Genealogy for non-geniuses
Texas950 made contact again — and this time, she’s got more light to shed on her Vietnam vet relatives. After replying to Texas950’s message to me, I felt hopeful about this lead…that is until another week went by and she didn’t respond. Since patience isn’t my strongest suit, I decided Continue Reading
The previously elusive Ancestry.com cousin Texas950 messaged me back. Readers will recognize her as the Ancestry.com user who is also my mother’s alleged 1st-2nd cousin. After initially reaching out to her in January, I did not get a reply back for a few months. Here’s that original message. No big. I Continue Reading
A light introduction into the wacky world of biological genetics. Warning: this is going to be a boring post. “More boring than your other posts, Tony?” Shut up, dear reader. And pull up a desk, because school’s back in session. The lesson today: DNA. You know, that twisted ladder thing Continue Reading
Everyone has two family trees. Yes, even those of you who aren’t living a double-life and have another set of wife and kids. I’m not trained in this. I went to college for English and spent most of high school biology class talking with my friend Ivan about video games instead of Continue Reading
An unboxing and review of Ancestry.com’s DNA kit and what my brother’s Malort face looks like. Whenever I bring up my mission to find my grandfather to my fellow genealogists, they always end up singing the praises of AncestryDNA. Their reason: the site lets you to link your Ancestry.com family tree Continue Reading
Get it? Because “mẹ” means mom in Vietnamese. Oh, c’mon. It’s a solid pun. After getting my results back from 23andMe, I knew that I had to get my mom’s results in as well. Not only would her results confirm my suspicions that my African heritage came from her Continue Reading
At this point, I’m convinced everyone is my cousin. I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I used to daydreamed about being related to someone famous or renowned when I was little. The last lineage of an ancient yet noble royal family, perhaps. Or maybe, the heir apparent to a Continue Reading
What I found out about myself after paying $200 for strangers to look at my spit. I felt a familiar buzzing in my pocket and pulled out my phone as surreptitiously as possible. I was at work and we were having the second department-wide meeting in a week, much to Continue Reading