My Pedestrian Pedigree

I'm sure you've seen those TV ads for Ancestry.com – the ones where people who grew up thinking they're Italian find out that they're actually German, or they're thrilled to discover they are one-quarter Native American?

I'd been waiting for several months for my DNA test results to arrive from Ancestry.com. But what happens when you open the file to discover that your ancestry is, well, pretty boring?

My dad's family heritage was Welsh and my mom's Norwegian, so that much I knew. But wow – I am overwhelmingly from the United Kingdom, a whopping 87 percent! Only 11 percent is Scandinavian, and another 2 percent – about which the test results are less certain – is labeled "other," possibly the Iberian Peninsula or Eastern Europe.

To be fair, I hadn't expected anything astonishing. But as a writer, how cool would it be to uncover some mysterious or exotic facet of my heritage? And as many folks know, I feel most at home in Greece – but not a sliver of a fraction of my DNA reflects a proud Greek bloodline. Bummer.

What now? As one long-ago TV news assignment editor I worked with used to say, "There are no bad stories, just bad reporters." So, as I continue to delve into my family history, I'll be looking for those fascinating people I know are there – even if they didn't live and love where I wish they had.

(Photo credit: Pixabay/Pexels)