My Ancestral Origins

Marty and Karla Grant

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Welcome to our “Ancestral Origins” pages at martygrant.com. My ancestry, like most multi-generational Americans, is mixed. Many of my ancestors arrived on these shores in the 1600s and 1700s from various parts of Europe. They were primarily from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Germany. My wife's ancestors were from the same places, but also Norway, Switzerland, and France.

In addition to my “white” European ancestry, I also have ancestors who were darker skinned and of some mysterious origin. Some of them claim to be “Black Dutch” or Portuguese (i.e. “Melungeon”). Some of them might be Native American (i.e. Cherokee or some other tribe), or part African American (i.e. “black”). I'm still trying to figure them all out.

DNA testing currently shows my genetic origins to be:

∙ 35% Central Scotland & Northern Ireland

∙ 21% SW England and NW Europe

∙ 9% Ireland

∙ 9% NE England

∙ 8% Southern Wales

∙ 6% NW Germany

∙ 3% Denmark

∙ 2% Southern Germany

∙ 1% Norway

∙ 1% Estonia & Latvia

∙ > 1% Senegal

That shows me about 99% white and less than 1% black. It doesn’t reflect any Native American despite family tradition saying we have some. If there really is any, I either didn’t inherit any of the Native DNA or it’s too small an amount to register.

While the above is fascinating, it doesn’t include all of my ancestry. You may not realize it, but a person doesn’t have the DNA of all of their ancestors. You inherit DNA from only the last eight generations or so, if that. Of course you’re blood related to all your ancestors, but you didn’t necessarily inherit DNA from every ancestor you have. Thus I could easily still have Native American ancestry without having inherited the DNA. Likewise I could be much more than 1% black, though that’s all the DNA I inherited.

My main purpose for creating these pages is to publish what I know about my general European origins, as well as my Ethnic origins. Of course, a task like this is never completed, so these pages will always be under construction.

Contents:

∙ What's New - Latest updates to this section of my website.

∙ European Origins - European Research.

∙ Ethnic Origins - My “non white” ancestry.

∙ Race and Ethnicity on the Census Records

Revised: August 2, 2026

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