sometimes family stories of Indian ancestry are totally wrong

[flyingfysh]

I had a grandmother who the rest of the family always said was part Indian. (she looked different from the rest of us, and was distinctly darker) My dad always told me that she was one quarter Cherokee. I wasn't very happy with that, and was wondering, if I am descended from Indians, which Indians? What were their names? Where did they live? So I went researching in the Dawes Rolls. I found a possbile match for my great-grandfather in the Choctaw list, but never had firm proof.

So I took a DNA test from Family Tree DNA, and my ancestry came back as: over 96% Scottish, and over 3%: North African! This could cover Bedouin, Berber, Palestinian, and Jewish! What would people with North African ancestry be doing in the middle of nowhere? (Arkansas). The only possibility that makes sense is Jewish, perhaps Sephardic Jewish (the Inquisition was after them); some were fleeing to North America. And back then, there were even Jewish pirates in the Caribbean, raiding Spanish ships, and using the gold to make deals with other European countries to protect Jews who fled there to get away from the Inquisition.

When my great-grandfather reappeared after being away over 30 years, he said he had just found out that he had been adopted, and had gone back to using his original family name (Pitman), and then he disappeared again. And Pitman can occur as a Sephardic surname. I suppose he could have been adopted by Choctaws as an infant.

How would I ever get proof for this scenario? I have no idea. If this is correct, there will be no records of any kind.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. I'd be sort of surprised if a DNA test could pinpoint "Scottish" with that degree of precision

"British Isles", possibly; the "3% North African" could possibly come from very far back--I recall seeing something about a group of men in the North of England who were found to have a Y-DNA haplotype that's very rare outside Africa, for instance; the speculation as to the origins of that had to do with Roman soldiers from Africa who were stationed in York or on the Scottish marches along Hadrian's Wall.

[flyingfysh]

3. What it actually reported was "Orcadian"

There is a lot about this group on the internet. There are sites devoted to studying their genealogy. They are associated with the Orkney Islands, in far northern Scotland. Most people never heard of Orcadian, so Scottish sounds like a reasonable approximation.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. "Orcadian" seems to be confusing and probably not really accurate

the people of the Orkneys are the descendants of Scots and Picts and Norse and Celts. So if you have some ancestral mixture of Irish/Scots/British Isles/North Germanic the results could reasonably fit an "Orcadian" profile..and in fact a search of Google shows: "Orcadian is the FTDNA reference population for the British Isles. The Orkney Islands combine Anglo-Saxon-Jute, Celtic and Scandinavian populations", see here for instance.

[grasswire]

10. My ancestors who ruled the Orkney Islands were Scandinavians.

Vikings.

So beware of any assumption that those who lived in the Orkneys are Scottish natives.

[pipi_k]

2. The DNA test

That you took...was it expensive?

Did it cover both paternal and maternal lines?

When my dad was alive he always said we had Penobscot blood floating around on his side

A few years after he died I was doing the family tree and connected with a cousin I never knew I had who said that actually we share a g g g grandmother who was M'ikmaq (Micmac). I have a photo and a name of this woman. She looks like a First Nation type, and if her last name is correct, it's a common M'ikmaq surname (Sanipas/Sanipass)

I would like to confirm or not confirm if possible, any Native bloodline

[flyingfysh]

4. the DNA test was cheap

It is only $99, at familytreedna.com. Look for their Family Finder test. It also finds distant cousins, for parents going back 5 generations. It doesn't focus on maternal or paternal lines in particular, it studies "autosomal" dna. They have other tests for maternal and paternal lines. Read about it at their web site.

To get actual tribal membership, the rules vary by tribe; generally you will need more documentation than just a dna test.

My grandmother had been thought to have Indian ancestry, and she certainly looked like it. Now it looks like her ancestors may have come over with the Spanish who first explored central North America (and thereby wiped out many Native Americans with their diseases). Some of them could have been Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition.

[pipi_k]

7. Thanks

for the info...I will check out the site.

[CountAllVotes]

6. Arkansas, the Cherokee and African Americans

I happened to see your post.

Arkansas was the first "dumping ground" as I call it for the first Cherokee that agreed to move from Georgia to the "new lands" in the west and this was about 1820 or so or even before that time.

Many of these Cherokees, aka "The Old Settlers" (aka the Keetoowah) went to Arkansas to settle with Ft. Smith being their new "headquarters" as it is today.

These same Cherokee were said to be rather well off mixed bloods and many of them held slaves and the slaves went with them when they were removed to Arkansas and later to Oklahoma Territories.

If you read the old census Arkansas lists, you might find the word "Allotment" in the records. These were plots allotted to those that were removed or likely by any other hook or crook of that day to get an allotment.

I too am likely part Choctaw as I have many relatives that were in Leake, Mississippi where many Choctaw even today can be found

Confused yet?

Welcome to "The Club" so to speak.

Best of luck w/your research!

CountAllVotes

[shirellg]

8. I'm the same boat as you

If you haven't read it, I suggest you read the book that was first published in 2012, "Old World Roots of the Cherokee" How DNA, Ancient Alphabets and Religion Explain the Origins of America's Largest Indian Nation by Donald N. Yates. You can order it off Amazon among other places.

[pipi_k]

9. Yep, as I found out recently

My father always said we had some NA ancestry by way of the Penobscots.

A cousin gave me a bunch of photos and information which pointed more in the direction of Micmac.

I did an Ancestry.com DNA test recently.


0% Native American.


What did show up, however, in addition to mostly western European (England, France) ancestry, was some Iberian Peninsula ancestry that extended down into North Africa (Morocco and Algeria) which was, hundreds of years ago, Moorish.

So, it appears that all the darker members of my family (which included my father) must be carrying around Moorish DNA, while on my mom's side I'm guessing comes more from England and a teensy little piece of Ireland. Maybe even the trace of Slavic DNA that also appears.

But...no Native American.

which puts to rest that mystery.