How does a Southern Black Family have a Polish ancestor?

Question

My name is Jones Tucker, I'm a Black man from the South. My family has been living in Mississippi for nearly 400 years. I recently did a DNA test and my results were 88% African genes and 12 % European. My European heritage was inherited from a Polish ancestor.

How is this even possible? I expected my White ancestor to be either Scottish or Irish? Does this mean that Polish people were present in the South too?

Answer 1

It could be that the Polish ancestor lived in Scotland or Ireland for a period of time - don't forget that the British Empire was founded on trade, and the great port cities, Glasgow, Dublin, Leith and Belfast would have had residents from all over the world.

Answer 2

s*x with a traveler.  That would be my guess.

I think one of the early ports of entry into the U.S. was New Orleans, so Yes, I would say that there were many other nationalities in the south.  But it could have just as easily occurred in Europe.

Answer 3

yep.

If you knew approximately when your white ancestors entered your blood line then you could take an educated guess of when the Polish ancestor appeared.

Texas has had a large German, Czech, and Polish community since before the Civil War.

North Carolina has had a large German community since before the Revolutionary War (Winston-Salem area) and ethnic Poles have always been in Germany.  So you may actually have ancestors who came from Poland by way of Germany and they may have been in Germany for generations and considered themselves German.

edit to add:

Your African ancestors may have been on this continent for 400 years but it is unlikely they have been in MS for 400 years.  They would have had to entered on the east coast and then migrated with the rest of the population as they expanded westward.  

At most your African ancestors would have been in the area we now call Mississippi for 300 years--they could have come in by way of the Gulf Coast with the French and the Spanish who weren't settling in that area until 1718.

Answer 4

I do not understand the percentage used.  On a "pure" basis, you would be 50% of each parent; 25% of each grandparent, and 12.5 % of a gr grandparent.  Simple math.  I was not aware that any DNA tests can specify Polish, anyway. Assuming that they *might* have rounded off the numbers.. that would indicate that one of your gr grandparents was full White. Is that consistent with your records?

With all respect.. I am also VERY VERY skeptical of your statement regarding your family being in Miss. almost 400 yrs. Miss. Territory was not created until 1798, and became a state in 1817.  For the majority of African Americans, it is extremely uncommon to have any documents at all, prior to 1865.

Please do not take offense at what I am saying. Prior to statehood (and perhaps even then), there will be limited records of ANY kind, to work with.  Speaking as a researcher.. my approach is that ANYTHING must be backed up with some records, in order to be reliable at all.

I apologize if I am incorrect.  Based on my experience.. your statements seem very unlikely.  

One way to do some comparison, would be to identify each of your grandparents by name/date/place. I'd be happy to search for them in the early census records. It is very possible that this COULD confirm one of them (or a gr grandparent) to be listed as mulatto, instead of Black. This would also give you further details on all of them.  My email is open, if you would like me to do that for you.

edit

just for some thought-

I pulled up a list of free blacks in Miss. in 1850.. SOME were born prior to 1800, but almost none of them give Miss as place of birth.

Answer 5

The name Tucker is very common in Poland where it's spelled Tokar and Tokarz, meaning wood turner. There were numerous Polish immigrants, especially soldiers fighting in the American Revolution on the American side. Also, many Polish Jews have R1a1 Y chromosome DNA, same as Poles, Sorbs from E. Germany, and Ukrainians, and a few came to the USA as merchants in the 18th century to supply the new colonists with picks and shovels and other building materials and fabrics for clothing.

It's also possible that descendants of the Sarmatian soldiers in the Roman Army, populating Britain in small numbers in the first century CE, that were left in England married local women, and eventually came to America with the 1636 migration to New England or Virginia and traveled to other states later. These Sarmatians from various parts of the steppes also would have the same Y chromosome DNA as many Polish people, such as R1A1 Y chromosome, among other haplotypes, and for the female side, H1b (Bavaria, Poland, Scandinavia) mtDNA.

For more information, a good book is titled, How to Open DNA-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses, IBSN:978-0-595-44278-2, available on most online bookseller sites such as www.iuniverse.com. or browse the book free at the publisher's web site at:

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_...

Answer 6

They could've come here in one of the Great Migrations when loads of Europeans came. It doesn't seem very unlikely. One of your ancestors could've had a thing for Poles.