Last year my father took a DNA test from DNAtribes. My father, who I won’t name here since he is still healthy and kicking around at 88 years old and prefers to remain unknown to the world wide web, has some interesting results. Interesting because the results are so, well, homogeneous. Much more so than what we expected.

From tracing our family line I suspect that my Martin family is of Scandinavian descent (Viking!). I know we settled in France around 900 and then in England and Wales in the early 11th century.  I know we came to America from Great Britain around 1663. I know my 6th Great Grandmother was a Scot and that her Grandfather came to America in 1643 from the small town of Kilbirnie in North Ayrshire, Scotland.  So, there were no surprises that the Martin line DNA shows heavily Northwest European, but what is surprising is that my father’s maternal line must also be heavily Northwest European. Although the test did not delineate between maternal and paternal, my father’s results shows overwhelmingly Northwest European – specifically Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and United Kingdom.

The interesting part of this is that for my entire life I have been told that everyone believes my Great Grandmother (my father’s maternal Grandmother) was Native American. She was born in Sancoxie, MO and grew up in Indian Territory, Oklahoma – and she had long straight black hair.  My Great Uncle believed this Indian narrative with full conviction.

During my limited research on this line of my family I found that my Great Grandmother’s  father was originally from Illinois and her mother was supposedly from Maryland. They met and married in Illinois around 1880 and later moved from Illinois to Missouri to Kansas, and finally to Oklahoma. And their move to Oklahoma coincided with the famous land rush of 1885-1893. It has long been my thought that they were pioneers drawn to Kansas and later to Oklahoma by the offer of free land, same as thousands of other pioneers. BUT, I also know that under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, over 10,000 Indians were moved to Kansas from Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Could this have been why they moved from Illinois to Kansas and then to Indian Territory Oklahoma?

To be honest, I have only spent a small amount of time researching this family line, but the few facts I uncovered have always kept me curious about why my Great Grandparents (father’s maternal side) ended up in Oklahoma.  And now, thanks to modern technology,  Great Uncle’s theory about being Native American has been completely debunked. The Native American panel for my father showed 0% Native American. Nothing. Not one tiny percent Native American.

So here’s the moral of my story – I love hearing old family stories from anyone who is willing to share – they can add personality to a family history and I believe they should certainly be recorded in detail. But this is a reminder that every bit of information should be verified with primary documents. Sometimes Old Uncle Joe’s memory is not as accurate as he thinks it is.  I learned a lot from this DNA test – and I can’t wait to uncover more details about my pioneer  ancestors.

Unraveling the Martin line………..

Cheers,

Deborah