A few weeks ago, I wrote a diary about
how we used my husband's DNA to leap over the brick wall that the absence of paper trail had created. It worked because we had the DNA of other, known descendants of the same ancestors, to compare it to.
I had my DNA analyzed because I wanted to know who I was and had run out of options. My mother left my father when I was just a toddler. Their parting was on terms that did not allow a lot of questions from small children. Or older children, either.
What little I learned growing up, was what I learned when my brothers and I met her for lunch one day, when I was fifteen. She had married a dentist in La Jolla and had three more children. She spoke of her grandmother who was an Indian "princess." Of course, we all knew that American Indians did not have princesses. Nor, for all we knew, did South Asian Indians.
Years went by and still I wondered who I was. I knew my paternal grandparents were both from Scotland, their son, my uncle, hired a genealogist who supposedly traced the family tree back to the Spanish Armada. Knowing nothing of my maternal ancestors meant that medically, I had to be considered "at risk" for conditions like breast cancer and hypertension. But mostly, I felt there was a big part of my identity missing.
According to my birth certificate, my mother was born in Pasco, Washington, in 1928. Pasco, along with Kennewick and Richland, make up the tri-cities on banks of the Columbia River.
What census information I can find indicates she was raised by at least two foster families in North Dakota, while her mother remained in Washington State. It was in Tacoma that my parents met During WWII. She was a nursing Corps Cadet in training for the Public Health Service and he was a Technical Sargent in the Army Air Corps.
My father claimed that her mother was German and that they had visited her once in Bellingham, WA, after they had married. They also visited her foster "Aunt" in Fargo on their way to what would be their home in Chicago.
I knew nothing of my mother's history other than her name. Being a common one, it was next to no help at all. Last year, I finally had my autosomal DNA analyzed as well as my mitochondrial DNA. The mtDNA showed Northern European origins which was to be expected. The surprises came with the autosomal DNA test.
Autosomal DNA is supposed to show heritage back about two hundred years on both sides of your family tree. Mine showed an expected 75% North Atlantic and Baltic DNA. The last quarter was the puzzle and probably represented a good deal of my maternal grandfather's genetic contribution.
I uploaded the raw data onto gedmatch which is supposed to be able to use calculations to tell you who your ancestors were. My first analysis showed that I was, as expected, 75% European but also, surprisingly, 25% North African. My skin is so pale that it is tinted blue by the veins beneath it. But I know enough to know that skin color is not evidence of genetic heritage. So I ran the second set of DNA data through the calculator and got the same results. Since both of my great-grandson's were bi-racial, I thought it was kind of cool. Of course, it would be easy for me to feel that way, since my skin color still guaranteed that I would retain my white privilege.
Later, while reading more on the calculations, I learned that there was such a thing as calculation bias. Who knew? The calculations were predicated on the fact that you had a pretty good idea of who your ancestors were. The model I used, that showed North African ancestry, was designed for those who were already knew they carried African genes.
Since I did not know who my ancestors were, I started using the other calculators. I hadn't realized that there were so many available. No matter which calculator I used, 75% remained stable. But there was a huge variety in the last quarter. One calculator showed the last quarter to be a mix of Eastern European, West Asian, South Asian and Southwest Asian. Another showed the last quarter to be mostly Western Mediterranean, with a little Eastern Med and West Asian. And one put that last quarter almost entirely in Baloch. Yes, I had to google that one.
The Baloch or Baluch (Balochi: بلوچ) live mainly in the Balochistan region of the Iranian plateau in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Wikipedia
All of them showed traces of Sub-Saharan or North African DNA.
Finally, I went back to Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA to see what they had decided I was. Both showed the expected, 75% North Atlantic, Baltic ancestry. They also both showed descent from the Iberian Peninsula and one showed traces from Asia Minor, perhaps Turkey, while the other suggested Scandinavia instead.
DNA has usefulness in genealogy. It can connect you to distant cousins whose interest in genealogy has led them to have their DNA analyzed by the same company you are using. You can then exchange notes on your individual branches of the family tree and see where you connect. In my case, I just wanted to know who I am. And while I appear to be no closer than I was before, I can, at least, safely eliminate American Indian, Pacific Islanders, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
I think.