Special People and Places: Genes or Nationality?

My brother William Jackson Williams III is in the process of verifying the Genealogy work that I have done. I started my work from 1964 to 1990 by interviewing Great Uncle’s and Aunts in Central Virginia and other relatives in Pennsylvania. He has an easier job because of the invention of the Personal Computer and Internet data bases. However, it is still no easy task.

One of the things that my father and other ancestors told me is that I am a descendant of the Cherokee Nation. Now that does not mean that I am not a descendant of other people. When documenting your family, you must remember one basic fact. A nationality is not the same as Genetic make up. The definition of a nationality is; “The status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization; a people having common origins or traditions and often constituting a nation; existence as a politically autonomous entity; national independence.” The definition of genetic make up is; “pertaining to or determined by genes; pertaining to reproduction or to birth or origin.”

My genetic make up is European (Finnish, French, Orcadian, Romanian, Russian) about 15.29% and West African (Yoruba) 84.71%. But my father and many other relatives said that I am Cherokee. How can this be?

It is hard to comprehend because people believe many different things like politics and religion.

Hispanics in The United States

Percentage ______Races
53.0% -------------- Whites

36.7% ---------------Other races such as mix race (Mestizo, Mulatto)

6.0% ---------------Claim to be two or more races such as White, Black, Asian

2.5% --------------- Black

1.4% --------------- American Indian or Alaskan Native

0.4% -------------- Asian

0.1% -------------- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

This is not the make up of the Latin Section of the United States that you have been led to believe that is in this nation. Each group of people can be broken down into subgroups. From this you can tell that race is a political question as well.

Keep in mind that when dealing with a genetic sample of a nation, you are looking at them as they are at that time such as December 1, 1998. On December 1, 3498, that make up may be all together different. By that time, the nation may have moved like Ethiopia did in the past 5,000 years. Or the people in 1998 may have moved and a new group of people could have settled in by the year 3498. What if the geneticist has no sample to go by?

Orcadians are very ancient people and probably came over to America from the Northern British Isles before the time of Jesus. They probably intermarried with Native Americans. Descendants of the Finnish, French, Orcadians, Romanians, and Russians were probably slave breeders. Some slave breeders like Noah Smith had children and sold them to local farmers and wealthy Cherokee families. Some may have intermarried with Africans in America.

Yoruban people today live on the boarder between Benin and Nigeria. They were uprooted by chattel slavers and sent to America to be sold.

This is how someone with Yoruban Genetic Make Up can end up being a citizen in the Cherokee Nation. This is how someone 150 years later can get confused between genetics and nationalities.

The French occupy the nation of France. But the French come from many places and is made up of many people. Among them are from Albania, Germany, Greece, France as well as most of Western and Central Europe. The French finally settled in what was known to the Roman Empire as Gaul. So many of the people of Europe can be traced to the French.

Do you know that 8% of the world’s population can be genetically traced to Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire 1162? – August 1227. This is why many Polish woman have black hair today.

These genetic “hand me downs” is why I have seen someone that looks like my brother but is a native Nigerian. This just happened recently. I bet in 600 years someone from Peru is going to look up their American Ancestors but their genes are going to tell them that they are Russians.

If you want to learn more about Black Indians read the book;