From kit receipt to lab results, the entire process took about 6 weeks. Luckily neither of us carry variants for the array of horrible things we could pass on to a child. (WHEW!) With our diverse gene pools, I can't say I'm surprised! I did learn that I'm at high risk for developing Alzheimer's Disease late in life (yikes). As the time comes closer for us to plan for a family, we'll go through additional, more thorough testing just in case.
One cool thing the site tests for is ancestry. I found out that I'm about 47% Italian, about 48% Ashkenazi Jew, and the remaining 5% of my genetics are from the Middle East, Northern Europe, and Asia. Alex is about 55% Ashkenazi Jew and the remaining 45% of his genetics are a mixed bag: Middle Eastern, Northern African, Iberian, Balkan, Italian, Northern European, Eastern European...fascinating!
The highlight of this process for me was discovering a new family member in San Francisco! My dad's mother, Sylvia, had 3 siblings: Floyd, Melvin and Pearl (THOSE NAMES!). Floyd and Sylvia were the closest of the siblings (they shared a birth day of August 30 although years apart). My grandmother's stage name during her short career as an opera singer was Sylvia Floyd. I know that she grieved for Floyd for many years. He died very young (in his 40's) while his wife was pregnant with their second son, also named Floyd. His widow was also caring for their older son, Gordon when she moved back into her parents' home and lost touch with my grandmother and her family. Gordon's son, Aaron, was also on 23andme and our genetic results matched us as 2nd cousins. I reached out and connected with him and it's been amazing getting to know my family. Aaron has 2 sisters with very interesting backgrounds: one is married to a transgender rabbi and the other is a single mom who works as a nurse. I'm so thrilled to learn all about my family and it gives me the perfect excuse to (maybe, one-day) travel to San Francisco for a family reunion. It's been so interesting learning about my family history!
Here's a photo of my paternal grandparents' wedding that hangs on the wall in my aunt's apartment:
from left to right bottom row: Golda, Paul*, Dena*, Sylvia, Irving, Dora**, Philip** [*=grandmother's parents; **=grandfather's parents; Sylvia and Irving were my grandparents and Golda was my great great grandmother!]
