Is place in your genes?

[Paul_B]

The money no object where would you be thread got me thinking again about Gotenburg in Sweden. I visited it and felt something like being settled in the city. I found out years later a married couple left Sweden for a life in America, never to return to Sweden, sailing from gothenburg. That couple, newly wed, were part of my American ancestry. Was there a link? Can place be in your genetics?

BTW I feel comfortable in Sweden but gothenburg is on another level, not least for the fact I hate cities. I don't feel so comfortable in Norway so it's not a Scandinavian wide thing just Sweden so far.

I know this is daft but I'm curious if anyone has had something similar? I don't even believe it fully but do you think similar do you feel similar about somewhere foreign to you but home too?

 

[Woody girl]

I've "recognised " three places in my time. Later research into my family showed ancestors had lived there in the past.
I knew where things were, what was round a corner for instance.
At the time, I explained it to myself as de ja vu, but now believe it was recognition on a soul or gene level. Can't explain it at all.
It can be quite unsettling at the time. I definatly knew those places, and even remarked to my companions at the time, that, though I'd never been there, I knew the place. They didn't believe I'd never been there, as I was totaly correct about everything.
So yes, I do believe it as
It's happened to me more than once.

 

[forrestdweller]

i'm since many years convinced that a useless bird (a.k.a. "stork" ) dropped me off in the wrong place (and time?!) and that i was supposed to be dropped off in the land "Down Under" -- @ least i felt immediately at home there when i visited first... .unfortunately i doubt australian immigration would believe my theory :-( , but i still hope to go back one more time and see the friends i still have there! but despite some struggles i'm happy here in Costa Rica, too (and glad my application for citizenship was successful )

 

[Paul_B]

@Woody girl the feeling I got wasn't recognition but settlement. By that I mean calm, I'm at another home, things are right with me being here, etc I had no idea of what was around the corner which meant I could explore happily this new place.

If such a thing exists no doubt you and I had variations on it. However from what you wrote I think mine was the nicer experience.

Imagine you've just had your hardest, most strenuous day at a job you hated and you'd just got home, changed, made your favourite drink and had just sat down in your favourite chair. That big sigh of relaxation. That feeling of home. That contentment with the world at that moment in time. That's the feeling i had the be whole trip. Even leading up to and at the business visit I was there for.

 

[TeeDee]

i'm since many years convinced that a useless bird (a.k.a. "stork" ) dropped me off in the wrong place (and time?!) and that i was supposed to be dropped off in the land "Down Under" -- @ least i felt immediately at home there when i visited first... .unfortunately i doubt australian immigration would believe my theory :-( , but i still hope to go back one more time and see the friends i still have there! but despite some struggles i'm happy here in Costa Rica, too (and glad my application for citizenship was successful )

Was that bit difficult? please feel free to PM me.

 

[oldtimer]

I feel a strong affinity with the north coast of Cornwall. My ancestors were part of the Cornish diaspora (economic migrants) in the late 19th century and the graveyards of StAgnes and Padstow still have many headstones bearing my surname.

 

[Paul_B]

My surname comes from Devon and into Dorset. A relatively small area of those counties too. I grew up as the only family in the telephone book with my surname, none in any other books in the areas around us. One moved into the then town half an hour away for a few years. Go back a few generations we were likely related directly!

Even now, if you meet a person in the three counties around us with my surname they're either relatives visiting or my parents. My sister lost the family name on marriage. Well, I'd almost put money on it.

You know those American charleton ancestry companies that try to sell you books for your surname. Well ours is a pamphlet! Lol!

Seriously, best thing my parents did was move north. Too many ppl live down south, even Cornwall gets too busy in summer. A'side aside, at least Cumbria still has enough bolthole to go to get away from the hordes.

I never felt affinity to Devon, can't even remember Tiverton and that's where my dad's side came from a few gens before my dad. There's probably more than genetics to it I guess!

Of course there's worse places to feel strong affinity to than Sweden of course. London, Birmingham, MK, Slough, Burnley, definitely Manchester! Can't see myself anywhere close to feeling anything but repulsion to those places. Tbh I've never been to MK and Slough so I'm guessing based on reputation.

 

[Ozmundo]

I live a half days walk of the cottage I was born in. Built by members of my family in the 1830's close to the South Downs. An ancestor seems to have been there as far back as any records show. I have a lot of cousins in the area, so a complete six fingered dingle.

I suppose I do feel comfortable in the area but I couldn't say if that is simply due to familiarity. I have worked in other countries, I've felt quite "at home" in several African countries despite no family link. I was able to get out near Bisil in Kenya once.
Walked about for three days along a ridge and crossed an old track. I stopped by a large cattle fold 1-2m wide walls. I was told is was a slave pen where the guards slept on top of the thick drystone walls.
From the ridge I could see across the Amboseli to Kilimanjaro. Pretty magical, utterly peaceful, enhanced by being alone most of the time with no phone. I did actually feel some deep familiarity, perhaps it reminded me of the South Downs!

 

[oldtimer]

In our French second home town, Petit Louis recently died in the house he had been born in a hundred years previously. He'd packed quite a lot into his century, having been a fisherman, a sailor an active member of the Communist Party and had many friends including some French film stars.

When he celebrated his hundredth birthday in a local bar, the patron refused to let him pay saying he'd just made a rule that anyone over a hundred years of age got free drinks. I'm looking forward to mine. No wonder I feel at home there.

 

[Broch]

I have always felt at home as soon as I set foot in Africa, North or South. I suspect that's because I spent part of my early childhood there rather than any genetic pull. My DNA says I am 94% Welsh; I doubt if the 2% or so Scandinavian trace would cause me to feel 'at home' there

 

[TeeDee]

I identify as African European.
Because thats where my people are from originally.

 

[Paul_B]

I think I'm 12% Scandinavian but it's the 1% each of two Mediterranean islands iirc sardinia and possibly corsica. There's a distant rumour there's a Spanish link to the family but I think that's just a case of wishful thinking or a family member trying to invent something interesting.

The Scandinavian dna markers and verified history of Scandinavian relatives in living history. Well my mum and grandad knew them but only one of those two still alive. Perhaps that explains the gothenburg feelings.

 

[Tengu]

I dont know really, as I have zero interest in ancestors, (Maybe odd for my career choice)

I felt at home on the Isle of Man.

I have stayed in Cornwall and now Scotland and have integrated.

(If you think there are no quiet places in Cornwall in the summer you do not know the place).

 

[forrestdweller]

Was that bit difficult? please feel free to PM me.

it took me several years and involved a useless lawyer, a second lawyer knowing her job (and charging a fair price), lots of misfortune(documents gone missing "thanks" to the corona conspiracy..., my dog being kidnapped when going back to town trying to find out where my documents are... etc.) AANNDD(most importantly) the help of an incredible woman...

 

[forrestdweller]

AANNDD(most importantly) the help of an incredible woman...

sorry to go somewhat off-topic (and quote myself), but second time i visited her place i made a joking remark about the large number of machetes around the house (common items around here ) --- which had her digging under her kitchen counter for her favourite one (12" blade, for cutting up large pieces of meat). that's when i realized she's worth keeping!

 

[C_Claycomb]

Regarding whether location affinity can be part of DNA, I think it highly unlikely. Just think about what it is that makes a person feel at home in a place and how that could be different for different people. Then think about how exactly where you are living now could alter your DNA in such a way that you could pass on something to your kids. Bearing in mind that it is only DNA based if you never talked to your kids about the place you lived. DNA is pretty selfish stuff, changes are either mistakes or offer an advantage.

Far more likely is that the tendency to like certain things about a place, to have a personality that is comfortable there is something that is passed on. It isn't that the place ones parents lives is imprinted on DNA, but that they choose to live where they are comfortable, and whether by inherent characteristic or upbringing they pass some of that on to their kids so that they too will be comfortable in a similar place.