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There's always, as long as I can remember, been this family story, passed through my paternal line, that were had Native American ancestry. Specifically, that we were related to one of the Potawatomi chiefs, via his daughter. But no one could say who or when.
My dad would mention this occasionally, especially when I was a child , through my early teen years. I used to believe it as a child. I mean, my dad was telling me this, surely it was true.
I started questioning it as an adult, more so when I started doing our family genealogy over a decade ago. The more I researched, more the more convinced I was that, it simply wasn't true.
When I connected with my dad's birth family, via a cousin, it crystalized that, it was merely a family legend and had no merit. Those connections opened up vast branches that lead back to the founding of the US, and beyond, with no evidence of Native American heritage.
Unfortunately, often for many people, lack of evidence, lack of papertrail doesn't always mean there's no connection. I'd get messages sometimes that still claim this story was true, see I found this, and I've have to say, nope, not our family, not our ancestors, it is not true. They'd them either get angry and go away, or continue to insist they were right until I finally blocked them.
When Ancestry started their DNA testing, I told Mark, I wanted to do it. I wanted to know, beyond a resasonable doubt, whether it was true or not.
Well, it took a few years to get around to getting tests- which only served to allow time for it to be perfected to the degree that it has been- but last Christmas, we got 2 tests, one for me and one for him.
We sent in the results after the holidays, so they wouldn't get lost in the mail (except mine did for a week, ugh), and then we waited.
He got his results about a week ago- he's literally the poster boy for white people. Whiter than mayo. White as white bread. We joke about it a lot. And honestly, were not the least bit surprised. His family is *very* English and German.
Well, I got my results yesterday. And was pleasantly surprised. Not by the fact that there is absolutely no Native American ancestry, no, it was another result.
Now, granted, anything below 5% is negligable in terms of how far back it is in my ethnicity, but it's still a significant finding, all the more so since it is on my paternal line.
How do I know this?
By looking at the connections to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and distant cousins who've taken tests and who share common dna and ancestors with me, I was able to determine which came from which parental line. It's a lot easier when you have 2nd cousins that have your mom's maiden name and share great grandparents with you, for example.
What makes this finding of that 2% Ivory Coast & Ghana (according to the results, mostly Ghana), is that my dad was racist. He would be absolutely appalled at this finding.
Because somehow, in his mind, in his family's minds, being related to Native Americans was preferable to being related to a Black person. Yeah, I don't get it either, they were/are both treated pretty horribly.
This connection would be, if I understand how it works correctly, as far back as between my 3rd and 6th great grandparents. That's nearly 200 pairs of grandparents I'd have to research to try to find the connection. Now, granted, I can go back that far on both parental lines, and I do have evidence of slave owning ancestors. Unfortunately, that evidence is on my *maternal* line. So further research on the paternal line needs to be done, especially the Strattons, Riddles and Gumaers.
Not because I'd like to be able to claim to be Black, mind- I'm not, most definitely. But because I'd like to know who, where and what happened to them in the generations since. I'd like to know their names, as I do on my maternal line.
I am rather surprised the Russian eethnicity isn't higher, considering my maternal grandmother's line is almost pure Polish through her paternal line (the range does contain Poland, and it is highest concentrated in and around Poland). I guess that's where the Germanic ethnicity comes from maybe, though that said mostly Swizterland and Austria(not surprising that there's no real Italian, though I do have Italian ancestors from Northern Italy, during periods when it was considered part of Austria.)
I am also amused that I'm more Scottish than Irish. And the Sweden and Denmark... no clue where that comes from. So little French though- everything I have from my dad's line pointed to French. Though, given that many were Huguenots, it's entirely possible they were transplanted English to France.
Overall, very interesting. And I have a few things to research more on now.
My dad would mention this occasionally, especially when I was a child , through my early teen years. I used to believe it as a child. I mean, my dad was telling me this, surely it was true.
I started questioning it as an adult, more so when I started doing our family genealogy over a decade ago. The more I researched, more the more convinced I was that, it simply wasn't true.
When I connected with my dad's birth family, via a cousin, it crystalized that, it was merely a family legend and had no merit. Those connections opened up vast branches that lead back to the founding of the US, and beyond, with no evidence of Native American heritage.
Unfortunately, often for many people, lack of evidence, lack of papertrail doesn't always mean there's no connection. I'd get messages sometimes that still claim this story was true, see I found this, and I've have to say, nope, not our family, not our ancestors, it is not true. They'd them either get angry and go away, or continue to insist they were right until I finally blocked them.
When Ancestry started their DNA testing, I told Mark, I wanted to do it. I wanted to know, beyond a resasonable doubt, whether it was true or not.
Well, it took a few years to get around to getting tests- which only served to allow time for it to be perfected to the degree that it has been- but last Christmas, we got 2 tests, one for me and one for him.
We sent in the results after the holidays, so they wouldn't get lost in the mail (except mine did for a week, ugh), and then we waited.
He got his results about a week ago- he's literally the poster boy for white people. Whiter than mayo. White as white bread. We joke about it a lot. And honestly, were not the least bit surprised. His family is *very* English and German.
Well, I got my results yesterday. And was pleasantly surprised. Not by the fact that there is absolutely no Native American ancestry, no, it was another result.
Now, granted, anything below 5% is negligable in terms of how far back it is in my ethnicity, but it's still a significant finding, all the more so since it is on my paternal line.
How do I know this?
By looking at the connections to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and distant cousins who've taken tests and who share common dna and ancestors with me, I was able to determine which came from which parental line. It's a lot easier when you have 2nd cousins that have your mom's maiden name and share great grandparents with you, for example.
What makes this finding of that 2% Ivory Coast & Ghana (according to the results, mostly Ghana), is that my dad was racist. He would be absolutely appalled at this finding.
Because somehow, in his mind, in his family's minds, being related to Native Americans was preferable to being related to a Black person. Yeah, I don't get it either, they were/are both treated pretty horribly.
This connection would be, if I understand how it works correctly, as far back as between my 3rd and 6th great grandparents. That's nearly 200 pairs of grandparents I'd have to research to try to find the connection. Now, granted, I can go back that far on both parental lines, and I do have evidence of slave owning ancestors. Unfortunately, that evidence is on my *maternal* line. So further research on the paternal line needs to be done, especially the Strattons, Riddles and Gumaers.
Not because I'd like to be able to claim to be Black, mind- I'm not, most definitely. But because I'd like to know who, where and what happened to them in the generations since. I'd like to know their names, as I do on my maternal line.
I am rather surprised the Russian eethnicity isn't higher, considering my maternal grandmother's line is almost pure Polish through her paternal line (the range does contain Poland, and it is highest concentrated in and around Poland). I guess that's where the Germanic ethnicity comes from maybe, though that said mostly Swizterland and Austria(not surprising that there's no real Italian, though I do have Italian ancestors from Northern Italy, during periods when it was considered part of Austria.)
I am also amused that I'm more Scottish than Irish. And the Sweden and Denmark... no clue where that comes from. So little French though- everything I have from my dad's line pointed to French. Though, given that many were Huguenots, it's entirely possible they were transplanted English to France.
Overall, very interesting. And I have a few things to research more on now.