Wow, I had no intention of going more than 3 months between entries, but it's hard to set a new routine when life gets in the way! I'm going to make more of an effort going forward.

In the past 3 months, a lot has happened for me in regards to genealogy! I've received my dna results from Ancestry DNA going back roughly 1000 years, am currently awaiting results for two more relatives, I'm enrolled in my final two courses of my Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies, and I've had some new genealogical discoveries and made new contacts.

So the big thing I want to get into tonight is my dna results. I'm very pleased with my experience, from the time frame it took to receive the results (less than a month), to the results themselves which more or less confirmed I was on the right track, with just a couple of very minor intrigues: 44% Ireland, Wales and Scotland, 38% Western Europe (mainly France, Germany, Spain), and 11% Scandinavia. I was somewhat, but not overly, surprised to see trace amounts of European Jewish, but I was much more surprised to discover trace amounts of Middle Eastern. I initially suspected this may have been from the Crusades, however, I recently read an article about Middle Eastern dna being extracted from a skeleton near York, in a Roman mass grave. Theories on who the men were include gladiators, soldiers, or even criminals. Having a couple of Yorkshire lines myself going back centuries, this is very intriguing! The UK, Irish and Scandinavian percentages all sounded about right, based on my current research and lore passed down through the generations, and the Western European percentage seems to confirm some family lore and speculation, as well as some research.

One of my branches were the Buffetts of the south coast of Newfoundland, who allegedly originated in France. While I have no doubts that they were from France, my own research is not yet back that far so until I can confirm it myself, I cannot say that with certainty. Other related families on the south coast of Newfoundland (of whom I'm also descended) have mixed origin stories, with some being France and others England, so again, until I can locate information for myself I cannot say with any certainty.

Another of my lines is Gates, and I've read two differing origins on the surname. One being that they were of the Briton people, and they got their name because they lived at or near gates. This is completely logical, given that many British surnames were based on locations and landmarks. However, the other origin is that many Gates were descended from Gaetz of Germany. Given the very prominent, bright blue eyes in our Gates family, we believed our family to be of the latter group. My high percentage of Western European dna would indicate this is a good possibility!

More lore says that multiple lines were descended from Scandinavia. A great-grand aunt said we were descnded from Scandinavians, though it's unclear whether she refered to the Stevensons or Duncans. I believe it to be the Duncans who were quite tall and fair, with the men standing over 6' tall even in the 1800s, much as you might expect a Scandinavian (but again, no proof so far). Another line is allegedly descended from one of the MacDonald clans, and based on what I've read, the clan's history included descent from a former king of Scotland, who married the daughter of a king of Norway, and he in turn became king of Norway.

Finally, more family lore says that my grandfather's great-great-grandmother was a Spanish woman, who wore a red cape and a black poke hat. While the lore states that her husband was a paymaster sergeant in the army, I have no names, and unfortunately, have not yet traced those lines back far enough. But having Spanish ancestry would also up my Western European percentage, and could definitely also explain the trace amounts from the Iberian Peninsula.

It will be fantastic to receive the results of my relatives (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) to see how their results compare to mine!

Heather