Ancestry

Thought it might be fun to get an idea of where we all came from and hear some stories. Awhile back i did a 23 and me DNA test and it confirmed the family history. Im 46% British & Irish, 12.6% Scandinavian, 12% French & German and the rest mutt.

My last name is Chase. The name Chase comes from the man who had the job of orchestrating the hunt for the King. From what i know family on my father’s side can be traced back to the 17th century in England where 3 brothers left England for America. One of them was named Aquila and the other 2 i dont remember off hand. They landed in Massachusetts and become somewhat prominent. One was a merchant i think and one a lawyer. They have a rich history in the Massachusetts area. There was even a book written about the family in like the 1850s. A few cool notes is one Chase signed the declaration of independence (Samuel Chase) and another was the secretary of the treasury for Abe Lincoln (Salmon P Chase). Salmon is actually on the 10,000 bill. All of this i had heard and knew from a pretty young age. I really enjoy history after all so it was only natural i look into my family history. In the last year i learned of a twist to the story. Evidently Aquila was married to a woman named Sara. Despite having quite a few children Sara had not produced a son. Back in those days you could legally divorce a woman for this. Well, being fed up Aquila started having a relationship with another woman also named Sara. This new woman became pregnant and produced a son, which they named Aquila. A few months after learning that his new mistress was pregnant, he learned that his wife was also pregnant. This time she finally produced a son, which they also named Aquila lol. We learned about this because there are two gravestones for Aquila in that timeframe, one in England and one in America. We now think that we may be direct descendants from the guy that stayed in England born from the mistress.

On my Mothers side my grandfather’s parents were named Charlie and Lucy. They settled in Frazee MN. What id always heard is that Lucy was from France and spoke only French when she came here. A relative recently told me that Lucy was actually Russian or Eastern European and that back in the day they would lie about where they are from to avoid discrimination. Im not sure how someone could mistake the French language for Russian so idk who she would have fooled but i guess maybe she fooled our family for a while lol.

would love to hear any cool ancestry stories that you have

I’ve read horror stories of people doing the DNA test to find out about there background. Be careful what you wish for, ya might not like it.

I know a little bit as far back as my mom’s grandparents and my dad’s dad history. About all the further I care to look.

Pretty interesting though crappie!👍

I’m fortunate in that both sides of my family have done a great job over the years keeping records and timelines. I know on my dad’s side for sure we can trace at least back to the late-1700’s when the first family member left his house in Luxembourg and came to the U.S. From there the vast majority of the family’s time in the U.S. has been farmland, and the original farm in Minnesota that they settled on is still in the family 153 years strong. Long enough that I have relatives who remember hearing stories about Indians riding by and watering their horses at their well.

Lots of pictures from my family have been preserved too and those are a lot of fun to look at.

Has anyone sent their DNA to numerous testing sights to see how they compare?

The idea behind these is cool for the information you get back, but you’re essentially paying a company to evaluate your genetic profile with minimal transparency over the data they gather. Hard pass for me.

The companies involved have helped solve some cold cases which could be a positive, but it also is an eye opener for how powerful access to documented dna data is

How many hundreds of years need to pass for someone with a straight face to say I am 100 % American (all my great grandparents were born in the US – I’m 45).

All my ancestors are dead. Kind of boring story.

I couldn’t care less about where the history comes from and wouldn’t want to send my DNA to any company

All 4 of my Grandparents born in Poland. Immigrated to US in late 1800s as kids. That’s all I know.

Go back far enough and all of our descendents came from Africa.

My aunt did this years ago. Apparently we were run out of Scotland for being horse thieves…
DT

My sister in law did this, and the results said she was mostly British. Personally I find that amusing. What exactly is “British”? The Celts or the Angles or the Saxons? The Vikings that invaded and occupied large areas of the island for years? 400 years of occupation by the Romans? The Norman invasion in 1066?

I think I’m a European mutt, just like most people.

SR

What about your European ancestor’s ancestors? Where did they come from?

buckybadger wrote:

The idea behind these is cool for the information you get back, but you’re essentially paying a company to evaluate your genetic profile with minimal transparency over the data they gather. Hard pass for me.

The companies involved have helped solve some cold cases which could be a positive, but it also is an eye opener for how powerful access to documented dna data is

What he said…
To top ot off it sounds like someone is just writing stories and selling them.

It’s science. How can you deny the results of DNA if you understand the science? My mother’s ancestors resided in Kenya and my fathers ancestor’s resided in Cameroon but it was a long time ago. It’s not a story, it’s a fact. Where do you think that the populations of the world originally came from came from?

I’m with Rootski on this one.Were all mutts mostly just like my dog.

buckybadger wrote:

The idea behind these is cool for the information you get back, but you’re essentially paying a company to evaluate your genetic profile with minimal transparency over the data they gather. Hard pass for me.

Agree. A lot of maybes, and mights, and I think.

Karry Kyllo wrote:

It’s science. How can you deny the results of DNA if you understand the science? My mother’s ancestors resided in Kenya and my fathers ancestor’s resided in Cameroon but it was a long time ago. It’s not a story, it’s a fact. Where do you think that the populations of the world originally came from came from?

It’s science….. I agree. DNA does not lie. 2 sexes. Male and female!! You are born with XX or XY and you will die that way regardless of what you think you are.

DTW

A Russian immigrant could have spoken French. That was the language used across Europe as a common language. Like English is now.

Karry Kyllo wrote:

What about your European ancestor’s ancestors? Where did they come from?

We did a cheaper version and ours concluded we were mainly Germanic, which is hilarious bc as eluded those peops pretty much were the building blocks to most of western Europe. But with that said, that era lasted for quite a while(until Caesar decided to have one of the worlds most devastating genocides on them), which is probably why these DNA folks decided this was a good time to setup the ancenstoral flags, you have to stick them in somewhere in the timeline.

Companies having my DNA is just fine for this guy. Don’t plan on murdering anyone any time soon, and heck if they want to clone me I think it’d be pretty F’in cool to have the possibility of going for a drink w myself one day, we’d have a pretty good time!!

My Dad’s side English and Scottish

My Mom is 100% Latvian!

I’m first generation full American for her family. She, my two Uncles and Grandparents immigrated out Latvia through many refugee camps nearing the end of WWII and found their way to the states. Some horrific stories that unfortunately died with my Grandpa and my oldest Uncle. We have some pictures and a few stories, but my other Uncle and my Mom were too young to remember much of it.

AS the fronts moved throughout the war, their Latvian farm was occupied first by Nazis and then by the Russians. According to my Grandpa, between the two, the Germans were the nice guys. Once Russia moved in, they got while the gettin’ was good. My grandpa’s brother was apparently part of some resistance movement to the Soviets. He disappeared and was never heard from again. Thoughts are that he died in a gulag. I really wish there was more documented. Someday I will visit over there.

Branches of both my parents families go back to colonial times(early 17th century). We have founding fathers, a SCOTUS Chief Justice (Marshall), several notable Revolutionary & Civil war vets, and noted businessmen. And I can’t honestly claim any credit because I wasn’t born. It may be interesting, but that’s about it. We ran the hypothetical descendant numbers for John Marshall and determining that there are probably 80K of us. I’m more than content with my anonymity and simple lifestyle.

My parents did this back in the late 70’s just researching our family tree.

Umhoefer is the last name: Apparently the Hoefers were wealthy landowners and we lived around them ( loosely translated in German -UM means “round” )
So, UM Hoefers ( around the Hoefers) so apparently I come from peasant stock who served the master.

My son just informed me the other day as we were driving and I asked why the bright sunlight made me sneeze. He said it goes back to our origins from living in caves that were full of bacteria and dust and crap and the natural response from the body when going out into full sunlight was to sneeze to eject all the crap from your lungs that you had breathed in ??!!
Not only am I a peasant but apparently a cave dweller too!!

Umy wrote:

My son just informed me the other day as we were driving and I asked why the bright sunlight made me sneeze. He said it goes back to our origins from living in caves that were full of bacteria and dust and crap and the natural response from the body when going out into full sunlight was to sneeze to eject all the crap from your lungs that you had breathed in ??!!
Not only am I a peasant but apparently a cave dweller too!!

thats a condition known as photic sneeze reflex. It affects roughly 18-35% of the population, myself and my son being 2 of them. We call it sun-sneeze-itis.

Interesting reading some of the stories guys

My brother did it, and it matched the family tree stuff we have, basically 100% German (German, Czech and Bavarian). I guess it was to be expected, but they are selling your genetic data, take that as you will:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/2229828-23andme-has-sold-the-rights-to-develop-a-drug-based-on-its-users-dna/#:~:text=DNA%20testing%20company%2023andMe%20has%20sold%20the%20rights,inflammatory%20diseases%2C%20is%20with%20Spanish%20pharmaceutical%20company%20Almirall.

http://www.cglife.com/blog/23andme-sold-your-genetic-data-to-gsk-personalized-medicine-ethics/

Slightly off topic, but my great
great grandfather came from Norway as a kid in the 1850s and settled by Houston MN originally. All three brothers wrote short biographies of their pioneer lives in MN and
South Dakota. Its cool to read different versions of daily life from the start of MN as a state.

Back in those days you could legally divorce a woman for this. (not having a son)

If you were King in 1500’s…

King Henry VIII’s driving desire for a male heir was to lead him to divorce two wives and have two wives beheaded: it led to religious revolution and the creation of the Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation. The decisions that Henry made during his reign were to shape modern Britain.

Back to DNA testing: I had mine done a few years back. No surprises until this summer. Found out one of my relatic’s has a 1/2 sister no one knew about.

Some of ya’ll will deposit your DNA into almost anything after 2am, yet be hesitant to mail it somewhere.

My family tree has been loosely traced back to 1581 with Stephen Hopkins, a Mayflower passenger. Interesting? Yes. believable? Not sure.

I can trace our family back to Adam and Eve. J/K
I did a DNA test and found out I had a half brother from when my dad was in high school he knocked a girl up and he did not even know it. So be careful never know what you will find.

bigcrappie wrote:

I can trace our family back to Adam and Eve. J/K
I did a DNA test and found out I had a half brother from when my dad was in high school he knocked a girl up and he did not even know it. So be careful never know what you will find.

Curious how you are able to find out other siblings like that through a DNA test? Had they also done one or something?