I've been finding ancestors on other ancestry.com member trees and building a family tree that goes back to all the old countries. It wasn't hard to link my grandma's Mom's grandparents back to Ireland, but her Dad's family led me way back into Canadian and American history. I even found a few relatives who had to flee Salem, Massachusettes after being accused of witchcraft.

I suppose most of these ancestors passed on traits like my hair color, eye color, build, etc., but the origin of my B blood type is more mysterious. Its a thin genetic thread from a single Bohemian ancestor on my Mom's Dad's side undiluted by the sea of O's and A's in my European family's blood.

And according to Dr. D'Adamo's Blood Type Encyclopedia, that B blood type is essentially an Asian blood type that migrated through Semitic groups into Eastern Europe. That is a piece of history that my overwhelmingly Catholic family is oblivious to.

I hope DNA can help me understand the migration from Asia to Bohemia in the Czech Republic and eventually to America intact of this key piece of info. A thread links me to the distant past and guides my body's inflammatory survival strategy, my risks for diseases, even personality traits. Call it thread theory. One seemingly trivial family heirloom can shape my entire life and self-knowledge is the key to reaching my genetic potential.

if you get a chance, national geographic makes great dna tests
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html

http://www.dadamo.com/B2blogs/blogs/index.php/2007/01/06/internal-archeology?blog=24

Thanks Lola. The Genographic Project is the DNA test I was thinking about. First because its the least expensive and second because it contributes to overall scientific knowledge.

I did the genographic test with national geographic - its so interesting and I highly recommend it.   (Although, I cant make the connection to genotype - I guess it doesnt make sense to make such a connection)

I also found out that one of my ancestors got put to death around 1150 in england for certain misdemeanors...

There's a passage in Deep Ancestry by Spencer Wells which is the official book for the National Geographic Genographic Study that describes how Lewontin turned preexisting ideas of genetic variation on its head by discovering, using DNA, that 85% of genetic variation occurs within groups of people, not among different nationalities of races. Also in Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes describes his controversial mitochondrial DNA finding that 80% of modern European DNA is hunter-gatherer and 20% is more recent farmer genetics.

What this means is that the diversity of survival strategis that seperates, say, a Hunter from a Teacher is very much intact and well distributed among populations. Type O is interesting for its resilience. Because its recessive, it can lay dormant for generations and then just pop up! My hope is that these unique people don't have problems fitting in.

To clarify the last point. My Dad is type A and he's lost a lot of weight by mostly eating bread. I'm Type B and I thrive on a diet much lower in carbs. Of course, I grew up eating plenty of wheat and it didn't seem to hit me until I was 20 and I lost weight and had digestive problems. The gastoenterologist I went to was a nice man, but he actually said to my parents "Diet doesn't matter in Crohn's Disease." He couldn't be more wrong. But I guess from his perspective, he can't control what people eat and he doesn't know specifically what any individual patient should eat. This, one has to find out for oneself (with a little help from this site

I am B+ and my mother's side of the family is from Ireland (pretty darn close to 100% heritage) and my father's side is from Bohemia (i am third generation on his side so they came right off the boat) I can't figure out how I got mine either.

I waffled between Yes and I want to know more.  I decided that I want to know more.  My O+ Mother is Polish.  She had dark brown hair and brown eyes.  I have light brown hair and green eyes.  Some of her siblings had hazel eyes and blond hair from picture of her parents it looks like my grandfather was the light eyed light haired one and my Grandmother was the dark haired beauty.  Grandfather’s side has been linked to Bella Russia and Lithuania.  My Grandfather was born in Warsaw Poland.  My Grandmother was born in Michigan, USA.  I’m curious where her ancestors came from.  They both died when my mother was growing up.

My AB- Father is ½ WASP & ½ Jew.  He had light brown hair and blue eyes. Both sides of the family disinherited them when they married.  My Grandfather’s family can be traced to 1635 in America from both my Father’s Grandfather’s family and his Grandmother’s family.  That side of him is Dutch, English and Welsh.  The Jewish side is English &German.  They came to America in the 1800’s.  My uncles went to the Mormon Tabernacle in Utah to trace part of that side of the family’s ancestry because a relative stopped off there for supplies during the gold rush and everyone was required to give their history.

So some I know, but I’d like to more about the different paths backward in my ancestry.  I suspect the B in me comes from my Jewish side.

My B+ son is even more of a mutt than I am.  His Father was ½ Swedish and ½ Arian German.  My son’s hair is brown but when he gets out in the sun it turns almost blond.  He had blond hair when he was a child.  His eyes are blue.  His father was blond haired & blue eyed.  We know nothing of his ancestry.  His Father’s dead, so unless he decides to do some research later on in life, we won’t know.

I haven't gotten into family history myself, but my mother and her father were big into it.  Grampa did genealogical research for other people (for hire).  My B gene comes from dad's side, and there isn't nearly as much of the family history work done on his side.  One of these days I want to get into it myself, but I just can't get motivated right now.

B´s are pretty common in  Eastern Europe......

My grandmother( Type B) on my dad side -had Ukraine/ East German ancestors (Great Great grandparents - and we always joked that my dad ( AB) looked like a real Cossack ( Dark hair -very blue eyes- the way he walked )
while my Mothers family( all O´s)  are mainly Danish; Norwegian, and something else that I forgot.

I haven´t used much time with my own family- but I have used a lot of time on my step dads family
He is born in USA - and there was so many tales about his past that I decided to use my Historian background - and it was really interesting what we found out.

His mother had always told him that is fathers family was jewish and came from Prussia ( the Eastern part of Germany- well the actually came from Rhineland - and was not jewish at least not in 1670   - so sometimes a little thing gets completely messed up- it I always wise to find to independent sources that tells the same story  

Quoted from BohemianChris

There's a passage in Deep Ancestry by Spencer Wells which is the official book for the National Geographic Genographic Study that describes how Lewontin turned preexisting ideas of genetic variation on its head by discovering, using DNA, that 85% of genetic variation occurs within groups of people, not among different nationalities of races. Also in Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes describes his controversial mitochondrial DNA finding that 80% of modern European DNA is hunter-gatherer and 20% is more recent farmer genetics.

I found Sykes Seven Daughters a great book.   Im from the South Pacific and there was some amazing insights into how the human race moved into that region and evolved...

My dad's family is of Scandanavian descent (Knudsen/Jensen so Norway); my mom Russian (Molokon Christians, kicked out by the last Czar of Russia, Alexander). Both A's.

Growing up, I joked that I look German since that was the middle-ground people.

Now I live in the land of Mestizos (Spanish slang term for people of Mexican heritage who are a mix of European and Native American ancestries).

In college, my dorm roommate was "Black Irish," since he could tan darkly and when his brown hair grew out, would get real curly and thick. His explanation was some of the survivors of the Spanish Armada that tried to invade England included Moorish slaves, and some people had to land on Catholic Ireland to survive.

Knudsen?  Like the organic juice brand?

Quoted from Maldo

I found Sykes Seven Daughters a great book.   Im from the South Pacific and there was some amazing insights into how the human race moved into that region and evolved...

me too - facinating read  

BTW Knudsen and especially JENSEN is much more common in Denmark than in Norway  

Yes, you are correct. I keep forgetting the Danish background.

DH just told me about another circle in my family tree.  My great-grandmother married my great-grandfather on opposite sides of the family, in their old age.  It would be like if my father died and my husband's mother died, my mother marrying his father.  In a way it's sort of sweet, them having known each other for many years, but then again....."They probably weren't allowed to marry outside the church," I told DH.  DH said, "They probably weren't allowed to marry outside the family."    Now that's redneck.  Small town, podunk Alabama with a population made up of....family.  Woo-hoo!

My Grandfather and his 1st cousin married sisters.  If you looked at my uncle and his cousin side by side you would have thought they were brothers.  They were always very close throughout their life too.  

BohemianChris,  Let me get this straight . . . your father is type A and the Bohemian ancestor comes on your mother's side of the family?

I hate to break the news, but I am afraid that the current state of DNA testing will not help with the migration from Asia to Eastern Europe, etc.  But DNA studies become more and more refined and precise as time goes on.

When DNA testing was first starting up I heard a lecture about it by someone how was using mitochondrial DNA (which comes down through females only) to confirm genealogies.  The lecturer was working with New England families but he spoke about a researcher in Great Britain (I don't know whether it was Skyes or someone else) who had found one woman who had Great Britain ancestry confirmed centuries back (most can go back to about 1600, provided the church or town hall holding their records was not bombed in WWII) - well, the woman's her mitochondrial DNA was completely atypical of Great Britain but was completely typical of women in the Near East.  So, that blood type B just might have travelled back from the Crusades to England and was passed down to you.  Who knows?

The B blood type comes from my maternal grandpa John Sykora. His parents came directly from Bohemia, though I do have some English blood on the paternal side of my maternal grandma Annabelle's side (Prince). Ultimately, the mitochodrial DNA testing would trace the French-Canadian side of her family. Two questions I have are "Were there any native American women in this maternal line since my ancestors were in Canada since the 1700's?" and "If my French ancestors are from Normandy, do they have Celtic blood?"

I think there's inbreeding in every family. Like my maternal great great grandma married her uncle. Life on the frontier may have really limited the gene pool

I just found out I have Cherokee Indian blood on my mom's mom's mom's (I'm not sure how many yet) side.  So I carry Cherokee mitochondria.  We overheard my mom's cousin mention it at my grandmother's funeral yesterday and nobody (not my mom or her siblings) knew it.  So my husband, who is the family historian, got in touch with that cousin for specifics.  Pretty cool, huh?  And nobody knew!

That's very cool, Ribbit. I think most Americans have a story or two about native American blood in their family, but aren't necessarily able to prove it. Maybe some of the stories are true and others are mythologies created to help connect us to this country on a spiritual level. Perhaps the mitochondrial DNA is the ultimate authority, but there are also some pretty good written records in archives and churches. I've been surprised by some of my family heritage, but never disappointed.

-Chris

Yes, I've researched my genealogy, and I'm still researching.  I'm about as much of a mutt as a person can be.  Besides having Native American ancestry (both Creek and Cherokee), I have ancestors from all over Europe and the Middle East.  However, it seems that all of my ancestors came into the US quite early.  I haven't yet found any that got here after the 1700s, and many were here before that.

Quoted from Ribbit

I just found out I have Cherokee Indian blood on my mom's mom's mom's (I'm not sure how many yet) side.  So I carry Cherokee mitochondria.  We overheard my mom's cousin mention it at my grandmother's funeral yesterday and nobody (not my mom or her siblings) knew it.  So my husband, who is the family historian, got in touch with that cousin for specifics.  Pretty cool, huh?  And nobody knew!

That is cool.   I already knew that I had Cherokee ancestry, but I had no idea that I had Creek until I started working on my family tree.  Based on the looks of my family, I suspect there's still more to find.

Ha.  Based on my looks you'd think purely northern European.