Slide descriptions

• Slide one
  Overview: Adoptee DNA testing
  This series is meant to educate about DNA testing — not to promote or discourage it.
• Slide two
  Why DNA test
  There are many reasons some adoptees decide to take a DNA test, especially adoptees from closed adoptions who don’t have access to information about their past. DNA testing might help adoptees:
  
  • Learn medical history or genetic predispositions
  • Understand ethnic origins
  • Try to locate biological relatives
• Slide three
  What to consider
  There are many things to consider before doing a DNA test. Some of these include:
  
  • Whether you truly want answers to these questions
  • How potential answers might affect you or your family
  • Privacy concerns
  
  If privacy is a main deterrent, you can register on DNA testing sites using an alias name.
• Slide four
  Start here
  23&Me
  • Very popular among Chinese adoptees and people of Chinese heritage
  • Saliva-based test
  • Recommended starting point
  
  AncestryDNA
  • Best used as a supplement to 23&Me if possible
  • Less popular among Chinese adoptees, but some families have found matches
  • Saliva-based test
• Slide five
  GEDmatch
  Regardless of which DNA test you take, upload your results to GEDmatch.
  
  • A global database of DNA tests
  • May provide more matches than using 23&Me or AncestryDNA alone
  • Accepts uploads from 23&Me and AncestryDNA free of charge
  • At least 1,000 birth families from China are currently on GEDmatch
• Slide six
  Also upload to…
  After taking 23&Me and AncestryDNA tests, you can also upload your results to these Chinese platforms to increase the chances of finding a match:
  
  23Mofang
  • Accepts 23&Me and AncestryDNA uploads
  • Database is kept in China
  • Used by Nanchang Project and Roots of Love to DNA test birth families
  
  WeGene
  • Accepts 23&Me and AncestryDNA uploads
  • Database is kept in China
  • Very similar to 23Mofang — being in multiple databases increases match potential