Now I Know Why I've Always Loved Plaids, Bagpipes, and the Swiss Alps
Dude, Where's My Red Hair?
My wife took a DNA test and, as we suspected, she is mostly British (English, Scottish, Welsh, as well as Irish, along with a smattering of Scandinavian and German).
Now I’m going to take the plunge with AncestryDNA. According to the research I did and put into a book I wrote almost twenty years ago for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary (a two-volume family/social/cultural history of the United States entitled Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History), I believe I am mostly of SPAIN descent: Swiss, Portuguese, Irish, and Native American (OK, that’s SPINA, but it’s an anagram of SPAIN, anyway).
My surname is Shannon, so the Irish strain should be obvious (my branch of the family having left Ireland in 1820 for Canada from Cork — a town on the southern coast where my longtime favorite guitarist, Rory Gallagher, later lived).
One of my great-grandfathers was John Silva (Portuguese, from the Azores).
My mother’s family (Kollenborn) always thought they were German, but my research indicates that the Kollenborns are mainly from a small Swiss village on Lake Constance (the Bodensee) named Romanshorn, just south of the German border (I was there in 2000, and found dozens of Kollenborns in the phone book, whereas I found none at all in the phone books of Germany and Switzerland’s biggest cities — and there are only a handful of Kollenborns in the United States, most of them my uncles and cousins). So, my mother’s father’s family was apparently German-speaking, anyway, as 65% of Switzerland — the part bordering Germany — speaks German, or to be more precise Schweizerdeutsch, a Swiss dialect of German.
My maternal grandmother was, I think, Irish (maiden name Green). She had red hair and green eyes. When my grandfather first saw her as he was walking through a field, he promised himself that he would marry her. So it appears that I have Irish on both my mother’s and father’s side.
It seems I have a little Swedish too; my paternal grandmother’s father was a Nelson (originally Nilsson, apparently); also, according to my research, I have English blood, as records indicate that I am a descendant of two Mayflower passengers, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. Adding those two ethnicities into the mix, I could actually be a SAPIENS (I decline to accept the anagram PANSIES, for probably obvious reasons).
Finally, my research (and family folklore) indicate we have a little Cherokee blood from both of my parents, and Wiyot from my father’s side. Also, I’ve seen pictures of Yurok and Karok Indians (from Northern California, where my family has lived since the 1800s) who look extremely similar to my father (it’s a bit of a shock to see an old photo of your “father” spearfishing in a loin cloth), so I’m guessing I have Yurok and Karok blood, too (my dad looks “native enough” that his coworkers used to call him “Cochise”).
I also would not be surprised to find I have Scottish blood, as well as French (there are pictures of my maternal grandfather where he looks quite French). I have been mistaken for Italian and even Lebanese in the past, too (I’ve fielded questions such as “What are you — besides the obvious, Italian?” more than once).
Probably no one would mistake me for Italian anymore (since my hair has changed from dark brown to gray, er, silver, and my skin is not as olive-hued as it once was). Back then, though, after I told people that I was not Italian, I would get looks which spoke volumes, their eyes saying to me: “There’s something nobody is telling you about your family history, bud!” So, we’ll see what the results say, once they’re in. Will there be any big surprises?
Here is a play-by-play log of what I receive from AncestryDNA since placing the order late on May 11th, 2023:
May 11th, PM:
I received this email 5 days later, on May 16th:
I did not choose expedited shipping, so I expect the “kit” by the middle or latter part of next week (the 25th or a few daze later); I wouldn’t be surprised if it arrived earlier, though.
May 22nd, six days later, I received the kit at my door:
…and then this communique on the same day, after I activated the kit online:
I submitted the saliva sample the same day (waiting the requisite 30 minutes after I’d eaten or drank anything (coffee, in this case) by dropping it in the mailbox. It will probably go out (to Utah) tomorrow, May 23rd.
P.S. Actually, I couldn’t mail it today, because both post office drop boxes (actually apartment mail slots) I had access to don’t have a slot large enough to put anything larger than a fat envelope through.I mailed the submission/DNA sample off on May 23rd, as planned. Today (May 26th) I got this email from the DNA cats (aka AncestryDNA):
I went ahead and added my parents and grandparents to the family tree.
I received this notification on June 1st, 2023:
I checked the status of my test today (June 10, 2023), and saw this:
Oddly enough, searching the 1940 census turned up neither my father (born 1934 in rural California) nor my mother (born 1938 in rural Arkansas).
June 12th, I got this email:
It’s still a little confusing the way they word it in the two different places rectangled above. One indicates processing has not yet begun, while the other says it has.
Clicking the link “Check the status of your sample” shows me this progress and estimate for completion:
So, another three weeks or so, and I should know whether I am a Martian or a Duckbilled Platypus.
The next day (June 13th), I got this communique:
So things are coming along swimmingly, so to speak.
June 15th: Only another couple of entries here from now, the results of the test should be in. So, to get a little more specific about my former knowledge + assumptions about my ancestry from an ethnicity standpoint, I will here estimate, in a back-of-the-napkin sort of way, what I expect my results to be (an approximation only, of course):
Irish: 25%
Swiss (or possibly German*): 15%
Portuguese: 15%
Native American: 5%
Swedish: 5%
English: 5%
Scottish: 5%
French: 5%
Mystery at this point (all other ethnicities): 20%
* As the Kollenborns (my mother’s maiden name) seem to have emigrated from Romanshorn, in the extreme north of Switzerland near the border with Germany within the German-speaking part of Switzerland, they were probably Germanic people (IOW, I don’t know if the DNA tests differentiate between northern Swiss and German)I am expecting some surprises, actually — but that may seem oxymoronic, as surprises are by definition not expected. What I mean is, I expect my estimates to be off, and possibly dramatically so, and thus wouldn’t be surprised about that, but I will probably be surprised by some of the specifics of the results.
One week later, June 22nd, 2023, I received this:
So this is the penultimate status communique from them — the next will spill the proverbial beans or, as they put it, “include [my] results.” Unless it takes them two weeks to do so, they will beat their predicted time of completion (July 6th).
The very next day, June 23rd, my results were in:
…and when I “explore[d] my DNA results” …. (drum roll) … it was quite a surprise. I’m 44% Scottish! I figured I had some Scottish blood, but almost half?!? Well, I always have liked butterscotch and bagpipes, Scotch shortbread, plaids, and such (whisky and golf not so much — I’m more of a beer and baseball guy).
Although I thought myself to be mainly Irish until now, it turns out that I have 5 times as much Native American DNA as Irish, and 44 Times as much Scottish!I feel a bit swindled, though — I didn’t get the red hair. I love red hair (my wife is a redhead).
All in all, that’s not bad company to be in, though. Famous Scotsmen include a lifelong hero of mine, John Muir; authors Robert Louis Stevenson (“Treasure Island” and “Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde” among others) and Kenneth Grahame (“The Wind in the Willows” [think Mr. Toad's Wild Ride]); poet Robert Burns (who penned the words, “The best-laid plans of Mice and Men…” and “Auld Lang Syne”); James Watt, inventor of the Steam Engine (not James G. Watt, the fox-in-the-henhouse Secretary of the Interior, the antithesis of John Muir); telephone inventor Alexander Graham “Cracker” Bell; actors Sean Connery, Gerard Butler, and Ewan McGregor; as well as industrialist and late-life philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (generous promoter of public libraries).
Too bad Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character (his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle was, of course, a real Scotsman).In a subject close to my heart, a few selected Scottish musicians are The Average White Band (“Pick up the Pieces”); Jack the Bruce (bassist) of Cream; Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull; Glen Campbell; James Dewar (one of the best rock singers ever), who not only sang but also played bass for Stone the Crows and The Robin Trower Band; Lonnie Donegan (a favorite of Rory Gallagher’s); Donovan; Colin Hay (from Men at Work (“Land Down Under”)); Mark and David Knopfler of Dire Straits; Lulu; Ian Stewart (quasi Stone); and Wet Wet Wet (“Love Is All Around”).
There are three avenues to discover in AncestryDNA, namely Ethnicity Estimate, DNA Matches, and ThruLines:
So proceeding left to right, top to bottom, I first clicked on “Discover Your DNA Story” and saw this:
Great Scott! So I’m 5% Native American, as I thought, but only 1% Irish?!? — that’s the biggest surprise, along with being 44% Scottish. Actually, there’s a couple more huge surprises: no Portuguese (or Azorean), and no Swiss (except what’s buried in “Northwestern Europe”)!
NOTE: See the 10/10/2023 Update below — it turns out I was right about the Portuguese and Germanic blood, after all (I've got a little, anyway), and I’m more Irish than initially indicated, too.Here’s a breakdown of what both of my parents contributed:
And where in the world “my peops” come from:
The "Northwestern Europe" bit attached to England seems a little vague, so I googled it and found a description of Northwestern Europe as spanning the swath from Ireland to Finland, west to east, and from Norway to France, north to south. Included in that region are several ethnicities specifically mentioned in my listing (Irish, Swedish, Danish, and French) but also within that range is Switzerland:
My take on the seemingly vague “England and Northwestern Europe" category is that this portion of DNA contains traits or markers (or whatever they call them) that are common to that whole area — indicating that that portion of my DNA is shared among peoples all over that wide swath of Northwestern Europe as well as England. In my case, for instance, several countries that are in that area are named separately (Sweden, Denmark [which are combined in one category so must have very similar DNA], France, and Ireland), but the percentage labeled “Northwestern Europe” must simply be common to/shared by residents of that entire area. So whether those of your ancestors who you got this DNA from came from Ireland, Finland, Norway, France, Switzerland, or points between is unknown and doesn't really matter (except as a matter of interest, which you can discover by tracing your ancestors’ whereabouts back through time [many of mine, for instance, having lived in Ireland and Switzerland within the boundaries of Northwestern Europe]).
Based on family lore and my research, Switzerland is doubtless where most of my “Northwestern Europe” comes from. My wife has an even heftier percentage of Northwestern Europe in her listing (68% to my 34%). Combining my numbers with hers (and dividing by two), our boys’ DNA percentages are (bits from me only are bolded; from her only are italicized):
England & Northwestern Europe 51
Scotland 28
Sweden & Denmark 8
Ireland 3.5
Native American (North and South) 2.5
Wales 2.5
Norway 1.5
Germanic Europe 1.5
France 1.5
As for the DNA matches, I won’t show any of them, due to privacy reasons, but will say that under my dad’s ledger there are a few Shannons (unsurprisingly), but none that I know personally; on my mom’s side, there are Logstons, Greens, McCools, and Huddlestons, which is expected, and even a Kollenborn (her maiden name). Of course, what I see is the subset of those who 1) have submitted their DNA to AncestryDNA and 2) have opted in to share their results.
Here’s the “Thruline” (showing here just the nearest ancestors — the tree goes quite a bit further back, to the 1700s):
…. the rest of the 2nd great grandparents, for “full disclosure” of that far back:
So the upshot of this is that I am not SPAIN or SAPIENS (the first subtitle of this article was “Am I Really SPAIN? Or Maybe SAPIENS? (PANSIES Need Not Apply)”), but rather SWEFNESDNA (Scottish, Welsh, English, French, Northwestern Europe, Swedish, Danish, and Native American) or, as they say, “Heinz 57.”
All of my life I was led to believe I was mainly Irish, German, Portuguese, and Native American, and it turns out that I’m only 1% Irish! And I have no Portuguese blood at all! I have 5 times as much Native American DNA as Irish, and 44 times as much Scottish.
And that 40% of my Native American (“Indigenous Americas”) DNA/ “blood” is Mayan (Yucatan peninsula)! I would have never imagined that.
Who’da thunk it?
What I learned from this was that where your relatively recent ancestors (meaning those who lived in the last few hundred years) resided doesn’t necessarily prove much. e.g., just because “my” Shannons were in Cork, Ireland, in 1820 doesn't mean that they were necessarily Irish. Their DNA was apparently instead Scottish. And just because my paternal great-great-grandfather lived in the Azores doesn’t mean he was Portuguese — apparently, he or someone further back emigrated there from elsewhere. And so on. So knowing where your family lived and knowing what DNA coursed within their mortal coil are quite possibly two separate matters.
I googled “Shannons of Scotland” and found this:
The Shannon surname emerged in the Scottish territory of Kintyre. The earliest known ancestor is the ancient highlander Chieftan Gilquhongill Aschennan who held huge estates on the west coast of Scotland. Other notables of the clan include Cuthbert Ashennane of Park who was succeeded by Robert Ashennane of Dunlop.If I would have known that, I would have named one of my sons Gilquhongill (or not). Cuthbert makes me think of Anne of Green Gables.
So Aschennan morphed into Shannon, apparently...
Via a tip from the book Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors, I googled “surnames of scotland george f black hathi trust” and then searched for “Shannon” and found two entries of interest (one corroborating the quote above), to wit:
Today (June 29, 2023) I got an email from AncestryDNA saying I had some genealogical “hints” to review. With baited (not bated, in this instance) breath, I clicked. There were some notices about my great-grandfather Harry Kollenborn, who disappeared and was considered murdered in 1920. I clicked on one of these to see if there was any juicy, or at least interesting, information. Instead of being greeted with a jaw-dropping revelation of some sort, I got this:
Now what is it that they don’t understand about the word “giving”? Giving something and charging for it are not the same thing. I don’t think that word means what they think it means. Perhaps they weasel out of their trickeration by saying the trial is free. Whatever.
Remember, I’m Scottish. I don’t like to pay for things if I can help it.
Anyway, changing gears: I have been reading some Scottish history books (to be more precise, the free samples you can get from amazon (remember, I’m Scottish; I don’t like to pay for things if I can help it)).
One that is interesting (and quite funny, even Twainesque in places) is “Where’s Me Plaid: A Scottish Roots Odyssey” by Scott Crawford. In fact, it’s one of those once-in-a-blue-moon samples that are so interesting that I took the (financial) plunge and purchased the whole book after reaching the end of the free sample. Hey, just because I’m Scottish doesn’t mean I won’t buy something I really like if I can’t get it free. I recommend Where’s Me Plaid to anybody who enjoys humorous writing, whether they’re Scottish or not.
9/27/2023 Update
I got this from AncestryDNA today: three “free traits”; I don’t know one way or the other about the first one, but I am definitely a morning person, and up until I became a geezer even the thought of taking a nap was anathema to me. It made me more bored than the chairman of the bored when we were forced to take naps in Kindergarten.
UPDATE Tuesday, October 10, 2023
As my sixth cousin told me would happen not long ago (otherwise I would have been shocked by this), my ethnicity percentages have been revised:
My numbers are now closer to my pre-testing belief about my ethnicity. I always "knew" I had Portuguese, German or Swiss, and Irish blood, but the initial results showed 0 of the first two, and only 1% Irish. Now my Portuguese has gone from zilch to 3%, my Irish has gone from 1% to 7%, my German has gone from nothing to 2%, my Welsh has gone from 2% to 3%, and Swedish and Danish from 11 to 12%. What has dropped is Scottish, from 44% to 37%, "England and Northwestern Europe" from 34% to 31%, and French, from 3% to none.
So my Scots-Irish mixture (what Mark Twain mainly was) has gone from 45% (44% Scots, 1% Irish) to 44% (37% Scots, 7% Irish) and my UK has gone from 81% to 78%.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of my original and updated ethnicity estimates (Portuguese was at first misidentified as French, perhaps?)
UPDATE 10/15/2024
Yet another update, a year-and-a-half after the original results:
So Scotland has dropped out of first place, supplanted by England and the rather vague “Northwestern Europe”; so, depending on what that means, it could still very well be that I’m more Scottish than anything else, as “Northwestern Europe” includes the Benelux countries, the Scandinavian countries, France, etc.
The latest results are more like what I originally expected (a fair amount of Germanic [Swiss, in particular, I think—Kollenborn], Portuguese—Silva, and Swedish—Nelson); the biggest surprise is only 1% Irish (but still 25% Scottish, which makes me, perhaps obviously, 25 times as much Scottish as I am Irish). Also new is that the Portuguese is specifically Azores (which we knew, as John Silvas was from there), Iceland 2%, and the complete disappearance of the Welsh (rare)bit.
So my four biggest “parts” are England +, Scotland, Switzerland, and the Azores. After that is Native American, split across three subparts (one North American, and two South American). So the family genes extend from South America north to Iceland, and from North America east to Scandinavia.
The Scottish and Swiss are incorporated in my younger son Morgan’s full name: Morgan Tell (Swiss) Mackenzie (Scottish) Shannon (Gaelic [Scots and Irish]).
UPDATE 3/1/2025
I finally got my red[dish] hair, if out of a bottle:
I wonder how this checks out with Bronwynne’s Ancestry search……I’m going to look at mine ( it was never completed) but Dad’s was … when you are here next maybe we could get those out. I sure enjoyed going thru all that you had. Going back to what Mom always sai was that we were Scotch Irish & Dad always thought he was German.