'I took a DNA test and discovered a surprise result no one in my family expected’

Growing up, I have fond memories of sitting around my grandparents' kitchen talking about their fathers who fought in wars, served in the Kenya police and distant relatives who emigrated to Canada and Australia. For all my family knew, our heritage went back centuries across England, Scotland and Ireland, but that’s not exactly the case.

As I found out, after sending DNA to MyHeritage using their 58% off deal on the kit, which sees the price drop from £79 to £33. The genealogy service uncovers family histories, origins, and potentially even long-lost relatives. Like my own distant relatives who went against their Catholic and Protestant families, as Mr Morris and Miss Morphy married to become Morphy-Morris, the surname I hold today.

Another dive into history came with my great-great-grandfather - Frederick William Wheatley - who was born in a tiny South Australian mining town and is spoken about during history lessons, featured in records for his feat in breaking the German Specific Squadrons HVB code in WW1 - a feat which allowed the Australian Navy to read German communications.

After getting my DNA results back, I quickly realised the code my great-great-grandfather broke in WW1 was from a country with which my great-great-grandfather, I, and our ancestors shared DNA. As my family tree highlights direct ties to the Basedow and Wolter surname, from Hanover, Germany.

But that wasn’t all, as my tiny DNA swab sample uncovered a tie to a country that neither my recorded family tree nor my family knew about. My 17.4% Dutch blood, which is surprisingly higher than my Scottish and Welsh blood individually.

Having sent off my DNA, My Heritage use microarray technology to examine hundreds of thousands of genetic markers, comparing them against populations across the world, which then pulls an ethnicity estimate.

The main link was unsurprising, 46.4% English, followed by Scottish and Welsh with a joint 21.6%, if I broke this in half, they’re individually less than my 17.4% Dutch DNA. The next main marker was 6.3% Danish, followed by 8.3% more ethnicities, which on the map highlight areas across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany.

One feature which I’ve not rated as part of the process is to dive into the matches of relatives I’ve received on my family tree; I’d have to pay £9.54 extra a month. Another was the wait between sending off the DNA and receiving the results, which was longer than I had expected.

Genealogy services have risen in popularity over recent years, thanks to the accuracy of uncovering untold family history. Similar services include Ancestry DNA, which starts at £79, or 23andMe, which can tap into ancestry and dive deeper into health through genetics.

MyHeritage covers matches across 2,114 regions, offering hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to find relatives via shared DNA. Including one TrustPilot contributor who gave it a full five stars for its 'consistency'. They said: "I’ve learned a lot about our family history, even things that shocked my parents about their grandparents.

"There are a few members in my family tree that I can’t find any further information on, which is frustrating, but this issue is due to the specific country birth/death/baptism records being lost or very difficult to obtain due to past wars, so I don’t think there’s anything this app could do to help."

Another person said: "It helped me dig into my family history and connect with a relative I never knew. Nice tool and pretty easy to use." However, they had a similar frustration as I, as 'the information they wanted was often behind paywalls.'

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