Kindra and I went to the annual Highland Gathering in Choctaw Saturday to mingle a bit with those who carry samples of the same DNA we do.
Neither Kindra nor I knew we had much Scottish ancestry until we took DNA tests.
Turns out, she is more Scottish than anything. Close to 40 percent,or thereabouts. Influences abound on both sides of her family.
Me? Depends on which test. I took a DNA test with 23andme a few years ago in an effort to handicap my chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
As an added benefit, the test showed that 88.6 percent of my ancestry was from the British Isles, mostly England and Ireland (Arrland, if you are from Fitzhugh), with a penny-pinching Scotsman thrown in for seasoning.
Some years later, I did a test from Ancestry. com and got different results: 18 percent Scottish, even more than the 11 percent Irish they say is within me.
England still dominates, thanks largely to my great-grandpa Harris, who caught a boat from London to the states as a wee lad.
He finished up his life as a farmer and Freewill Baptist preacher in southwest Arkansas.
Many people research their ancestry to help understand what contributed to them being the way they are.
That was never an issue for me. I am the way I am because I grew up in rural Pontotoc County with parents and grandparents who also grew up in rural Pontotoc County.
If you are a third-generation product of the blackjacks and limestone south of Ada, the die is cast. You are and always will be from - and will sound like, according to Kindra - southern Pontotoc County.
The slightest bit of research shows that I hail from Clan Robbins, thanks to Grandma Blansett, a Robbins by birth and one possessed of the specific stubbornness and self-reliance often attached to the Scottish folk. The Robbins clan, I learned Saturday, falls within the larger MacDonald clan.
Kindra apparently descends from Clan Gunn. I truly hope the MacDonald/Robbins group got along well with them.
We had a great time, with food and good music, and we watched some unusual athletic competitions, like the caber toss, in which competitors balance a big log and try to toss it over their shoulder.
But, the thing that I come back to is this. Most of my genes came from Englishmen who made war against my Scottish and Irish ancestors, whose descendants later came to the colonies and weaved their way through Appalachia. There were some Germans - 5 percent, according to 23andme, and up to 19 percent, according to Ancestry.com - and there was a small group of Africans from the Congo and Angola.
All those shadowy figures from the past created narratives that one day produced... me. At different times, they tried to kill each other, yet I exist because of them.
The swords and clubs my ancestors used against each are stilled and rattle no more.
I’m pretty sure most Americans have similar stories. We’re alike in many ways because all of us are unique.
It’s sad that our country is torn by such anger and division over the differences we have instead of celebrating those whose lives and stories can enrich us a nation.