The most diverse apartment block may be in Bondi Beach.
Residents in one apartment building took an AncestryDNA test, to find out which of over 350 regions around the world their ancestors may have come from.
17 people were tested – and their results represented nearly every single corner of the globe.
The video series is well worth watching. But here are just a few of the surprising stories.
I know that I am ______
Some of the residents were very sure they knew what to expect.
Theo Athanasopoulos was asked, ‘What do you think you’ll find’? before the test.
His response:
‘Basically Greek, Greek, and more Greek‘.
He was largely Greek, but his ethnicity estimate also showed 18% Europe East and a surprising 2% Asia South.
Unsure but open to surprises
Others were less deeply connected to their roots. Theo’s wife Zareena, from South Africa, had parents who separated when she was young, so she felt like she ‘never really had an identity as to where’ she was from.
She was blown away by her results, which revealed she had roots from many regions of Africa, from Great Britain, Asia, Polynesia, and even Scandinavia.
The most diverse woman in Bondi?
Mariah Paes knew she had a lot of physical diversity in the family, and shared she came from ‘a very, very mixed family’.
But her response to ‘How varied do you think you’ll be’? was,
‘I would say maybe six countries. Yeah, maybe five.’
Instead she had eighteen different ethnicity estimates in her DNA test results.
It’s possible this Bondi apartment building is one of the most diverse buildings around. It certainly contains the entire world.
More importantly, it shows we are all far more connected than we think, through our DNA.
It truly is a small world.
What’s your DNA story?