My Strongest Irish Connection

The DNA test I took a couple of years ago revealed that my ethnicity estimate contains a breakdown of 82% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe, focused primarily in England, Scotland, and Wales.  A further 15% is attributed to Scotland and Ireland.  So as my previous post indicates my ethnic makeup may turn out to be more Scottish than Irish, where some of my so-called Irish roots may stretch back further into Scotland.  Nonetheless, there does seem to be a tie somewhere to the Emerald Isle.  My second great-grandmother, Alice nee Reynolds (Macauley), is recorded as having been born in Ireland.  No other details are available to me at this time and I have been unable to trace the tree conclusively much beyond this.  Is is said that Reynolds is the anglicized version of the Irish MAC RAGHNAILL, but the form MAC RANNALL is considered nearer the original. Other versions: GRANNELL, MAC RAGNALLS, RENNALLS.  According to Irish Family Names: Arms, Origins, and Locations by Brian de Breffny (1982): "Reynolds families are found in all four provinces of Ireland but this surname is commonest in Connacht where it is usually an anglicization of Mac Ragnaill, the name of a south Co. Leitrim sept which in the past has also appeared in English as McRannall and McGrannell.  Elsewhere in Ireland persons named Reynolds may be of the same stock or may be descended from settlers who brought the common English surname from England." (170)

As I am learning in my geneological studies ethnicity is often a long trail stretching back from the country of final identity to the country or region of true origin.  For example, many English, I am sure, can trace their own heritage to France from the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century, or further back to the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain that occurred from the mid-fifth to the early seventh centuries.  This had the effect of changing a predominantly Roman-British culture into one more Germanic.  So when my ethnicity estimates claim a background from "Northwestern Europe" and "Germanic Europe" (3%), might some of this be attributed to these historical events?  I don't know.

Still, as the great day of St. Patrick approaches, I feel I  remain on fairly solid ground to claim my Irish heritage, even if that heritage has more distant roots further back!  Turns out that many in our country also have deep Irish roots, and like much of our ethnicity, those roots stretch deep into the long and complicated soil of human history.