How neat to see my family on the channel☺ I think you nailed our DNA results.IIRC, my mom and her cousins' tests (Lola's grandkids)were about 5-10% African, and maybe 5-10% Native depending on the cousin who took it. The tests keep changing with every update so I don't love them for much more than cousin matches. Lola's mother's side has been extremely difficult paperwise, but based on DNA matches and oral history and a few sparse documents I think her maternal line comes to the Choctaw Apache tribe in Louisiana.
@Graeme Duncan People knew but it was taboo. the older generations pretended not to know because od Jim Crow laws. The younger millennials knew too and just wanted the truth out as it is no longer taboo. The younger generations are much smarter. They know if you change one ancestor then you don't exist. Genvlogger should have guessed Louisiana creole from the get-go. I thank he did know; he is just trying to keep the suspense. Or maybe because he knows many Europeans watching do not know American history that well and the Louisiana Creoles. Obviously, this first video was an introductory video to a documentary which he finally admitted he knew.
I will explain, in circa 1920 laws were passed (called Jim Crow) in the American south making it illegal for a white (100% Eruopean descent) to marry a person with any other ethnicity. these laws remained on the books until the US Supreme Court ruling in the 1960's Loving versus Virginia. there was a movie made about it a few years ago.
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SERIES!!! I can't wait for you to react to the rest. Please do them back to back to back to back. This is such a good docuseries and I think SO many people will be able to relate/connect in some way. We all have family members in our tree to wanted to keep secrets. And she tells the story so well... it basically blooms and wow. It's awesome and honestly, we could all be so lucky to have our family "secrets" turn out so well.
Have you read Gail Lusik's book "White Like Her?" Very similar story. Gail's mother was also white passing Louisiana Creole. Gail did not find out until she was almost 50. Her mother looked white, whereas Lola does not really, you can tell she was mixed with something. Marion too. Like Lola, Gail's mother was very cagey. It seems though Lola's husband probably knew. since they lived in Louisiana together before moving to New York and their eldest son was born in Louisiana and his birth certificate said "colored." Gail's father was probably ignorant. Gail said he was very racist.
Please do more reactions to this channel, this series. It really is an amazing story told in a really nice way (even if this video end rather abruptly).
I can’t wait for this series! My family is from the Dominican Republic and it’s interesting to see the range of phenotypes you see in a mixed race family.
I was hoping you would react to this documentary. It’s a very good series about real life, real families, and a real emotional journey. It’s really well done.
It is a Docu series she is making. She meets other siblings in Louisiana. It's very interesting. Basically Lola was passing as white and none of her kids or family really knew. And yes they are taking DNA test.
I’ve been watching this channel! Such an amazing story! Btw, just like you, I have a great grandma that was a brick wall (past tense). We did have a maiden name for her, but not much else. My grandpa didn’t know much about his mom and she died at a young age (my grandpa was the 2nd oldest of 5. The youngest was 6 when she passed. Her oldest passed away a few months before she did, though). We only knew her by the shortened version of her name. She passed a few years before her 1st grandchild, my dad’s sister, was born. So, neither my aunt nor my dad knew her. It was in the early 2000s when we finally found out that she had a half sister.
"Mulatto" did NOT mean that a person was literally 50% European and 50% African in DNA. It was a general term for mixed ancestry that might be applied to anyone.
This story is very similar to my father's family history. Lots on name changes, DOB changes, ethnic identities being changed depending on the Census. Being a person of Créole and Cajun descent, our family history can be very convoluted once the USA took over Louisiana territories.
She does have a video where she reacts to her DNA, but she doesn't really show the percentages. I think she doesn't believe some of the results, but it does show some African and some native American, though not as much as you commented, if I remember correctly. I still think that would be useful to react to. It really is an amazing series that I'm a bit addicted to. I have suggested, it may have even been on this video of hers, to her to get in touch with you to maybe have you help her to do her family tree as you did for Mr Beat. I think that would be so fascinating, but obviously it's up to her.
Well I would absolutely love that! Lola's father side is pretty well documented, (African/Creole mostly) but her mother's side is really hard. Looks like it started in the Mexico/Texas Missions and kept moving east). Im still working that side out.
Lots of secrets hide in our families and one of the joys of genealogy is knowing we may find some of them. It's neat that NYTN was able to discover some of her family's past. As noted here, "ethnicity" can change, which gets me back to my soapbox that the concept of "ethnicity" is highly flawed. We label each other for various reasons, and many customers taking DNA tests are _identity shopping_ . Let us remember that we are much more than labels.
@Graeme Duncan First of All, Dan is referring to Americans, NOT Europeans, probably because he assumes since you are not American you would have no interest in this video. I already posted to you that you did not know our history of slavery, (although maybe your ancestors brought it here when we were colonies and helped make our economy depend upon it) the stigma attached to it and how many people who looked white chose to pass as white because of that stigma. You need to stop judging of what you have little to no knowledge.
Unfortunately, I couldn't ask my grandpa about his life anymore. He died when I turned 18 and at the time I wasn't interested in genealogy. So many questions are unanswered. i miss him so much
A very unfortunate circumstance with many genealogists. One thing you can do is reach out to other relatives in the family asking for anything they may have, because sometimes someone sat down to ask the questions.
@@ProfessionalGenealogistReacts I've spoken to his sister but she can't give me much information either as he seemed to be a quiet and withdrawn person.
I had watched the whole series. It was interesting. I like how they embraced their history - not everyone is so open minded (even in these ‘modern’ times).
My great grandfather and great grandmother are my brick walls. Also from (Rosavlea,Maramaros), Romania, like Jarrett's great grandmother. I have tried to find out about them, searched records everywhere, other towns and surrounding countries,, and with all the spelling permutations, but have only been able to find birth records for their children, nothing about them, or their families of origin. I interviewed family elders when they were alive. I have spent 23 years on this search. While doing so, I've been able to take my mom's side back to the 1700's. But dad's side is a blank other than their names and a few anecdotes. And I'm beginning to wonder if there was a name change..... My family is Eastern European Jewish, and a tiny bit Levant, which of course, makes it harder. Is it futile to continue banging my head against this brick wall? I am out of ideas of what to try next.
I hope you watched all the episodes by now. Lola was Louisiana creole VERY mixed. Mexican, native American French, Black and who knows what else. She moved north and passed as white.
"Paint the porch!" Hahaha... I like the uncle. I was expecting an Austro-Hungarian or Polish (NE or South) connection from the title-card. I agree that hearing the whole family tested would be the-most-useful (perfect world) for them. Autosomal, yep. Mitochonrdial maybe? Getting those John-the-Baptist blues... even if "Paul's Uncle" was my favorite character in "Dune" already, innately.
Much of Louisiana is mixed. European, African, Native American, Asian were the main four that all mixed together from the 1400s-1900s. "Mulatto" classification was often based on physical features too. You can consider Louisiana a former country with a distinct ethnic group. Names changed from French and Spanish to Anglo Saxon after it became a state. This story is very common.
Ah, that generation was difficult, as far as telling younger people about the real spellings of their names, a whole lot about their Parents, family intrigue like marrying out of their religion and their Parents and Grandparents weren't hardly mentioned. Did they ever exist? Pretty frustrating, when the Grand Niece asks about a name they mention and they say, 'oh, you don't know them.' After that they whispered and laughed. This was the generation born 1903-1910 or so. The older ones from the 1890s said a bit more, in our case, but some of them said, 'never repeat anything bad.' So.....they didn't. 😐
i was like this for my grandmother, she was adopted and couldnt find anything. but i discovered with search angel help that her family on her mothers side came from luxembourg
Such a great story and review/reaction. Something of a contrast is that Louisiana, along with Florida, under Spain's time of governance, allowed folks to wed between 'groups', legally. And when children were born, regardless of 'background', they were registered as actual humans in religious books (baptismal records). Historically, the rigidity of classifications used by the U.S. were a totally different way of looking at people. When Spanish control ended, so did their more tolerant legal practices. What was ushered in after, by those that took over, is known. Today, the American public, in a broad, general way, regardless of ethnicity, sees race through the lens of Anglo American history. But it's not the full history of events, just convenient.
Back then mulatto did not translate to what we now call biracial. It meant any discernible amount of black or even Indian heritage. In Louisiana things got a bit more complicated as far as racial classification; quadroon, octaroon etc.
I know native American DNA in North America is usually not very well studied. But also some people who were actually of native American ancestry would say they were either less native American than what they really were or say they were all white or something totally different. It can be tricky sometimes. Also in the United States and especially in the southern and eastern United States people of native American ancestry sometimes would say they were "black- dutch". Even if they didn't actually have dutch or German ancestry. Can be confusing sometimes.
I am from the caribbean, and i had my dna done and have three races caucaisan native american arawak and subsaharian black, and it was very normal that people would hide especially their “black” part back then, it happened all over the americas. mental conditioning and also to get better opportunities in life work related, people did this, a sad reality, now i now what mulatto means that is half black have white. have native american half black sambo, and half white half native american mestizo, those were the first terms, and the first to use them were the spanish, and lousiana was a spanish colony first then french then english, mulatto is still a term on id cards in Cuba.
I have a sort of same issue. My mom eloped in the 1950's. She was a 'WASP' and he was wrong color and wrong religion and a different country. She left America and never came back except for a couple of visits. Mom was disinherited for the longest. My sisters and I were eventually accepted by her family when we came to the US. Yes we are US tax paying citizens.
I’m a biological black male who decided that I now identify as a middle age white man with a 850 credit score named Bradley. You can’t tell me nothing. 🤷🏽♂️
My 2nd and 3rd great grand parents were mulatto. My 4th Great grandfather was a freed slave. I did DNA and it only came back 3% African on Ancestry and no African at all in my results from My Heritage.
1-3% would be about average if it comes from a full blood 3rd or 4th great grandparent.... plus i wouldn't take myheritage too literal, their results are pretty random and tbh their database is probably way smaller and less accurate than ancestry or 23andme
@@ProfessionalGenealogistReacts Yes indeed! And depending on where you are that paper trail is hard to find. (My 4th Great Grandfather lived in Towns Georgia.) We have nothing to find his partner's family with. (She was his legal guardian and White.) Up until the Emancipation Proclamation, all his kids, 12 of 16, were illigitimate because they were slaves and they were not legally married.
How neat to see my family on the channel☺ I think you nailed our DNA results.IIRC, my mom and her cousins' tests (Lola's grandkids)were about 5-10% African, and maybe 5-10% Native depending on the cousin who took it. The tests keep changing with every update so I don't love them for much more than cousin matches. Lola's mother's side has been extremely difficult paperwise, but based on DNA matches and oral history and a few sparse documents I think her maternal line comes to the Choctaw Apache tribe in Louisiana.
@Graeme Duncan People knew but it was taboo. the older generations pretended not to know because od Jim Crow laws. The younger millennials knew too and just wanted the truth out as it is no longer taboo. The younger generations are much smarter. They know if you change one ancestor then you don't exist. Genvlogger should have guessed Louisiana creole from the get-go. I thank he did know; he is just trying to keep the suspense. Or maybe because he knows many Europeans watching do not know American history that well and the Louisiana Creoles. Obviously, this first video was an introductory video to a documentary which he finally admitted he knew.
I will explain, in circa 1920 laws were passed (called Jim Crow) in the American south making it illegal for a white (100% Eruopean descent) to marry a person with any other ethnicity. these laws remained on the books until the US Supreme Court ruling in the 1960's Loving versus Virginia. there was a movie made about it a few years ago.
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SERIES!!! I can't wait for you to react to the rest. Please do them back to back to back to back. This is such a good docuseries and I think SO many people will be able to relate/connect in some way. We all have family members in our tree to wanted to keep secrets. And she tells the story so well... it basically blooms and wow. It's awesome and honestly, we could all be so lucky to have our family "secrets" turn out so well.
Have you read Gail Lusik's book "White Like Her?" Very similar story. Gail's mother was also white passing Louisiana Creole. Gail did not find out until she was almost 50. Her mother looked white, whereas Lola does not really, you can tell she was mixed with something. Marion too. Like Lola, Gail's mother was very cagey. It seems though Lola's husband probably knew. since they lived in Louisiana together before moving to New York and their eldest son was born in Louisiana and his birth certificate said "colored." Gail's father was probably ignorant. Gail said he was very racist.
Please do more reactions to this channel, this series. It really is an amazing story told in a really nice way (even if this video end rather abruptly).
I can’t wait for this series! My family is from the Dominican Republic and it’s interesting to see the range of phenotypes you see in a mixed race family.
I was hoping you would react to this documentary. It’s a very good series about real life, real families, and a real emotional journey. It’s really well done.
It is a Docu series she is making. She meets other siblings in Louisiana. It's very interesting. Basically Lola was passing as white and none of her kids or family really knew. And yes they are taking DNA test.
So glad u did this !!!!
I’ve been watching this channel! Such an amazing story!
Btw, just like you, I have a great grandma that was a brick wall (past tense). We did have a maiden name for her, but not much else. My grandpa didn’t know much about his mom and she died at a young age (my grandpa was the 2nd oldest of 5. The youngest was 6 when she passed. Her oldest passed away a few months before she did, though). We only knew her by the shortened version of her name. She passed a few years before her 1st grandchild, my dad’s sister, was born. So, neither my aunt nor my dad knew her. It was in the early 2000s when we finally found out that she had a half sister.
"Mulatto" did NOT mean that a person was literally 50% European and 50% African in DNA. It was a general term for mixed ancestry that might be applied to anyone.
This story is very similar to my father's family history. Lots on name changes, DOB changes, ethnic identities being changed depending on the Census. Being a person of Créole and Cajun descent, our family history can be very convoluted once the USA took over Louisiana territories.
She does have a video where she reacts to her DNA, but she doesn't really show the percentages. I think she doesn't believe some of the results, but it does show some African and some native American, though not as much as you commented, if I remember correctly. I still think that would be useful to react to. It really is an amazing series that I'm a bit addicted to. I have suggested, it may have even been on this video of hers, to her to get in touch with you to maybe have you help her to do her family tree as you did for Mr Beat. I think that would be so fascinating, but obviously it's up to her.
Well I would absolutely love that! Lola's father side is pretty well documented, (African/Creole mostly) but her mother's side is really hard. Looks like it started in the Mexico/Texas Missions and kept moving east). Im still working that side out.
Lots of secrets hide in our families and one of the joys of genealogy is knowing we may find some of them. It's neat that NYTN was able to discover some of her family's past. As noted here, "ethnicity" can change, which gets me back to my soapbox that the concept of "ethnicity" is highly flawed. We label each other for various reasons, and many customers taking DNA tests are _identity shopping_ . Let us remember that we are much more than labels.
@Graeme Duncan First of All, Dan is referring to Americans, NOT Europeans, probably because he assumes since you are not American you would have no interest in this video. I already posted to you that you did not know our history of slavery, (although maybe your ancestors brought it here when we were colonies and helped make our economy depend upon it) the stigma attached to it and how many people who looked white chose to pass as white because of that stigma. You need to stop judging of what you have little to no knowledge.
Interesting! Please continue this series!
Unfortunately, I couldn't ask my grandpa about his life anymore. He died when I turned 18 and at the time I wasn't interested in genealogy. So many questions are unanswered. i miss him so much
A very unfortunate circumstance with many genealogists. One thing you can do is reach out to other relatives in the family asking for anything they may have, because sometimes someone sat down to ask the questions.
@@ProfessionalGenealogistReacts I've spoken to his sister but she can't give me much information either as he seemed to be a quiet and withdrawn person.
My daughter is 38 and still not much interested but I have done the research. So, she will have it long after I'm gone.
They're definitely Creole. To my eyes they look like many Puerto Rican families. I have been following her videos.
I had watched the whole series. It was interesting. I like how they embraced their history - not everyone is so open minded (even in these ‘modern’ times).
My great grandfather and great grandmother are my brick walls. Also from (Rosavlea,Maramaros), Romania, like Jarrett's great grandmother. I have tried to find out about them, searched records everywhere, other towns and surrounding countries,, and with all the spelling permutations, but have only been able to find birth records for their children, nothing about them, or their families of origin. I interviewed family elders when they were alive. I have spent 23 years on this search. While doing so, I've been able to take my mom's side back to the 1700's. But dad's side is a blank other than their names and a few anecdotes. And I'm beginning to wonder if there was a name change..... My family is Eastern European Jewish, and a tiny bit Levant, which of course, makes it harder. Is it futile to continue banging my head against this brick wall? I am out of ideas of what to try next.
I hope you watched all the episodes by now. Lola was Louisiana creole VERY mixed. Mexican, native American French, Black and who knows what else. She moved north and passed as white.
"Paint the porch!" Hahaha... I like the uncle. I was expecting an Austro-Hungarian or Polish (NE or South) connection from the title-card. I agree that hearing the whole family tested would be the-most-useful (perfect world) for them. Autosomal, yep. Mitochonrdial maybe? Getting those John-the-Baptist blues... even if "Paul's Uncle" was my favorite character in "Dune" already, innately.
Much of Louisiana is mixed. European, African, Native American, Asian were the main four that all mixed together from the 1400s-1900s. "Mulatto" classification was often based on physical features too. You can consider Louisiana a former country with a distinct ethnic group. Names changed from French and Spanish to Anglo Saxon after it became a state. This story is very common.
Ah, that generation was difficult, as far as telling younger people about the real spellings of their names, a whole lot about their Parents, family intrigue like marrying out of their religion and their Parents and Grandparents weren't hardly mentioned. Did they ever exist? Pretty frustrating, when the Grand Niece asks about a name they mention and they say, 'oh, you don't know them.' After that they whispered and laughed. This was the generation born 1903-1910 or so. The older ones from the 1890s said a bit more, in our case, but some of them said, 'never repeat anything bad.' So.....they didn't. 😐
i was like this for my grandmother, she was adopted and couldnt find anything. but i discovered with search angel help that her family on her mothers side came from luxembourg
The Grandmother looks like what she is. She doesn't look like she is really hiding anything, the way she smiles....
Such a great story and review/reaction. Something of a contrast is that Louisiana, along with Florida, under Spain's time of governance, allowed folks to wed between 'groups', legally. And when children were born, regardless of 'background', they were registered as actual humans in religious books (baptismal records). Historically, the rigidity of classifications used by the U.S. were a totally different way of looking at people. When Spanish control ended, so did their more tolerant legal practices. What was ushered in after, by those that took over, is known. Today, the American public, in a broad, general way, regardless of ethnicity, sees race through the lens of Anglo American history. But it's not the full history of events, just convenient.
i regret not asking more questions when my mom and grandmother were still alive
Back then mulatto did not translate to what we now call biracial. It meant any discernible amount of black or even Indian heritage. In Louisiana things got a bit more complicated as far as racial classification; quadroon, octaroon etc.
I know native American DNA in North America is usually not very well studied. But also some people who were actually of native American ancestry would say they were either less native American than what they really were or say they were all white or something totally different. It can be tricky sometimes. Also in the United States and especially in the southern and eastern United States people of native American ancestry sometimes would say they were "black- dutch". Even if they didn't actually have dutch or German ancestry. Can be confusing sometimes.
What is a Black-Dutch?
I am from the caribbean, and i had my dna done and have three races caucaisan native american arawak and subsaharian black, and it was very normal that people would hide especially their “black” part back then, it happened all over the americas. mental conditioning and also to get better opportunities in life work related, people did this, a sad reality, now i now what mulatto means that is half black have white. have native american half black sambo, and half white half native american mestizo, those were the first terms, and the first to use them were the spanish, and lousiana was a spanish colony first then french then english, mulatto is still a term on id cards in Cuba.
I have a sort of same issue. My mom eloped in the 1950's. She was a 'WASP' and he was wrong color and wrong religion and a different country. She left America and never came back except for a couple of visits. Mom was disinherited for the longest. My sisters and I were eventually accepted by her family when we came to the US. Yes we are US tax paying citizens.
We’re overdue for a new episode brother!
It's coming this Monday! Been a busy month 😃
Understandable, thanks for the reply! Really enjoy the content
I’m a biological black male who decided that I now identify as a middle age white man with a 850 credit score named Bradley. You can’t tell me nothing. 🤷🏽♂️
😅 hell no are they going to accept that. 😅
Hello everybody!!!!!!
My 2nd and 3rd great grand parents were mulatto. My 4th Great grandfather was a freed slave. I did DNA and it only came back 3% African on Ancestry and no African at all in my results from My Heritage.
It really goes to show how these admixtures are only an estimate and the true power is the paper trail with the DNA matches.
1-3% would be about average if it comes from a full blood 3rd or 4th great grandparent.... plus i wouldn't take myheritage too literal, their results are pretty random and tbh their database is probably way smaller and less accurate than ancestry or 23andme
And I have a trace percentage from Benin/Togo from a 7th great grandfather from the 1600s‼️
@@ProfessionalGenealogistReacts Yes indeed! And depending on where you are that paper trail is hard to find. (My 4th Great Grandfather lived in Towns Georgia.) We have nothing to find his partner's family with. (She was his legal guardian and White.) Up until the Emancipation Proclamation, all his kids, 12 of 16, were illigitimate because they were slaves and they were not legally married.
@@krystlecalderwood3571 did some of your other relatives have similar results?