Saturday, May 05, 2012

Yikes!  Did I Do That?


Wow, I am even surprising myself these days.  Being a real rebel, here.  I went out on a limb and, after discussing it with my husband because it does involve money, I have signed up for the Ancestry DNA testing program.  Why you ask? Well, after years and years of digging for my roots, collaborating with other relatives and strangers and through the magic of Ancestry.com's networking abilities, I pretty much know where I come from even though much of it is undocumentable.  I have even, recently, put together the story behind the elusive "American Indian grandmother" which, by the way, is true, she is, we are and I have photos.

 However, the one story that has been in question all these years is whether or not my father comes from Jewish ancestry.  My grandfather was firm in his beliefs that it is a fact.  I have talked with others on message boards that say they grew up with the same story.  None of my family is Jewish religiously.  In fact, my father's family is deeply entrenched in the Primitive Baptist church with many church builders and leaders among the ranks.  However, the story persists and, if you go by visual evidence in the faces of my forefathers, it bears more investigation.

So, that question alone has prompted me to do the test along with the fact that advanced technology now allows both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing to be done on women.  The last male in my fathers line passed away in November so there are no more boys to test for that line -- sad, isn't it?  I figured that Y-DNA testing was lost to me until I read about the Ancestry program and am now really excited.  The cost is reasonable for this test considering that it will reveal so much more information and I anxious to learn my "ethnicity" as they put it.

Of course, I expect the majority of my roots to be in the British Isles -- nothing new here.  One stray German grandmother will pop up I am sure and I won't be surprised if the American Indian grandmother shows herself as well.  What I will be keeping a close eye out for, however, is my father's family which, until recently, has been very elusive what with different name spellings and common given names -- searching for them has been a challenge and I am hoping that this will help clear up a few questions that my family has asked for years.

I ordered the test this morning, it is on back order, and it will take 4-6 weeks to get the results once they get the sample.  I will report the findings here -- I wonder what sort of surprises are in store -- kinda scary!

Update

 Ok, so we visited our cardiologist yesterday to get the lay of the land for the Hubs.  Seems there is an issue with one of the grafts from ...