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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Sigh. Humanity.

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.

training my new rescue German Shepherd in agility, baking, and looking after Dad.

That is a remarkable dog.

That is a remarkable dog.

Hah! And I even used an Oxford comma!

I read it the same way. :-)

Man, if I could train Franny to bake...

First Saturday off in a while and I'm OKCupiding, which is just so awkward.