Update on My Genetic Profile

 I have been following my Ancestry.com account for some years now, noting that as more data becomes available your "DNA Origins" also changes.  A few surprises have resulted.  First of all, it turns out I'm less Irish than I originally thought I was (8%).  I also have a genetic connection to the Welsh (12%), and my Scottish connection has lessened a bit (now 14%; I think it was 17% or even higher earlier).  My largest DNA genetic connection is simply listed as "England and Northwestern Europe" (60%).  I have minimal connections to Denmark and Sweden (3%), Norway (2%), and have a 1% Jewish connection.  

More Possible Scotish Roots

As noted before my family tree more and more appears Scottish as opposed to Irish.  Two additional names: Flynt and Gillock.  The Flynt line, which may even include a Scottish bishop, begins with my second great-grandmother Salena Catherine Flynt (1827-1888), who married Richard Church, my second great-grandfather in 1847. The Scottish connection in this line doesn't seem to appear for several generations, arriving, by my initial investigations, with my 8th great-grandfather Richard I. Flynt (1634-1663). Going out that many generations, of course, presents any number of possibilities for mistakes.

The Gillock line begins with my second great-grandmother Harriet Gillock (1828-1907).  She married Absolom Smith, my second great-grandfather, so this line comes from my natural father's side, whereas the Flynt line comes through my mother's side.  I don't have to go quite as far out to find the Scottish connection here - only to my supposed 5th great-grandfather Lawrence Gillock, Sr. (1728-1786). This name may have a number of variants including Gilloch and Gelak.

A third name presents yet one more opportunity to find a Scottish connection. However, as with all things genealogical, this is not by any means conclusive.  This possible connection would be my 5th great-great grandmother Jane Elizabeth Lindsay (1728-1800).  Some doubt was expressed as to whether Lidsay is her maiden name, so more evidence will have to be secured before I have full assurance that this line is truly Scottish. The Scottish connection, if it is true, seems to appear in a possible 9th great-grandfather, James Lindsay (1623-1674).  The Lindsays appear to have come from the Scottish lowlands. 

As a side note, it is interesting, as I reviewed these family lines, how many immigrated to Virginia from Scotland.  this is also born out by my DNA results which have my genetic fore-bearers as being heavily invested in the Virginia area.  One interesting history of the Scottish immigration to North America can be found here.  As noted in this brief article: "Poverty has always been noted as the main reason for Scottish emigration. Two-thirds of the land is harsh – rocky, ill-drained, swept by rain-bearing winds off the Atlantic and far from the Mediterranean and medieval centres of European trade and culture. The first Scottish communities away from home were founded by traders. In the 17th century a new factor was driving Scots away from their homes. Schools in Lowland parishes producing a literate population resulted in five universities in a country of under a million people. This created a highly educated middle class. In an underdeveloped Scottish economy, however, there was a shortage of middle-class jobs and this caused many Scots to leave for the likes of England, to several of the Baltic States and to North America."

An Addendum: One more name surfaced: Stuart, a version of Stewart, which is identified as a Scottish surname.  This line comes through my natural father William Deroy Smith: William --Archibald Luna Smith --Amanda Levan (great-grandmother) --William I. Petty (2nd great-grandfather)--Anna Elizabeth Stuart (3rd great-grandmother, 1788-1850) --William Stuart (4th great-grandfather, 1765-1804).  At this point it ends in my Ancestry work without any more current leads and no conclusive information tying this line directly to Scotland.   I have seen this name also associated with Ireland as well.

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.

Scots in Ireland, the Ulster Plantation, and Other Items

Growing up I remember my mother telling me that it was believed we descended from the "Scotch-Irish." For starters, I know that the correct term should be "Scot-Irish," as "Scotch" properly refers to a type of whiskey.  But until recently I had no real evidence to explain this ethnic background.  In recent work on my family tree I was working on the profile of who I believe is my 3rd great-grandfather Charles McCauley, 1806-1860 (or Macauley, as the name is know earlier up the line).  He was married to Margaret nee Lamant, 1812-1860.   Charles may possibly have been born in Antrim, Ireland, and Margaret, from what I know, is simply noted as born in Ireland.  Turns out both names, however, are associated with Scotland and Ireland and may be associated with the moving of some Scots in the 17th century to the north-east part of Ireland.  This may be part of the so-called "Plantation of Ulster" in the 17th century, which was an organized colonization of the Ulster area (of which Co. Antrim is a part) by Great Britain.  Many who populated this region were from Scotland and England.  The Scots, it is noted, came from the lowlands of Scotland.

So, my one seemingly strong connection with Ireland may be just as Scottish as it is Irish!

Charles and Margaret were married in Ireland in 1834, but records indicate that by 1850 they are living in New York.  This move, again, may have an historical reason.  The "Great Famine" in Ireland occurred between 1845 and 1849 and was responsible for a sizeable emigration out of Ireland. So great was the death and emigration that the population of the island is said to have dropped from 20% to 25%.

My great grandmother Alice nee Reynolds, 1833 - 1903 (later Macauley) was born in Ireland in 1833.  She arrived in this country in 1840, and I wonder if her family also left as the economy worsened with the impending famine soon to follow.  Reynolds, it is believed, is the anglicized version of the Irish MAC RAGHNAILL, but the form MAC RANNALL is considered nearer the original. So my great grandmother may be a closer and truer Irish connection.  The Mac Rannalls are associated with County Leitrim, which like Antrim, is also in the northern part of Ireland, to the south-west of Antrim.

William Deroy Smith (1916-1980)

One of the biggest breakthroughs with the DNA test came on Good Friday of 2018.  With the help of someone identified through DNA as a possible first cousin I was able to finally determine who my natural father was.  I still do not know a lot about him outside of what I knew before, but I have dates and more of his name.  Turns out he was known by family by his middle name "Deroy."  He was about 11 years older than my mother and lived only to the age of 64 (1916-1980).  I wish I knew his cause of death, and that is still part of my ongoing search. [Update: One cause of death I did find was stroke.  One family member also mentioned the incidence of heart problems among his siblings as well.] He was born in Missouri and died in Los Angeles.  Like my adopted father he apparently served in the military during WWII.  He had been married and divorced prior to meeting my mother.  His wife's name of Reba Louise Sims who he married on June 20, 1937 possibly in Missouri, and then divorced in 1946, years before he met my mother in California and became her co-worker at Olie Hammonds restaurant in LA.  In 1940 he was working for S.S. Kresge, the predecessor company to K-Mart.  His mother (my paternal grandmother) Nancy ("Pearl") nee Carver (1884-1958), died in 1958, about two years before I was born.  At the time of my father's death he is said to have been survived by his two sisters Ardyth Lanier and Ina Mae Burcke, a "close friend" Victor Hanel and many nieces and nephews. It appears his family had no knowledge of me.  He never had any other children.  It some ways it is sad that his family never had the opportunity to know that he had a son.  I wonder if he thought of the son he had but never revealed.  Did he know about where I eventually moved?  When he died in 1980 did he know that I had gone on to college by then?  Perhaps I will never know the answers to those questions.  He has now been gone 39 years.  But with the blessing of the modern technology of DNA testing I am getting the answer to questions I may never have received in a previous time.

Breakthrough

This blog has been largely dormant for 11 years.  It's purpose was to put my questions about my family background into the larger arena of the internet with the hope that someone may see them in a search.  It did not yield the results I initially hoped for at that time.

Since then my daughter gave me a DNA test kit from Ancestry.com for my birthday in December of 2017.  The results came last year and I was astounded by the doors it opened.  I finally found answers to some of the questions I had for so many years. I will use this blog now to write further on the findings not only of this test, but also the family tree I had been constructing since then.  It is all still in a beginning stage and each year I take out at least one month's membership with Ancestry.com so that I have greater access to their database.  Door continue to open. 

Mint Cafe

In the 1940's my mother worked (under-aged, I think), for the MINT CAFE in downtown Wausau, Wisconsin, while she was going to high school. As someone who lived in the rural areas, you pretty much had to move into town to be able to attend school, unless you had someone to drive you. These were the days before mandatory busing. She also had to work to support herself, and talked about having only one dress to wear to school in those days. When I can locate the picture, I'll post my mother in her waitress uniform outside the restaurant.

I was able to get this flier last month when I stopped by during vacation with my children for a quick dinner. Note that it has been around since 1888! Does anyone out there know the history of the MINT CAFE?








Upate (2-27-19)
As promised when the original post was written, this, I think, is a picture of my mother when she was a waitress at the Mint Cafe.  If not there, at least from that general period of time.