This test confirmed that my mother was of Haplogroup H, which I was already aware of. You can see from my prior post the breakdown as to my ethnicity. That brings me to this research project, the reason for this post.
In the photo to the left is my Maternal Grandmother Cora Mae WILKEY and my mother Mary Margaret. The biggest amount of matches that I have had thus far come through Grandmother Cora. Grandmother comes from a long line of people who had numerous children. She, herself gave birth to ten children. One of my Great Great Grandfathers on her side fathered 24children between his two wives and another is said to have fathered 18. I have others still with children in upwards of 10-16 per family! So, it was no surprise to find that I had matches to almost 1000 cousins within the database and that is just pulling from those who have tested at 23andMe!
About 4 of those matches that have responded thus far has given me some clues to some very interesting information. Like many families having grown up in the Southeastern United States there were rumors of Native American Ancestry within my line. Let it be known that my DNA did not "prove" in the conventional way that I descend from Native people;however, it did raise some clues that may explain that line of thinking. I was always told that my Grandmother Cora was Cherokee, she claimed Black Dutch and Irish as well. One of the other cousins I met also stated that he too had heard rumors of NA ancestry within this WILKEY line.
There are several matches on my DNA profile that do not have a very good family tree built in order for me to find our matches, however; they do have some things in common one with another. Their trees lead me back to a branch of the WILKEY family that was living in the same area as my WILKEY family, so I know that their WILKEY ancestors and my WILKEY ancestors are family, I just need to find the common connection.
My 4th Great Grandfather was born in the late 1700`s (He and his Siblings) there is an article online that was written several years ago that stated he was born in Walker County, Georgia. Bear with me because it is about to get interesting. In the late 1700`s Walker County Georgia did not exist. That area was Cherokee Land. The first white families did not appear there until the early 1800`s. So, assuming this place of birth was correct for him, one must conclude that it is highly probable he was Native American. The next issue at hand is the people who are a close match to me, their WILKEY ancestors from that area are found on some of the Native American Rolls listed as Cherokee by Blood. My 5th Great Grandfather from that line, little is known about him other than the first name Henry, I suspect that he is likely the brother to the grandfather whose cousins that I match. That has prompted me to open yet another research project to either prove or disprove my NA heritage.
Now, let me state this. Through the years DNA recombines as it is passed down from generation to generation. With that being said it could be that it was so far back in my line that I just did not inherit anything from them. But if you think about it in a round about way I did. It was not evident when first looking at my DNA especially after seeing that I was of Haplogroup H with lots of European Ancestry. But what my DNA testing is doing is leading me back to these ancestors that I had no clue existed, yet I can prove with a documented paper trail of them being Cherokee. So, if my research pans out it could be that is how the Cherokee came through. It is not that I am looking for something to just latch on to out of the blue. I want to either prove or disprove this once and for all. I will be adding the info to my research projects page.
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