I've always taken a little bit of pride in believing I was 25% Irish. I grew up believing that my father was 50% Irish and 50% Swedish. As the story goes my Grandfather, James Edward Sullivan, was born July 4th, 1879 in New York City, New York. His mother, Mary, died a few years later and his father, James Sullivan, died in a "Blizzard Fire" in 1889 in New York City. James Edward Sullivan then went to Indiana to live with his "Uncle Sheehan" and work helping to build the canals. Since James and Mary Sullivan lived in New York City I just imagined them immigrating to the states in the 1870's together or marrying soon after arriving here from Ireland. Oh, how wrong I was.
During this past year my cousin, Dianne, and I had a Ancestry.com DNA test done on my Uncle Roger, the brother to my father. Uncle Rogers DNA says he is 13% Irish. What??? What happened to the 50% Irish and my 25% Irish. These test results just totally blew my mind and burst my bubble of being Irish. Needless to say, Dianne and I have spent hours and hours connecting and collecting our family tree. So far, we have added about 20,000 names to our family tree but we still haven't connected the correct Sullivan and Sheehan names. Someday i'll know the complete story and for now "I'm just a little bit Irish".
My favorite five year old grandson at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Price, Utah.
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