Category Archives: Inspiration and Self Discovery

“We are, all of us, fragments of those who came before us and a foundation for those who will come after we are gone.”

L.P. Madera

Growing up, I was told my father’s side of the family was French-Canadian and my mother’s Scots-Irish. Not Scotch-Irish because Scotch is a whiskey, as my great-great-grandfather would say. That would make my brother and me French-Canadian-Scots-Irish, which sounds like an odd combination considering the both of us don’t look much like either, but what does that really mean?

When we talk about lineage, we often think of the more shallow aspects like what our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents identified as. This is what supposedly defines who we are when we identify as European, Irish, Scottish, German, French, or whatever. Especially when we live in a community of individuals with whom we share ethnicity and physical traits. However, our roots run much deeper than that. These deeper roots of our ancestry are responsible for some of the phenotypic characteristics that make us appear ‘different’ from the typical person with whom we supposedly share our ethnicity. It can be frustrating to be told you are one thing but have phenotypic characteristics that make you appear to be something else according to others.

Throughout my childhood, I often wondered, “Do I perhaps have an ancestor, or ancestors, that passed these traits off to my mother, brother, and me? What did they look like? Where were they really from?” We never looked like the other Scots-Irish children from our community. Because of the shape of my face and eyes (which I inherited from my mom and she lovingly calls ‘moon eyes’ due to the crescent moon shape), I was often made fun of and labeled as Asian by some of my peers. My brother, on the other hand, inherited not only my mom’s ‘moon eyes’, but her darker skin as well making him look more South Asian to some. As I delved deeper into the realm of biology and genetics as a college student, I came to realize that it was not the shape of my eyes that gave me this look. My mother, brother, and I all share what is known as ‘epicanthic folds’ of our eyes. These are folds on the upper eyelids that cover the inner corner of the eye. There are many variations of this trait. From what I found from research articles, this trait is quite prevalent among individuals of Asian descent including those from Central Asia, North Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Polynesia, and Indigenous Americans. However, it can occur less frequently in those of European descent such as Hungarians, Russians, and Scandinavians. One interesting theory I found was that this trait evolved for individuals living in colder climates. The extra fat and adipose tissue was said to help shelter the eye and sinuses from harsh, cold winds. Another was that this trait developed in equatorial regions to shield the eyes from harsh UV light.

The Genetic Aspect of it

Because I am a biologist and am passionate about sharing science with others, I will try to explain a few terms of genetics: Phenotype, genotype, and lineage. It is important to understand how they pertain to DNA and the human genome. DNA is described by many as the ‘blueprint for life’ because it contains everything needed to code an organism and help it function. To put this in simple terms, think of DNA as a computer code and the organism to which the DNA belongs, whether it be single or multicellular, as the computer program the code runs. The code consists of the four nucleotides Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, connected in an endless plethora of sequences. DNA is double-stranded with complementary nucleotides, or base pairing. Adenine pairs with Thymine and Cytosine bonds to Guanine through Hydrogen bonding. The variety of sequences code for the many different parts that make an organism unique and help it to function. An organism’s genetic makeup is known as the genotype. This is how the genes are organized and passed down to offspring. These genotypes code for physical characteristics that you can see; the phenotype. These can be hair color, eye color, eye shape, and any other visible traits. The characteristics can be recessive or dominant, meaning that one trait will show up over the other, even when the organism has alleles for both. However, genetics can be more complex. You can have codominance (think about AB blood type or pink flowers from a mix of red and white). You can also have incomplete dominance (think about tortoiseshell cats). Some traits even need multiple active genes to be expressed (yellow labs that have the genes for black or chocolate coats appear yellow because they have an active gene for no pigment). Furthermore, some genes will usually only be expressed by females while the others are generally male-dominant in what is known as sex-linked inheritance. There are even traits that can skip one or multiple generations and appear many years later, leading to a change in phenotype.

As you can tell, genetics can be quite a complex, yet fascinating topic, and I have only brushed the tip of the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other factors and I’m not even going to go in-depth on the combinations of DNA that get passed to offspring/split during reproduction, or how genes can do random crossing and combinations. however, I recommend you check the links I have provided if you are interested in reading further.

The Reason Behind this Journey of Discovery

Now, to get to the point. To fully grasp why I am rambling on about the subject and why I have begun this fascinating genealogical journey of self-discovery, you must first understand the motivations behind it. I have already disclosed one of these in the previous paragraphs. Growing up, I had a lot of issues with my identity because my mother, brother, and I looked ‘different’ according to other people. I also never really knew my ancestors or where I came from. In school, we would have little Dia De Los Muertos celebrations for Spanish class and I would always wonder which of my ancestors to remember. I’m sure it was like this for many of today’s youth as well.

The other reason was the death of my maternal grandmother. She passed away unexpectedly on November 17th, 2021. It shocked everyone in the family to their core. While she and I never shared religious/spiritual viewpoints (a topic we preferred to just avoid altogether so there would be no conflict), we did share a love for science fiction (Frank Herbert’s Dune and Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek especially) as well as genetics/genealogy. While she was still alive, she, my mother, and I took several ancestral DNA tests and compared results. These included tests from Ancestry DNA, MyHeritage, and CRI genetics.

Upon observing the different tests, it appeared that Ancestry only tested for the most recent ancestral lineages (Mine were: 32% Scotland, 23% England/Northwestern Europe, 18% Ireland, 17% Sweden/Denmark, 5% Germanic Europe, 4% Eastern Europe/Russia, and 1% Finland). However, MyHeritage and CRI genetics went deeper and explored older ancestors. From MyHeritage, I found that I had higher percentages of Scandinavian, Western European, and even some Iberian, Greek, and Ashkenazi Jewish. These results, I have compiled into different pie charts to help visualize the percentages better. While I didn’t take a CRI Genetics test, I am using my mom’s results. They conducted a recent analysis, which looks at five generations of her ancestors. The advanced analysis looked even further back. It went thousands of years well beyond the last five generations and looks at some of the oldest ancestors in the family history. This advanced ancestry broke her results into European, AdMixed American, South Asian, and East Asian. These four categories were broken further into smaller segments which is shown in the graph below. It was the most fascinating thing to find out because while the percentages were relatively low, perhaps it was these phenotypic traits that were expressed in my mother, brother, and me.

The Relic

Fast-forward to the week of November 17th, 2021, and the days that followed. I was emotionally numb and couldn’t believe my grandmother was gone just like that, in the blink of an eye. She hadn’t even gotten to see my book published yet, which was something she was excited about. It was Thanksgiving break and I was trying to find something to do to keep my mind off of things. That was when my mom brought home an ancient family bible that was passed down through many generations on my grandma’s side of the family. Looking at it sent shivers down my spine. This thing looked like something Sam and Dean Winchester would read out of and it was truly terrifying. The bible was wrapped in an old, brown paper sack and bound in an ancient string. It looked like something that would put a curse on us if opened, yet curiosity got to us and we opened it anyway. It was from the 1800s and the binding was old leather wrapped around wood boards, not like the pressed cardboard of today’s hardbound books. There were newspaper clippings and ancient pictures of relatives I’d never seen before. Their eyes looked as though they would burn a hole through my pupils and into my soul. One of the most fascinating items was an old piece of parchment that had been handwritten with a quill and ink! It contained names of the people to whom the bible was for (the Dicksons). There were names of the children as well as the years of birth and death and who they had married. Some of these people even dated back to the Revolutionary War and beforehand. I was now fully intrigued to find out everything I could about my ancestors. I took some dramatic photographs of the bible and posted them below. These images themselves will likely curse all who gaze upon them (muahaha).

Tree Work: Digging through the Roots

For the days leading up to my grandmother’s funeral, my parents stayed with my grandpa to keep him company. They asked if I could watch their house for them and keep the woodstove burning since it was cold that week. I was now alone and more restless than I had ever been (despite having to prepare for finals week for which I had no concentration whatsoever). I continued to look through some of the other totes that had belonged to my grandmother. The possessions included many beautiful handwritten letters and telegrams from her to various family members in Topeka, Kansas (her hometown). There were also photographs I had never seen before of her grandmother and grandfather (Susan Estelle Milne, and Captain Patrick Henry IV). It was quite amazing to see these pictures as I had seen other photos of them when I was younger but forgot what they looked like. I was also too young to really pay much attention to the family history. Grandma gave me Pat Henry’s World War II Navy binoculars four years ago which I have now made a shelf for in my office along with photos of the family. I was also surprised to find that Susan Estelle, her mother, and her children, shared the same almond-shaped eyes with epicanthic folds that I had. Perhaps this is where the phenotypic trait came from.

However, just the photographs and letters wouldn’t cut it for me. I still had to know more. Therefore, I purchased an add-on to my free Ancestry account which allowed me to access many more databases and files. This is where I began my family tree work! With each hint, information, and ancestor I found, the more addicting it became. I felt as though I was putting together one huge puzzle piece. When I hit a dead end on one part of the family, I would just grow another part. I was able to trace back family members on my mother and father’s side many generations! Some of the most interesting family members besides the entire Henry line had to be my fourteenth great-grandmother, Lady Isabella Maitland Heriot of Thirlestrane Castle in Berwickshire, Scotland! I thought that was pretty badass that she was born in a castle as was her family “You go, girl!”. Her father was a lord and poet to Queen Mary of Scots. She belonged to the Dickson side of the family. There were so many family members I discovered, it became difficult to keep track of them all. I now have five hundred and sixty-seven people in my family tree and the number keeps growing! Some other interesting information I found was on my paternal grandmother’s side. I now know my dad really is French-Canadian. In fact, I would consider him more of a Canadian than an American. It was fascinating looking through that entire line and seeing the amazing French names I had no idea how to pronounce. There were also many Swedish ancestors on my maternal grandmother’s side. However, one of the most promising discoveries was that of my sixth great-grandmother on my maternal grandmother’s side. Her name was Mary Ann Ogle. She was born in North Carolina in 1793 and was believed to have been full-blooded Cherokee. Although, it has not been confirmed.

The Revelation

The day of my grandma Sue’s funeral came; November 23rd, 2021. She didn’t want anything too fancy, so just the immediate family came as well as one of her best friends. However, my brother and I had a competition to see which grandchild could dress the classiest (I think I won hands-down). We stood around her casket and said what was on our minds, to which I finally broke and cried. As I rode home in my parent’s car and thought about my grandma as well as the rest of my ancestors I was discovering, the quote at the beginning of this post came into my head. “We are, all of us, fragments of those who came before us and a foundation for those who will come after we are gone.” What does this mean? you may be asking yourself.

You see, as I delved deeper into my family history, I found many interesting details. Not only did I see some cool people that lived in castles, but I found two other things that had an impact on me. The first was the difference in where my mom’s side of the family originated in America versus my dad’s. My mom’s side was all from the south. They settled around Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas. Some members fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War. When I looked into my dad’s side, while most were from Quebec and didn’t really get involved in the U.S’s problems, the ones that did fought on the Union’s side. As I moved forward in history, I discovered that both sides had members that fought side-by-side in both World Wars I and II, with one of my dad’s relatives coming from Warsaw, Poland only to be thrust back over in WWII. The second shocking discovery that sent shivers down my spine was that in the times these people existed, they had multiple siblings, of whom most died in childbirth or childhood. On both sides, these ancestors had upwards of twenty siblings. Quite a few of them didn’t even make it past the age of three or four. However, the ones that did make it to adulthood, including my ancestor, survived to have multiple children of their own.

Seeing this made me realize how precious life really is. If we all look at our ancestry, even if we don’t fully know our ancestry, there is one common theme: Survival. Somehow, the person that would go on to give birth to your ancestor and their siblings survived so much that could have taken their lives, whether it be the plague (the Bubonic wiped out nearly two-thirds of Europe’s population alone.), wars, poverty, famine, or even childbirth/childhood. Some of these ancestors had to survive multiple, one after the other, and yet, still, they survived. They all survived so that each of us could be here today. Any of the above circumstances could have wiped that ancestor out and caused any of us not to be here today.

It really is quite a humbling thought. While I do not agree with the ancestors that fought on the confederate side, I acknowledge they survived to bring forth the people that gave birth to me. I also find it fascinating that these two sides (my mother’s and father’s) who were opponents at one time, came together and fought in both World Wars and then migrated to where my own mother and father met and had my brother and me. Two sides that, at one time, had so much to dislike each other for, somehow came together to create me. It is like this for many of us. We are all survivors and a lot of us have ancestors with darker pasts that we can only hope to learn from in order to contribute to a better future. That is the meaning of the quote.

I am excited to continue my journey of self-discovery through genealogy and am now determined to trace my ancestry back all the way. While this may seem like an impossible feat that will surely take my entire life to accomplish, it is something that I have found a passion for and hope to pass down to the future generations in my family so that they will not spend their childhoods like mine, not knowing where their phenotypic characteristics came from. Unfortunately, my paternal grandmother also passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. This added to the heartbreak I was already feeling from my maternal grandmother’s passing. I was mostly disappointed because I was excited to ask her questions about my father’s ancestors as I knew she always loved sharing that information with me. However, I know now that they are both at peace. If there is an afterlife, I can imagine them sipping coffee and looking down at us living descendants with hope as we navigate our way through this life. I know no matter where they are, they are happy and rooting for us.

Helpful References and Resources

“Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fact Sheet.” Genome.gov, https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Deoxyribonucleic-Acid-Fact-Sheet.

“Each Organism’s Traits Are Inherited from a Parent through Transmission of DNA .” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/each-organism-s-traits-are-inherited-from-6524917/.

“Genetic Inheritance.” Basic Biology, 31 Aug. 2020, https://basicbiology.net/micro/genetics/genetic-inheritance.

Nelson, Daniel. “What Are Monolid Eyes: Epicanthic Fold.” Science Trends, 3 Mar. 2020, https://sciencetrends.com/what-are-monolid-eyes-epicanthic-fold/.

“Understanding Genetics.” The Tech Interactive, https://genetics.thetech.org/.