Family Secrets

Family Secrets

         Sam Adams had some surprises when he did his ancestry com DNA test. He had always thought that he had about 18 different ethnic blends in his tangled family’s bloodlines. According to his Uncle who was the family historian, his ancestry on his father’s side was mostly German Americans dating back to the Colonial era when his ancestors came over from Germany and married into the Adams family hence his last name as the great descendant of President Adams, and the patriots who founded Sam Adams beer (his favorite brew of course) He still had some involvement with the family foundation.

         The rest of the family consisted of Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Laplander, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Scot, Scot-Irish, and Ukrainian. According to his mother, who was not the most reliable source on her family’s tangled and secret history as part of the lost tribe of the Cherokee Indians who had fled to the Ozarks rather than go on the trail of tears, and intermarried with the Dutch, French, other Indian tribes, and probably escaped slaves and Scot-Irish settlers, his ancestry consisted of all of that but his grandparents spoke Cherokee growing up.

          The DNA test confirmed most of this, confirming everything except the Cherokee ancestry. It also said he had Basque, Italian, Mongolian, Spanish, and as a surprise, Nigerian and Jewish ancestry.

         He tracked down his Jewish cousin who was 85 years old, and living in Israel and would love to meet him, but he should come soon as he was getting pretty old and may not last much longer.

         Sam went to Israel for the first time, but, unfortunately, Abraham passed away before Sam could meet him. His very attractive granddaughter Maria Abraham met him at the airport and conveyed the sad news. She gave him a letter from Abraham who had figured out that Sam’s Great grandmother was married to his great-grandfather, and she was a Russian Jew, and he was not Jewish. They had fled Russia during a Program and ended up in Poland, where unfortunately only his father, who had been one of the Schindler’s lists survivors, survived. He immigrated to Israel, where he met his mother after the war.

         it was love at first sight. They had a lot in common, both of them were the same age, early 50s, both had lost a spouse to COVID, and both had similar interests and desires. Sam went to the funeral ,which had been delayed for his arrival, met his Jewish family, converted to Judaism, and ended up staying in Israel for six months before he married Maria, who came back to Berkeley to live with Sam.