Photo credit to Marc McDermott As everyone knows, genetic ancestry testing is extremely popular. These tests typically involve a cheek swab or saliva sample that you send back to a company for laboratory testing. These tests give you information about your genome, the genetic material containing DNA that dictates who you are, and includes your relationships with genomes around the world. From these relationships, these tests can make informed estimates about your ancestral origins. Genetic ancestry testing is definitely fascinating, but the commercialized process of genetic ancestry testing doesn’t seem to be perfected just yet. To understand some of the issues with genetic ancestry testing, you can read this 2017 study about the testing process and this 2018 article about a journalist’s experience with genetic ancestry testing. Different companies can get different results, companies lack quality assurances, companies have limited validation of results, and there are unevenly sized sample pools. A 2018 BuzzFeed video about genetic ancestry testing inspired this article, when a Lao American had his “mind blown” when he was told by an …