Getting to Know All About You
Last week I shared some basic facts about myself, with a funny picture of me in my mom’s bra. Well, in order to share another picture of me in my mom’s undergarments, here’s another post. Don’t worry, there are no more. I’m not sure why I thought this was so hilarious, but clearly, I did. This picture is in my grandparents’ front yard, and you can see my grandma looking out at us through the window. My elder brother, Richard, is in the picture with me. This is in Stockton, California, before we moved to Alaska.
So, what else can I tell you about me, to justify this post. Hmmm.
Some of my ancestors came to North America back in the 1600s. Puritan stock. One of my direct ancestors, Sarah Osborne, was accused of being a witch in the Salem witch trials. It was a small community, so I’m also related to one of the accusers, Anne Putnam, though she is not an ancestor. I wrote a post about famous family members back in 2006.
On my father’s side, family lore says that one ancestor was enslaved on George Washington’s estate, and that he was part French. We decided that his mother was accosted by the Marquis de Lafayette, but who knows, probably it was someone less important. When I did 23 and me, it shows that I am 0.6% Nigerian, so at least the slave part is likely true. I was reminded of this recently while listening to James, where he talked about the 1 drop of blood rule, whereas if you have any black ancestors at all, you were considered black. This is for obvious reasons, so white men could rape black women and still enslave the children. Ugh. I have both Union and Confederate soldiers in my family, and slave owners on both sides.
This post has gotten dark, hasn’t it? Women falsely accused and imprisoned, rape and human bondage? Let’s lighten it up.
Earlier this year I deleted my 23 and me account and asked them to dispose of my sample. Did they? Who knows. But before I did so, I printed up my information, which I just referenced to get the percentage Nigerian right, and look at this list of completely random things that are perhaps genetic. Most of these are correct!
What else. Well, we have lived in our current home longer than either of us have lived anywhere else. We bought our townhome in 1998. We bought because there is no rent control here, and our landlord was going to raise our rent 40%, because prices were shooting up. He did us a favor I guess, because housing prices shot up pretty fast after that, and within a year or two we would not have been able to afford our place. We certainly couldn’t afford it now.
We lived in Philadelphia for 2 years, which is so long ago now that it feels more like a dream than a memory. We moved there from San Francisco so my husband could attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. I got a job working in the Sociology Department, as the assistant to the dept. chair, so we would drive in together every day. It was really nice.
I have sero-negative inflammatory arthritis, which is basically Rheumatoid Arthritis, but my Rh factor is negative. I was diagnosed in 2014, during a month sabbatical from work when I was relaxed and swimming and taking it easy. A lot of people have their first big flair because of stress, but that was not my experience. It hits me the most in my hands and feet. It’s pretty well managed by Minocycline, which is an old school treatment, though I can’t really go barefoot much, and standing for a long time hurts. But I hear from lots of people my age with that problem, and no autoimmune issues.
I was a volunteer driver for our local Meals on Wheels for about 11 years. I was laid off from my job in 2009, and wanted to get out of the house once in a while, without it being a large commitment. Once a week I would drive to a distribution hub (at a senior center) and pick up meals for 15 to 16 home bound seniors. Then I would drive my route, delivering the food. It was really rewarding, and when I started working again several months later (back at my same job, they regretted letting me go) I asked my new boss if I could keep it up, basically taking a 2 hour lunch once a week. They said yes, and then when I switched over to my current company, they were also supportive. Once COVID hit, Meals on Wheels changed their process and started delivering more food less frequently. My car wasn’t big enough, so I had to quit. Now I volunteer 2 days a week for a cat rescue, cleaning out their pens and making sure they have clean water and enough food.
What else else…I’m currently in the midst of a project where I am trying to declutter my house. I decided that I wanted to get rid of one thing a day for the second half of 2025. I’ve been trying to be mindful about it. I donate some things to Goodwill, I give things away on my local Buy Nothing Group, I recycle, and of course, some of it goes to landfill. I try to keep that to a minimum, but sometimes it can’t be helped.
Our local Indivisible group organizes weekly local protests against the current administration, and I try to go every week. I’m scared for the direction our country is going, and I refuse to roll over and go quietly. I have missed a few weeks, but mostly I’m there. I find it soothing to be surrounded by like minded people.
This post has gotten unwieldy, and I wanted to keep posts short for NaBloPoMo, so rather than looking for a sensible way to wrap it up, I’m just going to wrap it up.
How about you? Any famous or semi famous people in your family? Have you ever heard the expression, We are all of us descended from beggars and kings? Or did I make that up?
15 Comments
AC
My immigrant ancestry is relatively=ve recent — grandparents. One line extend a little farther back. Sue has a line that goes a long way back to the very early New England settlers. That branch came to Canada during the War of Independence. Apparently, they didn’t want to be independent. My one line that goes a little farther back were also American to begin with.
Good for you re volunteer work and also the protests. Sue once delivered Meals on Wheels.
J
Maybe Sue and I are distant cousins! I remember growing up, history class was so slanted, the loyalists were not painted in a good light. Ted and I went to a little museum in Belleville, Ontario (where he was born) and they described the loyalists as being good and…loyal. It was my first experience of seeing the other side of that particular war.
Nicole MacPherson
That’s so interesting, and also upsetting, about your relatives. I will NEVER do one of those tests because I feel like I know too much about my family already! Ignorance is bliss in my case.
J
Well, the test only tells you what your ethnicity is, the other information takes research. But I get it! I have a cousin that I detest, and she popped up as a blood relative (because she had done 23 and me also), which of course I knew but didn’t really want my nose rubbed in it either.
StephLove
I am not aware of any famous ancestors, but my wife’s cousin did some research into her family tree and gave a presentatation about it at a family reunion summer before last. The family can trace its ancestry directly to Edward the III and is distantly related to Audrey Hepburn, Charles Darwin, James Taylor, Jane Austen, and Meghan Markle. So, I am related to all those people by marriage, perhaps?
J
You definitely are! Fun stuff.
Margaret
Your history is fascinating; mine is boring except that one relative came over on the Mayflower. I could belong to a club but I don’t. My Italian relatives are lost in the murky archives of Catholic parishes in Italy. My mom used to say that they were peasants who probably gave birth on the kitchen table. They’ve been difficult if not impossible to track. I haven’t deleted my 23 and me and should have! I admire your volunteer work; I vowed to do more when I retired but didn’t want to be tied down.
J
I considered applying to the DAR so my daughter could get a scholarship, but my most recent few generations are complicated paper-work wise, and I found out the scholarship was likely not enough to warrant going through all of that work, so I didn’t bother. We didn’t have any relatives on the Mayflower, my mom always called that branch ‘second ship’ people.
Martha
I love the photo, so cute! I did the Ancestry test quite a few years ago, but didn’t get all the detailed information you got. I found out after my parents had passed away that I was adopted, so anything that I thought I knew about my family history isn’t my blood family. I have zero information beyond that, and had no matches on Ancestry to try to make contact with to even begin to try to find out more.
J
The ancestry test doesn’t tell you most of that stuff, actually. My father did some genealogy research, and on my mom’s side, a distant cousin did a bunch of research, and then I did some research at genealogy libraries. The ancestry test confirmed the Nigerian aspect is all.
Wow, to find out you are adopted AFTER your parents died, that must have been quite a shock. My MIL found a couple of relatives via one of those tests, but I haven’t made contact with anyone new.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I believe my mom dug deep into our ancestry and found that there ws some swedish roaylty on my grandfathers side. But I need to ask her. And I think it was an elegible child.
I want to go and look a bit more at my anchetry. It is even on my 101 in 1001 days list. But its a project for another year.
J
It’s so interesting, right? I will start thinking of you as Swedish royalty, if you don’t mind.
Elisabeth
My grandmother had our ancestry traced back directly to William Wallace (of Braveheart) fame. He was actually my great-great-great (many times over) grandfather.
When I told my classmates that in high school, someone got excessively excited and blurted out: YOU’RE RELATED TO MEL GIBSON. Hahaha.
J
LOL! Hilarious.
One of my ancestors may (or may not) have been a Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots), but no one can prove it.
Gina
That picture is amazing!
This is the first I have learned that photic sneezing response exists. Fascinating! Apparently, I don’t know anyone who has it!
I am first generation on my mom’s side and second on my Dad’s. Not a lot of history here in the US, it’s all in Europe! I have toyed with the idea of trying to get Italian citizenship, but it looks like they have shut the door pretty hard on that now, and besides, there is a LOT of documentation they need that I simply do not have.
I have always been suspicious of DNA stuff, and refused to send it to my medical provider when they asked me to participate in a long term study as well. I mean, maybe some relatives have sent theirs and technically they kind of have mine, but they aren’t getting it directly from me if I can help it.