The Road to the Past is one keystroke away!

For the last few days, I have been tracing back my genealogy and it has been quite a different method to grow my word count. It has been such an interesting adventure, 

My grandfather A.B. Dunning was very interested in tracking his genealogy and I can remember watching and consider myself assisting him in his searches. This was before the Internet and was done with letters, photos, and thin onionskin papers that had been typed with blue ink.  I can remember sitting at his desk crouched over each document reading about land titles, family letters, and old wills. It was lovely to spend time with him and learn about history, one member of the family at a time.  

Arthur Benjamin Dunning, I always thought that name spoke highly of his intelligence and curiosity.  There was no collection that he was unwilling to grow, bottles, rocks, antiques, coins, stamps, and all things Civil and Revolutionary war. As a side note, I wish he had lived long enough to see the freedom and volume of information available with the touch of a key. He would have been the biggest information addict on the planet. Oh, the times we would have had together.

http://www.lapidaryclub.com/index.htm

My grandfather's family can be traced back generation by generation all through New England. From Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and back across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. There were relatives with the surname of Dunning, Wedge, Nicholson, Heermans and last but not least is the 35th great-grandfather, Charlemagne. 

Yes, yes, all you naysayers, I know most people from Europe heritage are connected to Charlemagne, but is pretty exciting to come along and find he is actually on there.  With grandmothers and grandfathers galore, I can at least say I found him.  😃

I must admit, the King of the Franken world, and the Emporer of the Holy Roman Empire as an ancestor is a nice little cherry on top. 

Who knew?

So I encourage you to get out and find your ancestors. On Geni.com it is free and it is a great way to spend the evening. You might find a Viking,  a servant, a farmer, or a school teacher, but you for sure will find something that you did not expect. 

Something completely awesome in the house this week!

I might have mentioned my daughter, Angie. Well, Angie decided that she would send off for the 23andme DNA screening about a month ago.  

Low and behold, she got her results back this week. What an enlightening week it has been.  I am so jealous I can't stand it. I want to know about my genetic makeup now too. 

Angie was willing to share a few images for this blog. Thanks, Angie!! 

Angie was born with almost white hair and blue eyes with white flecks.  At about six years old her eyes changed into the most unusual shade of green with blues, golds, and a starlight pattern. Very unique and very pretty.  When she received the results it showed this totally unique eye feature and provided an image of her eyes. They were spot on. Down to the shattered glass starlight feature. 

The results were (smallest number shows the greatest genetic factor)showing the Scottish, English, and Irish we expected, but there was even more unexpected ancestry detailed. She has the red hair gene, we suspected that due to her ability to totally pull off the red hair color that the salon carries. The Orcadian that is listed is what they are tracing back to the Vikings that inhabited the Shetland Islands. I totally sang Hungarian from My Fair Lady when I saw that she had a speck of Hungarian. (yep, sang it again)



What was more unique was that they captured the sequences that included the Heermans connection that came from my own Great Grandfather's Mother, Mahala Violetta Heermans Dunning. It is so fascinating and exciting to watch the lines unfold.  

A little piece of history for those that find this as interesting as I do.  This is from Geni.com and is about the ship that brought my 9th great Grandfather, Focke Jansz to America from Holland: 

DE BONTE KOE (THE SPOTTED COW)
Sailed 16 April 1660 from Amsterdam, arriving New Amsterdam
Captain Pieter Lucasz
Source unless noted otherwsie:Lists Of Inhabitants Of Colonial New York by Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan Chapter entitled Early Immigrants to New Netherland 1657-1664
Mentioned on the passenger list from De Bonte Koe
Focke Jansz, farmer from Drenthe, wife and 7 children: 19, 17, 13, 11, 9, 3 yrs old, and nursing child [NWI]

Then comes the unusual parts. The fair skinned Norse looking daughter that has 1.6% Iberian and 1.5% Italian, greek and Mediterranean DNA.  To be fair, this might account for her sister, Casey's ability to tan evenly all summer while Angie gets a sunburn while hiding under a parasol. 

Genetics is really great and a little unsettling when you see the percentages for certain diseases and conditions that you hope are not as likely as the DNA strand would suggest.  But DNA analysis is not for the faint of heart. It is for those that bravely want to see from where they hail.  

For the last hour, while I was making this post, I spent on Geni.com realizing that the man that was my 9th great grandfather's father was only 4 years older than his son.  OOPS.  So I got caught up in repairing that little snafu. 

Like I said, Genetics and heredity are not for the faint of heart.  

I have been thinking this would be the perfect birthday/Christmas for the Mama that has everything.  I as a courtesy included a link for my kids so they can conveniently order above. Feel free to use it yourself. 😁

So take a moment to share with me in the comments what you think about her daring sampling and your own journey into DNA screening.