On St. Patrick’s Day everyone wishes they were Irish and some say that on this day everyone is.

           An Irish wish from the heart of a friend:

 “May good fortune be yours, may your joys never end.”

There’s a little bit of Irish in everyone. According to my DNA, I’m 18% Irish, 10% Scottish, 20% Germanic, and 52% English, but 100% Hoosier. My birthfather’s father had red hair and was named Arlie, while my adoption records describe his son Cecil Banister to be of Irish descent. However, I question the accuracy of this information as reported by a scared teenager, my birthmother.

For years, all that I knew about my heritage was a few paragraphs that made up the Social and Medical Background Information that I was provided with by the agency. The father was listed as “alleged,” although we both had dark eyes and wavy hair, characteristic of the Irish. This document was the very first step in satisfying a curiosity about where I came from. For about thirty years, I thought I was Irish until a DNA test proved otherwise. It shows my Ban(n)ister roots to be in England, so I should probably be drinking green tea rather than green beer today. 

None of the Ban(n)ister family genealogical researchers can establish a documented link beyond Laborn Banister (1801-1885) of Indiana. However, I’m showing DNA connections through Col. John Bannister (1749-1815 of Virginia) and his wife Elizabeth Willis Banister (1754-1832) from Hampshire, England. John’s father William (1707-1779) was also from Hampshire. The earliest Ban(n)ister in this line is John (1650-1692) from Gloucestershire – less than 280 miles from Dublin. This is as close to my Irish wish as I get, as the Jerry Banister Family Tree has yet to span the Celtic Sea.