podunklander

ok obviously the anthropological perspective is being lost or otherwise misunderstood here.

Anyway, I'm 2nd generation American on the 'Italian' side (and my last name is Italian) -these of my ancestors lived in Italy for many generations...some were native Italians and others were Scottish emigrants. They all became enculturated where they lived (Italy), regardless of their roots. I recognize that there is Scottish blood roots and there have been some customs retained by the family....but we consider ourselves to be Italian.

The maternal line - at least 300 years in Canada via France.

There is a rare gene that has been passed along to my son. My son has a rare genetic disorder with some already serious and some potentially serious medical challenges (reverse optic nerves, pulmonary stenosis, growth hormone deficiency and a lesion at the base of his skull...to name a few). This breaks my heart every day and I strive to provide him with the best quality of life and some normalcy.

But it wasn't just "me" who carried this gene. In order for him to have this disorder...the gene had to come from both parents.

My son's father was born more than 3,000 miles away from me -in the mountains in the Basque region of Spain...where his family lived for many generations.

The genetic mutation probably occurred somewhere between southern France and northern Spain probably some 500+ years ago and too far back for us to be able to research back via vital statistics. So the genetists who studied our case could only tell us not much more than this from the markers they found that we both had.

People have varying and even serious reasons for researching their ancestry, and yet others...can obviously view their own and even other's with much folly.