Last Christmas my grandma bought me an ancestry test. It was a really neat experience. I spat in a tube and sent it to who knows where and got the results of my DNA via their website. It was incredibly cool! I found out that 35% of my ethnicity is English & Northwestern European, 22% Eastern European & Russian, 21% Irish & Scottish, 12% Germanic European, and 6% Swedish, with a few extra 1%. Overall, I am very European. The Ethnicity Estimate was quite cool because my parents don’t know much about their family history so we always just called ourselves Canadian since we knew little about our European heritage.
My family tree has always been very complex and a nightmare to map out because there are a few adoptions, step mothers, and cousins marrying cousins, so ancestry has been difficult to map out. I have tried making my family tree and it looks very wonky.
Before the outbreak of Covid-19 I had a lady named Marg, reached out to me on Ancestry asking about my great grandfather, as well as my grandma and my grandaunts. She said she was the daughter of Sandy McLachlan (my great grandfather) and since our DNA matched she was wondering if I was the granddaughter of Laurie McLachlan (who is my grandaunt). She knew that her father had two daughters and one son with his wife Mary (my great grandmother). She asked if she could communicate with me and if I would be open to that idea. She also mentioned that she had been researching for many years about her family.
I phoned my mom as soon as I read the message because I was completely confused. I grew up really close with my great grandmother, Mary. Sandy, her husband, died when Donna ( my grandma), and her siblings were all in their late teens. My mom had told me when I was younger that Sandy had cheating on Mary but I couldn’t imagine that is when Marg was conceived as she seems older then my grandma. My mom is naturally a very curious person, so when I shared the message I got from Marg, she asked me to write back as soon as possible and to give Marg her email address.
I wrote Marg back explaining that Mary and Sandy had four children, Sandy, Barry, Laurie, and Donna (my grandma). Donna had two children, my mom and my aunt Alex. I gave her my moms email and told her I would love to hear about how our lives connect.
Maggie is now in contact with two of her half sisters as well as my mom. She was an only child and is now super excited to hear about her new family. This is one of those stories you see in the movies or on tv. It was really cool to be apart of something like this. Bringing family together during a time of absolute chaos. Who would have thought?
