The King of Cups expects a picnic. But this is not his birthday!

Drusilla ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail.


billytea - Oct 28, 2016 2:06:07 pm PDT #2823 of 3094
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

I have dual citizenship, Australian and British. (My mother was born in London - she was technically a Cockney - while my grandfather was posted there as an air raid warden during WWII.) It's a thing that felt rather more impressive prior to Brexit.


Amy - Oct 28, 2016 3:51:21 pm PDT #2824 of 3094
Because books.

I would love to do the DNA thing at some point. My ancestry is, they tell me, nearly all Scottish, Irish, and British (and a lot of it is traceable since relatives have done the family tree thing), but I'd love to see what the DNA says.

S's dad was first-generation American (his mother came from Ireland and was a pastry chef in New York), but all of my relatives on my dad's side have been here too long (and that's where I'm supposed to be related to Daniel Boone), and my mom's father was first-generation American, but that's too far back to matter.

Honestly, I just want to *travel* out of this country at some point.


erikaj - Oct 28, 2016 4:21:36 pm PDT #2825 of 3094
Always Anti-fascist!

Me too. No, that day in Tijuana so doesn't count.


dcp - Oct 28, 2016 4:53:59 pm PDT #2826 of 3094
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

I've done DNA testing.

Pros:

  • increased confidence that my branch of Plunketts has an ancestor in common with the Plunketts from the area northwest of Dublin, Ireland (but still no idea how far back that connection might be)

  • connected with a branch of family totally unknown to me previously, including a meeting with my maternal grandfather's first cousin (it turns out he lives about 15 miles from me)

  • learned that the current best guess for my paternal haplotype is a most recent common ancestor about 2500 years BCE in northern Spain

Cons:

  • still don't know when or how my branch of Plunketts came from Ireland to North America. (Best guess is still via Guadeloupe or Barbados in the 1600s.)

  • learned some very unpleasant history about my maternal grandfather's parents, and his mother's estrangement from her family


Consuela - Oct 28, 2016 7:15:34 pm PDT #2827 of 3094
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I don't think I've updated here yet. I'm not a lurker, although I'm basically just in Lit and Natter these days.

I'm a year into my federal gig, which means they'll need a crowbar to get me out. (Or elect Trump and overturn all the federal environmental laws, that'll do it.) I spend much of my free time training my new rescue German Shepherd in agility, baking, and looking after Dad. He's in hospice, but is remarkably spry, and still gets a lot of enjoyment out of life. I have some adorable nieces and nephews, and the family is all pretty healthy.

Life is pretty good, but it feels precariously balanced with Dad's situation, and things could change at any moment.

I am lucky, and I know it.


WindSparrow - Oct 28, 2016 7:55:31 pm PDT #2828 of 3094
Love is stronger than death and harder than sorrow. Those who practice it are fierce like the light of stars traveling eons to pierce the night.

Consuela, much love to you. Ii's good hearing how the challenging stuff in your life is balanced by good stuff. Yeah, balanced is a weird way to describe that consciousness of both joyous and achy bits of life.

Amy, we may be seventh or fourteenth cousins, if my uncle's genealogy research is correct. We are descendants of Daniel Boone, theoretically. I hedge this because some of the documentation seems a bit sketchy and I have not had a chance to re-up my membership at Ancestry.com to take a closer look for myself.


Topic!Cindy - Oct 28, 2016 8:36:02 pm PDT #2829 of 3094
What is even happening?

My dad's mother was born here. She can't help.

His father was born here but raised on PEI and served in the Canadian forces in WWI.

"Warmer."

My mother's father and mother were born in Nova Scotia. Her father was horrible and died before I was born.

My Nana (mom's mom) became a US citizen in the 1950s, because her kids were born here.

I keep telling mum to claim her dual citizenship so she can save us. Probably not going to happen, but that's our hope.

O! Canada


Liese S. - Oct 29, 2016 2:51:05 am PDT #2830 of 3094
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

Wait, so y'all are mostly more recent immigrants than me, but I still get the "do you ever think about going home" questions? Uh, no, asshole, unless you mean to northern Ohio, then yes, all the time.


Dana - Oct 29, 2016 4:26:01 am PDT #2831 of 3094
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."

Huh, Liese. I wonder where those questions could possibly be coming from.

Sigh. Humanity.


Susan W. - Oct 29, 2016 5:41:41 am PDT #2832 of 3094
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Ugh, Liese. So angry-making.

I'm also in the only eligible for one citizenship club. My most recent ancestors were Swedish great-grandparents who arrived sometime in the 1880's IIRC, and most of the other 3/4 came in the 18th century, with probably a small fraction (if family stories are correct) 12,000-20,000 years before that.