Submission Date

Fall 2019

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to discover my genetic composition and ancestry. This was done by talking with family members, looking at old photographs and notes, and using online databases, to find out information about my ancestors. Also, using 23andMe, a genetic composition company, my genetic composition was determined. It was found that I was 72.3% Northwestern European (32.0% French and German, 20.6% British and Irish, 6.0% Scandinavian, and 13.6% Broadly Northwestern European), 21.5% Eastern European, 0.8% Southern European (0.7% Greek and Balkan and 0.1% Broadly Southern European), 1.5% Western Asian and North African (1.2% Northern West Asian including 0.5% Cypriot and 0.7% Broadly Northern West Asian, and 0.3% Broadly Western Asian and North African), 0.3% Trace Ancestry of Manchurian and Mongolian, and 0.3% unassigned. It was also determined that my maternal haplogroup is W6. The genetic composition from 23andMe helped solidify any ancestors that I discovered via online databases or family members.

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With stories and documents handed down from my family to me, I was able to discover interesting facts about my ancestors like being directly related to the first “Pratt” who came from England on the second ship after the Mayflower called the Sparrow where this Pratt, Phineas Pratt, tried to colonize an area outside of Plymouth. Through more digging, I also discovered my great grandmother was a second cousin twice removed to Harry S. Truman—finding out this information from an old letter and document sent out to Truman family descendants. Finding more information such as where my great grandparents emigrated from, that my great-great-grandfather was the first mayor of a city in Minnesota, and more are just some bits of information that I have uncovered. Using my genetics results from 23andMe I was able to correlate the information that I was given by my family to see if this matched with the DNA results that I obtained. I also learned that learning about specific ancestors and genealogy is an ever-going process and that there is always more to discover.

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