On Discovering My Ancestry

Something that has been a goal of mine for many years is to find out where my family comes from. Before my 30th birthday, I decided now was the time. So I received an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas from my grandparents, who are, admittedly, genealogy advocates.

Our family still has extended family reunions and my late great aunt had traced our family on their side all the way back to the 1800s. My uncle had even mentioned that we might be related to Edgar Allan Poe. But what about before then?

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I filled out my family tree online as best I could and sent in a spit sample to Ancestry and eagerly awaited my results. A few weeks later, they came in:

What I learned didn’t really surprise me. My family came over from Great Britain and settled in north Georgia, western South Carolina, and north Alabama, which I was previously aware of. All of my extended family lives in one of these states for the most part.

I didn’t know about my Scandinavian heritage because these states only represent around 1% each of the nation’s Scandinavian immigrants. I’d also been told that I had Native American heritage through my dad’s side, but that didn’t appear. I did some research and found out why.

People often ask me about my name’s origins. Eubanks is of English origin, meaning someone who lived on the banks of yew trees. In 1840, there were 21 Eubanks families living in Georgia, the highest population of the family at the time. Over the years, the families spread further west, but the name is still mostly found in the South.

According to Ancestry, the Eubanks people in England worked in agriculture or as bakers, but in the United States continued to be farmers and laborers. The Poore name, my mother’s maiden name, came from the UK and Scotland with people settling in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. Like my other side of the family, the Poores worked as farmers and carpenters in England and later farmers, laborers, and carpenters in the United States.

I’ve always dreamed about finding out where my ancestors came from in Europe, down to the exact village. And while I haven’t figured that out just yet, it’s made me interested in exploring more of the UK, including Scotland and Wales, and also visiting Scandinavia. Creating an Ancestry profile has also made distant relatives reach out to me, connecting the dots of our families.

What I’ve really learned from this process is how important it is to talk about your family history and to learn these stories. Speak with your grandparents and relatives about their lives. You might be surprised at what you have in common.

Have you used a genealogy service?

The Ancestry DNA testing kit is available on Amazon for $59.