My previous interactions with DNA were all in the lab—learning the structure of the bases, snipping strands, and isolating them from bacterial fermentations. But these “blueprints of life” have become a powerful tool for genealogists, too. So, my wife and I took the plunge: we ordered his-and-hers 23andMe kits, spit into the tubes, and sent them off and eagerly awaited the results.
Her results arrived first and weren’t especially surprising. With grandparents who emigrated from the region now known as Poland (a country that technically didn’t exist in its modern form in the early 1900s), it was no shock to find her DNA was nearly 100% Eastern European—mostly Polish, with a significant Lithuanian component. (Comment: “We paid $50 to find out I’m Polish?”)
Given how fluid the borders have been in that part of Europe, it makes sense that her genetic matches spilled outside modern Polish boundaries. But the results did solve one mystery. When her maternal grandfather arrived in the U.S., the ship’s manifest listed him as “Hebrew.” That was likely a clerical error, as there were no Ashkenazi Jewish markers in her DNA.
My results, however, answered a few questions, and raised a few more. As expected, my background came back as almost 100% Northwestern European, primarily British and Irish. Maybe that explains why I get misty-eyed when I hear bagpipes or old English folk songs, and why I find comfort in drab, rainy days.
But one unexpected result caught my attention. With so many known ancestors from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, it was puzzling that there were no genetic markers tied to those regions. Perhaps those lines were simply diluted over time. There were, however, markers associated with the Rhine River region—fitting, given the prominence of the Rhenish Palatinate in my genealogical research.
The real surprise? My German ancestry appears to be primarily Bavarian. I haven’t found any records of Bavarian immigrants in my tree (at least not yet) so it’s back to the records to explore some German lineages in greater depth. Perhaps I need to be on the lookout for Anglicized surnames that could provide clues.
I haven’t yet started comparing my results with those of various cousins, but that may be the next step. One thing’s for sure: this isn’t the end of the DNA story. Our children and grandchildren now carry this genetic legacy forward into the next generation, and maybe they’ll be the ones to unravel the remaining mysteries.
No comments:
Post a Comment