Do you know your heritage?

Do you know your heritage?​

Yes.

My Mam gave birth to me and my Dad was my Dad, I think. :)

And just think, if we go back far enough, we may have lived in the caves next door to each other. ;)
 

I am 1/2 Irish, 1/2 German.

But 23andme has it broken down differently:
52% British and Irish (Merseyside and County Galway)

16.5% French and German (Saxony and Switzerland)
4.3% Greek and Balkan
15.7% Eastern European
2.8% Broadly European
<2% Neanderthal
0.3% Ashkenazi Jewish

I don't know how those different places popped up. 23andme updated the report a year ago.

My mother's family has been in Saxony since the 1700s - which is as far as her ancestors were checked. I assume by the Nazis, because she escaped from East Germany when she was 18.

My Dad's great grandparents came from County Galway. I found them on a US Census thing.

I was expecting to have Native American blood, but did not. The standard story in our family was that my dad and his siblings were 1/4 Native American (Shawnee). When my DNA was tested, nothing there. I called my cousin and told him. He said, "Well, you're from the milkman, then." Which was a joke. I thought it was funny, but my mom was outraged. Basically, my large Irish side of the family is still convinced about the story.

Anyway, I was disappointed because since I was a little girl, I have been interested in two groups: Native Americans and Jews. By interested, I mean I read a lot of fiction and nonfiction books about them. I was surprised when my father married a Jewish woman, and she told me that I knew more about being Jewish than she did! I was 16, and I gave her a book on the subject for Christmas.

Once, I made contact with a relative through Ancestry.com because she had asked about specific relatives that were mine. She also thought we had a lot of NA blood, and wanted to know if I knew my grandmother's father's name. He was allegedly the NA. So the story has been around for a long time. That woman would be over 100 years old now.

Anyway, what I know about genetics could fill a thimble.
 
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This got me thinking so I went back to my 23 and Me account, for the first time in several years.

Things have changed a bit, apparently it gets updated regularly as more data becomes available. The big change for me is the loss of the 10% Scandinavian, most of that went to the British Isles. May be the Vikings? I did gain 0.7% Finnish. But lost Neanderthal, down to 2.5% now, I had an uncle I was pretty sure was mostly Neanderthal...

Some interesting stories:

Apparently on my father's side I share some DNA markers with an Irish king of 1500 years ago (so do most men from Ireland and Wales):

Niall of the Nine Hostages is said to have been a King of Tara in northwestern Ireland in the late 4th century C.E. His name comes from a tale of nine hostages that he held from the regions he ruled over. Though the legendary stories of his life may have been invented hundreds of years after he died, genetic evidence suggests that the Uí Néill dynasty, whose name means "descendants of Niall," did in fact trace back to just one man who bore a branch of haplogroup R-M269.

The Uí Néill ruled to various degrees as kings of Ireland from the 7th to the 11th century C.E. In the highly patriarchal society of medieval Ireland, their status allowed them to have outsized numbers of children and spread their paternal lineage each generation. In fact, researchers have estimated that between 2 and 3 million men with roots in north-west Ireland are paternal-line descendants of Niall.

And on my Mother's side (though my % Italian is 0):

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) was an Italian scholar and poet whose philosophy and literary works influenced the birth of the European Renaissance. Petrarca was one of the earliest poets to champion the use of Italian over formal Latin in his work, writing over 317 Italian sonnets about his unrequited love interest Laura de Noves. In fact, the Italian sonnet is commonly called the "Petrarchan" sonnet today.

In 2003, researchers who disinterred the body thought to be Francesco Petrarca tested his mitochondrial DNA and found that he belonged to haplogroup J2.

Kind of interesting, but not very useful... Doubt I could go back to Ireland and claim the long lost throne...
 
My brother had a basic DNA test done and shared it with me. There were no surprises. We are mostly northern European. One of my Grandmothers immigrated from Switzerland. My last name is very English and my Mother's maiden name is Welsh.

Like many American families, there is a tradition that we have some Indian blood. Sadly, not true.
 
Lewkat said:
With a comment like yours, I shouldn't explain it, but I had my DNA tested by a geneticist. Not My Heritage, Ancestry or the like. Ridiculous or not, perhaps you ought to have yours done.
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Were you tested for ........... nevermind. All I was doing was saying it sounds impossible, can you explain it, but I said it wrong. So sorry snowflake. Maybe you can try taking offense not so easily.
 
Pepper said:
Were you tested for ........... nevermind. All I was doing was saying it sounds impossible, can you explain it, but I said it wrong. So sorry snowflake. Maybe you can try taking offense not so easily.
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Perhaps you could take some lessons in good manners and diplomacy. You are so typical, by resorting to name calling when caught up in rudeness. Simply add to it. Great solution to getting along with people.
 
Pepper said:
Could you explain that, because it sounds (prima facie) ridiculous.
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Depending on testing algorithms, DNA lineage can be traced back many thousands of years. I'm 2% Neanderthal which is consistent with people of European descent ...can go as high as 4%. The family picked up that DNA some years back since the extinction date for Neanderthals is appx 40,000 years ago.
 
Here's my most recent Ancestry.com breakdown. It changes as more people are added to the testing pool and algorithms are updated. Living DNA which focuses on British Isles origins show Highlands & Isllands of Scotland, Northern Ireland (most likely lowland Scots or English plantation settlers), Northumberland and Lincolnshire. Tests that go further back show much higher Scandinavian % DNA which points to Viking ancestry given the Scottish and Lincolnshire regions Living DNA shows.

Lincolnshire is the origin of my oldest documented line with a firm paper trail that goes back to the early 1500s.


Capture.JPG
 
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Grampa Don said:
My brother had a basic DNA test done and shared it with me. There were no surprises. We are mostly northern European. One of my Grandmothers immigrated from Switzerland. My last name is very English and my Mother's maiden name is Welsh.

Like many American families, there is a tradition that we have some Indian blood. Sadly, not true.
Click to expand...
In my family the ”tradition” was true and I do have enough Native American blood for it to show up on the DNA test.
 
100% Armenian. My grandfather on my mother's side came thru Ellis Island way back when first, then he went back and got my grandmother.

Not sure about my father's parents. My parents came from 2 different 'tribes'...I can pronounce them, but not spell them lol.

My mother would drill her family history in to us...never wanting us to forget.
And, the pictures, OMG. 😍
 
My last name is England and Ancestory.com says I am mostly English, who would have thought that. My highest percentage is Great Brittan then Ireland then Scotland then Wales then Holland. There has been a trace in the France/Spain area and another trace in the middle east counyry called something like Caucasious. Something I thought intersting was my grandmother would say we were part indian as in the Native Americans. But what if the Indian in us is actually as from the country of India.
 
My grandparents and one aunt raised me because both parents died early in my life. My guardians would tell me story out our heritage, but I was never really interested. I often consider buying one of those 23 and me kits just to find out what’s hiding in my life. I think that would be interesting.
 
Lawrence said:
My last name is England and Ancestory.com says I am mostly English, who would have thought that. My highest percentage is Great Brittan then Ireland then Scotland then Wales then Holland. There has been a trace in the France/Spain area and another trace in the middle east counyry called something like Caucasious. Something I thought intersting was my grandmother would say we were part indian as in the Native Americans. But what if the Indian in us is actually as from the country of India.
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The DNA would be different 😂
 
23andMe DNA test on a nephew:
mother side Lithuania and Poland
father side French/German from the Alsace region via French Canadian migration
 

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