My Ancestry DNA results came in a couple of days ago and my thoughts are a mishmash. I’m told I have blond hair and blue eyes; halfway true, on those occasions when my (mostly grey) hair is dyed a dishwater blond. I’m told I’m rather more a sprinter than a distance runner (fast-twitch muscle fibers) which would be a weaselly declaration, except Doctor Dan told me the same thing in his Hotel St-Denis surgery 12 years ago, with his hi-tech scanning equipment. Also, that I don’t like spicy foods or cilantro, and can’t smell asparagus in my pee. I love spicy foods, my only exposure to cilantro is when I tried to cook with it without thoroughly cleaning it off, and I’m completely unaware of this asparagus smell.
My opinion on Ancestry DNA therefore is mezzo-mezzo. That they agree with Doctor Dan on the muscle fibers is absolutely outstanding, in my eyes, though I’m only barely on the fast-twitch side. Similarly, it could tell I have blue eyes (like everyone else in my family) and had some blond-red traits in my hair. The blond-red I always considered brassiness and asked to get rid of it when someone else was coloring my hair. Nevertheless I see that in about half the pictures taken since age 30 I appear to be a redhead.
The most striking thing in the Ancestry DNA results is that my ancestral groupings are said to be 96% Ireland, 4% Scotland. I’m puzzled how one could distinguish Ireland from Scotland; they’re 20 miles apart, and the word Scotland literally means “Land of the Irish.” Then there’s the fact that those 4% Scots genes are on my mother’s side, while the 12% Scots ancestry I was aware of was all on my father’s side.
