Happy Birthday, Mikey Boy!

 

Ah, Michael, you are the child who is so unlike me. Sometimes I have looked at you in awe, wondering how it is that I have produced such a child. By the age of two, it was obvious that you had outstripped me in mechanical genius, when you took it upon yourself to replace a dead battery in the toy train engine, that had finally, blessedly gone silent after weeks of constant use. You opened up the battery compartment of the toy, took out the old battery, went to the drawer where we kept batteries, pulled out the right size battery, put it in the correct way, closed up the battery compartment, and went toddling away with that pleased smile I’ve come to know so well and the train engine running, pressed noisily up to your ear. I watched the whole thing in shock. I, a woman who barely knew what a straight edge screwdriver was, had produced this child.

I remember one particularly trying day, when I had gotten out late from class. I had to pick your brother up at day care, you at preschool and your sister at elementary school. Nothing was going right. We were finally on our way, racing across town to get to the elementary school when we were stopped at a railroad crossing waiting for an approaching train. You had been begging me to turn the radio on, which I finally had done. Now, you were tugging at my sleeve asking me to turn the radio off. 

 “But, Mikey,” I said with all the exasperation I was feeling, “you just asked me to turn it on!” 

“Mommy, just listen.” 

 So, I turned off the radio, and did just that. Wrapped in the cocoon of our car, you and I sat listening in companionable silence to the clickety clack of the train. You with that silly precious grin pasted all over your face, and me suddenly engulfed by your pure sense of joy. 

There are so many little slices of the world that I would have missed, my son, had you not been there to show me. Today is your birthday, Michael. I celebrate it not only for you, but for what having you has brought to my life. Happy Birthday, Mikey Boy!

Love, Momma

Originally published,  10 May 2009.

© 10 May 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder

May and Busy Times

 So ...  May is a busy month in my family.  You have Mother's Day.  Followed by a lot of birthdays.  There is my Sister's birthday.  There is my Son's birthday.  Two Grandchildren were born in May.  Our cute curly haired red headed Great Grandson made his appearance three year's ago in May. (Wow, how is that even possible?) And finally, there is the guy who brought this startling revelation into my life: I am wildly attracted to tall red haired men, with sparkling blue eyes and a ready smile.  (Even when there hair turns white.) That guy, well it's his birthday this month, too.  

All of which is to say I'm busy and I won't be writing much this month.  However, I thought in honor of today's birthday boys, I would resurrect an older post I had written for each, a loooong time ago.  The next two posts are for them. 

(Also, my allergies this year are way over the top, making me officially cranky,  or as my husband would say, crankier.  High level crankiness does not make for good writing.)

© 10 May 2023, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder

Happy Siblings Day - (In 13 Slides)

  

Wordless Wednesday: A Daughter, Some Flowers, Lots of Real Smiles

 

© 4 April 2023, Teresa L. Snyder, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged

Wordless Wednesday - A little dirt, a summer breeze, a chair for balance - what more could a little boy want?

 

DNA Ethnicity Estimates, or Why do they keep saying I’m Scandinavian?

 I am not usually an early adopter. In fact,  my middle name could very well be Cautious, with a capital “C.”  I will research an expenditure, an acquisition, or an impending experience until I have become a walking encyclopedia on my latest interest. For most people this would suck the joy out of the venture, but for me it is a source of added pleasure.  Insane, right?

Occasionally, however, the “Frenzy Fairy” will hit me with her pixie dust, and I will plunge into something without so much as a backward glance.  That is my only explanation of why, in 2012, when I received the email from Ancestry about being a beta tester for their new DNA product, I signed up immediately.   Well, that and the fact it was only going to cost me $9.99 for shipping.  (Don’t worry, Ancestry has more than made bank from me with that little investment.)

So, I spat into the tube and waited. At the time, I had been working on my family history for about a decade.  

As I was digitally rummaging to see if I had the original screenshot of their ethnicity predictions, I found my own prediction of what I thought the results would be.  

My predictions were:

73% Central European (All that German ancestry, plus some Swiss, Dutch and a wee bit of French)

25% British Isles  (English and Irish)

1% Native American  

1%  African American

Okay, the final two were a stretch, but one could always hope.

Wait!  Where were they getting the Scandinavian ethnicity, or the Southern European?

I asked my mom to do the test, so I could see where these regions were coming from.

Um, mom pretty much had the Ancestry I thought I should have.  Shouldn’t she and I at least be half a match with our ethnicities? I looked quickly to see what relationship they had assigned to us.  Okay, I could relax, we were parent and child. 

At the end of 2013, a new estimate for ethnicity came out from Ancestry.

33% Eastern Europe?  Mom only had 3% Eastern Europe with this update, so that meant it came from Dad’s side of the family.  Dad’s mother was 100% German, and there was no Slavic ancestry to be found in the rest of his family tree.  So, I took a second look at his German ancestors. 

To my surprise, I found that before Germans settled in the area near the Baltic Sea, two Western Slavic tribes had lived in the region.  The two groups had intermingled and more importantly, intermarried. Up until 1795, the very church where my ancestors had worshipped had a service given in a Slavic language. Ancestry had pointed out a part of my ethnic history that I hadn’t even known existed.  I still couldn’t account for the Scandinavian heritage.

Of course, Ancestry has had many updates since.  On one update, I was happy to see Welsh listed among my ethnic roots.  The next one, the Welsh was gone from my results, and my brother suddenly found a bit of Welsh in his.

Below are my latest ethnicity estimates from three different vendors.  

ANCESTRY  

FAMILY TREE

My Heritage 

They don’t agree on much except that I still have that darn Scandinavian in my estimates. 

Each vendor uses their own reference populations. They each have their own procedures that ultimately become  their estimate of your personal ethnicity. Family Tree and Ancestry have white papers explaining exactly what is involved in making estimates.  Remember, if a portion of your DNA does not fit perfectly into one of their identified regions, that bit of DNA will be put into an ethnicity that it most closely matches.

My point is that you do not necessarily need to panic if your results do not match your expectations, or even your own family members. There could be valid reasons. As Ancestry says, “It’s not an exact science.”  However, if your DNA matches are not what you expect, then there could be an issue. Ancestry has prepared a page to go over those issues along with links that may help. That page is here. 

As for my Scandinavian mystery, there were Viking settlements in England, Ireland, along the Baltic coast, some parts of Central Europe, into Russia, and as far south as present-day Kyiv.  My ancestors lived in many of those regions. Maybe the answer to the mystery is this:  I have Viking DNA that is still circulating in my genes a thousand years after the fact. To that I say, “SKÅL!”

Sources:

1.            Ancestry Ethnicity Results, www.Ancestry.com, Accessed 18 June 2012.

2.            Ancestry Ethnicity Results, www.Ancestry.com, Accessed 29 March 2013.

3.            Ancestry Ethnicity Results, www.Ancestry.com, Accessed 3 Oct 2013.

4.            Kashubia, Home of the Baltic Slavs – written originally in Polish by Jaroslaw Ellwart, translated to German by Peter Oliver Loew, and abridged and supplemented English translation by John M. Hingst and Liesel Herchenroether Hingst, 2000. PDF version Accessed 20 July 2020.

5.            Ancestry Ethnicity Results, www.Ancestry.com, Accessed 27 Dec 2022.

6.            Family Tree Ethnicity Results, www.Familytreedna.com, Accessed 28 Dec 2022.

7.            My Heritage Ethnicity Results, www.Myheritage.com, Accessed 28 Dec 2022.

8.            AncestryDNA® White Papers, https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-White-Papers, Accessed 28 Dec 2022.

9.            myOrigins 3.0 White Paper, https://blog.familytreedna.com/myorigins-3-0-white-paper/, Accessed 28 Dec. 2022.

10.          Discover more about DNA matches, https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna/unexpected-dna-matches, Accessed 4 Feb 2023.

11.          Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Viking". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people, Accessed 27 Dec 2022.

© 4 February 2023, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder

Deep Within My Genes: In My Grandmother's Kitchen

Today is my paternal grandmother’s birthday.  Depending on whether you believe her marriage certificate or her baptismal record, she would have been 114 or 112.  Both of my grandparents lied about their birthdates on their marriage license.  In a previous blog post, A Question of Age,  I covered this very subject. Spoiler alert, Grandpa had a good reason for his lie. Of Grandma’s lie, shoulder shrug, I have only unsatisfying speculation.  

My children were 9, 12 and 15 when my grandmother died.  I don’t think many children are lucky enough to have a relationship with a great grandmother, but my children had that privilege.  We still talk and chuckle about “grandma stories.” 

My grandmother was a good cook and an even better baker.  When she died, my mother found herself the recipient of a basket with Grandma’s recipes.  When my daughter married, I made a loose-leaf notebook for her entitled, “In My Grandmother’s Kitchen” and put together some of our favorite “Grandma Recipes.”  Since I have already written a birthday post about my Grandmother previously (My Grandmother, Anna),  I thought this time I would post recipes from the book. 

These cookies were my personal favorite. (No, I really mean FAVORITE!)

My daughter was partial to the Zucchini Bread.

The boys were partial to anything that contained sugar. 

The last two cookies in my grandmother’s handwriting.  

This is my Great Grandmother’s Pie Crust Recipe. 

Nobody (at least in my family) practices the art of canning anymore.  I have not had these Mustard Pickles in close to 40 years, and my mouth is watering at the mere thought of them.  

My grandmother was not the soft, cuddly kind of grandmother.  I don’t remember her ever hugging me or telling me that she loved me.  Yet, I always felt her love.  It came through in the tiniest of moments, the reams of advice (often unsolicited), the little things she did to lighten a single mother’s load, the sweet taste of a favorite cookie dropped off just when it was needed – that was my grandmother.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.  Your eldest granddaughter still misses you.

 

© 16 January 2023, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder