Ancestry

[Pucky Freak]

Dad’s side, 100% German. Dad’s mom’s grandparents emigrated to southern MN in the 1870’s. Dad’s dad emigrated to the US following the Treaty of Versailles.

Mom’s dad’s family lived in Baltimore in the early 1800’s. Likely British Isles ancestry. I could figure it out if I did a DNA test on myself.

Mom’s mom got a DNA test showing a hodgepodge of Northern and Western European ancestry, as well as a couple surprises: small amounts of Northern Italy, Russia, and Cameroon/DRC. The latter is an ancestor between 1740-1760, making me <1% African.

 

[jt13]

Mom's side of the family is 50/50 Italian and Irish. Dad's side of the family was unknown. Comes back as mostly Italian, Irish, and English.

Found out I have a very high percentage of Neanderthal DNA, so there's that.

 

[Nick87]

I bet many would be surprised what they've been told compares to an actual DNA test. Myself included.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Mother's mother was adopted so that is a dead end. Someone has her birth certificate but she was such a bad apple I don't think anyone in the family wants to know anything about that lineage. Mom's father was 100% Swedish. Dad's family name comes from Puritan settlers during the Mayflower era. His father's mother's family emigrated from Niagra Falls, Canada to the western gold rushes in the 1880s. It is believed her family were decended from the illegitimate children of the mistress of England's Charles II.

 

[OntarioHunter]

My late wife has some interesting characters lurking in her family history. When we were married I had to have a blood test to confirm I did not have the same blood disorder that she shared with her mother, called thalassemia minor. If I had it we could not have kids as they would not survive. In the minor state it's only an iron deficiency. I tested negative, thankfully (not that it would have changed our plans to marry). Anyway, the mystery is that genetic condition is specific to Mediterranean people and my wife's mother was entirely Irish on one side and Scottish on the other. It appears she was decended from what's known as the "Black Irish" ... sailors and soldiers shipwrecked on Irish shores after the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada. Besides the Spaniards, there were many Italian troops and ships in the Armada. Interesting.

 

[jt13]

I bet many would be surprised what they've been told compares to an actual DNA test. Myself included.

My dad told us a lot of tall tales about our Native American heritage..... 0.5%

 

[WoodMoose]

100% 'Merican, as far as I know.

that's my position,,,

with as much migration, maurauding, and conquests (empires) that happened throughout Europe/the world I don't buy them telling me that I have XX% this and XX% that,,, especially between such as Scottish / Irish / England etc,,,,

 

[el unit]

Lot of long-time family roots in Eastern Nebraska.
Mostly German and Swedish.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Growing up, I knew that I was 25% English and 25% Swedish on my dad's side and 25% German and 25% Bohemian (Czech) on my mom's side.

Since then I have done some genealogy work and I know that on the English branch, I have ancestors from France and from Scotland. One generation of the Scottish ancestors were actually born in Ireland where they were exiled after a war between Protestants and Catholics in the late 1600s. My branch left Ireland to come to America where some of them joined up to fight in the revolutionary war.

They French ancestors left France due to a war between (you guessed it) the Protestants and the Catholics. And the English branch left England because they were Quakers and both the Protestants and the Catholics were looking to exterminate them.

Out of curiosity I checked and there is currently a Quaker group in the small town in England that they were forced out of back in the 1700s.

I don't know much about the Swedish ancestors other than when we went there for my brother's wedding (he lives in Sweden now), my dad met up with a shirt-tail cousin and got to see the house or cabin that his Great Grandfather had lived in before he left to go to America.

Also somewhere in there I traced back a family line to discover that Benjamin Franklin had a grandfather who is in my ancestry so I guess all those 3rd graders who made fun of my name by calling me Benjamin Franklin (as if it was a bad thing) weren't too far off the mark.

On my mom's side, I know almost nothing of the Czech side of the family. Would love to dig into that and someday visit Prague.

On the German side I know that my Great Grandfather was smuggled out of Germany in the late 1800s to avoid being conscripted into the army during a war that was probably one or two wars before World War 1. Germany was in several wars at the end of the 1800s and the details are very sketchy as to which it was.

He settled in South Dakota and had 14 kids, survived the 1918 flu pandemic (although his wife didn't) and started his own insurance company when his barn blew down and the insurance company didn't cover his losses to his satisfaction. I might have 1/8th of his gumption.

Whenever I get a chance I try to look up a little more of my genealogy, but I have noticed it is a lot harder to find information about the females in the family in comparison to the males.

I won't get a DNA test because my curiosity about that is far less than my belief that the company doing the testing is retaining that sample for god knows what.

 

[Scott85]

I won't get a DNA test because my curiosity about that is far less than my belief that the company doing the testing is retaining that sample for god knows what.

You aren’t wrong. There has been a lot of cold cases solved because a family member submitted a sample for testing.

 

[OntarioHunter]

You aren’t wrong. There has been a lot of cold cases solved because a family member submitted a sample for testing.

If anything that would be an incentive for me to get tested. In fact, if I can, I will contribute my DNA to a bank for that reason. If it helps put someone in jail who belongs there, that would be a good thing. May also be used to identify victims.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

We found put a few years ago the native blood on my dad's side is from the Lumbi tribe of North Carolina. I was reading a little bit about them a few weeks ago, and rthe current scientific theory is that the lumbi tribe is a hybrid of the Croatian tribe and the remnants of the lost colony of roanoke. Other than that, highland Scots and some Irish, and my mean ass German great grandmother.

 

[BirdManMike]

50% Bird, 50% Man, 50% Mike.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

51% Portuguese
20 % Swedish
11% German
Almost 9% Irish

 

[longbow51]

English, mostly. Turns out the famous "Porter nose" of my mom's family was Chickasaw.

I want extra tags, free college, or at least a leg up in running for office .

Seriously, the best thing about knowing this is my best friend since third grade has Chickasaw roots (not that you would guess, he's 6'7", blond, blue-eyed, you would go Viking all the way), so we are blood brothers.

 

[Irishman]

Born in my Grandparents house in County Derry, N.Ireland. Same place my mother was born. My father was from about 10 miles away. His father a couple of miles from that. In fact the ancient site where my fathers family lived (Tullyhogue fort) is also only a few miles away. So my ancestors haven't moved far in hundreds of years, from at least 1056.
On a side story, my mother's grandmother was single, worked as a maid and grew up in poverty. A few years back, my sister did a DNA test. Several months later, she got a message from someone in New Zealand, saying that DNA said they were related, but didn't know how. Turns out they were related to the wealthiest family from where we live, the family my great grandmother worked for as a maid. So my grandmother grew up in poverty, and her father was the wealthiest man in the area.

 

[Stocker]

My dad told us a lot of tall tales about our Native American heritage..... 0.5%

You must be related to Liz Warren.

My mom is to put it mildly “out there”. She always said we must be part native and the only reasoning behind her thought was that she has “high cheek bones”.

 

[RobertD]

My ancestry is like most with Southern roots, in that it's a healthy mix of English/Irish/Scottish. My last name is of Scottish origin but spelled in an English way.

Since I notice a lot of US Civil War references, my third great grandfather fought for an Alabama infantry regiment in that conflict. Same last name and all.

Most unique about me considering my region of the country is a strong dose of German ancestry: had a German great-grandmother, ancestry research argues for even more German in my background than just what she could've provided. I only know a little about the actual history there though.

 

[tarheel]

We found put a few years ago the native blood on my dad's side is from the Lumbi tribe of North Carolina. I was reading a little bit about them a few weeks ago, and rthe current scientific theory is that the lumbi tribe is a hybrid of the Croatian tribe and the remnants of the lost colony of roanoke. Other than that, highland Scots and some Irish, and my mean ass German great grandmother.

If you don't mind my butting in, I have to correct a spelling.

I grew up in the area of Southeastern NC where the majority of the Lumbee indians are found. That is the correct spelling of their name which was given to them by Congress in 1957. Prior to that they were commonly called Croatan and the jury is still out on the Lost Colony connection but my research hints at some validity. A number of them are claiming to be Tuscarora but that is a stretch, because the only Tuscarora history in NC took place in the far eastern counties near New Bern.

 

[hank4elk]

We were English & German, I was told. Kins of Will for name. William the conquerer. German name for war on moms side.
Grandpa found the family in England in 1918. A castle and all. Royalty. Coat of arms and the family plaid for wear. Tunnel to the coast for smuggling...there the Portagee pirates joined in. Sailors. Pirates. Direct link in the books.

Big sis went a few years ago and found all that and had tea with some relatives, at the castle. LOL

Then she went deep. They joined William before the invasion of England. They were all from Alsas Loran originally. Alsasia. Both families. The country that was the region between France & Germany. Torn apart and destroyed by years of war, they fled to the coast. Became sea farers.

Sis is in Paris this week and heading to the homeland, Alsasia. She has some names to look up...

My great great grandfather lived in CO & NM in 1840's. The story has it he had a native wife who died of colera after giving birth to a boy. He went back to Conn. to log and build a mill. Married and raised a family.

No mention of that boy after. Need to do DNA and see if I do have Comanche or Apache in me.