I just discovered that my great-great-grandparents were first cousins.

I was what you'd expect.

I have no clue. What was your mothers' route?

My Cousin Charlie found out that he is almost entirely Celtic... which seemed odd since we are part Spanish.

Yeah, the Celts were all over most of Europe for awhile there.

Apparently there's research suggesting that the people of the British Isles are less Celtic and Anglo-Saxon than assumed, with the largest genetic contribution actually coming from the pre-Celtic original settlers of the island, who may be closely related to the Basques. Which makes sense, in a way, that each succeeding wave of conquest and immigration would impose their authority and intermarry with whoever was already there but not totally replace them.

My Cousin Charlie found out that he is almost entirely Celtic... which seemed odd since we are part Spanish.

Did your ancestors come from Galicia, perhaps? (I've always wanted to go there.)

Did your ancestors come from Galicia, perhaps? (I've always wanted to go there.)

Asturias [link]

They were taken first to Tule Lake

I am ashamed to say that my grandfather was stationed at Tule Lake. I hate to think that, if our families crossed paths generations ago, that's how they did it, but so it was. I'm very sorry.

When I did a family history project in high school and interviewed him, my mom warned me not to ask much about WWII and said that if I did he wouldn't have much to say about it; to my great surprise, he volunteered that he'd been an officer stationed at an internment camp, and to my dismay he defended it, saying, "I truly believe that some of them were disloyal in their hearts and we had to do it to protect ourselves."

But my mom told me a couple of years ago that shortly after 9/11 he called her, fretting about the future of the US and the possibility of war and his nauseated dread that we'd start rounding up Arab Americans. "We already did that, in WWII, and it was wrong then and it'd be much worse now. We can't let ourselves do it this time." I can only imagine what uncomfortable self-scrutiny he must have put himself through, at well past ninety, to say even that much.

My only other WWII connection is through my boss, who was born and raised in Austria. His father spent his life savings getting his family passage on a ship to Ellis Island, with the promise that he himself would follow as soon as he could manage (he made it across Austria and Germany but was turned around by an irritable bureaucrat at the Belgian border, and died in Auschwitz).

My boss's first clear memory of anything is of being six years old, sitting in his mother's lap at Ellis Island, swaddled in a blanket because he had contracted measles on the journey over and his mother was terrified they'd be turned away. She later told him that the immigration staffer who examined them saw that she was trying to hide his face and didn't even try to unwrap him, just glanced at the top of his head, gave her a reassuring look, and said, "Don't worry. He looks fine to me. Come in."

Is there a map?

Because Austaurius lists the Way of Santiago as a major attraction and of course, Santiago del Compostela (sp?) is in Galicia. Perhaps they are neighbors.

My dad served as a radio engineer for the Marines in Viet Nam. He signed up to avoid getting drafted, which made my grandfather disown him.

Wait. He went into the military of his own volition and still got disowned? Harsh.

I have very, very little historical information about my family. Some on my father's side (all the gents were in the military and most everyone before my father was a Mason with big plumey hats, swords, gavels and other sekrit stuff the local Masons are not pleased that I have.) and absolutely zero on my mother's.

I can guess what a dna test would reveal though. Dark hair, light skin, green eyes, ancestors known for drinking, depression and dying of broken hearts (not even kidding there). Names like Cooley and McClure. I've done the math.

I have no clue. What was your mothers' route?

Our Eve was East African, and the mothers wended their way to West Africa and from there were bounced across in the Middle Passage.

That stuff is so tempting and so frustrating. What are the odds that any particular thread I have a narrative interest in being something that shows up there?

Honestly, we need to know once and for all about the Asian blood. Because that's majorly under debate.

Less under debate is the slaves and the Scots. Between the two groups that's the bulk of my genetic heritage. Go team freckled black people with red highlights.

I just discovered that my great-great-grandparents were first cousins.

My mother wondered slightly aloud if she was a blood relative of my father's. It wouldn't be close, though. My mother's family was pointedly high yellow, and my dad's...well, NSM. Just regular folk without so much of a breeding plan.

Is there a map?

Because Austaurius lists the Way of Santiago as a major attraction and of course, Santiago del Compostela (sp?) is in Galicia. Perhaps they are neighbors.

They're cheek-by-jowl: [link] (scroll down a bit)