How Irish is She? Part Three, the Welchs

Now I am going to move from my family to my wife's.  At the end I'll try and pull it all together for my kids.  When I married her, I was under the impression she was a Irish girl.  Turns out she has a more diverse heritage then I do.  But since the question I'm asking is about the Irish component, I'll target in on that.  To be consistent, I'll start with her Mother's side.  Unfortunately, I don't have as full a record here, but I'll do the best I can.

Micheal Phillips Welch	Dorothy E Johnson
My Mother-in-Law
My Wife

 

My wife's grandmother's father immigrated from Sweden and her mother immigrated from Germany.  Therefore, Dorothy Johnson ended up being 50% Swidish and 50% German.  

Micheal Phillip Welch is different story.  He was 62.5% Irish and 37.5% French.  The french ancestors, on his mother's side, came down through Canada. In that group, my wife's 3rd great grandmother, Catherine Cassidy is the only Irish immigrant.  Unfortunately, we don't yet know enough about her to say where she came from in Ireland.  His father's side is all Irish.

 

Connection	Name	Year of Birth	Location of Birth
2nd Great Grandfather	John Welch	around 1835	Galway
2nd Great Grandmother	Bridget Burke Hennessey	1829	Longford

Moving down the branch, that makes my Mother-in-Law 31% Irish, 25% German, 25% Swedish, and 19% French.  She has also had her DNA tested, so we can see how the results compare with the genealogical information.  

• Ireland: 24%
• Europe West: 26%
• Scandinavia: 26%
• Finland/Northwest Russia: 9%
• Great Britain: 9%
• Iberian Peninsula: 2%
• Italy/Greece: <1%
• Europe East: <1%
• Africa North: <1%
• Asia South: <1%

So what is going on here?  This is quite a diverse set of results.  The percentages from Ireland, and Great Britain likely come from the Irish ancestors.  The Scandinavia and Finland/Northwest Russia likely are from her Swedish Grandfather.  The Europe West and Europe East probably tie to her French and German ancestors.  I would put down the Iberian Peninsula, Italy/Greece, and Africa North probably to the effects of Roman colonization.  That leave the trace of Asia South.  It appears to be an oddball, but let's see if we can figure it out.  Ancestry.com identifies the Asia South results with primarily India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.  My suspicion is that this result represents the remnant of the early migration of people out of these areas into Europe.  Therefore, it is likely tied to her Swedish and German ancestors.  But really, that is just a guess!

Next post will cover the Carey side of my wife's background.