Why am I Irish Yesterday and Italian Today?
Humans are drawn to learn about where we come from. From stories passed down through generations to taking genetic ancestry tests, we are compelled to know more about our ancestors. To that end, millions of curious people have taken a “direct-to-consumer” genetic test to learn about their genetic ancestry. Customers have been surprised, vindicated, delighted, enraged, and everything in between by their results. Interestingly, many are beginning to realize that the results change over time as they go back to look at them. What is the reason for this phenomenon and what does it mean for our identities? What does a genetic ancestry test tell us about ourselves and how does it shape our identity?
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Vence Bonham
National Institutes of Health
Alice Popejoy
Stanford University
Wendy Roth
University of Pennsylvania