Ancestral Origins Category
Who were the Celts and why are they so Mysterious?
Posted on December 21, 2022 12 Comments
Winter Solstice 2022. A time of year where I am keenly aware of the changing patterns of light and dark. The Celtic origin myths and the lives of the Celts were much more attune with the natural world than we are now. How they lived and even their imprint upon the earth is very different […]
Science as Religion
Posted on December 2, 2022 2 Comments
This may meander a bit but there is a point. This post was provoked in response to a Letter from the Society for American Archaeology and a recent article in The Smithsonian Magazine. I will return to those later. This post is dedicated to the memory of Marija Gimbutas who was a Lithuanian archaeologist who back in […]
The Human Diaspora: Illustrated through a Single Y SNP
Posted on November 30, 2022 8 Comments
At Family Tree DNA many of the Haplogroup projects are for very large Haplogroups (quite old) including thousands of members such as Haplogroup Q or R1b. The project I started is based on a single Y SNP that occurred in a man about 4,000 years ago who is FGC22501+, a descendant of the huge Haplogroup […]
Serendipity: Time Travel with the Romans with a Twist of DNA
Posted on November 27, 2022 8 Comments
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot I recently wrote about the unexpected connection between where I stayed in the French Alps (Saint Gervais near les Contamines and the Roman Road and […]
Unexpected Roman History Lesson While Traveling in France
Posted on November 7, 2022 3 Comments
I recently spent a couple of weeks in France. I was there to visit my son and grandson who are living there while my son is on sabbatical. Most of my travel in the past decade has been genealogy related (both in the US and Europe). Pre-trip I checked out where I would be and […]
Looking at Ancestry’s New Ethnicity Estimates
Posted on April 15, 2022 4 Comments
Ancestry has a new feature which I would love, if it got it right for me or my husband. I applaud the attempt, but it just isn’t ready for prime time with the results for us. I share this detailed discussion to caution others in accepting it as a fact. It may get some people […]
Adventures in Ancient YDNA: R1b> U152>L2 to Celtic FGC22501
Posted on January 17, 2022 6 Comments
Introduction It all began with a search for my husband’s WHEATON ancestry. After 40 years of trying to connect him with either immigrant Robert WHEATON of Rehoboth, Massachusetts or Thomas WHEADON if Branford, Connecticut I resorted to giving him a YDNA test for Valentine’s Day! In less than 6 weeks I had my answer that […]
DNA Ancestral Origins: a Deeper Dive
Posted on July 27, 2021 5 Comments
We often compare the results of different atDNA (autosomal DNA) tests with regards to Ancestral Origins. Usually I share breakdowns via the five companies I have tested with. I wanted for the purposes of this post to limit my comparison to one particular geographical area. This came to mind when recently reviewing an update of […]
Wheaton Wood 