Lisa grew up believing she had Native American heritage.
An AncestryDNA test revealed she was part Native American, just not from anywhere near the region she thought.
And her mom and dad were not her biological family.
Native American Family Lore
Both of Lisa’s adopted parents were of European descent. According to Lisa,
“On my dad’s side they were Irish and Scottish. I knew my mom’s dad was full-blooded German. And they said my great-grandmother was supposed to be Choctaw.”
The Choctaw are a Native American people who originally occupied the region that is now the Southeastern United States (modern-day Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana).
“When I looked at my grandmother on mom’s side, she was short-statured and dark-haired. And I was told my grandmother’s half-sister was Creek, from Oklahoma.”
While Lisa was never told that her heritage specifically tied to the Creek, the Native American family story was definitely part of her upbringing.
The DNA Discovery
Lisa was raised by a very loving family in Arkansas. But she also felt something was a bit off.
She didn’t have any of the characteristics or the “likes” that her family shared.
Lisa also didn’t look like them. When she and her husband got married,
“He was like, ‘Those aren’t your parents.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, they are.'”
It wasn’t until an AncestryDNA test revealed that her father, who also took the test, wasn’t a match that Lisa realized maybe her ties to her family were not biological.
“I thought maybe because he was my dad, he wasn’t showing up as a ‘cousin match.’
Lisa contacted Ancestry and realized that parental matches (and not just “cousin matches”) are also displayed. Her dad just wasn’t her biological father.
And it turned out, the mom she had grown up with was not her biological parent either.
Meeting Mom
Lisa’s next question was naturally, Who are my biological parents?
Her father, Lisa discovered, had passed away in 1998. She was able to connect with members of his family, some of them on Ancestry, and learn more about him.
But her mom was still alive and living in California. Lisa recalls,
“Through cousins I was able to find my mother. That was almost scary for me, because I thought people search their entire lives.”
About two months after finding her through Ancestry, Lisa flew to meet her mom and got the full family story.
Her mom’s mom was from a north-central state in Mexico called Zacatecas. Her mom’s dad was from western Mexico, from a state called Jalisco.
When she was 15, Lisa’s mom had traveled from California to Arkansas, where her sister was living. Her sister helped put Lisa up for adoption.
A New Perspective
Before meeting her mom, it has not dawned on Lisa that her Native American background could be tied to Mexico.
And her heritage turned out to be more diverse than she expected.
Lisa has Native American and European ancestry on her mom’s side and French, Irish, and even Native American heritage on her paternal Canadian side of the family.
“Before I could say, ‘I’m German and Native American. I could say that easily. Now if somebody asks ‘what’ I am, I can say, ‘Pick one.'”
What unexpected ancestry will you discover? Find out today with an AncestryDNA test.