Posted in Uncategorized on May 22nd, 2012
I am feeling like a celebrity as I get comments and messages from members of the Polish Genealogy Society of America in response to my article which was published in the most recent edition of their quarterly magazine, Rodziny. I have been surprised how many people are interested in DNA testing as an additional search [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 15th, 2012
My husband handed me an article the other day about a new television show titled, ‘My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.’ Some of you may remember the movie ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ which was actually a charming story, describing wedding festivities and expectations that are shared among many ethnic groups, not just Greeks. It [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 8th, 2012
Two weeks ago I wrote about the phenomenon of children of U.S. immigrants wanting to return to their ancestral homelands that are now becoming world economic powers…countries like India, China, and Brazil.
For generations, the world’s less-developed countries have suffered from what is described as a ‘brain-drain’ — the flight of many of their best and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 1st, 2012
Today is May Day….a national holiday all over Europe. It used to be a holiday in the U.S. I remember cutting flowers and making paper envelopes to display them, hanging these favors on neighbors’ doors during the 1950s. I think May Day ceased to be celebrated in the U.S. when the holiday was adopted as [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 24th, 2012
It was with great interest that I read an article that I spotted in the International Herald Tribune–an article from the global edition of the the New York Times–titled ‘Children of immigrants to U.S. reverse their parents’ journeys.’ It reminded me of a conversation I had with my own children a few years ago, expressing [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 10th, 2012
Zack Ajmal is a self-described ‘genome blogger’. He believes that an interesting application of genetic testing is being able to infer ancestry. I agree! He has created a site called The Harappa Ancestry Project, which analyzes autosomal genetic data of participants of South Asian origin for the purpose of providing detailed ancestry information. The focus [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 27th, 2012
Two weeks ago I posted about a book I had just begun titled Gypsy Boy. It is written by an English Romany named Mikey Walsh. I noticed in the second chapter, there was a Gypsy superstition cited that was one that I grew up with as a child — that if a bird flew into [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 20th, 2012
I have a friend who recently tested her mtDNA. She has joined the ranks of all of us who are fascinated with DNA testing! She is haplogroup U5, one of the groups which stems from the same mother ‘Uma’, as my U3b haplogroup. I remembered that many U5 people are in Scandinavia. My friend admitted, [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 13th, 2012
Some months ago I posted about having unexpected discoveries about your ancestry. Just when you think you have reached the end of your search, something comes out of nowhere! (if you are lucky….)
My local bookseller called my attention to a newly published book titled Gypsy Boy. This is a personal account of the author’s “Life [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 28th, 2012
With the encouragement of one of my most significant DNA matches, I signed up for Family Tree DNA’s ‘Family Finder’ test.
The Family Finder test uses autosomal DNA, that is dna inherited from both the mother and the father, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents etc., to provide a breakdown of your ethnic percentages. The test tries to [...]