damn, I thought i was going to have to take a class on how to navigate writing in my journal, they have changed it up a bit. Sometimes too many choices is not a good thing. Like journal entries and donut shop selections.
Its one of those nights that I cannot seem to stay asleep.. So here it is, 4AM in the morning and I have given in, made coffee and settled in with my first cup of the morning.
I've been doing quite a bit of research on family history lately. Got a subscription to ancestry.com. And although i think its a bit pricey, the information available to you can be remarkable. You can turn up some of the most surprising things.
For instance: After doing a DNA spit kit for 23and me, I discovered that i am about 71% northern european, irish, a bit scandanavian, a teesny bit south asian, 2.7% neanderthal....(really..for true). and 1.7% native american. The european and irish didnt surprise me. Looking in the mirror and my grandparents surnames kind of validated that one. But, the native american thing I didnt see coming. Curious as to where i got that from I began to ask questions and do research......and hit brick wall after brick wall. OH these ancestry websites will dangle bits of temptation and information at you...just enough to let you know that THEY have some of that info but you cannot have it unless you buy a subscription .....so months go by...and my obstinancy turns to defeat and kicking and screaming I go ahead and purchase a membership to ancestry.com.
As for the native american connection i assumed it must have come from my maternal grandfathers family. Although his surname is Maxwell whose scottish ancestor emigrated to America around 1740, my grandfather was born and lived in LeFlore County Oklahoma which is in the heart of the Choctaw Nation. It turns out that his mother Jane Hull's mother was Sarah Dodson who is a descendent of some guy named Chief Joseph RainCrow. A minor native american chief, I did the math on what percent of native american i have gotten from just this one ancestor and it turns out to be a miniscule 1/ 128th..which means my mom was 1/64th, my grandfather was 1/32nd, his mother was 1/16th her mother sarah was 1/8th, sarahs dad was 1/4th which made him the grandson of Joseph Raincrow. and son of Josephs daughter Piolly Raincrow Dodson.l Pretty cool huh? But, that would not add up to be my 1.7%...so there is more somewhere back there in time. Waiting for me to find it. But I did run into more interesting stories and mysterys in my research. Which i will share with you all soon.