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Don Anderson

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Have you dug into your Ancestry or DNA-ancestry? If yes: has the journey changed you?

I started digging almost a year ago, and wow what a journey.
A year ago I considered myself a typical American European mutt, not knowing or thinking about it.
Researching part-time I now know I come from a long line (5-9 generation) of good Americans, ranging from a great-great grandfather who immigrated as a farmer/peasant in 1846 from Prussia to my 9th great grandfather that was born in 1620 England and died in 1656 Maryland, US.
And although it is really cool knowing that and that in the 120+ pedigree ancestors their where no slave owners, those who fight for the union army and some in the US revolutionary war, those facts did not change me. But instead I learn that you don’t have to be a great leader and that being part of great historical events is magnificent. Or I could say being good is better than being great, that is to say it better to be a peasant that is part of a tyrant’s downfall, then a great general serving a tyrant.

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    Colleen Steen 500+

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    Feb 21 2013: I have not personally researched ancestry or DNA, but a couple members of our family are very much into the exploration. I LOVE reading what they have discovered, and am not motivated or interested enough to do it on my own. I find the information fascinating, and it does not change me, who and what I am, or how I live the life adventure. The only surprising thing, is that we always thought we were totally of Irish decent (based on the little information we had), and we discovered that way back when, a French/German contributed to our DNA...it's all good:>)

    • Don Anderson 20+

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      Feb 21 2013: LOL, you sound like a member of my family in that they want to read about the discoveries but not join the journey. My family some facts wrong also, the Traill branch I posted about before and that was (Viking>French>Scottish>early American) was thought to have been originally O’Trail from Ireland.

      Hopefully you’re not like my sister, who doubts I could have really found out what I have. To think of it the last time I talk to her about our ancestry I was only 5 generations back, and now that I have branches going back 14 generations I don’t foresee her believing what I have found.
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        Colleen Steen 500+

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        Feb 24 2013: LOL! Yes....that's it Don....I want to enjoy the fruits of someone elses labor:>)
        We, who do not laboriously research the information, can still appreciate the journey.

        Some of my grandparents originally had "O" before the name too, and somewhere along the way the "O" got dropped. Ireland is a pretty small country....ya never know....we COULD be related. Anyway, if we want to take it WAY back....we're all related:>)

        • Don Anderson 20+

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          Feb 26 2013: Colleen Steen,
          My known Irish ancestry has surnames Hart, Maher, and Martin from Kilkenny, Ireland; with a Thomas J Hart coming to America in 1815 at the age of 17, possible to work on the Erie Canal. (A large number of Catholics were unemployed in Ireland at the time and American contractors often placed advertisements for workers in Ireland at the same time)
          Considering the Irish hate for the British at the time it is interesting that 1829 he married Elizabeth Layton, who was a 3rd generation American from England.

          Also interesting is that my mother has a 3% uncertain DNA result, making me wonder if my ancestry includes a clan that died off in Ireland during the potato famine.
          I figure that or it’s Neanderthal DNA. ;)

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