JinJer & Felicity 44: The Glossy Veneer is Slipping

[SapphireSlytherin]

8 hours ago, DaisyD said:

I've got an Talliaferro ancestor

Well, hey there, Taliaferro Cousin! lol

Our family lore is full of "supposed" NA ancestors. My great-grandfather (maternal line) was allegedly half Cherokee. Looking at photos of him, it would seem pretty obvious that he has a LOT of NA in him.

My great-great-grandmother (paternal line) was allegedly full Sioux. We have no photos of her (she died of TB in Western Kentucky at about 28 when she had four young children).

There is absolutely ZERO native DNA in any of my family's DNA results.



Further:  I do "qualify" for membership in DAR  and Daughters of the Confederacy, and Daughters of the British Empire - but I would never consider joining. Those organizations are too people-y for me. lol

 

[Carm_88]

I always found it funny when people told me that I might get a surprise in my DNA. Um no. There's no surprises there. Heavy Irish with some English, it did come out slightly skewed in the beginning and got more to where I thought it should be with the recent Ancestry update. From my own research, I knew that most people in my small area are connected back to Irish Immigrants brought over by a Merchant company in the early 1800s, they were told to settle so that the merchants could claim it by having them in servitude to pay for their passage to come over here.

The place is called The Irish Loop and is considered to be one of the most Irish areas outside of Ireland...not sure why there would be any shocks!

[PennySycamore]

@singsingsing,  that's why this stupid Ancestry DNA ad used to annoy me so.  This woman found out that she was one-quarter Native American and I was like "How could you not know that?  One-quarter is your grandparents."  They've not aired that one in quite a while.  

[singsingsing]

13 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@singsingsing,  that's why this stupid Ancestry DNA ad used to annoy me so.  This woman found out that she was one-quarter Native American and I was like "How could you not know that?  One-quarter is your grandparents."  They've not aired that one in quite a while.  

The one that annoyed me the most was the guy who always thought he was German but found out he was Scottish so he traded his lederhosen for a kilt. Like... it doesn't work that way! I feel like those commercials are totally complicit in the misunderstanding a lot of people have about what the ethnicity reports actually mean.

Being involved in the genetic genealogy/adoptee search community, I have seen some pretty crazy stories, some of which are similar to being 25% Native American and not knowing in. But in a case like that, there's WAY more going on than just 'oh, cool ethnicity surprise!' It's usually, 'Uh oh, my dad isn't actually my dad' or, 'Oh shoot, grandma was adopted?!'

One of the most interesting was a lady who had been adopted and was always told she was half Native American. She did a DNA test and it came back about 50% Japanese. A little detective work later and sure enough, she found her birth father and he was Japanese, not Native American.

Another was a woman whose results came back about 25% Chinese. She said they all knew that their grandma had their mum out of wedlock, but grandma swore up and down that mum's birth father was NOT Asian. She shared some family pictures, and they all looked Asian. But they had all just gone along with grandma's story for decades. It was absolutely amazing to me. 

[TheOneAndOnly]

I found that one branch is a lot more British than the Irish that family lore reported, because an English ancestor had gone to Ireland for work, was there when a census happened, but moved back to England when the job was done. This branch is also why I know so much about the history of mining.

In another branch, parents disowned one of their adult sons for marrying a Native American (pictures showed high cheekbones and straight hair despite non-native clothing) and generations later DNA tests show that there's nothing but English genes there. 

Whenever I find myself almost wondering how much family history to share in a public forum, I remember that if anyone has an Owsley, Mayne, Monhollen, Hamblin, Keeney, or Guerin  in their family then they're likely a cousin anyway. Hi family!

[DaisyD]

There's stuff like that in every family. I'm still trying to sort out fact from fiction about my great-grandfather. Great-grandma HATED him. They divorced after having my grandpa and she remarried. The stories mom was told don't really hold water with records I've been able to find about him. 

There was another story about 2 men. One was Union, one was Confederate. After the war they both married and moved to Oregon. Their children married and they ended up rocking on the front porch together. I've found the records for them and their headstones. They were both Union army. It actually took me forever to find their records because I was looking in the wrong rolls.

[sleepy_doggos]

My dad did his ancestry and found out he is 50% Scandinavian, which was a complete surprise! He though he was entirely Scottish/English/Irish. We have a fairly uncommon last name that was originally Welsh or Anglo Saxon, so no help there.

My mother was adopted and found some of her roots were expected from what she knew about her birth parents and some were a surprise, so that was really cool too.

All in all I'm about 20% Scottish, some amount Dutch, 12.5% Italian, 12.5% Norwegian (all from mom), and from dad I'm 25% unknown Scandinavian and 25% British Isles. That's all based on family history as well as Ancestry DNA. A European mutt like mom always said [emoji81][emoji81]

 

ETA I LOVE hearing about everyone's ancestry stories! [emoji175]

[Coconut Flan]

Carry on here: