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Anita Sims was visiting CVS the day she saw a big sale of 23andMe DNA test kits.
Perfect, she thought, for her stepfather, Jon Gacek, who had been adopted and had little knowledge about ancestry or perhaps hereditary diseases.
"It was practically two test kits for the price of one, and I knew it would not do it alone, so I bought them and we did the tests together," he said. she declared.
23andMe, based in California, is named after the 23 pairs of chromosomes present in a normal human cell.
Sims was pretty sure he was not surprised. she proudly claimed her Mexican-American roots on her mother's side, and on her father's side, Pascua Yaqui.
But the results of his tests elicited more than one surprise, which came in the mail six weeks after the presentation of a saliva sample in the test vial.
"We were so excited when the results came in the mail. We waited for them and opened when we were together, "said Sims, 22, and the eldest of nine children.
"We learned that John, who was adopted in South Korea, was mostly Korean but had some Chinese and Japanese, but it was not really a surprise. However, the health aspect showed that he was lactose intolerant, which made sense because he still had problems with dairy products. "
Check out her own ancestors brought surprises to Sims that she did not anticipate.
"I have learned a lot about myself, surprisingly. Of course, it was half American Indian on my father's side. But the most shocking part was that the other half was European, especially Spanish, she said. "I realized that I was Spanish on my mother's side and not Mexican, as I always thought. It made sense because his side of the family was very light and even some of them had hazel eyes.
Although it sounds pretty simple, the test result has caused some consternation at Sims.
"Learn that I was Spanish as opposed to Mexican, although this was for me the hardest part. I mean, I grew up with a single mom who came to the country at the age of 9 and I boasted to be Mexican and to love my culture and all the rest. The graph showed that I had a 48% European ancestry and that this had been the case for you. Mine was mostly Spanish.
The test results came two years ago, so Sims said she was "well past now".
And then there was the option DNA Relative Finder, a Sims decided to continue after some consideration.
"The great thing about 23andme is that if you have a close match with DNA, you have the option to send them by message and share your information about DNA. And that's how I discovered my father's half-sister, Aunt Cathy. It was the most amazing and amazing thing.
Aunt Cathy is Cathy Ziehl, who lives in California, not far from Valencia where Sims lived before moving to Ahwatukee last spring, when Gacek got a new job at CBS in Phoenix.
In fact, she says, it's Ziehl who touched her through the 22andMe messaging app, noting that they had a 17% match.
He started a discovery that came back to Japan.
Ziehl and Sims noted that both countries had high percentages of genetic results on the DNA of Native Americans and East Asia. The two women began to talk about possible connections and eventually fell on the paternal side of Okinawa, Japan.
"We started to gather him. I sent a text message to my father who told Sims that he had heard a conversation with his father and his older sister, who said that his grandfather's mother knew that during his stay in Japan, he had fathered a girl.
"He told them that he wanted to come back for it but he never had the time or the money to do it," Sims explained.
"Cathy and I knew that my grandfather had spent time in the army in Okinowa and my father mentioned a name he had heard – Sachie. She replied that it was a common shortening of the name Sachico Sawada. My dad said if it was his daughter, she must be at least 50 years old, so I asked Cathy how old she was. She said 50 years.
Since this connection, the newly discovered aunt and niece have found time to meet several times.
"It's really such a surprise for both of us to be found and to discover this past that we have never really known," said Sims.
This kind of story is what makes the 23andMe employees proud to be part of society, said spokesman Scott Hadley.
"We often see this kind of family connection, but for me and for those who work with her, the story of Anita and others, like hers, make your hair stand on your neck," he said. admitted. "It's hard to imagine how these people would have been, and for me, it never gets old.
Sims said the choice of 23andMe kits was not as random as it sounds.
"In fact, I did a bit of research before I decided to do some research on other DNA tests like Ancestry. What I liked about 23andme was that they were using your DNA for real scientific research, as opposed to Ancestry.com where they were selling for-profit DNA for use as a marketing study. " she added.
"23andme works with non-profit organizations and different universities to develop new gene therapy techniques for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, etc." I also chose 23andme because I have the right to my DNA. own my DNA. When you take a DNA test, you always take the risk of learning things that you might not have wanted to learn. Fortunately, I learned some incredible things.
The 23andMe company was created in 2016 and the website was launched a year later. Hadley said that the company was one of the pioneers in the field.
"We've been doing this for a long time and many of the products we've innovated are now being emulated by other companies. We are proud of what we do and the science that supports it. And I think it's science and our experience that sets us apart from the rest, "said Hadley, who has worked at 23andMe for seven years.
He said that the services offered by 23andMe were and are mainly sold online, but at the end of the holiday season, kits like the one that Sims found in CVS will be more available in retail stores, including Target and Walgreens.
"We are very interested in the holidays," said Hadley. "Kits are often offered as gifts to family members."
Information: 23andMe.com
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