Who are Your People and Where Do You Come From - It's in my DNA

    I grew up with a story teller.  She told us our history.  I would sit at my Nana's knee and breath in her every word.  She held my unyeilding attention, caught on her every word.  

"We are descendants from royalty, and don't ever forget that. 

 We are descended from Robert the Bruce".  

"There was a race to see who would reach the Isle of Skye first.  The first to touch it would claim it.  It was the Mackinnons who reached it first.  The chieftain cut off his hand it threw it onto Skye, 

he was the first to touch it, and it became theirs."  

    I am not doing these stories justice, time has dulled the actual stories, but not the love I felt for my Nana, and not the emotion behind the stories.  Who I am is largely because of my Nana.  She was so proud.  To hear Nana tell it I had only Scottish in my veins, and a small pinch of Irish from her father.

To be Scottish, was to be proud of who you were.  We are a strong people.  I believed every word as gospel. 

    On the week-ends and holidays I heard different stories sporadically from my father who worked long hours.  My great-great-great- grandfather was a blacksmith, the first in Upper Canada.  He set up shop in what is now Harrowsmith and it was named for his trade.  Dad would tell us stories of his family.  His family history is as Canadian as it gets.  No one could remember a time that we did not live in Canada.  The only heritage that he could think of were Welsh.  We were Canadian, we built this land.  

   

    I think that my family lore was what drew me to history and my love of it.  I want to know more, to know why.  Everything that I knew was family lore.  Stories over time become more fantastic, less fact based, still entertaining.  They became the fabric of who I was.

     Fast forward in time.  The program "Who Do You Think You Are" grabbed my attention.  For those of you not in the know, it's a program where celebrities with the help of experts trace their genealogy and learn their family history and fascinating stories.  I would love to be on the show, oh ya I'm not famous.  Then they began advertising for Ancestry DNA kits.  Too much money, put it on the back burner.

    In all of my family history at no point did anyone ever mention the vikings.  At least half of the members on my mothers side of the family have red hair.  Red hair is known to have been brought to Scotland and Ireland by the vikings.  The summer before last we took a family vacation to Nova Scotia, specifically Cape Breton.  Cape Breton is known for their highland culture.  It was inhabited by Scottish Highlanders and they very much carry on the traditions.  We visited the Gaelic College to emerge ourselves in their culture and in our own culture.

http://gaeliccollege.edu

It was quite fascinating.  We entered the Hall of Clans.  I went over to look at the Mackinnon Clan, and the Hamilton Clan.  When I looked at the Mackinnon Clan there was mention of heavy Viking blood. How interesting...

    One car ride Riley and I were talking about gifts, Mother's Day was quickly approaching.  I said to her in passing "When you become rich, I really want the Ancestry DNA kit for Mother's Day", apparently that pretty little girl listened, because for Mother's Day I received the Ancestry DNA kit.  I was beyond ecstatic!  The Monday after Mother's Day I began to fill that tube with spit, oh and it's every single bit as gross as it sounds.  I felt like it was just a small tube and it would take a single spit, I was wrong.  The bubbles really grossed me out.  Once my stomach settled I skipped to the post office and sent it off.  

    I was expecting Scottish, Irish and Welsh.  I am not terrible exotic.  I received the email last week, telling me my DNA had been processed and the results were posted.  WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Turns out I do have Viking blood!  That makes me a little exotic, how exciting.