It’s a Really Small World

I’ve recently joined the genetic genealogy club. Mom and I both had our DNA tested through Ancestry DNA. My results just came in. You know how the television commercials show someone making a surprise discovery through their DNA? Surprise, you’re not German, you’re Scottish.

Yeah, my results weren’t anything like that.

Instead, I found out I’m pretty much who I thought I was—genetically speaking—an American of Western European descent. In fact, according to Ancestry, I’m even more Western European than the typical native Western European! I’m 63% Western European, compared to an average of 48%. I’m also 16% Irish, 5% Scandinavian, 11% trace European regions (Iberian Peninsula, Great Britain, Italy/Greece, and European Jewish), 5% West Asian (Caucasus), and 1% South Asian (India). So, 95% European mutt with a little Asian blood thrown in way back.

None of this surprises me. Most of my relatives are of German-descent, including those from Alsace-Lorraine and Switzerland. The rest are from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales—regions reflected in my DNA as Irish and Scandinavian.

Cousins

The surprise came through examining my cousin matches. It seems like there were an awful lot of them! Some of them I even know how we’re related. I had five third cousin matches, including matches from the Hockers, Wieders, and Houdeshells. The rest were fourth-sixth cousins, meaning a common ancestor five or more generations back.

The surprise came in finding out that I match two of my third cousins (siblings) through three of my grandparents! Our match is closest through the Hockers—Albert Curtin and Lillian (Leedy) Hocker. This couple are our great great grandparents. So, we’re third cousins. Our grandfathers knew each other and spent summers visiting their grandparents on the farm in Cumberland County.

But these cousins also match me on the other side of the family! If I go back through my Wieder ancestors through the female line to Abraham and Anna Sibilla (Fuchs) Herb. We descend from their daughters Anna Margaretha (Herb) Bobb and Catharine (Herb) Fronheiser.

And we’re likely related through my ancestor George Heilig whose daughter Eva Elisabetha married Johann Jacob Kline. I’m not sure of the connection, but we both have Heiligs who lived in proximity to one another in our trees.

Furthermore, we match going back through my Hoover family, through Walker, Eckley and Mayes ancestors to the Dotterer family. Catharine Margaret Fetzer, daughter of Andrew and Magdalena (Dotterer) Fetzer, married Andrew Walker about 1791. They settled in Boggs Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. I descend through their son, John who married Mary Lucas and had a daughter Catharine who married John Eckley, and two of their daughters: Catharine, who married George M. Walker, and Mary Ann who married John Mayes Jr.

It’s a really, really small world.

• Category: Family
• Tag: Ancestry.com, DNA