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Are you sick of your immigration attorney always asking you what your ethnicity is? Do you ever wish you could turn the tables and ask them? Well now you can! The staff of Sumner Immigration Law recently completed AncestryDNA kits to provide results on their ethnicities and discover where their ancestors originated. This was part of our treat for surviving the 2016 H-1B season. Read below for their exciting discoveries!
Nikita Hernandez: 85% European + 7% America + 6% Africa + 2% Asia
Growing up, Nikita was always told that she was primarily Puerto Rican (50%) on her father’s side and equal parts Irish (~16%), French (~16%), and German (~16%), on her mother’s side. She always referred to herself as an uninteresting “mutt” since her ethnicity according to her family seemed very tame. Having no expectations of discovering any exotic ethnicities going in to the DNA test, Nikita’s results turned out to be more surprising than she could have ever imagined.
Europe 85% | ||
Great Britain | Primarily located in: England, Scotland, Wales | 27% |
Iberian Peninsula | Primarily located in: Spain, Portugal | 20% |
Italy/Greece | Primarily located in: Italy, Greece | 16% |
Europe West | Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein | 10% |
Scandinavia | Primarily located in: Sweden, Norway, Denmark | 4% |
Ireland | Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland | 3% |
Europe East | Primarily located in: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia | 3% |
Finland/Northwest Russia | Primarily located in: Finland, Russia (northwest) | 2% |
America 7% | ||
Native American | Primarily located in: North America, Central America, South America | 7% |
Africa 6% | ||
Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers | Primarily located in: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Congo | 2% |
Senegal | Primarily located in: Senegal, the Gambia | 2% |
Nigeria | Nigeria Primarily located in: Nigeria | <1% |
Africa North | Primarily located in: Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya | <1% |
Asia 1% | ||
Asia Central | Primarily located in: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan | 1% |
West Asia <1% | ||
Middle East | Primarily located in: Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Israel | <1% |
The most intriguing results for Nikita were the African South Central Hunter-Gatherers and Native American traces. How cool is that! Nikita never dreamed she could be such a fascinating mix of ethnicities. Growing up she always thought of her heritage as boring and bland, and now she knows how untrue that is!
The entire Sumner Immigration Law team agrees that Nikita has by far the most interesting ethnic heritage among us!
Margaret Rockwell: 94% European + 6% West Asia
Prior to taking the AncestryDNA test, Margaret thought she was a simple blend of Irish (35%), German (15%), Italian (25%), and Welsh (Great Britain, 25%). She knew her mother’s family was a mix of Italian and Welsh and her father’s family was mainly Irish with a bit of German somewhere along the line.
Europe 94% | ||
Ireland | Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland | 36% |
Great Britain | Primarily located in: England, Scotland, Wales | 23% |
Europe West | Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein | 16% |
Italy/Greece | Primarily located in: Italy, Greece | 13% |
Scandinavia | Primarily located in: Sweden, Norway, Denmark | 2% |
European Jewish | Primarily located in: Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Israel | 2% |
Europe East | Primarily located in: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia | 2% |
West Asia 6% | ||
Middle East | Primarily located in: Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Israel | 5% |
Caucasus | Primarily located in: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey | <1% |
Margaret greeted her AncestryDNA results with much enthusiasm. Perhaps this is why she was always drawn to traveling abroad. With Turkey, Italy, Norway, Iraq, and England on the list of places she has visited, she has been to most of the regions from which her ancestors came.
The most interesting discovery for her was the fact that 5% of her heritage is from the Middle East. Perhaps this comes from her ancestors in Sicily, as the tiny island had been colonized by so many civilizations before becoming part of Italy. Now Margaret feels excited and very pleased to know her heritage. She is definitely a product of the great American melting pot!
Emily Sumner: 99.5% European + .5% Sub-Saharan African and South Asian
Before receiving the DNA results, Emily knew her family was mostly Irish (75%) and French (25%), with maybe a touch of Native American. Emily has already delved into genealogy prior to the DNA test and was able to trace back her family history to historic Jamestown, Virginia in the 1600s! Her family’s research and her intuitions proved mostly correct. She was excited to discover a very little bit of African, Asian, and Native American. While her ancestors (European) were among the first undocumented foreign nationals to enter the U.S., she loves her career of helping foreign nationals enter and stay in the U.S. legally!
Europe 99.5% | ||
British & Irish | Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England | 53% |
Broadly Northwestern European | Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein | 22.7% |
French & German | Primarily located in: France, Germany | 20.5% |
Scandinavian | Primarily located in: Sweden, Norway, Denmark | 2.3% |
Finnish | Primarily located in: Finland | 0.1% |
Broadly European |
| 1% |
Sub-Saharan Africa 0.6% | ||
South Asian 0.2% | ||
East Asian & Native American <0.2% |
No matter how far back our American roots go (or do not go), we celebrate and embrace our diversity and yours as well!
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