Irish?

As I think back, I see that my interest in human ancestry, my ancestry started with St. Patrick's Day.

There was once a map of my home state of Maryland and it showed a good-sized area of the Eastern Shore of the state with the name "Kirby" on it.  It turned out that the map showed family names of people who had gotten land from the British king.  I once looked up the name "Kirby" and found that it has once been "Kirkby", meaning beside the church.  It was a name from the area of England called Danegeld because Danish settlers had crossed the channel and controlled that area so there, one had to use Danish currency.

I also found references to northern Ireland.  I have heard of "the troubles", a time of strong strife between larger Catholic Ireland and northern Protestant Ireland.

Over time, my wife and I have both had our DNA analyzed, actually four separate times, twice by the National Geographic Society's "Genographic Project" (now closed down) and twice by 23andMe.  I conclude that I probably have Irish ancestors, as well as Scottish, Spanish, Danish and Nordic.

I owe my longtime marriage to the freshman class wherein the professor said after calling my wife's name, "That's Finnish, isn't it?"