Genealogy and Vexillology

Frankly, I love it when I can combine two of my interests into a single activity, or theme, or object.

In this particular instance, I am referring to my interest in my own family tree/history (genealogy), and the flags (vexillology) of the nations from which my ancestry is derived. (Like most Americans, my genealogical and DNA makeup is pretty much that of a mongrel, with ancestors coming here from a number of different nations.)

Several years ago, my wife and I gave each other a DNA test for Christmas. Since that time, the tools that they use to help define my "ethnicity estimate" have been refined, resulting today in estimates that match up very well with what I know the paper trail to be.

Just a couple of years ago, I ran across a tee shirt on-line that caught my eye, more than a little because I found it to be a nice representation of my own genealogy.  It was an image of a tree, the trunk and branches solid black, but with the root system in the colors of the Union flag, and with the words underneath, "British Roots".

Given that my DNA ethnicity estimate says that I am 61% from "England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe", I decided that I pretty much had to buy that shirt!

So more recently I began thinking about the remainder of my ancestral origins, and went looking for similar tee shirts that would let me wear something to celebrate these other roots. Here they are, along with my ethnicity estimate for each country, in descending order.

Sweden, 18%

Ireland and Scotland, 13% (Connors and Callahans and Forbes, oh my!)

and Germanic Europe, 6%

(My ethnicity estimate also gives me an estimated 2% from Norway, though I've not yet found any paper trail that links my family there. )

I find it a fun way to combine my interests in genealogy and heraldry/vexillology, as well as a way to celebrate the places from which my ancestors have come to this "melting pot" of a country, and which eventually resulted in me!