Have you sent for your DNA readout through Ancestry.com?

It is rather easy, just spit into a provided container and mail it off, with a check, of course.

Within three weeks, I received a really official type printout entitled — Ethnicity Estimate for Anne McKee.

And guess what?

I am 94% Europe West, which includes the countries of Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands and United Kingdom. I have a smidgen of Northwest Russian and Iberian Peninsula mixed in as well.

I like to think I am a lost Princess of Monaco or even a Viking Queen who commanded the high seas, perhaps a great-great-great grand daughter of Queen Elizabeth, known as the Virgin Queen. Oops, well, maybe not.

But what it really means is that I am an American – a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Therefore it is very fitting and proper that today I celebrate the Irish in me, because as all of those who wish upon a four-leaf clover will attest, tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day.

Just for fun, let us review some of the Irish beliefs related to a four-leaf-clover, according to http://psychichlibrary.com

1. Each of the four leaves on this lucky charm has a specific meaning – faith, hope, love and luck.

2. Both children and adults would hang the four-leaf clover at home to ward-off evil, witchcraft and bad omens.

3. A person who finds a four-leaf clover will meet a future lover on that same day. Some people even go so far as to put the four-leaf clover in their shoe.

4. Anyone who possesses a four-leaf clover will have good fortune in any ventures they attempt.

5. The four-leaf clover is a charm that protects again evil.

6. Anyone wearing a four-leaf clover will be able to see fairies.

7. One belief states that you will have good luck if the four leaf clover is kept out of sight and never passed to someone else. Another one states that if you give the four-leaf clover to someone else, your luck will double.

Although I know the Irish ways, I mean I live them, I decided to take a self-imposed Irish drill. You know — how we look, our conversations, our obsessions, etc. I was amazed by the written words of author, Mallorie Ronan. I have listed a few of her Irish observations and how they relate to my Irish granny.

1. Gift of Gab – My Irish granny could work a room like nobody’s business and make a connection of some sort with everyone there.

2. A Friendly Bunch – I like to say that my Granny could make friends with even a potted plant, if that was the only thing in the room, with a charming conversation, such as this, “Now don’t you look sweet today.”

3. High Procrastination Level – Granny didn’t fit this stereotype, which points to perhaps a little English blood in her DNA. Heavens! Granny would never even take an afternoon nap. I mean someone might think she was lazy.

4. Obsessed with Death – Now Granny loved funerals and she didn’t miss too many. She would ride the city bus, hire a cab, call my daddy or even walk, but she managed to arrive early to each funeral where she deemed her presence was necessary – early because she needed to work the room.

Yes, my granny was truly an Irish Lass, with sandy-reddish hair, twinkling light-blue eyes and a throaty laugh, more of a giggle, actually. And she could cook up a fine Irish stew.

She liked to gab on the telephone and invite the grandkids for lunch. I can see she fits the Irish mold nicely, but she would have been startled to hear my DNA report.

What? Scandinavian and a smidgen of Northwest Russian – whew! This is something my Granny would have never accepted. We were Irish and that’s that.

So with my four-leaf clover in-hand, allow this writer of mixed heritage (a bit of this and a bit of that) to wish you the very best St Patrick’s Day.

Anne McKee is a Mississippi historian, writer and storyteller. She is listed on the Mississippi Humanities Speakers Bureau and Mississippi Arts Commission’s Performing Artist and Teaching Artist Rosters. See her website: www.annemckeestoryteller.com