Unsolved Genetic Mysteries

Way back when I was in elementary school the question was asked of me, "What are you... are you Italian or Native American or half breed or what?"

See, in Minnesota, which is the land of the lily white northern Europeans of fair hair, blond hair, and blue eyes my dark hair, high cheek bones, and olive skin tone was just *barely* unusual enough to draw mild questioning. Put me in the sun for five minutes and I turn instantly brown.

On one occasion I was asked if I was part Asian. Well, maybe part Eskimo would be more like it? I don't know. I guess my family being on the North American continent for over 300 years tosses just about any genetic probability into the mix.

Anyway.... there is something "dark" in the family genetics and I have yet to figure out what that might be. I have my guesses......

William the Silent

This is my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-
great-grandfather. He was also a shit disturber and liked to question authority. I might also mention he was brutally killed for that. I guess I'm not so far off the mark.

Granted, I'm a bastard offspring of his (he was a slut), but I heard stories about him growing up waaaaayyyyy before the days of the internet. All that was told to me when I was a small child was that he was a "bad man" and that he was killed, and our branch of the family left the Netherlands for New Amsterdam (which was New York before it was New York -- like 1650ish). What is really scary is that my father looks just like the portrait. One would think that after so many generations any resemblance would be long gone.

Now that I'm older and I have more information as to who this man really was, I find that what is written about him hits home with me. However, my husband may have to divorce me as William the Silent has family roots in southern France which makes me part French. My husband HATES the French.