All I knew is that I looked a little different. When I lived in South Florida I was occasionally asked if I was Hispanic. Later on some of my kids were certain that we were part Native American. That sounded good.
The truth is that most of us Americans are mutts. We're a DNA stew. So for the last forty years or so I've just been happy to be that.
Then I started seeing those Ancestry.com ads. The folks seem to be so happy and surprised with their results. I sent away for the DNA kit. It's easy as pie to fill up the little vile with saliva, send it off and await the big news. You don't have to join Ancestry.com to get the DNA results. The entire experience, kit, website results, etc. is $99.
Here are my very surprising results:
- 33% Western Europe
- 24% Ireland (What? I'm Irish?)
- 17% Great Britain
- 7% Scandinavia (Never saw that coming)
- 6% Mali (This is an African nation formerly under French colonial rule but I don't think we can extrapolate out the French connection from that little bit of info.)
That's 87%. The other 13% is "trace" and (Ancestry.com says) not reliable. It's eight additional countries, including Russia, Cameroon and South Asia (a third continent!).
After digesting this information how do I feel? Great! I feel like that guy in the ad who turns in his kilt for lederhosen. And now I want to join Ancestry.com since they're telling me I have a couple of first cousins I didn't know about.
And, since I'm neither French Canadian nor Native American, I'm a whole different person than I thought I was.
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