I’ve always been curious about my genealogy, about where my family’s from. Malay (Javanese, Baweanese etc.) names don’t have surnames. Instead, they’re patronymic, which meant that I’m saddled with my dad’s name as my last name. This also meant that tracing back my family’s history is difficult – unless someone had the good sense to keep a record somewhere (unfortunately, someone didn’t think it was a good idea to!).

Hearing about these DNA kits was intriguing because I would at least know which part of the world I might’ve come from. I weighed my options (a.k.a finding out which was the most economical), and MyHeritage came through with free shipping when you purchase two of their kits. I got one and the other went to my colleague’s fiancé.

Two cheek swabs and a month half later, I received my results. Now, mind you, I wasn’t expecting drastic results like being 1/4 white or anything because, as far as I know, my maternal side was from Semarang, Java while my paternal side was from Bawean by way of Penang (or was it Ipoh?). Essentially, I was South East Asian through and through. So, without further ado, here are the results:

Okay, so 98.6% South East Asian. So… what about the other 1.4% you ask? Well, my mother always thought I would have some South Indian blood in me, considering how my paternal side was from an area in Malaysia where the population of Indian migrants were high. Looks like she was mistaken because…

I’m 1.4% Finnish? Granted, these tests are estimates but that jump from nice cold Finland to nice warm Southeast Asia is huge enough to not really be that random? Well, whatever it is, I’m definitely going to get my siblings on this so that we can compare results!

If any of you readers have had experiences with DNA Ancestry kits, do let me know how that went for you!