"Full Blooded"

[freep]

As for DNA, I was adopted.

Knew a bit about my bio Mom, including a name that was off by one somewhat important letter, where she lived at the time, that she was in her forties and had seven kids prior to my birth. Knew my father's surname--Howell--though everyone in my adoptive family thought it an alias, and nothing else.

Of the initial 35 Y-DNA matches 25 were named Howell. After contacting a few of them I went to Ancestry.com and did some searches. Traced the family back to 1635 in either Wales or Scotland (for those interested there are many listings of my earliest male ancestor as being from Ayrshire, Wales). Time passes.

After the The Aztec NM Celtic Gathering I got interested again and on Ancestry I searched for Nina Irene Rush, the name my adoptive mother had for my bio-mother. Up pops Mina Irene Rush. The information I find on her matches all the family knowledge about her. Not long after that I get an autosomal match at the 1st cousin level and surprise! It's Mina's nephew. Bit of study and while no one in that family knew of me, all the pieces fell in place and everyone in that family is 99% sure I'm Mina's son.

Through all that I've been able to trace back a long, long way (no doubt with a slightly limited degree of accuracy) in Scotland, Wales and England in roughly equal numbers of ancestors. I need to do more with the Cymry and the Sassenach but it's all there.

So, the initial DNA test solved for me a 60+ year mystery as to who I am and whence I came.

Sláinte