St. Patrick’s Day is a day to celebrate the Irish in us all. In my family, it always means remembering our Irish ancestors. Sometimes with food, like my Mom’s corned beef and cabbage. Sometimes, it would be just a nod to those who came before. DNA ethnicity studies for various family members usually includes more than a little bit of the Blarney.

My maternal grandmother, Moiselle Burbidge, always remembered her maternal grandfather, James Winfield Gass, on St. Patrick’s Day. His people were from northern Ireland, meaning Scots-Irish. They arrived in the U.S. sometime in the mid-1700’s probably from Donegal, Ireland. And they settled in Pennsylvania with other Ulster Scots, like the McLeans and the Hamiltons, with whom they intermarried.

The Jackson family also arrived in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700’s. Tradition says our immigrant ancestor, Hugh Jackson, came from Fermanagh, now in Northern Ireland. They settled in Menallen Township of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. According to Wikipedia, Menallen was named after Moyallen, a town in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Unlike the Jackson and Gass families, who left few records of their origins, except perhaps in their associations as well as in their DNA, the McCleves and the McFerrins immigrated to Utah in the 1850’s as Mormon converts. And they undoubtedly came from the towns of Ballymoney and Crawfordsburn, now Northern Ireland.

The Burbidge family brings in the Taylors and Kingstons from County Cork, Ireland. Samuel Kingston was convicted of forgery, sentenced to life, and in 1825 was transported to Australia on board the convict ship Hooghly. Kindly, the authorities offered to send for his family, including a son-in-law, James Taylor. In the 1850’s, the descendants of these two men joined the Mormon church and after an arduous journey, not the least of which was by sea, they arrived in Utah. DNA-wise, we have cousin matches from Australia, who are related to the Kingston-Taylor family.

Our Irish heritage is accounted for by the various DNA testing companies, and usually bundled together with the Scottish and Welsh peoples. MyHeritage DNA identifies me as 65.3% Irish, Scottish and Welsh; the rest is English. FamilyTree does not split hairs. They only identify that 84% of my ancestry is from the British Isles. While AncestryDNA says one of my siblings identifies 17% and the other 26% with our Irish & Scottish heritage.

My husband’s maternal ancestors, the Cummings, arrived with the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers in the 1600’s. Most of them came from very specific places in England. Sadly, his Irish ethnicity as determined by the DNA testing companies is negligible. Probably because his paternal side is exclusively Ashkenazi Jewish. They had very little opportunity to intermarry with any Irish until the 20th century.