Growing up, I wore green on St. Patty’s day. However, my family did not celebrate being Irish on that day. That’s likely because those Irish roots are buried deep in our tree.
Looking at FamilySearch’s seven generation fan chart showing country of birth, my tree is mostly blue. In other words the vast majority of my ancestors thru 6 and 7 generations were born in the United States. Even my Harding line that has two generations born in Canada has roots in New York.
David Ralston is my only 4th great grandparent born in Ireland.
If I go back a generation and look at my dad’s tree, a few more possible Irish lines appear.
However, my mom’s side of the tree only shows one possible Irish line.
So does my DNA support me having any Irish roots. Even though the way Ancestry determines ethnicity has been modified over the past 5 years, my DNA story does not indicate I have much Irish. It does, however, indicate fairly strong Scottish roots.
Since I have also had my brothers and my mother tested, I also can access their DNA stories to check for Irish ethnicity.
Even though my ethnicity results don’t indicate I’m Irish, I’m going to claim that I’m a tad-bit Irish based on the ethnicity results of my brothers.
However, when others ask about my heritage, my response varies based on my mood at the time. Sometimes, I’m Kansan. If I’ve been doing a lot of Crawford research in Kentucky, then I often respond that I’m from Kentucky. Other times, I respond that I’m colonial American.
But every St. Patrick’s day, I celebrate my ‘just a little bit’ Irish roots.
Heartland Genealogy 