FIGURING OUT YOUR DNA ANCESTRY

 

         There are probably very few Americans whose DNA would show only one ethnicity.  With the lineage of both the LAREW and the CHURCHWELL sides dating back to Colonial days, when asked about my heritage I would always say I am “Heinz 57” – a little bit of everything.  But how does one calculate the percentages of their ethnicity?  I could say I am half French and have English, but that’s just going off of my last name and my mother’s maiden name.  If you know who your ancestors are going back several generations, you can figure out your percentages. 

         Take my husband Craig for example.  He would say he’s half German and half Polish, and he would be partly correct.  His mother, Theresa SZCZESNY, was 100% Polish, so he is 50%, which means our daughters are 25%.  But he is not 50% German since his dad, William HOFFMANN, was not 100% German; his maternal grandmother, Rosa CALLAHAN SAUER, was of Irish descent.

         To figure out your ethnicities is not hard as long as you can go all the way back to your immigrant ancestor and their country of origin.  Let’s look at my VANHOOSER ancestry.  We have always been told that Vanhoosers were Dutch and came over from the Netherlands in 1639.  That is partly true and partly false.  My 8x Great-grandmother, Volkje JURIAENS, was from an island in the North Sea called Noorstrant, off the coast of a town called Husum, in an area called Schleswig-Holstein (yes, where Holstein cows originated).  This land was sometimes occupied by Germany and sometimes by Denmark.  Jans Franse (Jans, son of Franse) lived in Husum.  Several accounts tell of a violent windstorm on the North Sea off of Husum, Germany, that decimated the island of Noorstrant. Volkje survived the storm and was rescued from the island.  She lost her parents and siblings, except for one sister, in the storm.  Jans and Volkje left Husum and went to the Netherlands and it was there that Jans became known as Jans of Husum (Van Husum).  Jans and Volkje were married before they boarded a ship for New Netherland in America.  So while they did indeed immigrate to America from the Netherlands, they were not of Dutch ethnicity.  I first read of this account in a book by Joyce Lindstrom entitled, “VanHoose, Van Hooser, Van Huss Family in the United States.”  I have confirmed much of her research by searching historical records on the Internet (not Wikipedia, I might add!).

Husum, Scheswig-Holstein, Germany

DNA tests are very popular these days, but that is not going to show your entire ethnic heritage, it is only going to reveal which ethnic traits you carry in your DNA.  Basically, the way DNA testing works is by comparison.  For example, if 1000 people submit DNA samples and 200 people from Scotland have the same combination on a specific place in the DNA chain as you, chances are you have Scottish ancestry.  But, if you don’t have a DNA match for France, even though you have French ancestry, that simply means you did not inherit any French DNA.

         Craig and I have purchased several DNA tests through Ancestry.com: one each for Craig, myself, my brother Dean, and two of my aunts, Georgia LAREW HASS and Jean CHURCHWELL WILLIAMSON.  It is interesting to see who picked up which DNA traits from which ancestor.  It’s fun to see my DNA matches on Ancestry; I see that many of you have had DNA testing done on Ancestry, as well as 2^nd and 3^rd cousins who I have met at family reunions.  Test results can sometimes narrow down your ancestral home to a region within a country if the increased DNA pool shows a specific DNA type concentrated in a specific region. 

         Even if you are not a subscriber to Ancestry.com, you can submit a saliva sample and see the results of your DNA test on their website.  Also, if you are concerned about your DNA sample, Ancestry does give the option of having your sample destroyed so that no further testing can be done without your knowledge or consent.

         I recently hired a professional genealogist to answer the question: Was Sarah Goodnight McGOWAN (1793- ca.1860)  a Cherokee Indian?  She was my 3x great-grandmother on my paternal grandmother’s side.  A supposed photo of her does indeed look like she could be Native American.  This ancestor can best illustrate percentages of a particular ethnicity of a descendant.  I am still waiting for the final report, but the last email update I received indicated the researcher found four men with the surname McGowan in the 1815 Wayne County, Kentucky Tax List.

Sarah Goodnight McGOWAN                                                            100% Cherokee

Sarah’s son Andrew Jackson STOCKTON                                          50% Cherokee

Andrew’s daughter Orlena America STOCKTON VANHOOSER      25% Cherokee

Orlena’s daughter Helen Esther VANHOOSER LAREW                12.5% Cherokee

Helen’s son Kermit Winfred LAREW                                              6.25% Cherokee

Kermit’s daughter Willa Jean LAREW HOFFMANN                    3.125% Cherokee

Sarah Goodnight McGOWAN STOCKTON

        A factor in the lack of DNA matches to Native Americans is that many tribal leaders discourage their tribe members from participating in DNA testing.  With a small amount of tribal DNA in the pool, it naturally decreases the possibility of a match. At www.genome.com, an article entitled, “DNA Tests Stand on Shaky Ground to Define Native American Identity” by Teresa L. Carey, May 9, 2019.  Ms. Carey quotes Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr.:  “Using a genetic test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation . . . is inappropriate and wrong.  It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens.”’

         So, why do I want to know about Sarah?  Not so I can in any way benefit from a tribal identity, but for the same reason I want to know about other ancestors, I want to know who she was.  If I find she wasn’t Cherokee, I might be a little disappointed, but I’ll be happy I found out the truth, even though it will probably upset some family who have held to that anecdotal identity.

         When you do the math, we all have 32-3x Great-grandparents.  It makes sense that a person would not have DNA from every one of them.  That’s what makes DNA a luck of the draw.  For instance, since my brother Dean and I have all the same ancestors it would be easy to suppose that we would have 100% of the same DNA.  I was surprised to learn that not even identical twins carry the exact same DNA.  According to an article on www.livescience.com (“Identical Twins Don’t Share 100% of Their DNA” by Nicoletta Lanese), when the egg splits to form two babies, the genetic material splits, but throughout the gestation period the embryos “pick up genetic mutations in the womb, as their cells weave new strands of DNA and then split into more and more cells.”  The study revealed that in about 15% of cases of identical twins, an embryo will carry between 10 to 15 mutations that the their twin does not share. 

         In comparing the DNA ethnicities between Dean and me, there are striking similarities and differences, but no exact matches:

Dean’s Ethnicity Estimate         Jean’s Ethnicity Estimate

Scotland                                               43%                                        48%

England & Northwestern Europe        26%                                        33%

Ireland                                                  10%                                           --

Wales                                                   10%                                          9%

Norway                                                  9%                                           6%

Benin & Togo                                        1%                                            --

Sweden                                                  1%                                           4%

This explains why siblings can have different eye color, hair color, height, and be left-handed or right-handed, etc.  We are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made!” 

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