By Jeff Burns
For
Christmas, my wife and I unknowingly chose the same gift for each other as a
stocking stuffer: a DNA analysis kit
from Ancestry.com. We’re both into
history and family history in particular, and we thought it would be fun and
informative to see what our backgrounds were.
Plus, they were on sale for the holidays!
When
you order a kit, you get a small box containing a vial and directions. All you
do is spit into the vial, seal it, and put the box back in the mail. The disclaimer says to allow six to eight
weeks for processing, depending on volume.
We figured it would take a while because of the Christmas rush. Even though ours were mailed on the same day,
my wife’s analysis was completed in about 5 weeks, and mine took over nine weeks.
My
wife wasn’t expecting any big surprises.
Her parents had done their tests a few months before, and they pretty
much confirmed known family history. She
knew that her paternal great-grandparents were Jewish and had immigrated to the
US from the Poland-Ukraine-Russia region around the turn of the 20th
century and that her maternal line was most likely of British and/or Irish
descent.
I
thought my results were pretty predictable too.
I’ve dabbled in genealogy for years, and I’ve been fortunate to have cousins
who have done extensive work. On the
Burns side, I figured Scottish descent was pretty much a lock. We have more
research on my maternal family line, Mosley.
I can trace my direct ancestors back to their arrival as indentured
servants in mid-18th century Virginia. Published work takes the
history back to English and Flemish wool merchants in the 1400s.
There
has always been a little mystery, however, and it turns out my wife’s family
had the same mystery. Is there Native American ancestry? There had been rumors of distant Cherokee
relations in my wife’s family, on both sides. Among my Mosley relatives, there
has always been talk about Native American blood. Many of us have dark complexions that tan and
hold tans easily and dark hair.
It’s
actually a mystery common to many southern families, black and white. If you ask any group of southerners if they
are part Indian, the majority would raise their hands. Statistically and
historically speaking, it’s highly unlikely that they are correct. According to
most studies, the number of Americans with Indian ancestry is very small. There was little opportunity for most white
and black ancestors to have had intimate relationships, and even when possible,
social prejudices would have made it extremely rare.
Why do so many
southerners believe they have Indian blood? Part of the answer is romanticism,
the ideal of the “noble savage” that has persisted since first European-Native
contact; for southerners, Indian blood provides a real connection to the land
and history of the South. For other families, it is thought that such claims
were concocted to divert suspicions of Jewish or African ancestry, suspicions
that may have negatively impacted individuals. And, of course, southern Indians
like the Cherokee and the Creek were among the most likely Indians to interact
with southern settlers. They traded and
intermarried with whites for centuries.
They also worked hard to assimilate into southern culture, quickly
adopting English customs, including owning African slaves.
So what did my analysis
reveal? I’m very western European, 88% British and Irish, and zero Native
American.
It was all very
interesting, but there’s always a little disappointment when a mystery is solved.
That just means I have to find the time to go deeper in my research and uncover
new mysteries.
“Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee
Blood?” (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/10/cherokee_blood_why_do_so_many_americans_believe_they_have_cherokee_ancestry.html
)
“Who Gets to Be Native American?” http://fusion.net/story/279637/white-people-claiming-native-identity/
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