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.

On my mom's side of the family, if I want to know who my fourth and fifth cousins are, I can just call them up and ask. Owning a shared property that goes back 6 generations is handy that way. But my dad's side is probably historically more interesting - my paternal grandmother's family has roots in Tennessee and relatives fighting on both sides of the Civil War.

I am looking forward to new kitty pics, Anne.

Danskos purchased. Glad I went and tried a few on because the style I really liked didn't feel right and I bought a style that I hadn't considered. Got a pair of Beatrix. Comfy!!!

Two of my sister's friends (who are twins) had been working on their genealogy for a while, and then had their DNA tested. It came back as significant parts African, and various places in Europe, and a little Native American, all of which they'd expected. What they didn't expect was that it also said they were a fairly significant percentage Ashkenazic Jewish -- they'd never seen any mention of anyone Jewish in their research. So they asked some of their older relatives about it, and found a few people who said, "Oh, everyone knew that your grandmother was having an affair with the Jewish man who owned the pharmacy around the corner. He was your father's real father."

I had dinner this summer with someone who is either my 4th cousin once removed or my 5th cousin (it depends on who his mother is - I know who officially is but I have my doubts). He happens to summer in the same town my grandparents retired to, and happens to be a retired UGA professor, though he never met my grandparents or me before. I found him and emailed him because he has a companion miniature portrait to one my father has - a husband and wife pair who are our mutual ancestors.

"Oh, everyone knew that your grandmother was having an affair with the Jewish man who owned the pharmacy around the corner. He was your father's real father."

(it depends on who his mother is - I know who officially is but I have my doubts)

All that kind of family shit is so fascinating.

Well, my cousin was born in 1944. His mother was born in 1888. While it's within the realm of possibility that a 56 year old woman could have a baby, it seems rather more likely to me that the woman he considers his sister, who was born in 1916 and an unmarried theater professional in 1944, is his biological mother.

But you kind of can't ask that of a 70 year old man you've just met, can you?

It takes two or three generations (and deaths) till a family tragedy becomes an interesting anecdote. A friend of mine found out his great-grandfather was shot to death while robbing a bank. His grandmother had told the family that her father died in his sleep. He decided not to correct her, on the grounds that she would have been young enough at the time that it may well have been what the family told her.

My grandmother was born when her older sister was 18. Supposedly, her sister was completely embarrassed by this, because she figured that anyone looking at their family (with three kids, born 1899, 1909, and 1917) would assume that the baby was actually hers.