When someone asks me what my family heritage is (nationality, ethnicity, etc.) I usually answer with “half Italian, quarter Irish, quarter Polish”, and generally speaking, that’s true. Of course, when you dig into the nitty-gritty through research or even DNA testing, those quantities shift a bit.
My first DNA test results were close to that, but the Italian half wasn’t quite half and there’s some other regions and nationalities that I hadn’t expected, such as Northern Africa, Middle East and the Iberian Peninsula. Considering half of that Italian portion is actually Sicilian – well, that would explain that. For centuries Sicily was overrun by various outsiders, a factor that led to a culture of self-protection, strong family bonds, and distrust of outsiders.
But then I also looked at that Polish side, and remembered I had been told once, “somewhere back there someone was German”. This, along with the political landscapes means my Polish line is Polish and/or German and/or Prussian, depending on who and when we’re talking about. Genetically it shows up as “Eastern European.”
The Irish part? Well, that was pretty clean cut, and in fact shows that my Irish dna leads right back to where I know we were for hundreds of years – County Leitrim.
All that said, my family had only been here about 80 years before I was born. My American heritage is shallow. We weren’t here until the late 19th century. I’m the 2nd or 3rd generation born in America, and of the 1st generation born with the surname Columbus, which wasn’t officially changed until my father was a teenager.
I’m a relative newcomer to America, while many of my root lines were in a single region for hundreds of years, and discovering where that was, who they were, and what that life was like, is a fascinating search.
Italy
Castelcivita, Salerno, Italy. My paternal grandmother’s family, the Letizia and Costantino lines, immigrated from there in the mid-1880s, but my research shows the village was the family home for centuries. I’ve traced this line to find some of my 6xG-Grandparents around 1700.
Sicily
Campofelice di Roccella, Palermo, Sicily. My paternal grandfather followed his older siblings here and immigrated in 1907, alone. This was after his first solo attempt in 1905 that resulted in him being held for two weeks at Ellis Island and then sent. I’ve traced this line back to find most of my 4xG-Grandparents in the early 1700s.
Poland
Poznan area of Prussia/Poland. My maternal grandmother’s family immigrated from Poland in the late 1880s, first settling outside Pittsburgh, in rural Westmoreland Co. I’ve traced this line back to some of my 5xG-Grandparents of the early- and mid-1700s.
Ireland
Sranagarvanagh and Culties, Co. Leitrim. My maternal grandfather’s parents both, named McHugh, both came from County Letrim in Ireland. They weren’t related (so they say and as far as I can find) and they lived less than 10 miles from each other in that rural county, but met and married in Chicago.