I signed Meda up for an Ancestry.com DNA test a couple of years ago, but then managed to lose the credentials needed to access her account, which I think were lost in the transition to new computers for both of us.
In any case, I was reminded of this the other day, and got up early this morning and reestablished the connection to her DNA test results and matches.
Meda was named after her maternal grandmother, Meda Menardi Renton, whose great-grandfather, Joseph Sebastian Menardi, came to the US from Italy in 1821. The family lore was that he had been involved in revolutionary politics in Italy had finally had to flee, although we have no details about that.
In any case, Meda expected to find plenty of distant cousins in Italy, which might eventually produce some European travel adventures. After all, my DNA has turned up hundreds of Maori cousins, and we expected her to find Italians in similar numbers.
So the DNA results came in, and Ancestry traces her back to England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. No sign of Italy. Zip. So what happened?
It looks like another non-paternity event, “when someone who is presumed to be an individual’s father is not in fact the biological father.”
Here’s my guess. Joseph Sebastian Menardi, the first on her Italian side to come to the US, was just over 50 when he arrived and settled in Pennsylvania. He then married a young woman of 18 or 19. They had a son, and old Joe died a year or so later. My guess: the son, Meda Menardi Renton’s grandfather, was not the biological child of Joseph Menardi. But, of course, that’s pure speculation at this point, although it would explain the DNA, or more properly its absence.
It’s ancient history, but still interesting to try to put the pieces together.
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Don’t give up hope! On ancestry my Italian has bounced from 25% to 0% depending on their data pools at the time. Every time they update, it changes. Right now on ancestry it’s 2% Italian but on 23 and Me it’s 20% with other links to Sardinia, Greater North Africa, Egypt and Cyprus.
The only thing that stays consistent is the percentage of shared DNA with relatives.
There’s a YouTube video of a man (UsefulCharts) who took 10 DNA tests from various companies and the ethnicity results varied wildly. Good luck Meda!
PS The only reason I know I’m Italian is that when I took the test it turned out my paternal grandpa was not my grandfather, and now I have this whole new side of family I’ve connected with.
Ethnicity changes each year they update. On Ancestry I have a large family tree which does (for the most part) match up with my ethnicity, however, my sister who doesn’t show a family tree has wildly different percentages. I have more German and she has a large percentage of Eastern European (our grandmother’s family were Deutsche Bohemian immigrants) whereas I have none. This years update I had a decrease in Norwegian & an increase in German, Irish, Welsh, & Balkan (Greek cousin matches that showed up last year). I have made an effort to seek out my cousins that match on my Hudson Bay British and NW Native American side which also shows a higher percentage rate than my sister. So do that tree!. Also I put my raw dna on Gedmatch which has large list of archaic dna (as in Utzi, Neaderthal, and Denisovan) that you can see if you match with. I checked with Kennewick man 8,000yr (a small amount) however, with the Clovis dna a large amount considering it was 12,000 years ago. Also matching your dna with the archiac list is free still.
I guess I am an outlier, but I have no desire to go past my eight great-grandparents who were the people who had an influence on the people who had an influence on me: my grandparents and parents. When you get to sixteen ancestors, it’s too many for my mind to comprehend as their biological and cultural impact is too diluted. And for my family the pivotal event was the migration to Hawaii. That represented such a break with all their pasts that, in my opinion, it is otiose to go back further. Besides, as my grandfather used to admonish his genealogically obsessed sister: “Go back far enough, and you’re sure to find a horse thief or a slave holder.”
There’s much to be said for concealed ovulation in humans. When Ancestry DNA or 23andMe changes my ethnicity I tell my brothers the ancestors are restless again.
I’m sticking to the real thing. That is being a descendant of a birth at Kukaniloko, witnessed by 36 Ali’i Chiefs. My lineage traced only through my Maternal line.
Far more accurate than Ai memory bases of Ancestry, 23 and Me or any such pay, spit and mail techniques!
Mama Mia!!
Meda has the same ethnicity as my hubby. But, who knows really. He and I have never taken the DNA test. Maybe we should.
I’ve done Ancestry.com and 23-and-Me DNA tests thus far. Both corroborated that I am NOT part-Native Hawaiian, but instead have plenty of Maori 3rd through 5th cousins. No explanation from them at all.
I’m also supposed to be half-Portuguese on both parents’ behalf. Apparently, “Portuguese” means Western-European chop suey, with some North-African thrown in there. I guess borders are regarded as “suggestions.” 🙂
Tena koe Ian. Yes that is how we connected Ian a few years ago now. On our Robinson line. Cheers Betty