Digging In To One's Roots

Digging In To One's Roots

My column from January 7, 2017.

Years ago a school project that required my son to work on a family tree sparked my interest in digging into my family’s history.

Using genealogy resources available online, a family Bible, photographs and conversations with a paternal great aunt and my maternal grandmother, I traced my way back through the past and learned what “once removed” means when talking about cousins.

Social media played a role in my search. I met distant cousins on both sides of my family, including one from my mother’s side of the family still living in Finland and one on my father’s side who lives in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. I discovered a distant cousin who lives in Wisconsin, but is also a Yooper. We both attended Michigan Tech, where her daughter and my son are now in their third year as students. She is a descendant of Sam, a younger brother of my great-great-grandfather Henry.

Two five-generation photos printed in newspapers —one featuring me as an infant, and the other with my paternal grandmother as the baby — helped me trace back that branch of the family tree to the names of my great-great-great-great-grandparents on the maternal side of my father’s family.

The Lutey family Bible, passed down to my father and now my son, helped me discover the names of my great-great-great-grandparents, which led to the discovery of my great-great-great-great-grandfather John Lutey, born in Cornwall in 1795. His brother is a great-grandparent for my distant cousin in Cornwall, but I did not need that research to tell me he was family. He looks too much like my grandpa Jim and great uncle Hans for me to have any doubt.

Given what I learned about my family’s origins, I could tell you I was part Finnish, Swedish, Cornish, Danish, Slovakian and possibly French Canadian and Austrian. One birth certificate suggested I might even have traces of First Nation Canadian in my blood.

My cousin in Finland set me a digital copy of a hand-drawn family tree that also helped me in my research. I printed copies to share with my grandmother, who shared closer roots to that side of the family. I’ve traced my family back to great-great-great-grandparents through that tree and conversations with Grandma Ethel.

Last year, I tried another method of climbing my family tree – using my DNA to tell me more. What I learned fascinated me, and suggested inaccuracies in old birth records (or the scandalous possibility that a person I thought was a distant great-grandfather might not be).

The DNA test revealed my ancestry origins as being approximately 56 percent from Finland/Northwest Russia, 14 percent from Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway and Denmark), 12 percent eastern Europe, 10 percent from Ireland (which includes Scotland, Wales and Cornwall), 6 percent western Europe, 1 percent from the Iberian Peninsula and less than 1 percent from Great Britain.

The mystery of the Iberian Peninsula percentage puzzled me, until I remembered my history lessons and the story of the Spanish Armada during the reign of Elizabeth I of England. In 1588, a fleet of 130 ships set sail from Spain, intent on invading England. They failed, and one-third of those ships did not return to Spain. Some sailors washed up on the shores of Ireland.

Mystery possibly solved.

I found it fascinating that my Cornish ancestry is considered as being from Ireland and not Great Britain. Having Scotland included in that bloodline lends credence to research that suggests the Lutey family name originated there.

I usually pay more attention to St. Urho’s Day — a March 16 celebration of a fictional Finnish saint — but this year I plan to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day, since I can now legitimately claim I am 10 percent “Irish.”

I bought another DNA testing kit as a Christmas gift for my son and look forward to him sharing his results.

A cousin on my mother’s side used a DNA test from the same source, so it helpfully revealed our family connection as “highly likely” to be first cousins. The site, Ancestry.com, also reveals many potential fourth to sixth cousins, but will only allow me to connect with them if I sign up as a member. While I initially used a site called Family Echo to build and store my genealogy research and family tree, I am slowly importing that information into Ancestry.com in hopes of connecting with more family.

If you are interested in tracing your family’s roots, I recommend starting at a local library to utilize genealogy tools available there.

Digging into your family’s past serves as a great way to find distant relatives and offers a personal look back at history.

Update- As part of a research study, I received the results from a different DNA test (through 23 & Me) that switched the "Irish" to United Kingdom. So much for claiming Irish blood on March 17.