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This afternoon I received an email notifying me that my AncestryDNA test results were in. All I needed to do was click on Go To Results. I hesitated for a moment before hitting the button. What would I find? Would the results be so diluted as to not provide much information at all? What I found was certainly a surprise to me! The opposite of being too diluted, the results were almost too specific. Here is my chart:

AncestryDNA results

As I have looked at the charts of other people who have been posting their results, I have never seen one that is this narrow or limited in ethnicity. What is more puzzling, though, is the fact that my dad's paternal line came from northern Switzerland and my mom's maternal line came from central Germany. Where are my European roots? I was provided with a list of Ancestry.com members who purportedly match my DNA and also have British Isles ancestry. The next step is to go to their family trees to see if and where our families overlap.

This weekend my sister and I went to Cincinnati to visit relatives. On Saturday I was able to interview two sisters who were my mom's first cousins. I had not really met them before so my mom's sisters Margie and Betty set up a lunch meeting with them. Their family lived with my great-grandparents after their father became ill and they lost their own home. (I think there is another story there.) As Michael J. Crusham was the first in the family to come over from Ireland, I was eager to hear what they had to say. Unfortunately their grandfather, Michael, died when they were still in grade school, so they had no idea why he left Ireland or who was on the ship with him. They did have some interesting stories to tell, and I shared some information with them that they hadn't known, so it was a good meeting. I was able to videotape an hour or so of it, until the battery on my camcorder died. It is kind of hard to be plugged in when you are at a restaurant. Because of side conversations I was not able to ask all of my questions, so I would like to meet up with them alone next time I go to Cincinnati.

After we left the restaurant my sister and I headed off to a second cousin's house. He is the one that has the diary of a distant relative (second cousin, twice removed to me), and I had contacted him ahead of time to see if he would consider letting me bring the diary back to St. Louis and scan it on Jim's big scanning machine at the office. Then I would return the diary to him. He agreed, as I will give a scanned copy to him as well. I was just a little concerned that we might never get a copy from whatever institution he ends up giving this diary to in the end. I will be talking more about the diary on Write Formation.

We got to see a number of other relatives as well on this trip, and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately all the visits took place around food since there really is no other place for us to meet. I always need to plan extra workouts after trips to Cincinnati!

Crusham Family

On my Write Formation blog I have been writing about the fact that I am participating in the February Family History Writing Challenge again this year. For last year's challenge I was writing about one of the branches on my mom's tree - the Crusham family. I would love to do a book about the family particularly since I have traveled to where they lived in Ireland, and I thought the challenge would give me the push I needed to get on with the project. I was able to keep up with the daily writing word count I had established for myself, but I realized there is still a lot I don't know about the family. So I have continued to research them and the towns they lived in. For this year's challenge I decided to write my own story, and it has been much easier to come up with things I want to say. I think I will probably just keep going with it once the challenge is done the end of February.

Having said that, I am excited to be going over to Cincinnati this weekend with my sister. We always have a lot of fun visiting the relatives and eating unique Cincinnati food, but this weekend I will be pushing forward with my Crusham research. Two of my mom's first cousins, sisters in fact, are meeting my sister and me for lunch on Saturday. My mom's two remaining sisters will join us as well. These cousins, whom I have only met briefly at funerals, used to live with my great-grandparents when they were young. I am so eager to hear the stories they will have to tell! And I am hoping they won't mind if I videotape them as well, if that is possible at a restaurant. Maybe they know why great-grandpa's dad came over from Ireland all by himself when he was only about 18 years old. And why he picked Cincinnati as a place to live. If I am lucky I will be getting some great material to add to the Crusham Chronicles!

good idea

There is a project that has been bouncing around the back of my mind for a few years, and I am ready to go forward with the idea. I obtained the domain names a few years ago and they have been dormant all this time. But after researching blogs for my presentation on Beyond the Blog: Tips for Turning Your Blog into a Book last fall, my eyes were opened to the types of weird and wacky blogs that were either a) being turned into books or b) being sold for huge amounts of money. I think this new blog idea can experience the success of the ones I had been reading about.

I forgot how much decision-making takes place when establishing a new site. What platform do you want to be on? Blogger? Tumblr? WordPress, and if so WordPress.com or WordPress.org? What theme do you want? How about the graphics? So much to consider! I hired an illustrator to come up with a "character" for lack of a better word. We met on Monday and it was so fun to watch her draw up ideas on her tablet right in front of me. We came up with a pretty good sketch of what it will look like. She should have it officially drawn this weekend. Then I decided I want to have a special font for the name of the blog and the tag line that I will be using. So that meant an hour pouring over fonts and determining which one would look good with my "character".

We are on our way though. I am going with WordPress.org, and I have my theme and font selected. My web designer is customizing the theme to be more in keeping with our thoughts of what this new brand should look like. Hopefully by next week I will be able to roll it out. Stay tuned...

Last Thursday we flew from Denver to Los Angeles to see our daughter. Our flight was a little late getting in, and it was raining when Katie picked us up at the airport. Since she lives in a studio apartment, we arranged for a place to stay through airbnb.com. It is an interesting website where you can find anything from a tee pee to a full house to rent. We located a one bedroom apartment behind a home in an area very close to where Katie lives. It was nice to have a kitchen where we could make a meal if we chose, and to have hot tea every morning. Plus we didn't have to listen to anyone above, below or next door to us. The one weird thing is that the bathroom was off the bedroom and in lieu of a door it had beads. Jim immediately dubbed it the beaded throne.

beaded throne

On Friday we went to the Getty Center, where it rained most of the day. It never rains in California? Girl, don't they warn ya...it pours, man it pours. The architecture at the Getty is really cool, and I imagine the gardens are amazing as well when not viewed from the shelter of an umbrella. Fortunately there are many museums to go into, so we didn't get too wet.

view from Getty Center

Getty Center

Saturday was shaping up to be a nice weather day, so we decided to drive to San Pedro to see the Point Fermin Lighthouse. It was built in 1874 and is a beautiful structure. We signed up for the 2:00 tour, and wandered around taking photos to pass the time. And watched the fog roll in. By the time we climbed to the top of the lighthouse you couldn't see squat. "I have never seen it like this!", exclaimed our tour guide. "Normally you can see all the way to Catalina Island, and there are usually a few whales down below." Bummer. We ate a late lunch at a biker bar in town, and that made for interesting people watching. When we arrived back in LA the weather was still beautiful there.

Point Fermin Lighthouse

Walker's Cafe

Sunday was also a nice day in LA. We set off to Griffith Park to see the observatory and take pictures of the infamous Hollywood sign. From there we drove to Angeles National Forest to see the San Gabriel Mountains. It was like driving in Colorado, with a two lane winding road and sheer drop offs. We stopped at the only restaurant in the park for another late lunch, and when we came out it had begun to sleet. "I've never seen it like this!", exclaimed a native. Of course you haven't, I thought to myself. We decided to go back to LA and the weather conditions worsened. The sleet turned to snow, which began to build up on the road. Great - slippery, snow covered two lane winding road with sheer drop offs. We slowly inched our way back to LA which was - you guessed it - sunny and dry.

observatory

Hollywood sign

San Gabriel Mountains

sunset in Los Angeles

Monday Katie came over for a last breakfast with us, and we waited for our taxi to take us to the airport. Katie did not have enough time to take us there and get to work on time. The driver called and said he was going to be late. "I have never seen the traffic like this!", he exclaimed. Of course you haven't, we all thought to ourselves. Nevertheless we made it to the airport in plenty of time, and arrived home safe and sound. To temperatures in the 60's. "I've never seen it like this!", I exclaimed.

A week ago Saturday my brother's 20 year old son died suddenly. This is the same brother who lost his wife to cancer 11 years ago, leaving him with 3 small children to raise. My brother happily remarried two years ago, but due to scheduling conflicts we had not yet met his new wife. What a tragic reason for bringing all of us together! Jim and I flew out to Colorado on Tuesday as the funeral was going to be held on Wednesday morning. All of my other siblings arrived that day as well, and we stayed at the same hotel. We have not been together since my son's wedding 4 1/2 years ago, which is the last time that most of us had seen my nephew.

The funeral was very sad, but the priests did a really nice job of making it personal for the family and trying to make sense out of a senseless situation. After the Mass there was a reception (odd word choice for something following a funeral) downstairs at the church. My nephew's artwork was prominently displayed, and boy did he ever have some talent! They also were playing a slide show timed to music, which was both hard to watch and yet somewhat soul soothing.

Later in the day we all met up at my brother's house as people had been bringing lots of food by. It was nice to be able to spend time with my family as well as with the family of my sister-in-law. I am so happy that my brother has another wonderful woman in his life, and it is clear that the girls love and respect her.

On Thursday Jim and I flew to Los Angeles to see Katie. That part of the trip had been previously planned, and after some discussion we decided to go ahead with our visit. I really needed to hug my 21 year old.

There has been a lot pf press for several years about using DNA testing to help with researching your family tree. A couple of the earlier ones required that you test a male member of the family - preferably your father or brother. As I don't have any male relatives living near me, I kind of dismissed the idea of doing testing. Now ancestry.com, a very popular genealogy website, has come out with a test that can be taken by either males or females. It is an autosomal test, meaning it tests all 23 chromosomes. When they offered 50% off to try the test as a subscriber to their website, I decided to look into it.

Ancestry DNA kit

All the tests have pros and cons associated with them, but this test gets fairly good reviews from those who have taken it. So I bit the bullet and ordered the test, which arrived last week.Here is what is in the box.

Testing kit and return envelope

The first thing you need to do is register your kit with Ancestry so that they can track the specimen that you provide. By assigning a number, the privacy of the donor is protected. As much as anything can be protected in this day and age. You are not allowed to eat, drink or chew gum for 30 minutes prior to taking the test. At this point I was still under the assumption that you swab the inside of your cheek for the specimen. Isn't that what they always show on CSI? Wrong.This test requires you to spit in the provided plastic tube. At first when I saw the "Fill to" line, I thought I had to fill up half the tube! Then I looked closer and realized that there is a small container within the tube that captures the spit. Still, it was pretty gross. I would have rather done a swab test.

my specimen bag

ready for the mail

After you fill to the required line you snap the lid closed, which releases a solution in with the spit. Then you remove the solution cap and replace it with a screw on lid. The container is then placed into a sealed bag, eerily labeled "Biohazard". Ewww... The bag is then inserted into the provided mailer, and returned to the lab. Mine went out in Saturday's mail, and with the holiday on Monday I guess it will be mid-week before they receive it. When my results are ready (normally in 6-8 weeks) I will receive an email. The nice thing about being a subscriber to Ancestry is that if they find any matches with other people also on Ancestry we can connect. It will be interesting to see what happens with all this.