I visited Scotland after a DNA test revealed I was 14% Scottish. My results are complicated, but it's not my job to have all the answers.
I took a DNA test this May to get concrete answers about my ancestry.
I learned I was 14% Scottish, which was an absolute shock to me.
I have complicated feelings about the results, but it's not my job to have the answers.
"Where are you from?" has always been a tricky question for me.
As a child, I always asserted that I was from Florida — which is true — but people were rarely content with that response.
"No, but where are you really from?" they'd ask, even more intent on unraveling a mystery I had not cracked yet.
I'm African American, so slavery and its repercussions made answering that question nearly impossible. In the 2010s, my aunt attempted to pull public records and documents to trace our ancestry, but the work was tedious and often inconclusive.
The National Archives and Records Administration noted that the Civil War and courthouse fires destroyed many documents that could provide answers for African Americans looking for details about where they came from before enslavement. Additionally, some southern states didn't begin recording births, marriages, and deaths until after 1900.
In May, I decided to eliminate the ambiguity surrounding my ancestry and take an AncestryDNA test.
There were lots of surprises on my DNA test, especially my Scottish ancestry
Nine days after I spit into a plastic tube and shipped it away to the AncestryDNA labs, I got a notification that my results were ready.
While I expected several African countries in my results, I was still surprised at which ones that made the list. According to my results, my largest DNA block comes from Nigeria at 17%. My results also showed that most of my ancestry comes from West African countries like Cameroon and Ghana, which makes sense given the transatlantic slave trade originated in the region.
Tracing my ancestry to specific African countries was thrilling. I called my parents immediately, asking if they knew we were Nigerian and from a host of other countries.
I was also shocked that two of my top five DNA percentages pointed to white European ancestry. AncestryDNA claimed that I was 14% Scottish and 9% Welsh, in addition to having origins from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, and England. I was definitely thrown off.
Those countries, while interesting, made me pause. My parents are African American, and the same goes for my grandparents. I'm not sure how countries like Norway ended up in my ancestry, but I couldn't deny that it's likely due to the atrocities of chattel slavery, which often included rape and breeding.
I traveled to Scotland with a friend as part of a girls' trip across Europe
I decided to explore each country on the list to learn more about my ancestry, but I didn't think an opportunity would present itself one month after getting my results. In June, a friend made plans to travel across Europe and invited me to tag along for the first half of the trip.
When she suggested we visit Scotland, I realized it would become the first country on my DNA bucket list. After months of planning, we packed our bags and flew to the United Kingdom in September. After spending four days in London, we vacationed in Glasgow for three days.
While there, we tried to learn about Scottish history by visiting historical sites like Glasgow Cathedral, eating foods like black pudding, and partying with the locals at a cocktail bar called The Social.
I expected to feel complete after my visit, but I didn't
I anticipated feeling a deep understanding and undergoing radical change because of my time in Glasgow, but I didn't. In retrospect, my expectations were too high. The cultures on my DNA bucket list — while fascinating — won't replace my African-American ethncity.
Instead, they're meant to complement each other like different ingredients in a dish. I'm an amalgamation of several countries and cultures, and it's OK if I'm still learning about them well into my adult years. It's not my job to have all the answers, but it is my job to live unapologetically while embracing all parts of me.
I'd love to explore countries in Africa next. Hopefully, Nigeria, but I'm excited for what the future holds.
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