What are your real roots?
When somebody asks you “What are your roots? Where does your family come from?” What is your answer? What are your real roots?
“You clearly identify as Scottish when your roots are clearly Irish. Why is that?”
I was asked that question by a distant cousin on my father’s side, while I was on a recent sabbatical trip to Scotland. I was exploring the spiritual significance of ancestry while immersing myself in the land of my ancestors, namely Scotland. My cousin is correct that, although we are both Canadian by birth, the ancestry we share on my father’s side comes from Northern Ireland, so we’re Irish. Right? It is also true that I identify the “land of my ancestors” as Scotland, not Ireland. Why is that?
Can DNA tell me my real roots?
It’s become popular to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing to determine one’s ethnic roots. My DNA profile says that I am:
- 30% Northern English and/or Lowland Anglo-Scottish
- 25% Scottish (Highland Gaelic)
- 20% Irish
- 20% Welsh
- 5% Norwegian
Shh! Don’t tell anyone that I’m really mostly English. I’ll have to turn in my kilt to the genealogy police! And, what’s up with the 5% Norwegian? I can go back ten generations and not find a single Norwegian ancestor!
Am I “clearly” Irish, as my cousin asserts? Are these my real roots?
Multiple ethnicities
Like many Canadians of European settler stock, I have multiple ethnic origins. Even if you, yourself, happen to be indigenous or an immigrant with a very clear and unified understanding of your ethnicity, if you go back far enough you’ll probably find some mixed ancestry. I don’t think there’s anything necessarily “clear” about roots at all. And the idea of pure ethnicity is fraught with danger.
How do we actually determine what our real roots are? How far back do we go to determine where our ancestors come from? Regardless of how many parents we were raised by, we are all born from two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and a multitude of ancestors who may all come from one place, or who may come from many different places. Which ancestors determine your “clear” roots?
Why is genealogy patriarchal?
Who decided that your real roots come from your father’s side anyway? If you ask anyone where their family comes from, or what ethnicity they are, chances are that most people will answer based on where their father’s family came from. Too often we default to the paternal line. My father’s family originally came from Ireland, so, therefore, I must be Irish, right? What about my mother’s family? Each of my parents had two parents. They all contributed equally to the culture that formed me. Which ancestral line is my real roots? How far back do I have to go to figure that out?
Ethnic Ancestral Roots
Okay, let’s start with me. Any good genealogist will tell you to start with yourself and work backwards to find your real roots. I am Canadian-born as are both of my parents. If I determine my real roots by my parents’ generation, then my real roots appear to be fully Canadian. Is “Canadian” even an ethnicity?
No Irish here.
I have four grandparents. One was born in Canada, two were born in England, and one was born in Scotland. If I determine my real roots by my grandparents’ generation, then I appear to be half English, a quarter Scottish and a quarter Canadian.
Still no Irish here!
I have to go back to my great-grandparents to find my first Irish ancestor. In that generation I am:
- 50% English
- 25% Scottish
- 12.5% Canadian
- 12.5% Irish.
In my great-grandparents generation, my real roots are looking more English than Irish! So how can I say I’m Scottish?
If I go back even further, my Canadian great-grandmother’s parents were Scottish. Two of my English great-grandfathers’ families originally came from Wales and Scotland. So now I have four out of eight branches that are Scottish. That makes me actually half Scottish!
Is Irish really Irish?
Oh, but it gets murkier still! You see, my Irish ancestors weren’t actually Irish. They were Northern Irish Protestants, which makes them ethnically Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots. Their ancestors originally came from Scotland, not Ireland. So, even my Irish ancestors were really Scottish!
And if you know anything about the turbulent ethnic and religious history of Northern Ireland, you’ll know that no Ulster-Scot Unionist would ever be caught dead identifying as Irish or flying the tri-colour flag of Ireland. They’d see themselves as firmly British and they’d happily shove the Union Jack in your face to prove it!
The only problem with identifying Ulster-Scots as ethnically Scottish or British is that, in census records, my great-grandfather consistently identified himself as Irish. There goes that idea.
Is Scottish really Scottish?
So, I’m looking more Scottish again! But what kind of Scottish? Scotland was geographically divided into two different ethnic groups: Highland Gaels and Lowland Scots.
Highland Gaels originally came from Ireland in the 6th century. Wait! So my Irish ancestors are really Scottish and my Scottish ancestors are really Irish?
Don’t forget the Picts! They were there first! They were ethnically related to the Welsh. And with all those Viking invasions, most Highlanders have generous infusions of Viking blood. (Maybe that’s where my 5% Norwegian comes from!)
Lowland Scots were Anglo-Saxons who were Germanic in origin. But there was also a smattering of Flemish thrown in just to complicate things even further.
My favourite Scottish history YouTuber, Bruce Fummey, is a bi-racial Scot with African roots, who says, “I see myself as Scottish, culturally…but I cheer for Ghana in the World Cup.” His sister identifies as fully Ghanaian, and his Ghanaian-Scottish nephew identifies as British.
Of course, English isn’t really English either
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that those English ancestors I keep trying to ignore were originally an ethnic mix of Germanic Anglo-Saxons and French. And the French were a mixture of Celtic Gauls and Romans.
People migrate
People migrate, sometimes willingly, sometimes by force. When migrating from one country to another, how long do you have to be in the new country to be adopted into that ethnic culture? Years, generations, centuries? Even the countries we think we’re from may not be our real roots! Even “back home” people still “come from away.”
If I go back far enough, I’m going to have to start identifying as a Greco-Roman-Franco-Germanic-Celt!
And, if I go way, way back, like 60,000 years, then DNA science reveals that I’m actually African in origin! In fact, we’re all African in origin. All of humanity has its earliest roots in Africa!
Ugh. My head hurts. Maybe I should just be Canadian.
What is the difference between nationality, race, and ethnicity?
My best friend was born in Scotland, but raised in Canada since the age of 5. Is he Scottish or Canadian? He holds dual citizenship. He’s both.
For people who are also of mixed race backgrounds, the question of ethnic roots can be even more profound.
Nationality refers to citizenship. It’s geographic. Race refers to genetic characteristics. It’s biological. Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics. Sometimes those are connected; sometimes they are not. When we ask about roots, we’re usually talking about ethnicity and culture.
The Canadian government says this about ethnicity:
“The United Nations states that ethnicity is broadly defined ‘based on a shared understanding of history and territorial origins (regional and national) of an ethnic group or community, as well as on particular cultural characteristics such as language and/or religion. Respondents’ understanding or views about ethnicity, awareness of their family background, the number of generations they have spent in a country, and the length of time since immigration are all possible factors affecting the reporting of ethnicity in a census.'”
StatsCan
So my ethnic roots have to do with the culture that shapes me and not about the colour of my skin or the country I was born in.
Academy Award winning actor/director Denzel Washington, explained this difference between race and ethnicity in a clear and helpful way. While explaining why his 2016 movie, Fences, needed to have a black director, he said, “It’s not about colour. It’s about culture.”
What about adoption?
What about those who were born into one culture, but raised in another? Is ethnicity determined by the family you were born into or the family who raised you? I have a friend who was born to Choctaw parents and raised by Scottish parents. Is my friend Choctaw or Scottish or both? Can we adopt the culture that we’re raised in? Can we be adopted by a culture that is different from our birth? Many adopted persons are drawn to genealogy (especially DNA) to learn more about their birth family. They may even meet members of their birth family, but that doesn’t negate the family they were raised in. Many adoptees feel a deep connection to both families. And, in the case of cross-cultural adoptions, many feel a connection to both cultures. What are their real roots? One, the other, or both?
What are your real roots?
Language, history, culture, and customs all combine to form our ethnic origin.
If your roots are mono-cultural then your ethnic origin may be clear…or is it? If you come from a mixed ethnic background then the math of your real roots is likely far less simple than DNA companies would have you believe. You have the opportunity to search your roots to see what ethnicity or ethnicities most connect with your soul.
I think real roots are not necessarily clear at all. Which ancestor(s) you identify with to determine your real roots is not dictated by the genealogy police. It’s a choice you make. How far back you cut the family tree to count the rings in the trunk, is subjective. When you have multiple roots (as many Canadians do) then determining which roots you identify with is subjective and personal, and will be different for everyone.
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Am I clearly Irish? No. Am I clearly Scottish? No. But I feel mostly Scottish. The truth is that I have multiple ethnic origins. I have multiple cultural origins. I have multiple roots. Which of those roots I choose to identify with is based on what makes my soul sing. For me, that’s my Scottish roots. And that is a purely subjective and personal choice. When I recently visited my ancestors’ home in Glen Tarken, Scotland, I felt a deep peace in my soul and knew that these were my roots. (For more on that soul-nourishing experience, click here.)
In the end, we’re all adopted siblings in one connected family.
I guess I don’t have to turn in my kilt to the genealogy police after all.
Just as God chose us… before the foundation of the world
Ephesians 1.4-5 NRSVU
to be holy and blameless before God in love.
God destined us for adoption as God’s children.
This is part of an ongoing personal blog series exploring the relationship between family history and spirituality.
