Your origins are where your family was born. We work them out from the birthplaces on your tree. Born in England? Then England is one of your origins. Your heritage is the culture your family carries with you – the food, the music, the stories, the way Grandad says your name. A DNA ethnicity estimate looks much further back, to where groups of people lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. They often tell different stories, and all three are true. Say Jade was born in Leeds and her dad was born in Barbados. Her origins are England and Barbados; her heritage is English and Bajan; a DNA test might point back to West Africa, centuries before Barbados. Nobody's DNA makes them any less from the place they were born. And most of us are a wonderful mix anyway – Celtic, Saxon, Viking, Norman and more. Taken a DNA test? You can add its ethnicity estimate beside your origins in Personal settings → My origins – just the percentages, never your DNA itself. It stays private until you say so. We never take DNA kits or files – you type in the numbers your test gave you, and they never change our estimate.
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