the blog of a disabled mother who likes to game, and "get in the pit"
Truth be told, I’m about as Scottish as I expected to be… I have Scottish lineage on both sides of my family evidenced by some of the surnames. What kind of surprised me was the fact that the Belgian DNA turned to Swedish with this update, and the 3% of Welsh DNA sticking out there, as well as the fact that according to Ancestry, I am only 2% German. 23andMe has me pegged at 27.5% German. All of this is very amusing…
· I found out that I’m related to an author through Ancestry, so I sent them a message
· an actual mask mandate was codified in my state by the governor, which surprised me in a good way
· the local school district was prevented from starting in-person instruction until at least Labor Day
· I was unblocked by the local school district on social media after I mentioned to a news agency while a livestream was going with the superintendent, which everyone saw, that the local school district had blocked me after I had voiced concerns about their enthusiasm to open school doors in the face of a global pandemic, flouting CDC recommendations regarding continued closure… the district was actually extremely quick to unblock me after I stated this in a livestream comment, which equally amused and bothered me
I am also looking forward to the idea of a second economic impact payment (“coronavirus check”), especially if I wind up getting one faster than the first one, which took absolutely forever for them to get around to getting me. As with the last one, I will mention purchases that I make with it as I make them. But it will all depend on exactly when I actually get this second economic stimulus payment as to what I actually get, so…
Because of the kindness of the person who set me up the family tree that they did on Ancestry, I’ve… come to the conclusion that the half-aunts (I’m fairly certain that they are my half-aunts now based on their ages, even though Ancestry has both of them pegged as my first cousins) are sisters that my dad has. According to Ancestry, my mother only has one sister, and she might not even be alive any more. So far, neither of these elusive half-aunts have responded to me on Ancestry. I knew going into this that I might be the “hidden relative” to some people because of the holes present in my own family history, so I’m fine with some of the people that I reach out to on these sites, for whatever reason, choosing not to reach out to me.
Meanwhile, there are a few people who actually periodically wonder if I’ve “forgiven my mom yet”, as though one day I will magically do so… so I’d like to bring up the fact that I’ve actually gotten rid of the possessions of mine that she gave me, such as jewelry, if I haven’t already mentioned it here. I find this to be cathartic, and the act of doing so has brought me even more peace. And of course, none of the jewelry that she ever bought me was worth anything monetarily. But it brings me peace not to own anything that she ever bought me as a gift from this point forward, because that is one less reminder that I have of her around the house.
As time has passed, I’ve continued to forget more and more about her, which has been nothing but good.
What she looked like. What she looked like with hair. What she sounded like. Her presence here in my home.
Ancestry has been giving me some new information, especially on their website.
On their website, it pointed out that a considerable enough percentage (although it has yet to tell me what) of my England, Wales, and Northwestern DNA must come from Belgium… for it to point that out. That surprised me, because I didn’t expect to have any Belgian DNA, so I definitely remembered it. Given that Belgium is frequently lumped in with Scandinavian countries though, that would account for the fact that 23andMe uncovered Scandinavian DNA when I did a test with them, although they were not able to conclusively identify from what country — or countries — it came from and still have not been able to. This seems to go a ways toward answering that question. If I bring up that portion of my DNA on the Ancestry website, it now tells me that I have an affinity for watching BBC Sherlock and Doctor Who my DNA from that section is primarily located in Belgium, the Channel Islands, England, and Wales. Not much of a surprise!
Clicking the Ireland & Scotland section, which is right below it, tells me that my DNA from that section is primarily located in a ball of spitfire and sass Ireland, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The last section available for me, Germanic Europe, simply reveals not much of a surprise Germany.
A friend of mine was also nice enough to use his paid Ancestry account to help me begin to put together a family tree for research purposes, which answered some questions that I had about relatives on my mom’s side. One of the questions that got answered, although I didn’t really have it going into that, was “who those “first cousins”/presumably half-aunts were that popped up high on my Ancestry match lists might be related to me through”, and now I think I have a much better idea who I am related to them through because of this.
Through slightly more careful observation, I’m speculating that the “first cousins” on my Ancestry matches page may be my mother’s (half-)sisters. Neither of them have responded to my messages, so it is what it is… for now. They may or may not know that she exists, or existed, if that is the case. Her father was never really in her life to begin with and actively avoided supporting her, although if I remember correctly my late grandmother had one picture of siblings that she had through him, and my mother told me that he died in the mid-nineties. But I have been talking to a more distant cousin of mine on Ancestry, and she dislikes organized theistic religion as much as I do, which is great. I intend on sending her a friends request on Facebook once I can, once I am done with this most recent post block and comment block. (And ironically, for Mark Zuckerberg kissing Trump’s ass not being willing to take a harder line against the shit he says on social media, a lot of people are quitting Facebook, which I think is good. Maybe Facebook will stop being popular.)
And since I’ve joined so many Discord servers, I’ve actually left some of the ones that I didn’t chat as much in to cut down on the amount of ones that I am a member of, because I couldn’t juggle all of them at once. It was (and is) nothing personal to the ones that I did quit! It’s just that I can’t juggle being in so many servers.