As I mentioned earlier, for decades my father had told us we were part Native American. When I went to my grandfather’s funeral in West Virginia, I met his older brother John Martin. He’s the one that got me interested in our Family History.
He had some stories that were correct like your 2nd great-grandfather Joshua Roman Wheeler was in the Civil War as a bugler in the Virginia Cavalry. He was shot in the leg/knee and died about a week later. But as I researched later, he had the names wrong. It was actually our 2nd great-grandfather James Washington Smith who fought for the south and died. The Wheelers were from Kentucky and most fought for the Union.
But I digress….
John Martin, our great-uncle, also told me we were part Indian.
I did years of research and could NEVER find any information that would confirm or deny that claim.
A couple of years ago, Ancestry added DNA tests and Ethnicity Estimates to their offering. I though “finally, we’ll see how much Native American we are and which tribe”. So, I took the test and had ALL 5 brothers and our father take the tests.
The results are in and…..
Evidently, we’ve been pulling an “Elizabeth Warren” and we have ZERO Native American DNA in our ancestry.
These are mine (Donnie):
These are Marks, pretty much the same:
These are our dad’s, pretty darn British Isle:
