As an adoptee and a convert having a connection to my heritage is important to me. Specifically because my identity as a child was so entwined with the mystery of my birth and birth family, I’ve clung to what little information was provided by the adoption agency. I was always told that I was Irish and Native American. I’ve prided myself on integrating my Irish Heritage with my Jewish Identity and a few months ago I decided to officially pursue membership in the First Nations. The process is difficult, especially with no documented ancestors. As an adoptee my first course of action would be determining what percent of my heritage actually is Native American.
I sent away for my DNA test. The day it arrived I spit in a little tube and popped it right back into the mail. Then the waiting began. I waited and waited and when my results were finally available I was shocked.
Not only was I not mostly Irish, as I had been told my entire life but I had less than 1% Native American Heritage. That percentage hit me first with disappointment, then with laughter because it was the only other heritage listed on my adoption papers other than Irish (of which I am only 14%). So who am I? Who was I to become now? What identity would I cultivate now with this new information?
The biggest shock to me was that 18% of my heritage is composed of African DNA, with the largest percentages being from Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, trace portions from Togo, South-Central Hunter-Gatherers, the Congo, North Africa, and Senegal.
The second biggest shock was that although 77% of my heritage is European (not a surprise), most of it is British followed by Irish then Scandinavian, Western European, Finnish, and a whole 2% of European Jewish. Showing this information to a fellow historian, we decided that Scandinavian heritage was the link to all of it. Clearly my ancestors were Vikings, spreading their DNA all over Europe and Africa like biological confetti.
Okay, maybe not so clearly. Either way, my heritage is no longer a great mystery, now it’s just a small one. So now what do I do with this information? Perhaps it’s time to stop trying to become and to just be.
But for now, when someone asks me about my heritage, I will simply reply “I’m multikosheral”.
