Half of the Month of Half of the Year!!

I can hardly believe that 2015 is nearly half way finished.  However; this is the second post on the subject of genealogy.  Uhm- how do I show the first one first?  I'll worry about that when I'm finished shpeeling.

I mentioned my immediate and strong passion for genealogy.  I can tell you it can lead you to the greatest of mysteries- better than a page-turner.

I still meet with my dear Aunt Adalaide and let her talk and talk while I gleen all I can from her wonderful memory and story-telling abilities.

I also mentioned that I finally fell into the dna trap with Ancestry.  I was holding off for so long- wanted to do things the "old-fashioned" way, ie; digging through books, microfilm, notes etc.-  But there were some things that wondered back into my head from long ago.  Hints that had me questioning my parentage.  Looking back, I find it strange how that questioning did not start my genealogical search, but did lead me to buy those first dna kits.

I sent my own dna kit in first.  I knew I would do my mother's since she is my mother and elderly.  Of course the furthest relation back is going to be the better choices- just common genealogical sense!  That third kit was the deal breaker.  Should I do my brother, or my Aunt Adalaide?  When I purchased the kit- my main question could be answered by either or the two of them and even better for both to be tested.  Knowing that my brother was very leary of  "big brother" watching him I figured my aunt would be the better choice and so I did her test second, after myself.  

Receiving the results and making them useful was another whole field of study.  At just the very slightest tip of the iceberg of knowledge, I began to decipher the information in our dna.  At first, on Ancestry- my aunt and I had no common matches.  I uploaded to Gedmatch and thought - oh wow we are a match.  Unfortunately I had uploaded one of our raw dna twice as though it were two separate.  Mind you this was over a week or two's worth of time.  I announced to my husband and daughter at first-  "we aren't a match"-How could that be?  Then I announced " I'm an idiot, we're a perfect match".  After much questioning on FB I learned about my raw data mishap and reloaded.  Well, the results were in and unquestionable-  we were not a match- at all.  This was the first realization that the man I called my father for 61 years was in fact not possibly my father- or was there something else amiss?  To be continued...

It's a New Year- Yipee!!

This aught to be a hum-dinger!  It may come to be right up there with getting my first phone- and I mean landline, driving for the first time (legally), giving birth, graduating college, falling in love. 

I began to dabble in genealogy about 3 years ago, mostly at my mom's prompting (she wondered what happened to aunt so and so?).  It became my most treasured hobby and I immediately became passionate about it.  It has all the earmarks of my favorite things;  reading, researching, writing, problem solving, and a constant and continual mystery  to solve.  One is never finished with genealogy and it doesn't matter!!!! No deadlines, no real rules, just plain hunting, picking, and snooping !!!!

It was the almost instantaneous success right at first that drew me in and the desire for that same satisfaction that kept me going.  It's as much an addiction as any drug and as much of a "high".  

Right at the start I had an affection to Moses Marks- my mother's, mother's, father's, father. That makes Moses my great great grandfather on my mom's side.  I don't know why the affection but I understand it to be a normal "thing" for we genealogists.  His wife Deborah Ann, Anna D, Annie D, was also my first brick wall.  I could not find her maiden name.  Needless to say, there are so many other things to explore that one can put that subject on hold and go elsewhere to search for satisfaction.

Eventually I realized- duh- I have an aunt Adalaide (my father's sister) who is probably the oldest living relative that I know personally (91 years old) that loves to talk and socialize.  After visiting her the first time I was amazed at the state of her memory- excellent.  We came to realize that we were probably decendents of the Mayflower crew!!!!!  Now that's a genealogists dream!! It's like the big "pay-off".  I've been visiting her regularly since August 2014.  

Well like most genealogist's of this highly technical age (the information age), I finally broke down and purchased three Ancestry DNA tests.

To be continued...