Arnold, Lee

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Swedish American Genealogist Volume 36 Number 4 Article 8 12-1-2016 Confessions of a Genealogy DNA Test Addict Lee Arnold Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag  Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Arnold, Lee (2016) "Confessions of a Genealogy DNA Test Addict," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 36 : No. 4 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol36/iss4/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@augustana.edu. 10 Swedish American Genealogist 2016:4My father was a habitual liar. I know thatsounds cruel, but it is the truth. He told uskids we were Irish – not true. He told uswe were part Native American – also nottrue. He told us we were related to country& western singer Eddy Arnold – really,Eddy Arnold? He told us we were relatedto Jefferson Davis – my goodness, suchnonsense. I dismissed Eddie Arnold rightaway. I was gullible, but not that gullible.In my early years of genealogical searchingI did check out the Jefferson Davis claimand saw that that too was a lark. The Irishthing though, that was a bit harder to crack.I was intrigued.I wondered, if we were Irish, why werewe all born Baptists and then raised Meth-odists; why were we not Catholic? Thisquestion was not readily answered in ourhouse. By the time I hit high school, I de-cided I would attend a Catholic college. Itwas in college that I did the first of, inretrospect, a string of impulsive acts thatall would have been neatly avoided byactually doing my genealogy first. In thisinstance, I converted to Catholicism to getcloser to my Irish roots. Oh yes, I wentthere. It was only a few years later, when Ifound a long-lost relative in Marion Co.,Illinois, that I realized we were not Irish atall, but rather Scotch-Irish (that explainedso much, like why I could never tan – onlyburn). So there I was, a Scotch-IrishCatholic – now that’s a small club. Eventu-ally I left Catholicism, returning to myProtestant roots, and eventually became asecular Jew (don’t ask). But before that, Idecided, against all good judgment, thatmy father, even though he was so wrongabout the Irish thing, was right about theNative American ancestor.I was obsessed with the notion of beingAmerican Indian. I decided, since Daddy’speople were from Tennessee, that I mustbe Cherokee. So I became a charter mem-ber of the Smithsonian’s National Museumof the American Indian. And I startedlearning the Cherokee alphabet and tookan Indian name. I dove in, big time. It wasjust around then that genealogical DNAtesting was hitting the news.I ordered a kit from DNA Print Geno-mics and received my results on May 23,2006. I was so excited. I read them outloud: “95% European, that makes sense,and 5% Che…, huh,” stopping mid-word.My spouse asked what’s wrong. I said: “Ihave good news and bad news. The badnews is that I’m not Cherokee. The goodnews is that I’m Black.”Yes, the remaining 5% was listed asSub-Saharan African. Daddy never told usabout that. I, of course, was elated again.And I promptly took out a charter mem-bership with the Smithsonian’s fledglingNational Museum of African AmericanHistory and Culture (do you see a trendabout me needing to self-identify?).I wanted to find out more about myBlack heritage and took another test threemonths later, this time using Trace Gene-tics. And I came back 100% European/Middle Eastern – what? That was too vaguefor me. I needed details. Unfortunately forme these tests all cost around $200.So I waited a few years and finally in2009 found DNA Tribes (sounded perfectto me) and waited for the results. And whenthey came back I was a mixture of about20 ethnic groups, the largest being Tuscan(yes, as in Italy) at 9%. And there was notan African or Native American in any ofthe rest. I was, just to name a few, partTurkish (7%), Portuguese (5%), Roman-ian (5%), French (5%), Greek Cypriot(5%), Belgian (4%), Serbian (4%), Basque(4%), Slovenian (4%), etc. I called the com-pany and asked about all of the SouthernEuropean/Mediterranean results; I believeI said: “You realize that I’m paler than aPresbyterian?” They didn’t care. Theirresults were what they were.I waited two more years before I ven-tured back into the gene [testing] pool. OnDecember 5, 2011, myDNAmix had me ata boring 100% European. On July 15, 2014,myOrigins had me also 100% European buthinted at British Isles and Scandinavia.Scandinavia, that sounded interesting.Perhaps I was a Viking. I waited two moreyears before being tested again. Whatprompted me was seeing the victoriousIcelandic national soccer team do a tradi-tional Viking war cheer. Something stirredwithin my spine. I knew I had to find out ifperhaps I could really be a rugged Nordictype (I just needed to grow my beard outand start to eating herring). Perhaps thiswas the heritage that had thus far eludedme.On July 5, 2016, I received confirmationof my hunch. Genographic (by NationalGeographic) found I was 46% Scandina-vian, 37% British and Irish, 10% SouthernConfessions of a Genealogy DNA Test AddictHow come I change my origins so often?BY LEE ARNOLDJefferson Davis, Confederate president.11Swedish American Genealogist 2016:4European, 4% Finnish and Serbian, and 2%Eastern European. Even though mymother’s parents both came from Germany,and German was the language of the homeand church, I had no German blood in me,nichts. I did some research and found thatthe part of Pomerania where my grandfat-her came from was at one time called Swe-dish Pomerania (since it was ruled bySweden). That was it; I was home. I hadfinally found my people and (surprise!)promptly joined the American SwedishHistorical Museum in Philadelphia.Was I done? Not at all. Like anyone inan established 12-Step Program, I waspowerless over the seductive call of theDNA test. I thought: just one more, just tomake sure. On November 2, 2016, I gotmy results from the AncestryDNA test. Iwas 71% Western European, 11% Irish,10% Scandinavian, 3% British, 2% Fin-nish/Russian, 1% Eastern European, 1%Iberian, and 1% Italian/Greek. I wasdevastated. How could I drop from 46%Scandinavian in July to 10% in Novem-ber? Is it even possible? I want to be a Vi-king, damn it! [See, I even curse like one.]I am done. I swear this time. No morescraping my inner-cheeks or spitting intotubes. No more converting religion, nomore joining ethnic museums, no moreDNA testing. I curse; I curse all of thoseAncestry.com commercials. But it’s not justAncestry; all of these testing sites have thesame reliability, in my mind, as a smooth-talkin’ Herbalife salesman. No more forme, thank you.But then I was on the phone with theAmerican Swedish Historical Museum,confirming my reservation for their annualLucia Festival (of course). I asked herabout the discrepancies in my last two tests.She didn’t have an answer, but said: “Haveyou tried 23andMe? I hear they are reallygood.”  Oh no. She shouldn’t have donethat. It was like swinging a fresh loaf ofsourdough bread in front of Oprah or acatnip toy to a tabby. I started saying theSerenity Prayer but then stopped mid-plea.What would my common Cherokee-Afri-can-Swedish-Italian-Basque-Romanianancestor say? Maybe just one more test.Lee Arnold is an APG member and thesenior director of the library and col-lections at The Historical Society ofPennsylvania.His e-mail is: <larnold@hsp.org >What is a “männing”?Männing is a Swedish word that has at leasttwo meanings:1) it is a word that explains a relationship.If you have a cousin you are two genera-tions from the common ancestor; yourself,your parent, and your grandparent. Insteadof cousin you say that you and your cousinare tvåmänningar (two=två).Next you have sysslingar (2nd cousins)or tremänningar (three generations backto the common ancestor.And then comes bryllingar or fyrmän-ningar (four generations back to the com-mon ancestor. Brylling is not a very com-mon word in daily use.With this männing-system you can easilygo back many generations, and if you hearsomebody mention that so-and-so is aniomänning, then you have met anothergenealogist.Years ago I found out that my husbandand I are ½ elevenmänningar, as we areboth descended from a lady in Falun, Gun-borg Olofsdotter, who was married twice,and he comes from her first marriage, andI from the second. This is early 1600s.2) It is a word that has to do with the Swed-ish army during the time of the Great Nor-dic War (1700–1720),  when Sweden wasfighting against Denmark, Poland, andRussia during the reign of Karl XII (1682–1718).The war started with various victories,but in 1709 the Swedish army was on themarch towards Moscow, but lost the battleof Poltava in modern Ukraine. The wholeSwedish army was taken prisoner and hadto spend the time in Siberia.until the Peaceof Nystad in 1721. After the peace, thesurvivors were allowed to go home again.After the losses in 1709 Sweden neededto set up a new army, and this was doneaccording to the allotment system (indel-ningsverket) according to which eachcounty was divided into many rotar, andeach rote consisted of a number of farms,maybe 4-6, that were responsible for hiringa soldier and furnishing him with the neces-sary equipment.In difficult times two rotar could com-bine their resources and together hire onesoldier, who was then listed as a tvåmän-ningssoldat.The war went on, and in 1710 the Swed-ish army won the battle of Helsingborg inSkåne, and then went to northern Germanyto try to end the war with a victory overDanish, Saxonian, and Russian forces, buthad to surrender in 1713 at the fortress ofTönning in Holstein-Gottorp and the Swed-ish soldiers were taken prisoners.So a new army was recruited, and thistime the authorities had to resort to sol-diers hired by not only two rotar, but bythree, four, or five rotar: Tvåmännings-soldater, tremänningssoldater, fyrmän-ningssoldater, and femmänningssoldater.The same happened to the cavalry regi-ments, where they also had to find horses.King Karl was killed in 1718 in Norway,succeeded by his sister Ulrika Eleonora.In the final Peace of Nystad in 1721 withthe Russians, Sweden lost Estonia, Ingria,Livonia, and parts of Finland, resulting ina border between Sweden and Russia thatis similar to the present border betweenFinland and Russia.

Confessions of a Genealogy DNA Test Addict

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Confessions of a Genealogy DNA Test Addict

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