I am a person who is amazed by genetics. This is obvious by the fact I have a 2nd YouTube channel dedicated exclusively to this topic.
Therefore, I couldn’t help but notice a while back, that you happen to look a whole lot like my 2nd cousin, Miranda, who was born in December 1990.
She also was born with the last name, Shell; which is fading out in our family tree. Other than your brother, and other than Miranda’s brother, there are no other Shell boys to potentially carry on the family name.
That is, unless Mommy and I have another child and it’s a boy, but we have no plans of that at this time.
So while it has always seemed unlikely that Mommy and I would have 2 children with blonde hair and blue eyes, based on our own darker features, I can begin to understand the true Shell gene has revealed itself in you, and it has my 2nd cousin.
It just so happens that over Christmas, I did a video revealing Papa’s DNA test results from 23andMe, and we learned he is 99% Northwest European.
Though he shows about 25% German, which explains our last name, the rest of his DNA is British.
I think it is remarkable to notice the similarity, when comparing pictures of you and Miranda at similar ages.
We’ll see if over time you keep the Shell look. After all, I have seen how your brother’s hair and skin tone has become darker over the features; though his eyes have remained blue the entire time.
You are proof of the lighter featured genes in our family tree. Even though you’ll eventually get married and change your last name from Shell, you will apparently keep and pass on the otherwise somewhat hidden Shell features.
Either my DNA results from MyHeritage are inaccurate, or what my family has believed this whole time about our ethnicity has been inaccurate.
Currently, I am sort of baffled. I am still sorting out the confusion. My Italian grandfather, Alberto Victorio Metallo, whose own father arrived in America a hundred years ago from Italy and could only barely speak English when he died in 1983, was Italian.
However, my results fromMyHeritage do not remotely reflect my Italian heritage. Instead, the test shows I am literally 0% Italian. I went through the trouble of looking up exactly what countries of origin my DNA traces back to, according to the regions that MyHeritage provided, and removed the countries in which the test showed I have no DNA connection.
Here’s my DNA:
Nick Shell
100.0%
37.4% Central Western European (Germany, The Netherlands/Holland, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland)
31.8% Iberian (Spain/Portugal)
21.6% Central American (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)
6.1% Eastern European (Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia)
2.3% Balkan (Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania)
My whole life I have had reason to believe I am one quarter Italian, but I was open-minded to the idea my test would reveal instead of being 25% Italian, maybe I would only be 12.5%, as my great-grandfather Joseph Metallo (the one who came here from Italy) married a woman named Maria Vite; who could have possibly been of French descent, based on vite being a French word.
(That’s my Italian grandfather pictured above on the left; opposite me, with my son.)
However, my great-grandmother also emigrated here from Italy and spoke Italian. Maria “Mary” Vite died at age 38 in the year 1938, so there is definitely some mystery as to her family tree. But even if she was 100% French yet born in Italy, my great-grandfather would have had to been mainly of Spanish or Portuguese descent and his family would have had to at some point adopted Italian names, including their last name, Metallo.
Even if the test was a little inaccurate, I would still think I would show up at least a little bit Italian. After all, Middle Eastern DNA showed up in me, along with Eastern European, but not Italian?
If you’re wondering why I show up as nearly a quarter Central American and nearly a third Spanish (or Portuguese), it’s because my grandmother (who my Italian grandfather was married to) was Mexican.
(This is her, pictured below, being able to meet my daughter.)
That actually brings up another surprise. By quadrupling my Central American DNA, which is 21.6%, that indicates my Mexican grandmother was actually 86.4% Central American, only leaving 13.6% (that’s close to one eighth) to be Spanish. Then, once I subtracted that 13.6% from the Spanish part of me (31.8%), it left 18.2%. I then multiplied that percentage times 4 again, to assume how Spanish my Italian grandfather must have been: 72.8%.
According to my theory, my Mexican grandmother was mainly Central American (barely Spanish) and my Italian grandfather was mainly Spanish (not Italian at all); leaving the rest of him to have been 9.2% Balkan (Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania). That brings my Italian grandfathers DNA up to exactly 82%.
Next I added the 3.2% Middle Eastern he must have been; now totaling 85.2%. That implies the rest of him had to have been Central Western European, which includes French.
This also means, by default, my dad has to be of Spanish descent as well, because there’s still Spanish DNA to be accounted for.
Most of my test makes sense. My last name is Shell, which in German, means “loud and noisy.” So that accounts for some of the 37.4% Central Western European.
But is this test accurate? Is it possible that I am truly not Italian at all? What do you think?
In the meantime, my mom is taking the test too. Being half-Mexican, half-Italian her whole life, I’m curious to know what the test says about her. We should know by October…
And if you’re interested in taking a DNA test like I did, here’s the link toMyHeritage.
As I was updating my paperwork for the dentist recently, I had to decide whether or not I felt like technically lying.
It’s always something I hesitate on, more than I probably should.
My grandmother is full Mexican. I’m therefore only a quarter Mexican.
So I’m white; but 25% of my genes, and I suppose to some degree, my heritage and culture, is Mexican.
But if I could honestly describe myself to the Census Bureau, which apparently is the organization that most cares about my cultural and ethnic identity, it would simply be this:
Mostly white.
I’m not 100% white, so to proclaim, “white, not Hispanic or Latino” is inaccurate; because I’m absolutely part Hispanic.
The first time I remember having to answer that question was in 1st grade, for a standardized test. I remember how my mom, who is half Mexican and half Italian, told me that she always questioned that herself when she had to answer that question as well.
I think it muddies the waters even more than Italians typically are “more ethnic looking” than most Europeans. I have always thought the same thing about Jews (who are actually considered Middle Eastern) and Greeks (who, like Italians, are Mediterranean).
“White” is a funny term to me, when it references people.
I would love to take one of those ethnic DNA tests where they draw some of your blood and tell you exactly what percentage you are of each people group.
Mainly just because it would be fun to know… exactly. But really, none of that really matters.
What I learned in my HR training course is that ultimately, a person can claim whatever race they most identify with, even if it’s simply cultural.
If you are Chinese but adopted by white parents, you can identify as “white” if you choose to; or Chinese. It’s up to the individual.
As for me, I’m mostly white, based on the last names in my family tree: German (“Shell”), Italian (“Metallo”), Dutch (“Clowers”, derived from “Klaar”), Scottish (“Johnston” and “King”), and English (“Taylor” and “Wiseman”).
And of course I’m also Mexican (“Mendez”). That’s a little confusing as well because ethnically, Mexicans are a mixed race called Mestizos: ultimately, they are around half European (largely including Spanish) and around half Native (or indigenous) Mexican; just like how the United States originally was occupied by Native Americans before the Europeans came over.
Surely something comes to mind, no matter who the person is.
Throughout my whole life, I have always visualized a noun or idea whenever I hear anyone’s last name. Maybe it’s just me that does that. But I felt that the habit was worth expanding on. So I asked my facebook friends what they thought of when they hear my last name, which is Shell- the German adjective for “loud and noisy”, originally spelled “Schel”. Their responses can be found at the very end of this post.
Then to demonstrate my thought process, I returned the favor:
Johnson- Johnsonville Brats
Rogers- a 1950’s milkman
York- the state, not the city
Clements- the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies
Majer- the sitcom Major Dad
Kregenow- a city I made up in Michigan, that is only said best with a Midwestern accent
Hegar- Sammy Hagar
Alexander- Alexander the Great
McElhaney- Scottish people and GI Joe’s
Hardin- German people who love friend pickles
Welch- Welch’s grape juice
Creel- the Tori character from the final season of the original Saved by the Bell, played by actress Leanna Creel
Jenkins- Fat Albert and the Junkyard Band
Chapman- Steven Curtis Chapman, the Christian singer
Britt- a member of a British glam-rock band from the Eighties
Wilder- Gene Wilder, the Jewish actor who played the original Willy Wonka
Gordon- the singer Gordon Lightfoot
Part of my writing style is that I almost always try to bring the topic to a close by ending with some sort of ironic twist. So here it is:
How did we get last names in the first place? There are basically three major ways. First, the name could be referring to the town of where one of our ancestors lived: A common trait of Scottish last names is that they end in “ton”, which means town. So “Pinkerton” means “from the town of Pinker”. Second, the name could be recognizing an ancestral father or father figure: A common trait of English last names is that they end in “son”, which implies “son of”. So “Davidson” means “David’s son”. Similarly, Irish last names often begin “O’”, which also implies “son of”. So “O’ Conner” means “son of Conner.”
Thirdly, and most interestingly, the last name is referring to an adjective or physical trait that an ancestor was known for. Like the last names Short, Brown, Swift, Freeman, and Blessing. Notice how many Jewish last names refer to monetary wealth: Goldberg, Silverman, Richman, Diamond, and Sachs (as in “sacks” of money- though the actual reference is to a city in Germany, it’s still an interesting coincidence). With that being said, my habit of visualizing people’s last names is not a new thing at all. People have been doing this since… well, since people have had last names.
Nick Shell New assignment for you, friends: “What do you visualize when you think of my last name?” (If you answer me, I will answer you regarding your last name, on your wall; as well as tag you in the post when I publish it.)
Ashley Rogers Seashell…that always comes to my mind when someone has the last name Shell….and then I drift off thinking about how i”d love to be at the beach…. lol
December 1 at 11:58pm · Like
Crystal York Allen I think of the beach and the ocean. It is quiet calming.
December 2 at 12:20am · Like
Bobby Clements Sea shell (the smooth pretty kind) – then thoughts drift to the beach – then the waves – then the ocean – then to wonder why James Cameron is making a sequel to Avatar involving the ocean – then to why is James Cameron making a sequel at all.
Christy Perkins Hardin OK, so I’m different… I see that we are all start as just an empty shell, and the experiences of life fill us and mold us into the kind of person we become… ever-changing, as we add new experiences into our being. That shell may be filled with mostly good or mostly bad, and the choice is ours. Clearly, that shell is a God-shaped void…imagine what we would be if we actually filled that void with Him!
December 2 at 6:44am · Like
Jason Welch The “shell game” where there are three shells with a ball under one. You know, move them around and guess which has the ball.
December 2 at 7:26am · Like
Hjordis Maddock Creel Sea shells, any and all of them. I grew up in Florida and I love shells. I’ve got a collection of shells and I am always pondering what to do with them.
December 2 at 7:54am · Like
Will Jenkins a 70’s drawing of a little green turtle
December 2 at 9:56am · Like
Rita Gail Chapman I see seashells at the seashore…..three times, real fast!
Ben Wilder I think of you singing on stage. That’s the image of you I have in my head when your name comes up. And you laughing and shrugging your shoulders.
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