CV Nilsson

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 My great grandfather, Carl Viktor Nilsson. Born Aug. 30, 1846 in Döderhult. Died Aug. 17, 1926 in Oskarshamn.

This is Carl Victor Nilsson, the father of my grandmother Herta. I don’t know much about Carl Victor, but I do know that he was a sea captain, and that he kicked his own son off the boat (more than once) for being drunk. It looks to me as if you wouldn’t want to have messed with Captain Nilsson, but according to a his great grandson, my cousin, he let the drunken son back on the ship pretty quickly.

Both of Carl Victor’s parents had deep roots in Kristdala north of Oskarshamn. Many of his relatives were related to each other in several ways, and as a result I have a disproportionally high number of DNA matches with Carl Victor’s line. Many of his emigrant relatives settled in the mid-west, in Kansas, Illinois, and Nebraska. But I also have mysterious matches on the Northeast coast of England, in the area of West Hartlepool, where Carl Victor apparently spent some time.

My Broad Base

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For the past 20 years I’ve had discussions with students about what it means to be American. One guy described himself as an “American mutt”, and said “I don’t have deep roots, but being a mutt gives me a broad base”.

I’ve poured over the results of my DNA test for many hours. Whatever service you use, they will give you access to your own results, and to the results of your matches. I’ve looked at images of my chromosomes, and compared them to those of strangers. I’ve skimmed hundreds of family trees, the Anderssons and Larsdotters of Sweden, and the O’Malleys and O’Briens of Ireland.

There are so many people in the world, and there are bits and pieces of so many strangers in each of us. Bits of chromosomes from our families and from relatives long gone and forgotten. Parts of my DNA was already in the cemetery here in Los Gatos when I moved here in 1995. Wild, huh?

Looking at the results of my DNA analysis has made me feel more human. I too have a broad base, wider than America. We all do. We’re connected. 99% of the time we will never know how we’re connected, but that only makes it more beautiful.