I grew up being told that my family was Native American. Now, for the few of you that have met me in person or have looked at my photo, you may notice that I'm lacking the appropriate melanin for that particular claim to be supported. Because of this, I've never leaned heavily on this heritage, never wanted to use it to my advantage, and never wanted to be one of those weirdos claiming to be 1/64th Apache. However, I went down the rabbit hole of trying to track my paternal lineage and hit a hard wall at 1844. Despite trying to find documentation in various state records, I cannot go any further back on my father's side, possibly supporting the heritage my family has claimed for so long, as there were no written records for tribes. Plus, you know, Andrew Jackson's just killing them all off indiscriminately (but also discriminately), make it pretty difficult to go back any further.

I am possibly going to try one of the various DNA tests, but I'm heavily reserved because I don't like the idea of taking such a test and sharing my information with who knows what entities. Have any of y'all ever taken any of these tests? Or just try to track your ancestry? Did you get any surprising, edifying, or otherwise interesting results?