My DNA Coding

Last May I bought a voucher (either through Groupon or Living Social, I can't remember which anymore) to for Connect My DNA, where they send you a sample packet, you collect a dna sample (in this case a cheek swab), send it back, and they tell you about your DNA markers and show you where people with similar DNA markers are around the globe.

ConnectMyDNA™

I bought one for me and one for my husband. We received the sample packets, set them aside, and finally got around to sending in our samples a few weeks ago. Then this morning we both received an email that said our DNA results were in. Now I should state that from when I first bought it up until this morning, I thought it was a test for your ancestry and heritage, but it's not. I was quite shocked because after checking,  my results showed that my #1 Country Connection is Hungary. A country I have no known relatives or ancestors from or in. Then I looked further down the list of matched countries and saw that many of my top 15 are Eastern European, which as far as I knew was not in my blood line.

So after doing some more research on the website, I was able to figure out what was being represented.

Here's a little information about ConnectMyDNA™ and it's different parts:

It is a cutting-edge product that ushers in a whole new way of looking at your DNA. Using a process known as genetic fingerprinting, we look at 13 of your specific genetic markers (Loci 13) and convert them into your very own genetic emblem - The Gene Ring™.


Gene Ring: The Gene Ring is a symbolic representation of the 13 positions of your DNA that we analyze at our laboratory (seen here in your Loci Values). The position of each green marker around the ring is in direct
correlation to the numeric values in your Loci Values. These values are calculated using a standard STR DNA test. For each loci, there are number values that represent the loci passed onto you from your mother and father. If there is only one number present for a loci, your parents shared the same loci value that was passed onto you.

My Gene Ring - Love that it's green!

DNA Connection: Your ConnectMyDNA™ results consist of 2 sections. The first section is a map of your #1 Country Connection and a chart listing all of your country connections. You can scroll through this list to view all of your results. One you click on a country it will take you to a secondary page containing statistical data. The second section on this page is your Gene Ring™ and your DNA Profile (Loci tested), which was used to create your Gene Ring™.

My Connection Results

About The Country Connections: ConnectMyDNA utilizes current databases that represent the modern world population structure. Your unique DNA signature is used to calculate the frequency of occurrence of your DNA profile with different population databases from around the world using a standard population genetics formula known as the Hardy-Weinberg equation. The numerical value of the different calculations identifies your top country connection. Your top country connection represents the population that you most closely resemble based on today’s demographics, not your past. Again, we want to stress that ConnectMyDNA is not an ancestry test. What is does show however is that on some level we share commonality with other people on a global basis. If you view your results and see a country that you feel is out of the ordinary based on what you know about your heritage, view it as a new connection to a population group that on a very deep level is connected to you as part of the whole human genome. Step back and look at humans in terms of where we started millions of years ago and where we are today. Everything has changed and yet something very fundamental deep within us remains the same … something that connects all of us and makes us unique and unlike any other living species on the globe. Our DNA.

ConnectMyDNA is intended to get you interested in learning more about yourself and others in a fun and educational way.


So after reading more about it, these 13 Loci have nothing to do with what you look like or your family lineage, but about what other human beings in general share my common markers. These are my top matches.

Top 15:

1. Hungary
2. Kosovo
3. Belarus
4. Germany
5. Croatia
6. Czech Republic
7. Russia
8. Poland
9. Slovenia
10. Portugal
11. Spain
12. Norway
13. Lithuania
14. Austria
15. Bosnia

Has anyone else tried this? Did anyone get results that they weren't expecting? Now I REALLY want to try the ancestry DNA matching!