Genealogy for non-geniuses
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 quick recap on what we learned, what we questioned, and what’s still keeping me up at night from the ancestry research extravaganza. So a few weeks ago, I resolved to head out into the suburbs to devote myself to a Saturday of pure ancestry research — and we got Continue Reading
This weekend, I’m headed to La Fox, Illinois get some quality ancestry research done. What a week. First, my mom’s AncestryDNA test comes in. Then I find out we have a second cousin. And THEN I find out that second cousin has a family tree. On top of all that, a Continue Reading
The AncestryDNA results are in . . . and they’re CRAZY (not really). After Mẹ took her AncestryDNA test at the beginning of January, the results finally came back from the lab — and it actually didn’t take long! The email came in from Ancestry.com yesterday, which I appreciated because Continue Reading
I finally got around to updating the blog! Saigon to Sioux city has gotten a face lift — and a much needed one too. I decided to change website hosts so I could have more control over how the blog looks. I’ll be honest: it’s probably gonna change a ton more 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