...and that's why I like Highland Cows!

A while before I got heavy into genealogy itself I had stumbled upon physical anthropology. While it has been debunked for quite sometime there is a certain level of accuracy it portrays. Most people would remember it from it's use for eugenics during the Nazi regime but that is truly not it's purpose. Today shows like "Bones" still use it to determine ethnic range for deceased and often facial reconstruction has to incorporate some of it to give a accurate result. It is simple fact that Asian's have higher and more delicate nasal cavities whereas African peoples tend to have a wider ridge across the nose. These facts have really no purpose at all except for being used as a tool themselves.

So after learning what I was looking for in the sub-race characteristics I began the process of taking profile pictures and head measurements. For the most part I came up with the generic Dinaric group which is most profound accross europe itself. Upon asking some other intrested students to also look at my findings they came up with East-Baltid and I simply laughed it off as a result of my weight. After all the majority of my research has led me to geographic populations that would have the Dinaric classification or even a Nordic trait. However I should not have overlooked it so quickly I think.

A while back I discovered a cousin on ancestry named Jane Storm. Until then I hadn't focused on the German grandmother of my own french line at all, Lezelie Brunner. However Lezelie's parentage leads straight back to the Sturm (Storm) family that I share with Jane. Today i have come across an interesting fact regarding the couple at which I join Jane's heritage. Johann Jacob Brunner who married Maria Barbra Sturm, had parents that both came from the Kingdom of Bavaria. This would be close enough to the edge of Germany that it would fall within the range of the East-Baltic characteristic type. So perhaps I was not only a bit to quick to judge but also a bit biased against Germany itself. After all it is quite put down in American classrooms as the mastermind of both World Wars. Obviously I have more to learn.

My genetic profile on Ancestry however leans towards a Nordic and British heritage at least in my active DNA. British however brings up the Borreby group trait which is in someways mistakable with East Baltic because of the wide face. Being over 86% north European though makes me more inclined to believe that my hybridization of types is within those groups. My mother, for example, is naturally blue eyed and dark blonde yet my Dad is a obvious Borreby with Mediterranean hints. Speaking of disparity my Ancestry DNA match to my father was unlocked recently and I see that my 8% southern European does not come from him! This was a bit of a shock but it is interesting since I have yet to match my mother to anything except it's neighbors Germany and France. If I am a Borreby at my core however that explains why I think Highland cows are the most adorable barn animals I've ever seen.

Merry Christmas from Brittania

The time has come that my long awaited DNA testing results are in. As mentioned before my Father didn't like his results but I've been reading more about that. As the Genetic Genealogist puts it "Everybody has two tree's!" So I expected the unexpected but also held fast to the fact that I probablly inherited the more obvious traits from my French line in my mother's tree and now a suspected grouping in my Father's. Much to my surprise I came up with results more like what my Father had expected for himself.

To the left is the snippet from my results placing me well into the Welsh/Irish and English inheritance both my parents carry. It was also looking at this that I realized some of the birth locations for my relatives in France must be formatted wrong because they aren't even on the map here. I assumed that I inherited the Scandinavian from my Dad but in relative finder we don't match there which is odd since he has a high percentage as well.


So this has led me into a bit of a History lesson. Having just watched the "Monarchy: UK" show on Netflix I was rather refreshed on some of the Norman conquest details from my supposed 'Stewart' connection. I used this to explain to my Father why his Central European was probably so high since Norman soldiers settled mostly in that area taking indigenous wives as did there sons for generations.

The southern European is my big surprise which also led to some historical research. I came across two theories besides of course a recent 'npe' (Non Paternity Event). The first is that recent studies have shown that Scottish stock was descended from a paleohispanic peoples called Iberians. Their fisherman it said crossed the bay of Biscay about 6,000 years ago into the Isles.

As an after thought it is also possible that a portion of my southern French families could have actually been Italians living abroad. The Boissil's (Boussey) and Grossejambe's both dead end about 1600.

Now more intresting is a more recent migration via conquest before the Normans. When Rome was at it's end as an empire around 300 AD it had just worked it's way into the British Isles. As the war period broke down the Military men settled in Britain, however it was for 200 years (since the winning of Britain), illegal for Roman men to marry local women. This meant that they shipped in women from other countries in the roman empire like Spain, Italy and France. So by the time the law was lifted there was a strong genetic group of Romans within the confines of Britain. This is why a distinct level of Roman survives today in people of British descent despite their lack of knowledge to it. I look forward to more detail being added to the algorithms in the future especially to uncover my 6% unknown which is twice the amount of my fathers. For now I will plug away trying to find this Italian or Hispanic connection I have.

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Read More about Iberians: Independent News/ Wikipedia
Rome in Britain: Surprising DNA

Habits and Coincidences

There is something funny about following family legends through quantitative data and that funny thing is seeing the unreported legacies we leave behind. My ancestry-DNA sample was finally received at the laboratory within the last week. I pray it hasn't decayed to much since it took about a month to be shipped thanks to the holiday seasons.  Hearing that I have 6-8 weeks before a major surprise I couldn't help but ponder once again over my Father's results of dominantly central European despite the family stories that he was distinctly Nordic-Celt. There are of course some holes within the maternal lines for him which I believe might fill many percentage gaps. Adding to the mystery is my hematologist's discovery that I have yet another inherited condition that is distinctly of Mediterranean descent lines. I just find it so darn humorous since genetics obviously does not lie. Thalassemia, my newest suspected diagnosis, does confirms my Fathers genetic testing results however.

My DNA results will most likely not match my Fathers at all, at least in percentage. Now I do know that within my maternal grandfather's line there is a influence from southern France. Most men of the Welsh and English descent chose French wives. In reverse of this having just worked on some of my more recent German ancestors I see that they favored English wives. In fact while they remain so proud of being German they carry almost no cultural influence from it in recent generations and no one speaks the language naturally. I might say this has something to do with the influx of English wives since they ran the household. There is also the matter of joining a culturally deficient religion in the recent years.

The French left their Catholicism and the Germans left Mennonite beliefs to join the Joseph Smith fad. My families on both sides are proud of being so involved generationaly with RLDS (Community of Christ), though its not as many as they assume. I however feel that its stolen away a lot of the traditions that are unique to earlier generations who practiced more classical religions. For the most part my family doesn't see their descent lines anymore. We divide ourselves as American or Canadian at this point. It's a shame to let go of so much yet with each generation we gain a lot. I gather at this point I've torn the threads of my history apart so far that's it hard to enjoy the fabric now as a unit. I have a feeling that my results from DNA sampling might inspire me to look elsewhere. As an example my Father thinks that our history might be boggled by assumptions past three generations above him. This brings up the possibility of a different heritage line stemming back to Italy and France...I can't help but see that it is reminiscent of his DNA results. What a coincidence..?!

Always Check Your Sources

For Thanksgiving I had initially created a post following the Swan family of Plymouth  Massachusetts back to the 11th Great Grand parents, Sarah Allerton and Degory Priest. This was quite a exciting find and I immediately started a blog post for the Thanksgiving Holiday about pilgrims. By happy accident when I was editing it with a disclaimer last night it was deleted.

While the initial research led the correct direction there was a oversight regarding the Swan and Swaine families that settled in Massachusetts  Both had daughters named Sarah born about 1665/70 with similar brood of children after marriage. The real key to discovering my unfortunate oversight was the marriage record of Sarah and her husband Joseph Norton which indicates the Swaine surname not swan as is seen for the Plymouth county records. Unfortunately the Swan woman from the Pratt(Priest/Allerton) and Swain  family convergence is often misspelled in her records as Swain.

Of course Pilgrim history is more exciting still this true family line seems to lead to fairly respectable people who immigrated to the US in roughly 1635 in the New Hampshire and Nantucket Bay area of Massachusetts. Nantucket had been sold by the Wompanoag people to Thomas Mayhew, one of the Plymouth Company owners, and it was not until he lost interest in the area and sold it that real colonization began there in earnest about 1659. Richard Swaine, of the correct line, was one of the purchasers who bought the land for "30 pounds and a beaver hat for Mayhew and his wife".

Grace Swaine, Daughter of Richard would later be accused of Witchcraft during the famous Salem Trials, along with her daughter eldest Mary Boulter. This finger pointing came after the death of a small child of John Godfrey died in 1680. Rachel Fuller originally accused of the crime gave many names under diress of questioning including Grace and Mary's. John Godfrey was apart of the Swan family from Plymouth by marriage. One of the motivations for accusing Grace and Mary is that they were the majority property holders of the Swain estate from Richard.

Ironically most of the Swaine family men went on to have thier hands in law and court. Further research will no doubt provide better details of the more current generations. Judgement errors like this both prove that I shouldn't mass record dive at night and that it is always important to check sources no matter how polished/legitimate the material looks.

Spitoons and Silver Spurs

The Ancestry DNA test arrived last week for me. I was expecting a cotton swab but unfortunately they need a larger sample. My father is excited to see the results which I must say makes me laugh to imagine it not connecting us as relations. What I'm really looking for is unknown's such as perhaps more Boussey relatives like Alyce or perhaps even a accidental finding of my mystery aunt who was adopted out of the Morford family.

I mentioned in a earlier post that a lot of my cousins I've been able to contact all specialize in a certain corner of the family. I was hoping to fill this niche by focusing on my part of the Jones's. I was able to get a freepage with Roots web for my own use. After framing it up it occurred to me that I may not truly have time to deal with this all considering I already have 3 blogs and am still going strong in school. I may reduce the page to something more direct such as the generational family listing I began in PDF.

Last of the Line

It's a very depressing thought to realize that in many ways your family will end with you. It occurred to me as I began the feat of typing up a new Jones family history and decendency list that I am the only record keeper that I know of for the Jones family. This of course may be a misnomer since I am removed from some of my Jones cousins and they may also be researching as well. I do have researching relatives that I just discovered for the Mills family through my Grandmother. These second cousins however are researching thier surnames Bryants and Mills as a main focus however. My Great Aunt Arvilla is also a genealogy hobbyist but she too is removed in her focus from me by being a child of the Wismer and Craig families. Recently she did show me a indirect relationship to the Jones but for the most part her research is Wismer centered. My cousin once removed follows his father's tree for the Kettlewell family.

David, my father and Joseph my grandfather had focused most of their energy strictly on the paternal line for Grant's so once my Father dies that will be it. I doubt it would do much good for me to pick up that research since the majority of it is taken up by Day and Morford researchers anyway, both popular families. In fact recently a Day family third cousin contacted me out of the blue for acquiring a photo of his grandfather. I must admit he was quite rude considering we haven't met. There is also the more personal side to this that I am the last of the Grant children carrying the Grant genetic line or more likely the Street family genetics. My Father once thought that neither my sister or I would have children and it truly broke his heart to think that he had failed to continue the family somehow.

Here I sit however the only researcher that I know looking into the Jones family. All of my Grandfathers generation has now past and most of the children are lost in time in my mothers age as well. I have yet to find a close relative my own age who researches which seems such a shame. In a way then I guess it is fate that I have such good instincts with the Jones/Boussey line since I might be the last to devote time to it.

Endless Discovery

Today I am off to Amherstburg, Canada to visit my Grandmother Lucienna. I intended to have many questions to ask her but the Wismer family is fairly well researched already so I have little need except to enjoy humorous tales. I do of course have some hope that she may have pictures of her maternal grandparents, the Mills, who don't seem to be researched anywhere else. This may be due to the fact that like my Grandfather Harvey Jones's family most of the generations have since passed on and what little grandchildren my age remain have no interest. I thoroughly enjoy collecting images on my family especially since I don't particularly match any living relatives that closely.

Yesterday I considered the idea of tracking down a history course on Canada that I could take. It seems most colleges do not offer it so I settled into a quick reading of the Wikipedia page. The word Acadian came up and I was curious enough to read through it wondering what background this cultural group had. It seems Acadian could be in both of my parents tree's with my Paternal lines in Maine and now it seems through so quick luck today I have my answer in my mother's tree.

It is no new knowledge that I greatly honor my grandfather's Metis heritage from his father and as it turns out his mother also had a metis heritage of her own. Within a maternal offshoot from the Boussey's to the LaPierre's I came across my 9th Great Grandmother, Anne Marie Fauconnier Dit Metisse, born between 1616-1631 at the Metis settlement in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. She had married a Acadian man named Rene Raimbault, whose daughter Jeanne married Francois LaPierre. Jeanne's grand daughter Angelique married Nicholas Boissy (Boussey) my 6th Great Grandfather. All of this is such an amazing find since I so recently stumbled upon the new knowledge of the Acadian's perhaps it is serendipitous.  It appears that Anne Marie may have been Micmac Indian and luckily she has more records than most Indian women of that time. Further research into both the Acadian's and the life of Anne Marie will of course be a new focus for me.