Obsessed 3-21-2020

Thoughts and Quotes: 

If at first you don’t succeed, try another way.  For every obstacle, there is a solution.  Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  The greatest mistake is giving up.

This is a line from a long list of quotes on the side of a coffee mug I no long possess. It describes my past few weeks perfectly. Now I'm putting my obsession aside until the virus thing passes. Let me tell you what happened.

The whole chain of events started when my nephew Kelly submitted his DNA to Ancestry. A girl named Gina (she's 51, but a girl to me since I'm 82) submitted her DNA prior to his submission, hoping to find her birth father, a desire of hers since  discovering she was adopted at the age of nine. And there it was - a DNA match showing she was a close relative to Kelly.

She contacted Kelly (you can do this privately through the Ancestry website without exposing your identity) to see if he knew of anyone in the family who had given up a baby for adoption. Kelly emailed me to see if I knew anyone. I told him that since our family is small, I'm sure I'd have heard about it. 

A few months go by and Ancestry was having a sale. Since I'd only heard that we were Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish (I'm not sure which is correct) from an aunt who sometimes embellished her life, I decided to get to the truth. The facts are that I'm England, Wales and Northwest Europe - 74%; Ireland and Scotland - 19%; France - 3%; Germanic Europe - 2%; Normandy - 2%.

You guessed it - I popped up as a closer relative to Gina than Kelly is to Gina. I didn't know this at the time, because I didn't belong to Ancestry.com. I got an email from Ancestry saying that I had a message and could retrieve it by clicking here.

A sweet message from Gina said that she didn't want to cause any trouble in the family, but that her DNA match said that her father was either my son or my brother, and she had been looking for her birth father since she was nine and was getting ready to have her 51st birthday. 

What?! Wow! Technology is just getting better and better. I answered her message and asked for her birth mother's name and where she was from (she knew her birth mother since her adopted sister married the brother of her birth mother, but her birth mother would not give her any information).

She told me the name and city, so I immediately ruled out my son, 11 years old and living in another state; I ruled out brothers 5 and 4; aged 13 and 15 and living in the same state but another city; I ruled out brother 3 who was serving in Viet Nam; I ruled out brother 2, Kelly's father which would have made Kelly a closer than I; and that left brother 1. 

I called brother 1 and asked if he knew X from X. He said, "Oh, yeah. How do you know her?" Bingo! It seems that Brother Casanova had two girl friends at once. He decided to marry one of them, and broke up with the other, who told him, "I'm pregnant." 

I don't know what went on between then and the birth, but he was told that the baby had been born, it was a girl, and had been adopted and the adoptive parents were picking her up from the hospital. 

Gina had a wonderful life with her adoptive parents, but the mother was 48 at the time of the adoption, so she didn't have as much time with her as most daughters have with their mothers.

So I have a new niece, three new grand nieces, and five great-grand nieces and nephews. Niece Gina lives in Iowa and we've been getting our money's worth from our phone services, catching up on fifty years of not knowing each other. And this led to my current obsession. I'm working on the family tree, and I can't find my great-great grandfather. But I'm not giving up. I'm waiting to hear from other Ancestry members through messaging, and I'm waiting for a book to come through Mobius. I can't call public offices because everything is all haywire because of the virus, and libraries are closed. 

The timing didn't help. My great-grandfather was born in 1861 - yep, Civil War came into play, I'm sure. I do know my great-grandmother because of the DNA match, but I can't find anything prior to an 1870 census which shows my GGF at the age of 9, living with his grandmother 61, her daughter (GGF's mother) and her new husband and their two children 4 and 2 in Indiana. The 1880 census shows GGF (now 19) living with a couple in their 30's, who are new on the scene, in Missouri. Either he was a worker on their farm or simply a boarder in their home. At any rate, he was not with family, and I'm stumped. My theory is that his father went off to war and got killed; mother remarried. To further complicate matters, the records in his Indiana county stop a few years after his birth. And my father was an only son of an only son of an only son (my great-grandfather). Since no one from his father's side has submitted DNA, my only hope is to dig it out with no DNA help.

So now I'll work on other branches of the tree and let this simmer. I still haven't found the French connection, and I'm definely a Francophile, so must continue my journey.

And Brother Bill and I plan to visit Gina when this virus thing is over, and Gina is planning to go visit her father in July. 

And before all this happened, I decided to finally sort all my paper and stick-ons. Big job, to say the least. Here's just a sample.

And now you know why I've been absent. This has absorbed all my time, so I really don't have much to share. I had a birthday though, so -

Thank Yous: For my gifts -

Lunch and slippers from Chosen Niece Terri

A basket of goodies from My Girls Up North, more Chosen Nieces

Joey knew I'd been looking for some silver jewelry, so -

and it came in a beautiful box.

A happy sun catcher from Friend Nancy

And the best grapefruit in the world from my kids. If you can grow citrus in your gardening zone, plant one of these trees: variety Oroblanco, which is a cross between a diploid acidless pomelo and a seedy white tetraploid grapefruit. I don't know why it's called seedy because they have few seeds.

And lovely handmade cards.

Joey (I want that hearts die)

Katie, one her best yet

Jeanne - she knows me well

Jean - very clever, it flips so that it can stand

Susan - the "most birthday" card

and some unusal ones - from Brother Bill (it's huge)

From Barbara, a pop-up card

and with a LETTER, on matching stationery

Plus all the pretty purchased cards.

And I remembered that I hadn't shown you my handmade valentines.

From Carrie

and Jean

And this exciting purchased card from Terri

I got a thank you note for a birthday card I sent Richard and he handpainted it. So beautiful.

I wasn't the only one who passed on making St. Patrick's Day cards. I got only this sweet one from Jean.

Taking Care of Your Health: I hope you'll be very cautious until this horrible coronavirus passes. It only takes one contact to put you flat on your back. I still remember the Hong Kong Flu from 1968, one of the two really sick times in my life. The other was Measles as a child. Shingles weren't all that much fun either.

Keep your sense of humor:

Staying home is not a bad thing; I do it all the time. If you're getting bored, here are some suggestions:

Clean up your computer files.

Put a spring wreath on your door. Make a new one if you have a silk flower stash.

Get your spring-summer wardrobe organized.

Do your taxes now instead of on April 14.

Work on your quilt, handwork, scrapbook, craft projects, etc.

Write a letter to someone who might be missing you. Or give them a call.

Take a walk.

Watch those programs you've recorded, or those old VHS tapes and DVD's.

Read a book or those magazines you put aside.

Go to the internet to travel or learn. Free classes all over the place.

Work a jigsaw puzzle or play games with the kids.

Start your spring deep clean.

Work in the yard.

That's what I need to do and next week looks like good weather. My poor daffodils have suffered from all the rain and wind. And looks like the people I hired to repair my fence on March 12 missed this board. 

I don't know how I can have flower pots on my patio with these guys hanging around.

Tasting: Here's a new recipe I tried. The ingredients should be easy to find.

QUICK GREEN CHILE STEW

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1-15.5 oz can white hominy, do not drain

1-1/2 cups frozen corn

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1-7oz can chopped green chiles

1-7 oz can prepared green salsa

1-15 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 qt beef broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat and onion over medium heat and drain.

Add the balance of the ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce the heat and simmer until potatoes are tender. This will take about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Well, Dear Friends, that's about it. I'm going to follow my own advice and see if I can't get something accomplished while I'm in solitary confinement. Thankfully the weather is cooperating next week, so maybe I can take a walk or go for a drive. In the meantime - 

PRAY FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD

KEEP WASHING THOSE HANDS

WORK IN THE YARD

EAT PROPERLY

TAKE A DRIVE

CHECK ON SENIORS YOU KNOW TO BE ALONE

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE