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For all the criticism Elizabeth Warren has gotten over her claims of Native American ancestry and her DNA tests to prove it, I understand her motivation. She originally based her claims on the oral traditions of her family, the stories of discrimination they faced because they were suspected of having 'mixed blood'. So were her family fibbers? Mistaken? The DNA tests proved they were speaking the truth. I understand that because something similar happened in my family.
Growing up I was told I was from Irish-English descent on my mother's side, Slovenian on my father's side. I was told my parents marriage shocked a few of the people in the the small town they grew up in because of this. You have to understand that this is a place that still *buries* people in separate cemeteries according to original (European) ancestry. An Irish Catholic marrying a Slovenian Catholic? Unheard of!
The truth of the matter wasn't revealed to me... it was leaked to me. It appears that my grandfather on my father's side, wasn't my grandfather and my grandmother had my father out of wedlock. What was the truth of my family's history? Those who knew the truth had either passed on or weren't talking. Where once there was certainty and history there was now an empty and blank area.
I never found out the full story of my grandmother and how she came to be pregnant with my dad, or the circumstances behind her eventually marrying a Slovenian widower but I did find out that the name my father carried wasn't *exactly* the one on his birth certificate.
One of my siblings took a DNA test and did some searches on Ancestry.com to attempt to figure out at least a little of our family's history. The DNA test came back almost entirely Irish-English. Whoever my biological grandfather was he wasn't Slovenian. The genealogical search mostly hit brick walls and dead ends. Before the 1920s, our family history vanishes into the shadows.
I'm glad the stories of Senator Warren's family were sounded out and her grasp of her ancestry is more complete. My family? Not so much. My history has become more of a mystery. Years ago my dad joked that we should not go looking in the family tree as you don't know how many horse thieves you'll find hanging from the branches.
-m
Growing up I was told I was from Irish-English descent on my mother's side, Slovenian on my father's side. I was told my parents marriage shocked a few of the people in the the small town they grew up in because of this. You have to understand that this is a place that still *buries* people in separate cemeteries according to original (European) ancestry. An Irish Catholic marrying a Slovenian Catholic? Unheard of!
The truth of the matter wasn't revealed to me... it was leaked to me. It appears that my grandfather on my father's side, wasn't my grandfather and my grandmother had my father out of wedlock. What was the truth of my family's history? Those who knew the truth had either passed on or weren't talking. Where once there was certainty and history there was now an empty and blank area.
I never found out the full story of my grandmother and how she came to be pregnant with my dad, or the circumstances behind her eventually marrying a Slovenian widower but I did find out that the name my father carried wasn't *exactly* the one on his birth certificate.
One of my siblings took a DNA test and did some searches on Ancestry.com to attempt to figure out at least a little of our family's history. The DNA test came back almost entirely Irish-English. Whoever my biological grandfather was he wasn't Slovenian. The genealogical search mostly hit brick walls and dead ends. Before the 1920s, our family history vanishes into the shadows.
I'm glad the stories of Senator Warren's family were sounded out and her grasp of her ancestry is more complete. My family? Not so much. My history has become more of a mystery. Years ago my dad joked that we should not go looking in the family tree as you don't know how many horse thieves you'll find hanging from the branches.
-m
