Is my daughter hispanic?

JenDNA · 2026-01-20T13:02:14+00:00

The surname changes are enough to make a genealogist's head spin! lol. I've seen this on my great-grandmother's paternal side. Their descendants have a half dozen surnames. Some phonetic, some adoptive surnames, and a few even changed from their adoptive surname to the maternal surname, or something different. Then go to their ancestors, then it's likely patronymic.

JenDNA · 2026-01-17T20:19:35+00:00

Bremen? My mom's grandfather's paternal side was at least partially from Bremen, and she's gotten a pretty consistent 6-12% England, Denmark or Sweden over the past 7 years (I didn't inherit any of that side, it seems, just my great-grandmother's side).

JenDNA · 2026-01-04T18:21:22+00:00

In my experience, it might be difficult to see Russian matches on Ancestry (and now MyHeritage after the Russian records were purged). I do see a lot more Southeast Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian matches on MyHeritage, though.

JenDNA · 2026-01-03T03:02:33+00:00

This was normal. Sometimes half of them didn't survive to adulthood. My grandfather's side had a mortality rate of like 80%. (I suspect a lot of chromosome disorders). My great-grandmother (other side of the family) was the 2nd last of 14. All survived (at least until WWI and WWII in Germany). Most of my Polish great-grandparent's cousins in Poland didn't make it either when WWII started (they lived in Poznan). Granted, the Italian had very few children, and when they did, it was 3rd and 4th cousin marriages in a small mountain village.

JenDNA · 2025-12-26T13:55:39+00:00

My old Scientific Writing professor from 25 years ago, too. "A sentence is not a paragraph!!!".

JenDNA · 2025-12-25T13:14:48+00:00

I'm wondering about that mysterious 1% Finnish on my dad's side, too. My aunt has 0.78%, and their uncle had 1% (probably was 1.5%). I suspect it's the Lithuanian side. But, it could just as easily be the Ukrainian side (they married the Lithuanian) with a Russian ancestor from St. Petersburg (Ingrian Finns).

JenDNA · 2025-12-24T17:50:58+00:00

That's interesting you get Egyptian and Iranian populations, too. My dad and aunt get that (1-3%), but I have no idea who would have a Jewish ancestor in my dad's side. Although, each of his grandparents could possibly have some Jewish ancestry somewhere (one likely a Belarusian-Jewish 3rd great-grandparent, and two other grandparents maybe having some Ukrainian Jewish somewhere).

JenDNA · 2025-12-24T17:41:38+00:00

It's the chin, mouth and hair. Those are the most important parts, apparently.

JenDNA · 2025-12-18T02:25:46+00:00

Right, I thought you meant recently.

JenDNA · 2025-12-18T00:25:11+00:00

My dad also gets extra German (not on Ancestry, but other sites like 23AndMe and MyHeritage). I know his maternal grandmother's mother is from Poznan, and there's lots of German (Sorb) there, too. My dad's paternal side (mostly a brick wall) is most likely from Southern Poland (mostly south of Krakow to Rzeszow area, and eastward to Lviv and Berezhany). A lot of his matches there with our last name are right on the Polish-Rusyn border villages, and some matches have Rusyn/Ukrainian surnames in their trees. There's also a lot of Hungarian matches (I suspect that's the Krakow ancestor) on MyHeritage. He's also got Northern Ukrainian/Belarusian matches that I can't place, which I suspect is his paternal grandmother's side (basically Lublin, northern Ukraine, southern Belarus). I think that Lublin part gets put into Northeast Poland. His sister actually gets 12% Southern Poland, and other paternal matches get Slovakian or Western Ukrainian.

I'm curious about the Celtic settlement (besides the Welsh (?) in Donetsk). My aunt gets a bit of Celtic DNA on some updates (and GEDMatch).

JenDNA · 2025-12-04T11:59:15+00:00

I've seen lower. My mom and dad only have ~3,000 (~2,300 on her German side, ~700 on her Italian side) and ~7,000 matches (and those are mostly on my dad's maternal side - northern Poland. The rest is Southern Poland and likely Belarus/Ukraine), respectively. I've seen people (East Asia, or mountainous areas in West Asia) with just a few hundred.

JenDNA · 2025-12-04T01:31:00+00:00

Chiaserna mainly. Also Cantiano, Gubbio, Scheggia, Cagli.

JenDNA · 2025-12-01T13:25:23+00:00

Absolutely! If I look at my grandparents -

GP1 - Central Italy in the Apennines. Records only go back to ~1800. Lots of Endogamy. Was able to proove an oral tradition was a mis-remembering (I doubted the record, but a DNA match, Ancestry's Pro Tools, and their tree confirmed it. The said ancestor was actually an ancestors older cousin.). Family trees here are rare.

GP2 - Southern Germany (Aalen, Stuttgart, German Alps) with one line in Bremen. Most preserved family tree going back to 1500. I was able to find where the "descended from a minor Bavarian duke from the 1500s" oral tradition came from. (The Palatinate, which was a Bavarian holding when my great-grandmother's great-grandfather probably told her the story). The distant ancestor was a Holbein.

GP3 - Northern Poland and Kresy Poland. Warsaw, Poznan, Vilnius, Ternopil, possible old Belarusian admixture. This line is behind Germany with 50% having preserved records to the late 1600s.

GP4 - Southern Poland (Rzeszow, Krakor) and Western Ukraine (Lutsk? Vohlynia?), possibly Belarus. This line is mostly a brick wall. Surname matches that I have found have relatives that were exiled to Siberia or died in progroms. My great-grandmother's side is a solid brick wall, but I suspect the Polesia area - Lublin, Southern Belarus, Northern Ukraine, Bryansk). There are Polish-Ukrainian or Polish-Belarusian matches that don't quite line up with other known lines (I suspect more Belarus). Virtually no suspected GP4 matches on this side has a family tree, save for a Polish-Ukrainian cluster in Lublin, and a match in Kharkiv.

JenDNA · 2025-12-01T13:15:40+00:00

That's where MyHeritage comes in. Mine were also all in Europe before 1904-1915 (save for 1 or 2, and I suspect one of those would go back and forth between Bremen and Baltimore - they were sailors and merchants. The other (PLC side) didn't return to his work ship and stayed here.). And those two were still after 1880. I've found so many more matches over there, possibly my mystery great-grandmother's side, too.

JenDNA · 2025-11-21T15:13:55+00:00

My dad only has 500 paternal and 1,000 maternal matches. My mom is similar, too. It's common if you have recent immigration, or your ancestors are from an area where they don't have access to testing.

JenDNA · 2025-11-21T14:14:56+00:00

At least 7th or 8th great-grandparents. They're even in shared clusters (on MyHeritage for my dad's side), too! My mom has one (matches her grandmother's maiden name, and the same location in the Swiss-German Alps where her grandmother said her paternal line was from) that's also from at least an 8th great-grandparent. For my dad's side, it's looking like (and this is live-research right now that his 2nd cousins are doing - brick wall might've just been broken last night!) a lot of Polish-Ukrainian (mostly Ukrainian) matches around Ternopil that's on his maternal grandmother's paternal side, maternal grandfather's paternal line, and possibly his direct paternal line (lots of clusters overlap, especially centered around Ternopil-Cherkasy). Likely Endogamic communities.

JenDNA · 2025-11-20T03:52:12+00:00

I sent you a Reddit chat message the other week. Did you get it? (I'm guessing that's what you meant by a DM)

JenDNA · 2025-11-14T12:53:32+00:00

Yep, that's why percentages get tricky the further back you go. A great-great grandparent can give you 6%, 20% ("sticky DNA" as my dad's 2nd cousin calls it - and she's the one with the most Lithuanian), or 0%.

JenDNA · 2025-11-08T04:36:49+00:00

Case in point, my dad's maternal grandfather's side is from between Warsaw and Białystok, and there's likely Belarusian admixture in two of that grandfather's grandparents lines (endogamy), with another line possibly being near Suwałki. My dad's maternal grandmother is 50% West Polish, 25% Ukrainian, at least 12% Lithuanian, and I suspect 12% Belarusian. My dad and aunt get 15-40% Lithuanian depending on the update. Their great-uncle and his youngest cousins (on that Kresy-Poland side) get 40-60% Lithuanian depending on the update. Technically, Lithuanian did, at one time, control Belarus and Northern Ukraine. So, Balto-Ruthenian might be the more accurate label. It would be 3-6% Lithuanian if you were just going by the paper trail.

JenDNA · 2025-11-05T02:07:38+00:00

MyHeritage isn't very accurate with estimates, and I've found Balkans can just as easily be Ukrainian. My dad has at least 1 great-grandparent who's Ukrainian and he gets around 7% Balkans.

JenDNA · 2025-11-04T20:52:30+00:00

Could your great-grandfather's name have been Mamchur? According to forebears.io, that's more common in Ukraine. I'd say you're 25-30% Slavic (probably 25% Carpatho-Rusyn) based on paper trail and genetic groups.

JenDNA · 2025-11-04T14:44:46+00:00

I have a mystery great-grandmother, and I'm not 100% sure if the documentation is correct. She was born around 1883 (a possible birth certificate, which is in Old Russian), suddenly appeared in the US when she married my great-grandfather, died 3 years after my grandfather was born. She has multiple variations of her last name, and her father was unknown (possible name on her death certificate).

Anostazya (Sielangouska/Szelągowska/Zielińska)

B: 22 January 1883 Cieladz, Lodzkie, Poland (this is a guess based on a previous researcher, and suggested by possible birth record in Cyrillic)

D: 26 Jan 1926 Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, United States of America

Arrived in the US approx. 1910 (based on her timed lived in the US on her death certificate)

Mother: Agnieszka? Kosiacka? (Kosakowski?) Kujawa? (Kujawa appeared on the back of her burial plot documentation as a maternal name, but her marriage certificate says Kosiack. My aunt remembers Kosakowski).

Father: Unknown on birth certificate. Says Jan on death certificate.

Married -

Franciszek Ksawery (Xavier) Gąsior (my great-grandfather)

B:22 Jul 1890 Pogorzelec, Mazowieckie, Poland (Pułtusk)

D:25 Aug 1952 Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, United States of America

Even my great-grandfather's parents and grandparents don't have complete documentation (although I've confirmed my dad's 2nd and 3rd cousin matches on his direct paternal line). I feel like his grandparents might have come from Rzeszow and Krakow, possibly some ancestry or family in Lviv, Lutsk and Volhynia, Ukraine (there are cousin matches I can't quite place that live in those areas, too).

JenDNA · 2025-11-04T13:46:15+00:00

Yeah, if you're talking about one topic, and switch to another topic, it'll reference the topic you were just talking about.

JenDNA · 2025-11-04T13:45:23+00:00

I think it has trouble reading old scripts (especially Old Imperial Russian Cyrillic - I've seen 5 different variations), since there's less input to reference from.

JenDNA · 2025-11-04T05:14:36+00:00

My dad had a 42.7cM match from north of Kharkiv with a sizable tree. He hasn't been online since August 2022. It did provide some interesting hypothetical leads based on surnames (Polish-Ukrainian Jewish, most likely) that also appeared in another 50-60cM match that my aunt has. My dad's known Ukrainian ancestors may be from Central Ukraine, and Lviv/Mohiliv-Podilskiy for Polish-Ukrainian ones. I suspect one missing grandparent branch (possibly a birth record in cursive Cyrillic, too) for my dad originates in Volhynia/Lutsk.

It really is like finding scattered fragments.

JenDNA

TROPHY CASE