My MyHeritage DNA Reveal

In the past few months I’ve had the privilege of working as a freelance copywriter for MyHeritage, an online genealogy platform that provides innovative tools for researching family history, including historical research, DNA testing, and family tree building software.

Given that my debut novel is about two college students researching their family history, it goes without saying that genealogy and family history are subjects I am passionate about, so it’s been an especially good match! I’m really enjoying working with them.

Aside from the interesting subject matter, it has some cool perks, and one of them is that they provided me with a MyHeritage DNA kit. I was excited to see my ethnicity estimate results, but I was not expecting to learn anything earth-shattering. My mom had done a DNA test with another provider and they found that she was 95% Ashkenazi Jewish from her mother’s side and 97% from her father’s side. My dad’s family is also very Ashkenazi.

The results came in last week, and… I admit, they surprised me!

Watch my reaction, and learn a little about my family history and how it influenced By Light of Hidden Candles, in the video below!

I’m planning to write a longer, more involved post for the MyHeritage blog about the connection between my DNA results, my genealogy, and my writing, but we have some other projects to get out of the way first. I’ll provide a link to it when it’s ready.