An Ancestry update

So, I have been chugging along on Ancestry.com, almost every single day after work, sometimes, even leaving work on time (yes, you read that correctly, some days I'm only working 9 hours a day, instead of my usual 12!). Maybe one day, I'll get down to 8!

I did discover that the more American of my friends tend to be WAY more interested in their family history than the more European of my friends here. I found that extremely interesting! I do wonder if it's because you guys are surrounded by so much history, you may be a bit more immune to it than those of us in the States are. You're records are extremely well documented (hence the ease at which we can trace our lineage). The oldest structures or museums or anything of stature we have here are 300 or so years old at most (other than natural places or Native American structures, most of which aren't taken care of...just look at the way the natural parks have been treated during the pandemic, it's deplorable...don't get me started on THAT rant). But some of you are surrounded by places that are WAY older than that, built on structures that are sometimes upwards of thousands of years old. Anything in this country that we have in that time range, our couple of hundred year old ancestors, tried their hardest to wipe off the map (although some still do exist).

With someone like me, whose ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower and haven't been here since the beginning of the colonies, my ties to this country aren't nearly as strong as they might be for others, I'm literally in the wrong county (like Tiff said on Instagram, no wonder I'm an Anglophile, and she's right...my DNA is craving home). Since I was a little kid, it has been drilled in my head that I am Scottish, and thus it was how it was. Yes, I was also told I was Native American, Polish and Greek, but my Scottish blood was stronger (or so my dad said), and the "rest didn't matter", so of course, being a daddy's girl, I believed him. I didn't realize how true he was...to an extent and probaby not in the way he intended. I have found things that would make his hair curl (well, his hair is already curly, like mine, but still)! Yes, my Blair line is definitely Scottish, but not leading back to the Scottish nobles and royalty he always believed, but to the rogue royalty that sided with the English (sorry to my English friends, but it was war, after all!). Most of that Scottish line also originated in England when I go back further than the 1200's. I had NO CLUE about this part of my history.

What has been ultimately shocking is that my hillbilly, redneck, moonshining, maternal grandfather, who I was always told had a full-blooded Native American mother (which he is, although I apparently got none of that blood somehow) and a half-blooded Native American father mixed in with something else (they thought probably Irish) because of his skin color and bright red hair. Well, turns out, barely two generations back from him, he was also VERY Scottish, and less than two generations back from that, they were nobles, then eventually royalty as well, and the very loyal Scottish kind...Scottish born and bred. Considering how this family is now, I'm just mind-blown!

To make it weirder, the Blair line and the Henderson line, crossed paths MANY times! Technically, obviously may times removed, my mother and father are cousins (and yes, my DNA results did confirm that my father is my biological father and my mother is my biological mother)!

I've also come across a MAJOR roadblock with my maternal grandmother's lineage. I can't trace it back further than her father (some accounts show him born in Austria, some Czechoslovakia, my DNA answered the question-probably Poland). Her mother I can only go one generation back. Both lines completely die out after that. No documentation whatsoever! It's freaky!

Speaking of which, my DNA results are back a LOT quicker than I imagined (especially since I still have almost two months of my three month subscription left, so yea me)! I did post this on Instagram, but since I can't help it, I'm going to do it again! I have watched dozens of videos of YouTubers going "yep, I'm white, big shock!", but I think I might actually be one of the whitest people ever! Not sure how to feel about that. No Native American blood at all, although that would explain why I have more yellow skin and my mother and Sister have more red skin. But the breakdown is as follows:

I think the English and Scottish are pretty self explanatory. The Northwestern Europe includes France, Luxembourg, Swizterland, The Netherlands, Wales and Belgium. These lines were easy to trace because royal lines can be easily traced on Wikipedia, but I found they referenced several books on the geneology of certain families, so I found it easier just to buy the Kindle versions of these books and found them more accurate and more detailed in some aspects. I found too many inconsistencies with the information on Ancestry.com, since I was dealing with other people and I don't feel like they were looking up their information very well, just really copying it from each other. You guys know me, I'm a stickler for documentation!

The littler percentages were also pretty easy, once I broke them down and went back further. I basically took a line directly from Robert the Bruce (one of his daughters to be precise) and followed her line in a straight line. So, on the Eastern Europe and Russia line, it was Poland, Urkraine and Slovakia that stood out the most, but those areas I haven't hit yet (definitely grandmother's...got to be). It's the Irish, Swedish, Germanic, and Norwegian (as well as Icelandic) areas that I've been digging up left and right. Granted, I also got stuck in the Spain royal lines, but they always link back in to both the French and the English lines, so that's probably why.

I'm going to keep on this path, one kid at a time, and eventually, everyone will be so inter-related, they will all mingle out. I'm sure one person will be related to me in 20 different ways by the time I'm done! But I've hit the Stewarts (before they became Stuarts), the Medici's, and, of course, EVERYONE is related to Charlemagne in some way, so he's there too. So many people from history that we all know...Louis XIII, who I've always had a fondness for, not just because of the Three Musketeers, but because he and I share a birthday (obviously about 369 years apart, but still). And even his Queen, Anne is a very distant cousin (hence my long day yesterday into the Spanish royal line).

I've started to REALLY get the hankering to go back to school again, only this time, history is calling me, and I'm pretty sure it's all due to all that I'm learning over my family. I swear, a few more months of this and I could ace a history degree! Everytime I run across a new battle or something I didn't know, off to YouTube I go to find out all about it! Since a massively large chuck of my relatives died at the Battle of Flodden Hill (I wish I had a dime for every time I've typed the death date of 9 Sept 1513...now I just know they died during the battle), I'm obsessed with it now. Not a lot of English relatives yet, but a TON of Scottish ones from both sides.

I did have to buy a new chair and desk. Working at the kitchen table is KILLING my back! I guess I'll have to dismantle the kitchen table, since I have no room for both. We'll see when they come in. I worked so long yesterday, that I had to sit for a few hours, get up and walk around, or watch TV for a while, and then back at it. I am completely obsessed! It's not making work better (nothing can do that), but it's making me forget work, at least for a little while, so that's good enough for me!

And on a final note, when it comes to new books, I've found several on my quest through Ancestry (and just browsing Amazon) that are blowing my brain even more...there are actual books about my family! The first one I found was the book I mentioned last post. I have since read it, and it wasn't a romance after all. It was good, but I'm not sure why she felt the need to mix reality with fiction. Why use my 8th Great Grandfather's true story (and I got the grandfather's wrong...that book was my 8th), but not use his real family, use other real-life characters, but then add fictional ones. It was all highly confusing. I think the true story of his struggle would have been better than adding the witchcraft element. But whatever. I still need to leave an Amazon review on that one. I'm just composing my thoughts.

I also found myself referencing another book from both Ancestry and Wikipedia called The Henderson Chronicles, and, considering how it read (like a late 1800s, early 1900's, I'm surprised I found a hard copy of it at all!". It was incredibly helpful until I got off on the this royal tangent. But THEN, I found the piece de resistance....Autism in History - The Case of Hugh Blair of Borgue. Yep, that's right, there is a book, about a Granduncle of mine, that was documented posthumously, as having Autism! The case of his life was famous enough, I guess it sparked enough people to write, not one, but a couple of books about it. This one just seemed the most interesting. I had to get the paperback, because the hardback version was literally $150 bucks! I have ALWAYS said my Autism comes from my father, but this could definitely be the proof! I haven't had time to read it yet, but I'll get there.

I have taken another trip, and yes, this one went off track as per usual. I just haven't had time to edit the pictures yet. With all that is happening with COVID again, I'm not sure we're even going to be able to go on our Massachusetts trip. It depends on if the boosters get approved for the rest of us regular immunocompromised folks sometime soon (asthmatics and the like). Right now, it's only for the severe immunocompromised and the elderly (which is FABULOUS...one step at a time and one step closer!).

And I guess that's all for now! More updates to follow, I'm sure! If you guys have traced your lineage, who famous are you related to (well, other than Charlemagne...we all end up there eventually, right?).