I'm quite fond of Jan Jansen van Harleem, professionally known as Murat Reis of the Salee Rovers, who ended his days as the governor of a Moorish fortress. And family apologies to the people of Baltimore, Ireland, whose people Jan sold into slavery in Morocco when he raided the town.

I know, not someone you should be proud of, but it will be fun in the afterlife, when I host the family reunion, to watch him and Governor Endicott, Puritan bigot extrodinaire, glare at each other.

I have a new kitty. Pictures to follow soon!

Yay Anne! Lucky kitty!

claps claps claps Anne!!!

Oh, good, Anne! Lucky kitty!

The story is that we're related to Daniel Boone

We might be cousins! Like, 7th cousins, but that's ok.

Which ones do you have? I have Endicotts and Lippincotts and Gaskill/Gaskoynes and Southards. No, the Southards are in New York, I think. I've got a lot of colonists.

Stevens! We seem to have migrated out of the Plymouth to New Nederlands within a generation, though.

Stevens!

I have a John Stephens born in Monmouth, NJ, in 1735.

Oh, and I like Roots Magic, for genealogy programs. I need to dig into my notes and continue my project of compiling all my info with an eye towards publishing.

Yay new kitty, Anne!

I know Cody's uncle has mapped out a good bit of their family tree, but I've never really tried to map out my own. Between my mother being adopted and my father's side of the family fleeing Europe, it all seemed a bit hopeless.

My roommate has an ancestry.com subscription and let me use it. It was totally addictive, and I stayed up until like, 2AM, and have not been back on since, lest I get caught up in it more.

Huh. DNA might be a way to go. It's impersonal enough I wouldn't have to worry about living birth family, right? I'm a little curious about my lineage, as long as I don't have to (shudder) interact.

I also did 23andme, which was fun and interesting. Possibly not worth the $99, but it will tell you about relatives who have used the site, but you don't have to. (ETA: and most of the people it came up with for me were like "This person is probably your fifth cousin!")

My dad did one of those DNA tests. It came back with a list of people who matched certain percentages of his Y chromosome. With most of them, it said that the probable common ancestor was something like 10 generations back. He exchanged some emails with the people on the list, and one of them had put together a map showing where this Y chromosome had appeared and when, and tried to map the family's migration. There was one match that said it was probably within five generations, but I could trace our family tree back six generations on that branch and it didn't match. The other guy's ancestors at that time had been living in a town about 50 miles away from where our ancestors were living then, so it's possible that someone's father wasn't actually the person it was assumed to be, or that the link was just a few more generations back.