My parent's DNA ancestry composition results finally came in and they held little surprise. Their DNA almost entirely lines up with their genealogical paper trail.

As expected, my Dad is predominantly British & Irish with some German and Scandinavian. He was also 1.4% Sub-Saharan African and 0.9% Native American, values that are more than twice mine. My best bet is still that this non-European DNA is from our Hathcock branch of the family tree in North Carolina.

My Mom is mostly Eastern European and Balkan, as you would expect with someone of Hungarian descent, with some German, British & Irish, Scandinavian, and Italian. She is also 0.3% Mongolian and 0.1% Yakut. The Mongols ravaged Hungary many centuries ago and it seems that their genetic legacy still lingers. She also has a very small amount, 0.1%, Middle Eastern DNA, perhaps a reminder of the century-long Ottoman occupation of Hungary.

My Mom's Magyar DNA is somewhat more vague than my Dad's because while the Isles are located in an isolated corner of Europe, where its people can trace back genetic roots for thousands of years, Hungary was at a crossroads between the great empires of Europe and Asia, where there was frequent immigration from east and west, and the old Kingdom of Hungary once included much of the Balkans and other parts of Eastern Europe.

History is often a dry subject but when you're reading it for clues about the lives your ancestors might have lived, it's a bit more engrossing.

Through the fascinating science of DNA, I've identified 2 new Simpson cousins!

Barbara in California, a very knowledgeable and helpful lady,  is my father's 3rd cousin, once removed, sharing 0.52% of his DNA and his 3rd great grandparents, Sampson Coumbs and Grace Cole, who were born in Linkinhorne, Cornwall, England in 1808 and 1807, migrating to Canada about 1830. Soon after arriving in Canada, Sampson and Grace gave birth to their second child, Mary Coumbs, who became the mother of Delilah Grace Berlinguet, grandmother of Charles Elijah Davis, and great grandmother of Grace Merle Davis, my grandmother.

Apparently, Grace is popular family name.

Our other new cousins are Callie Hathcoat and her grandson, Joseph. Callie and my father are 6th cousins, sharing 0.28% of their DNA and the same 5th great grandfather, Thomas Hathcock Sr. (1718-1818) of North Carolina. As I posted earlier, the Hathcocks are the family of Emma Hethcote, Lowell Simpson's mother.

This connection was very interesting because this was a branch in the family tree that became a little shaky for me the further I climbed along it. The paper trail simply became too sketchy. Fortunately, this DNA evidence validates the research and confirms our relationship with Thomas.

Some new DNA results! While my father's full DNA results are not yet complete, we know his mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) results.

Mothers pass their mtDNA, unchanged, to their children 100% of the time. Over time, because of small errors when it copies itself, mtDNA slowly changes. By tracking when and where these changes occurred, we can also track the migrations of our maternal ancestors. The code that describes his mtDNA is I1a1e.

My father's known maternal line is Grace Davis > Emily Campbell > Emma McGregor > Amelia (unknown surname), who had immigrated from Scotland in the early 19th century. However, the mtDNA gives us some more information.

"Haplogroup I1a has the most frequent and widespread distribution area among Haplogroup I sub-clades, most common in Scandinavia; Swedish, Norwegian and Saami populations."

This very distant maternal ancestor was possibly a Norse woman who settled in Scotland over a thousand years ago. While Norse settlements were extensive in Scotland for several hundred years, they were eventually absorbed by the much larger, native population. However, their genetic legacy may remain.