Back to Family Story outcomes, S22

by Lindsay Abate

Prior to this spring semester, I believed myself to be of primarily Irish and Italian descent. Growing up, my mother’s side of the family prided themselves on their Irish heritage, while my father’s loved to boast about their Italian roots. As a child, this made me conclude that I was a split between Irish and Italian. Any time someone would ask, “Where did your family come from?,” I would answer, “Ireland and Italy” with no hesitation.

After spending these past four months dedicated to extensive research, both traditional and genealogical, I uncovered a great deal of surprises, many of which can be shown in my tree. According to Ancestry.com, not only was I very little Irish and Italian, but I was also a quarter Scottish! This shocked me to my core, because this had never come up in my family.

Why?, you may ask. Well, as I also recently discovered, my paternal great-grandmother, Mary Miller, was actually adopted. While I knew her during my lifetime and remember her love for cats, I was never aware that her biological parents are unknown. She passed away just before my sixth birthday, so my knowledge of her past was very limited. While discussing my research with my father this semester, he casually mentioned her adoption, which has limited my family in determining some of our ancestry. I was absolutely stunned … how was I never aware of this? Not only this, but my paternal grandmother, Barbaranne Graessle, was Mary’s only child, so there is virtually no one left from this part of my family to provide information about the mysteries of our Scottish ancestry.

My paternal grandmother, Barbaranne, claims to be of Scottish descent, and I have speculated that this may come from her mother’s ancestors, although I cannot be sure about this prospect just yet. However, knowing that there is no Scottish ancestry from my paternal grandfather’s line, I immediately concluded that ancestors from my grandmother’s line must have come from Scotland. Because Barbaranne’s line through her father originated from Germany, it has become quite clear that somewhere in her mother’s line, Scotland was a prevalent country of origin.

While my ThruLines information provided me with a myriad of results concerning my mother’s side of the family, I was not fortunate enough to gain any more insight into my father’s side of the family through this platform. It was my hope that Ancestry.com could connect me with some of my long-lost relatives that I share Mary’s DNA with. While ThruLines turned up short in terms of Mary’s descendants, I was able to find more information about her husband, Harry Graessle’s, possible ancestors, which helped me to uncover that his original surname may have been “Greenlee,” which is a Scottish name. This was very surprising, as the surname “Graessle” has primarily German origins. It has now become a possibility that my Scottish roots come from my great-grandfather, Harry. Even more exciting is the possibility that both Mary and Harry originated from Scotland, which would explain the substantial amount of Scottish DNA found in my results.

It is my hope to soon find information about who my great-grandmother’s parents were. Unfortunately, I do not currently have any living relatives who know much about Mary’s biological family. It is my aim to uncover some documentation that can link me to her parents so that I may determine if my Scottish heritage comes from her. While Barbaranne has not been able to remember anything of substance, I believe that she may have some archives in her home that will indicate more about her mother’s biological origins. Now that I have uncovered this colossal piece of Scottish heritage in my roots, my other family members have become curious as well, prompting more determination to investigate and uncover the truth of Mary and Harry.

The prospect of finding Mary’s biological family brings much excitement. Not only would I be able to determine my hypothesis that her ancestors came from Scotland, but I could also find out where else her heritage comes from! This may help me solve the other mysteries that have come about due to my DNA ethnicity results, such as my European Jewish roots.

The prospect of connecting with new family members and learning more about my family has also stirred much anticipation. While I have not made sense of my Scottish background just yet, I hope to find more information in my future research that will help me on my journey of unveiling the various mysteries of my DNA results that still exist. I am eager and willing to do the work to discover more about who I truly am!

Works Cited

Abate, Lindsay. “Abate Family Tree.” Ancestry, Spring 2022,                                                                     www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/180205393/family/familyview