If you want to learn more about My Heritage DNA tests and see an example of My Heritage DNA results, then you have come to the right place. I’ve been using My Heritage DNA for a couple of years now, and I want to share what I’ve learned with you.
In this post, I’ll show you my own My Heritage DNA results as well as:
- What you get with My Heritage DNA test results
- What you can learn through My Heritage DNA matches and ethnicity results
- What you can do with My Heritage DNA results
- How to get a My Heritage DNA test
I am a pretty big fan of My Heritage. The information that I have learned from exploring my DNA results – and especially my DNA matches – has helped me learn an incredible amount of information about my family tree.
What do you get with My Heritage DNA results?
Your My Heritage DNA results will consist of three main parts. Each element of your results provides you with different information:
- DNA results overview
- Ethnicity estimate
- DNA matches
In the following paragraphs, I’ll explain these three elements of My Heritage results in more detail.
What is the DNA results overview?
The My Heritage DNA results overview section provides you with a general overview of the largest ethnicity regions that showed up in your results, a basic description of the nature of your DNA matches, where your matches are located in the world, and the ethnicity distribution of your DNA matches.
My favorite aspect of the DNA results overview is the ability to see where my DNA matches are located. The first time I saw it, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I have living DNA relatives all over the world. Since I have relatively recent immigrant ancestors, it really made me feel closer to my ancestors knowing that I have cousins who still live in the countries they migrated from.
The image below shows the part of my overview where my largest ethnicity regions are shown:
My Heritage DNA displays the information about how your DNA matches are distributed around the world in a “heat map” format, along with a list. If I want to, I can just choose a country to click on to see the matches who live in that country. This is great for those times when I really only want to focus on my cousins in Poland or Slovakia:
Example of My Heritage DNA ethnicity estimate
From my DNA results dashboard, or directly from my DNA results overview, I can examine my ethnicity results in more detail. I simply need to click the “View Full Estimate” button on my overview, or the “Ethnicity Estimate” tab from any other element of my results.
You can see in the image below that My Heritage shows 61.9% of my ancestry coming from the North and West Europe region – specifically, Scandinavia.
If I zoom in on the map, I can see the Scandinavia region more clearly, and I can see the countries that fall within this ethnicity region on My Heritage:
There is more to explore in my ethnicity estimate. For example, I explore the prevalence of a particular ethnicity region in countries around the world, or listen to a selection of music that was chosen to represent the region.
What you can learn from My Heritage DNA matches
It’s hard for me to contain my excitement when I talk about DNA matches, so bear with me. I know that most people get interested in doing DNA testing because they want the easy-to-understand ethnicity estimate. Many people who do DNA tests aren’t even aware that they will be able to view a list of living, breathing people who share genetic material with them.
How amazing is this!?
Not only do you get to see a list of people who are related to you, you can see exactly how much DNA you share (measured in centimorgans), details about your shared DNA segments, your estimated relationship, details about your match’s family tree (if available), which DNA matches you share in common, and MORE.
This type of information is especially valuable to those of us who are trying to learn more about our ancestors for the purpose of building a family tree.
The image above is from one of my DNA matches. She is my first cousin twice-removed. As you can see, we share 122.6 centimorgans, a solid amount of DNA for cousins at this distance. The largest DNA segment that we have is 35.7 cMs in length, and My Heritage estimates us to be first cousins twice-removed (at the closest) to 2nd cousins twice-removed (at the most distant).
If I were to scroll down, I could see the DNA matches that we share in common, our estimated relationships to those matches (as well as shared DNA between those matches and my match), family tree information (if she has posted it to her profile), shared ethnicity regions, as well as details about the exact location of our shared DNA segments on our chromosomes.
What else can you do with your My Heritage DNA results?
By doing a My Heritage DNA test, you get more than just access to your results. If you so desire, you can use your results to start building a family tree. You can download your raw DNA data and upload it to numerous other sites to get more DNA matches or additional ethnicity estimates.
How to get a My Heritage DNA test
If you order a My Heritage DNA kit today, you can have your results in about 3-4 weeks. That’s a pretty quick turnaround as far as DNA tests go.
Are you ready to start your DNA testing adventure with My Heritage? You can get your test by clicking the link below.
Uncover your ethnic origins and find new relatives with the My Heritage DNA test!
Conclusion
I hope that this post helped you understand a little bit more about what you can expect with a My Heritage DNA test, and what you might be able to do with your DNA results.
If you do decide to do a DNA test with My Heritage or another testing company, don’t forget to check back with this site to find posts to help you get the most from your DNA results.
If you have any questions about something that you read in this post, or if you would like to add your own experience with My Heritage DNA results, I would love to hear from you in the discussion below.
Thanks for being here today!