How Irish are we? Part Two: the Putnams

Last time I talked about the make up of the Wright side of the family.  Now I want to talk about the Putnam and Connelly branches.  As a start, the table below shows my father and his parents.

Ervin Earl Putnam	Mary Gertrude Connelly
Robert Evrin Putnam
Writer

Tracing my grandmother's ancestry back she ends up being 62.5% Irish, 30.5% English, 6.3% German, and 0.8% Welsh.   A few of the Irish immigrants are identifiable and I have listed them below.

Connection	Name	Year of Birth	Location of Birth
3rd Great Grandfather	Patrick Eagan	abt 1810	Waterford, Ireland
3rd Great Grandmother	Mary McDonald	Unknown	Roscommon, Ireland

All of this immigration occurred before the Irish Potato Famine, therefore it is likely they where
protestants.   This whole branch of the family ended up in Canada, some through direct settlement, and others having to move north after the revolutionary war because they where loyalist.  I'll try and tell their stories in other post.In some other posts.

 My grandfather, Ervin Earl Putnam also had some Irish blood.  I have calculated that he was 19.5% Irish, 80.3% English, and 0.2% Scottish.  The table below lists his know Irish immigrants.  Given where they came from and the years of immigration, these where likely Scotch-Irish.  In fact, John Patrick's father was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

Connection	Name	Year of Birth	Location of Birth
3rd Great Grandfather	Lewis Mitchell	1738	Ulster
6rd Great Grandfather	John Patrick	1711	Tyrone
6rd Great Grandfather	Robert Patterson	1713	Manorcunningham
6rd Great Grandfather	William Lewis Hancock	1695	Londonderry
6rd Great Grandmother	Sarah Bradshaw	1713	Londonderry

If we take a look at the next generation we can see my father's makeup:

• Irish 41%
• English 55.4%
• German 3.1%
• Welsh 0.4%
• Scottish 0.1%

At this point, we can get back into the genetics.  Unfortunately, my father past away before the test was available.  Luckily, my uncle was willing to get tested and his results are listed below:

• Europe West 32%
• Ireland 28%
• Scandinavia 17%
• Great Britain 17%
• Italy/Greece 2%
• Iberian Peninsula 2%
• Europe East <1%
• Melanesia <1%

The % Irish is lower then predicted, but this really isn't that surprising given the number of generations involved.  The Scandinavian may represent our Norman roots, with the Italy/Greece and Iberian Peninsula tieing back to the Romans.  We ay be able to explain the Europe East through our German ancestors, though they could also tie to the Europe West result.  The most interesting result is the <1% Melanesia. I have assumed this was some sort of error, because we have no evidence of any of our ancestors being in that part of the world.  Recently, I have read a few posts that say that this actually could be signs of Native American ancestry.  There are plenty of missing branches of the tree where this link could be hiding,  which drives me to continue my research.

Now that I have talked about both my mother's and father's side of the family I can look at my own make up.  Genealogically, I end of being something of a mutt, though most of my ancestors came from the British islands.  

• Irish 33%
• English 64.7%
• German 1.6%
• Welsh 0.4%
• Scottish 0.2%
• Netherlands 0.1%

I also had my DNA tested.  Here are those results;

• Europe West 57%
• Ireland 25%
• Scandinavia 14%
• Iberian Peninsula 4%
• Great Britain <1%
• Italy/Greece <1%

So, genealogically, I am 33% Irish, but genetically I am only 25%.  Interestingly, the Melanesia component didn't get passed down to me.  Either because I didn't receive that DNA from my father, or he didn't receive it from his.

In the next couple of posts, I'll cover my wife's tree.