Is 23andMe.com Worth It?

Is 23andMe.com Worth it?

I got the itch…Everyone was doing it, why shouldn’t I?

I bought three kits – one for my dad, my husband and me. I found out that I was 99.6 percent Ashkenozi, which surprised me a little.

After getting the results and finding them somewhat interesting, I got a call from Cathy in Utah.

“Hi, I’m your second cousin,” she said. When I looked at my family, I didn’t know one single person.

“Oh, hi,” I said.

“My mother separated from my dad for a little bit and dated a Jewish attorney in Seattle,” she said. “When I did the 23 and Me test, I found out that I was 50% Jewish. It was a big surprise to me.”

“So you grew up thinking you were one religion and then found out you were two?” I asked. I was very interested in this.

“Yes, I’m a Mormon,” she said.

I didn’t know which side of the family she was related to but after talking with her some more, I thought it might be my father’s side of the family. I reached out to one of my dad’s cousins. He told me:

“The closest I can come to a west coast connection was my family road trip to Calif. in 1949.

We visited a cousin of my father (Mass) in LA. Prior to the trip I had never heard of a cousin my father had. After the trip I never again heard about this cousin or any other one.

Some years ago at a funeral, I think it was your grandfather’s, my uncle Hy told me that he, my father and your grandfather used to send money to their grandfather in Poland.

This would be your great, great grandfather. His name was Ruben (sp) Mass. He was a blacksmith. After the war (WW II) started, the letters from him stopped.

A few years ago I went to the Yad Vashem website and put in Ruben’s name. It was there and there was some vague info about him disappearing early in the war. The individual who submitted his name listed himself as being his grandson. That would mean he was a “brother” of your grandfather but he was not a part of the Mass family that I knew.

I was able to find this man in North Carolina and placed a call to him. His 2nd wife called me and told me that he was in a nursing home and close to death. As 2nd wife, she had limited info about his background but she did say he told her he used to visit a cousin in Brooklyn when growing up.

Together we calculated that the cousin he visited was your grandfather’s brother George, the youngest of the family. The puzzle was how was he related?

In sharing this part of the story with my sister, Joan, she said she had heard that Ruben had a second family. That would explain the relationship. We have no more info than that.”

23 and Me Welcome to you saliva collection kit

BUT then my dad’s DNA came back and he had no relation to this woman. So, I was perplexed. She has to be related on my mother’s side but I never knew of anyone from my mother’s side living in California. It had to be my mother’s father’s side.

I reached out to my second cousin and told her that… I’m waiting to see what happens but I find the whole thing quite interested and worth checking out!

Since this happened, I have connected with nearly a half dozen cousins — Rosalie, Sunshine, Valerie, etc. either on Facebook or through email. My whole world has opened with new cousins and new stories every day… Is 23 and Me worth it? You tell me…

I paid $139 for both the DNA and health test on Amazon.

Is 23andMe.com Worth it?

Hilary Topper