Okay, as if it wasn’t shocking enough to find out that I was significantly English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish Catholic as in Republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland and French when I thought I was strictly half Iberian Peninsula and half African in ancestry, Ancestry.com discovers yet another interesting tidbit.

I have always joked that I’m Ashkefardic. I’m Sephardic at heart. It is the tradition that feels like home to me. But I am married to an Ashkenazi husband and I converted through an Ashkenazi rabbi and well, SOME PEOPLE don’t think I look Ashkenazi.

But apparently, 2% of my ancestry is Eastern European Jewry. Sure, it’s just 2% but I think it shocked me more than finding out I was British, French or Italian. How in the world does a Dominican girl from NYC end up with ANY Eastern European ancestry. So far, I’ve uncovered one Polish ancestor and Italian ancestors and an Irish ancestor on my family tree but apparently, there will be more surprises along the way.

My husband and I were so certain that there was no possible way that I had Ashkenazi ancestry. And not just because I don’t like bagels (can’t chew them because of my damaged jaw) or lox (I prefer sushi). We just couldn’t contemplate how complicated my ancestry actually is when you look at the statistics! I can’t wait to look further in my family tree and uncover more family surprises!

This reminds me of when my niece Leyla was born and we hadn’t gotten all the results back on our European ancestry. We were sure that she was taking after her Irish/Scottish/English/Native American father without having any clue that we had some of the same ancestry!

Here is Ancestry.com’s update on my DNA genetic ethnicity test as of late October:

(My friend now likes to joke that I’ve lost all street cred as I am clearly WHITE if I’m 55% European. So, let me be clear. My mom is brown. Her mom is white with red hair. My Dad is white. My grandfather was black. The other one was so white they called him “Blanco” (white in Spanish). Nobody Ashkenazi ever thinks I’m white. I think it’s the hair despite the epic Jewfros I’ve seen.

I am white (European-North & South), African, Native American and East and South Asian.

I am multiracial. And I am proud of every part of my heritage even though, well, most of my ancestors spent a lot of time trying to kill each other! (Note to ancestors: Really, not cool!)

If you want to know what I am, it’s still easier to tell you what I’m not: Australian! I was really hoping Hugh Jackman and I had more in common than our sideburns.