DNA Results

After being contacted by someone claiming descent from the bachelor brother of m great grandfather, I finally bought a kit through 23andMe.

I did find first cousins, second cousins, and many more names that I don’t recognize.

I didn’t find the woman who’d contacted me. She must have used a kit from a different company. But ALL of her information checked out! She shared documents with me about where our common great grandmother is buried, which I hadn’t found. This Florida attorney and wants to eventually tell their story. She and her mother wept together over as they talked on the phone, after learning they do belong to a real family.

My chart looks a little tame, doesn’t it? I began my genealogy journey about 1968 and “chased ancestors” until our son was born in 1974, so I knew about most of this. But Finnish?

There are stories behind those numbers! German. More German. English. Irish.

My German ancestors, the last ones to arrive (1870), came from Schleswig-Holstein. It was part of Germany when they packed up and sailed over, but when the older generation was born, it was part of Denmark. So are we German or Dane? Guess it fits into “Broadly Northwestern Europe.”

Finnish? hmmm