#Ask Jaquie
Jaquie Brown discovers a new relative in the family of Man
Two things I’ve always been a huge fan of: croissants and Dai Henwood. One is delicious and fits nicely in my handbag, the other is a croissant.
That’s a terrible joke. But Dai would forgive me, we are family after all. Well, we might very well be.
We both recently submitted our spitty DNA to ancestry.com out of interest and completely independently. This week through seeing my results posted online Dai contacted me to say that our ethnicity results show we are nearly identical. What? How?
My results show I am only 36 per cent British, I am also 33 per cent Irish and 24 per cent Western European which is strongest around France. My trace regions are 5 per cent Spain and 2 per cent Norway. Dai’s results 48 per cent British 39 per cent Irish and 5 per cent Western European. Add me to your Christmas list, Henwoods, because our ancestors probably shared a croissant together in France, or a potato cake in Ireland. We could be (sort of very distant genetic) family. I know humans are meant to share 50 per cent of their DNA with bananas, so Dai and I being distantly related isn’t such a stretch – but it’s still exciting.
My mum’s results were even more exciting. British born and raised to British parents and a very British family who never left the country, and mum is only 5 per cent British. Her DNA shows she is 46 per cent Western European centred around France and Germany, 28 per cent Scandinavian centred around Norway and 11 per cent Irish.
Mum also has trace regions of India and the Middle East. Wow. Ethnicity DNA is such a fascinating mystery jigsaw puzzle.
I have no idea how they work all this out from spitting into a tube, but the bigger question for me is, how does this information about my ethnicity make me feel?
In a word, connected. Despite being born in England and my heart being in New Zealand, now I know I have links to France my croissant obsession is validated, I feel less annoyed by Ikea’s impossible flat-pack furniture, after all you can’t fault the design aesthetic of my people. I feel like a part of me belongs with these countries, and actually it feels quite wonderful.
Imagine if we could all get our DNA tested and find a connection to other ethnicities.
Would it encourage racial tolerance? I think it would.
We are more part of each other than we are just ourselves. If that makes sense and isn’t too deep for your Sunday.
I’m looking at the world a bit differently now and I feel like a part of me belongs with these countries. It’s a mind tangle, but I’m sure I’ll work it all out once I’ve talked it over with Dai at our next family get together.