23andMe - DNA Testing 12+

Finding a first cousin on my dads side was a God sent. He was the last of that generation. He was able to shed light on my grandparents from Italy. His older brother was the one that played with my dad when they where little unfortunately the two family split when settling in California. My blessing came when my son gave me this 23 & me to do my DNA. He sat with me talking to the Perri side I was scared as I did not know of my dad till my mother passed away. I was just 30 years of age. Met my dad but his wife and only two sons did not want to connect. Had secret meetings with my dad for 17 years till he passed. He tried & wanted to they did not. It hurt not to really share with my kids so I stopped. So this 23 helped me to connect with this cousin that filled in the missing links I needed and treasure dearly. Unfortunately he passed away in May 2021. What a treasure he exposed of my family. I never laugh so hard he revealed to me that the family where always having there secrets. That I was not alone. I pray one day to be able to visit Calabria Italy. Where my grandparents on my dad side was from. I still don’t know that much about my moms side especially the Spaniard & Portuguese side. My mom mother passed when she was 10 years of age. Her mom was from Mexico. So I really would like to know the rest of my story. Thank You for your good work. It’s been amazing. A 23 & Me follower.

I am thoroughly enjoying my 23 and me subscription. My only wish is that there were a way for adopted adults like myself to have an ancestral tree for my adopted family AS WELL AS my biological family. As I get older…. I am no 62…. I am FINALLY finding out people within my biological family. While I already KNOW much about the family who adopted me…. This has given me such incredible insight into my own past…. I’ve learned much about their genetics that through and who I am actually “ linked” too! This is also great information for my sons and their future children! All my life when greeted by any medical staff with important questions about my genetics I’ve had to say that I was adopted and had ZERO IDEA about such things as familial cancer, heart disease, diabetes…..etc. You would be doing such a huge service to help all of us who may be finding later in life about our family genetics…. Every time I find another piece of information to my own past it’s truly a gift and such an exciting moment! I’ll always love and cherish my adopted family who have been so truly amazing my entire life…. But EVERY adopted child deserves to know where they came from!

Overall it’s a good app. User friendly for the most part and a beautiful interface. That being said, it could use some improvements. There’s no actual messaging section so if you want to message a relative, you have to go to that persons profile and click message. It would be great if there was a section totally dedicated to messaging where you can access them at the same time. There’s no notification that tells you when you get a new message either. You just get an email which can get a little excessive. Also sometimes when you try to send a message, the messaging function will randomly just close out in the middle of sending a message. Same when you try to put anything in the “how can we improve this feature” section. When you try to enter cities relatives were born in it doesn’t always work. You’ll select a city and it disappears similar to how the messaging function just closes you out. There’s also A LOT OF INFO so sometimes it’s kind of hard to find your way around because some sections are sort of arbitrarily labeled. I sometimes struggle to remember how to get back to things I’m looking for. These things don’t keep me from enjoying it though. It’s just a bit frustrating and I feel they could be easily fixed. When you consider the amount of information you get in this one app, these issues are minor and I hope 23 and me will fix them in the future because it could be great.