Ninety-nine dollars’ worth of DNA research has certainly taken genealogy far beyond the recording of pilgrims and patriots. These days we all want to know about our ethnicity — not only our national origins but our cultural heritage.
It’s time to take note when a worldwide cosmetics company refers to the heritage of two well-known actresses in a pricey ad in People magazine. Zoe Saldana is Dominican, Haitian, Puerto Rican and Lebanese, the ad points out, while Blake Lively’s forebears are English, Irish, German and Cherokee.
The paper trail I’ve outlined over 37 years lays out my English, Irish and German ancestry, but the science of my AncestryDNA study eliminates any wishes I had of finding Native American ancestry, specifically from Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmaq or Maliseet nations in Maine.
If there are no big surprises in my “ethnicity estimate” by AncestryDNA, does that mean I wasted my $99 dollars plus shipping? Not at all.
Although the percentages of my ethnic ingredients through an affordably priced study are approximate as compared to native-born individuals in Great Britain and other parts of Europe, they are informative. Moreover, the stats are motivating me to learn more about the last 1,000 years of European history than I ever was interested in as a student.
So here goes.
I am 73 percent British, with Great Britain referring to what is now England, Scotland and Wales. Some of this comes from people such as Mayflower ancestors Francis Cooke, Henry Samson, Isaac and Mary Allerton and daughter Mary who arrived on these shores in 1620, plus numerous English-based immigrants who came over during the Great Migration through the 1630s. Among these forebears are John Tuttle and John Bailey, passengers on the Angel Gabriel, which crashed on the rocks off Pemaquid during a hurricane in 1635.
I don’t have all of my people back that far, but I know that 18th-century ancestor Silas Harris of Greene ties into the British Royal family through his Barron-Sherman-Launce line, making young Prince George my 26th cousin.
My most recent English ancestor was Alfred Hart of Dexter, a Civil War veteran who was born in 1834 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. Earlier ones include the Rev. William Eddye, who was the vicar of St. Dunstan’s Church in Cranbrook, England, during the time of Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare.
It is, no doubt, these historical roots which help explain why my 73-percent British ancestry is actually higher than that of the average British native, who is about 60-percent British. How can that be?
Well, my ancestors who came over in the 17th century had lots of genes from those in Great Britain of about 1,000 years ago, which is about the reach of this DNA test. Further, present-day Britain — especially with its huge metropolitan city of London — has a population whose in-migration from other countries makes it much more “admixed” than the community of my combined ancestors.
I don’t drink tea, and I prefer my pudding chocolate rather than English, but I think I could be a proper distant cousin to Prince William and Duchess Catherine — her name since she married him. (Why the public goes along with the media’s continuing to label her as “Kate” and “Kate Middleton” is beyond me.)
So what else makes up my ethnic picture? It turns out I’m 11 percent Irish, which is even higher than the slightly more than 6 percent I claimed from great-great-grandfather Thomas Given of Saint John, New Brunswick, whose parents James Given and Margaret Orr were both born in Ireland. We have 16 great-great-grandparents, so each contributes 6.25 percent of our genetic makeup.
Further back, there are a few Irish ancestors in my Steeves family in New Brunswick, as well, though some of those who I thought were Irish turned out to be Scots-Irish.
My 11 percent probably wouldn’t impress natives of Ireland, however, who Ancestry says have an average 95-percent Irish ancestry. Not much “admixture” in the Emerald Isle, it seems.
My other reasonably reliable source of ancestry is 10 percent from Western Europe, which includes Germany and France.
My paper trail is solid for German ancestry through my Steeves grandfather whose ancestors Heinrich and Regina Stief of Wurttemburg came to Pennsylvania in the 1750s. They signed on to help settle the Petitcodiac area near Moncton, New Brunswick, so as to have land for their seven sons.
As for French ancestry, some of those genes came from William the Conqueror and some of his comrades, who took over England in 1066 from Normandy, France. My French ancestors include King Henry II in England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose parents were Duke William X of Aquitaine and Aenor de Chatellerault. Henry and Eleanor had a tempestuous relationship, but I would point out that they are buried together in the Fontevraud Abbey in the Loire region.
Seventy-three and 11 and 10 add up to 94 percent. Smaller percentages of ethnicity, such as my possible 4 percent of Scandinavian heritage, are considered less reliable, but I’ll take it. Trace amounts of less than 1 percent could be Finnish-Russian and Middle Eastern heritage.
I’m well aware that more exact ethnic percentages may be available at low cost as time goes on, and there is always the possibility I’ll get tested again later on.
It’s not uncommon to find Scandinavian heritage — a term which encompasses those from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but not Finland — among people with British and/or French ancestry.
During the eighth century, the Scandinavian Vikings raided coastal areas in Europe and had trade ports in the British Isles. They also did major settling in northern France where, as Normans, they later went on to conquer England.
AncestryDNA included in my report links to many possible cousins, but that’s not my principal interest in having the study done. I wanted the information for myself, of course; for my sister and brother; and for my sons, who now have children of their own. Both my parents have English ancestry, but I think most of the Irish and German come from my mother, Joyce Steeves Moore.
For information on ethnicity reports, visit dna.ancestry.com or look up DNA genealogy on a search engine.
An open meeting to ask questions and talk about “brick walls” will be held by the Penobscot County Genealogical Society at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, in the Chapman Conference Room, second floor, St. Joseph Hospital, Broadway, Bangor.
For i nformation on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.