What was made?

 Some years back I took the DNA test with Ancestry.Com. I was given that test as a gift. The results came back and there were no surprises. I knew where my ancestors had come from. Of course, I simply think of myself as an American. I have always thought of myself as an American that had grandparents that were Americans too, they just came from another country. I knew my maternal grandmother very well and she told stories about coming to America from Sweden. It wasn't her idea, her parents sent her to America to care for a sick aunt. But she stayed, married grandfather Horace, had ten children and became an American. She sounded like an American, dressed like an American and seldom mentioned Sweden, except when she talked about home. It never occurred to me that her home was Sweden. 

 On the paternal side those folks came from Germany/Bavaria. I didn't know any of them though, they lived far away, across Long Island sound, and had no contact with us. 

 Just the other day I got a message from Ancestry saying my DNA results had been updated. I couldn't see were much had changed, the ethnicity remained the same. It was accompanied however by percentages of that lineage. Thirty-eight per cent German, thirty-eight per cent British, and a smattering of others like Irish and Welch. I thought, no mention of being American? Is there an American DNA? The answer to that is hotly debated. Native Americans is the usual response, they are the Americans. But there is a big issue with that definition, native Americans have DNA markers that come from Europe and other portions of the globe. Native Americans define themselves along tribal lines and those tribal lines are not apparent in DNA testing. It's not the same as in Europe were nations and ethnicities are closely related. DNA can't identify an Apache as any different from say a Navajo. As far as DNA goes all native Americans are the same! That's pretty offensive to some native peoples. Thing is, if we keep tracing it all back no one came from North America, they migrated there as well as they migrated to Europe. Yes, it's a bit of a sticky wicket. Your DNA can't define you as an American either.

  I find it all very interesting. I enjoy history and the knowing of it. It's not an obsession however, it is what it was. I make no claim to heritage, it's something I inherited, not earned. Yes, it makes a difference to me. My claim is in being an American. America is my heritage, my inheritance. The ethnicity of those that secured that inheritance isn't that important to me. The accomplishments of those people are! America is all I have ever known and all I will ever know. I'm not a bit ashamed or apologetic for anything America has done. A country grows the same as an individual grows, through trial and error. You make bad choices, sometimes you hurt the ones you love, you learn (hopefully) and move forward. The past exists as a lesson to be learned. You can't undo the past, erase the mistakes or "make it up" to those that were not there at the time. Heritage isn't an entitlement, it's a gift. 

  The science may very well tell me I'm German, British, or whatever. That's what the DNA says. I acknowledge that and it's interesting. I can trust the science. Setting science aside however I will tell you I am an American. Every fiber of being is American. It is the culture I live with, the customs, the thoughts, the history of America that has made me whatever it is I am today. I'm an American. I see it this way, all the best parts of those other cultures and ethnicities were combined to make an American. Yup, that's the way that worked. DNA isn't concerned with that at all. DNA is just the parts list. What was made? An American. I'm proud of that. It took all the parts to make America, foreign and Domestic, that needs to be understood. In 1908 a play was written called The Melting Pot. It was a play about cultural assimilation. It came into use as a metaphor for America. We are Americans!