directions, I placed a special cap on my tube designed to release a chemical solution (the blue stuff on the top) to get — and keep — my spit in tip-top shape for sequencing.
Once that was done, I placed it into the bag, packed it up in the box, and it was off on its way to Ancestry’s labs in Australia.
At now, I was done with occupying a box of brown ambiguity. Could I finally get a clear answer?
The results arrived by email on 4th May this month. I clicked on the “ethnicity estimate” link, which offers an analysis of DNA by country, my heart pounding as I scanned the digital map.
Here’s what the results looked like on a map. The results showed that my brownness comes from Southeast Asia: 90% of my DNA, in fact. Then there’s 8% Philippines, and 2% Vietnam.
Then, I learned this about myself: I’m not 100% a Javanese anymore than I thought! The rest of my ancestors probably also lived in Philippines and Vietnam — though who really knows where. So the results weren’t super surprising to me with details of “ethnicity estimate”.
Stay tuned for more of our isolation in Australia.
xxx
Happy Sustainable Travels!
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