Rebekah's Art

 Rebekah started a new Art class at school and she is loving it. 

Not only is she loving it, she is ROCKING it!  Just check out this grid drawing of Frida Kahlo!  (Bekah's is on the right.)

 And the class was practicing shading with this one.  (Bekah's is on the bottom.)

 These two (top and bottom) are about linear perspective.

 

 This drawing of a tube station is also practicing linear perspective.  This one was on the wall of art in the school hallway (above - second row, second from the left).

 

As she worked on more linear perspective (see landscape photo below), she also needed to draw some eyes for another project, so we practiced those.  (They eyes are mine...I love drawing eyes and this is something I made a long time ago just because.)

 

She just finished this project.  They used ink for their medium and their piece had to show symmetry.  There were a number of elements that had to be included in the drawing and Bekah rocked every one. 

She's got a solid A in this class and I'm anxious to see what other art comes from her creative mind.  I love that she's getting to hone her skills in this way.

Snow Angels

Christmas

Baby Jayden's Newborn Portraits

 Jack and Courtney just got Jayden's newborn photos back

And they are ADORABLE!

Courtney looks so beautiful.

 

  We just love their sweet family so much!

 William loves his baby brother.

Ancestry DNA Reports - David

David's ancestry DNA report came in just a few hours after mine did yesterday.  I am just loving that we did this together.  I think he's even more excited than I am.

 

Like I explained about my report, Ancestry.com gives a 40+ page report with the DNA results and color-codes the regions where you had DNA matches. 

 

 

 David found that he had DNA matches in Great Britain (66%), Ireland (20%), Scandinavia (8%), Caucasus (3%), Finland/Northwest Russia (1%), and less than 1% in North Africa, Italy/Greece, and Western Europe.

 

I'm not surprised at all for Great Britain and Ireland.  David has family on both sides from there (Noblitt, Ayers, Wentwort, Middleton, Kirkpatrick, Kilpatrick, McLarrin, and Mahaney).

 

David was super stoked to be 1/5 Irish. 

He also found it to be very amusing that is DNA match is 6% more British than the average native of Great Britain.  He's more British than the British.  That must be why he's so drawn to Great Britain/Ireland.  He's 86% just from those two islands. 

 

I'm very surprised that David does not have more DNA matches in Western Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein).  I've traced the Matheny line back to Belgium and France.  They passed through England in just four generations, before heading on to the US.  Other lines have been traced to Germany (Freeling) or I would assume they would based on the name (Ikner).

 

As with my report, one glaring omission is what caught our eye the most.  It lists David as 0% Native American.  Both of David's parents have claimed to have some Native American ancestry, particularly Cherokee.  In all my genealogy searches, I have never been able to find evidence of this.  I was thinking that the DNA test would definitely prove it, but it's not even showing a little bit. 

 

 

 As I said on my report, something we learned that we found very interesting is that your full-blood sibling might get different ethnicity results than you do.  Because each sibling gets different traits from each parent, then the DNA results for one sibling might show a match in a different region that the DNA results for the other. However, David "looks" way more Native American (dark skin, tans easily, facial structure) than Eric does (fair skin, burns easily), so I doubt Eric would get a different result.  But it would be interesting if he or David's parents got a DNA test as well. 

 

**Edit May 2017 - David's cousin, Richard Christopher (nephew to David's dad) just got the results back from his DNA test.  His also show 0% Native American, which upset him, as he was told by his father they had Cherokee ancestry.**

 

David's "genetic communities" map shows where the majority of the people with similar genetic makeup now live or have recently lived. 

 

This matches what I've found in genealogy research for David's ancestors, although, the Wentworths came through Virginia, some through Jamestown.  Then they married into the Matheny family and moved through the Carolinas before settling in Alabama and Florida.  

 

 We've enjoyed this so much, we've decided to do another DNA test through another company.  I read that to get a comprehensive picture of your DNA profile, you should use Ancestry.com and 23andMe.  These two companies do similar tests, but have different subjects from which they gathered their DNA samples for matches.  We may get slightly different results if we have a DNA match to a region that wasn't sampled by Ancestry.com.  I'll keep you posted. 

Ancestry DNA Reports - Jayna

I got my ancestry DNA report today!!  I'm so excited!

 

I read over it with anticipation. Having done extensive genealogy research, I was not surprised by most of the results, but a few did catch me off guard.  There was some disappointing omissions as well. 

 

With the results, you get a lengthy (40+ pages) report sharing different information about the DNA results and the regions in which they found a match. 

 

Here are the details: 

The colors overlapping regions on the map correspond to the chart below. 

 

 My DNA make up is primarily from Great Britain (47%), and then Ireland (18%), Western Europe (11%), Iberian Peninsula (11%), Eastern Europe (7%), Italy/Greece (3%), Scandinavia (2%), and Middle East (about 1%, maybe a little less).

 

NOT SURPRISING:

I'm not surprised by Great Britain and Ireland, since I've traced quite a bit of family back there, on both my mother and father's sides.  Western Europe explains the German (Bess) side of the family.  On my dad's side, I've found lots of Scandinavian ancestry, but it is way back there, hundreds of years ago...so the 2% makes sense.  I'm not even surprised the Middle East showed up in the results, since I have traced one ancestor that married into the Stewart line back to Israel.

 

HEAD SCRATCHERS:

I've not found anything in my genealogy research to support Eastern Europe (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia).  I also don't recall any traces to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal) or Italy and Greece. 

 

 

In the report Ancestry.com sent with the DNA results, they explain the history of each region, including the migration of people groups for various reasons.  They also show how much of your genetic make up is from a specific region, in comparison to the genetic makeup of a typical native of that region. 

 

In the example above, 47% of my genetic make up comes from Great Britain.  By comparison, for the typical British person (because Great Britain is so diverse) 60% of their genetic makeup is from that region. 

 

 

OMISSIONS:

The hardest part of my DNA results for me are the omissions.  I was hoping to see at least a little African, and I really wanted there to be some Native American, since I have a loose link to Pocahontas through my genealogy research.  I was hoping the DNA test would confirm it, since I have no other links to Native American ancestry other than the Powhatan Indians.  The other thing I wonder is that if ancestry to the Powhatan Indians would even show up in a modern DNA test, since the tribe no longer exists.

 

I'm not too concerned about Kenya and Cameroon not being listed.  That connection is also hundreds of years ago and has already been proven through DNA tests of a direct male descendant of Etheldred Revelle. A Y chromosome DNA test was performed to get the patrilineal line of the Revelle family.  Since my line traces through Mattie Revelle, to Don Barnett, and then my grandmother, mother, and me, the patrilineal line that linked to Africa was broken and may not appear on a test of my DNA.  

Something I learned that I found very interesting is that your full-blood sibling might get different ethnicity results than you do.  Because each sibling gets different traits from each parent, then the DNA results for one sibling might show a match in a different region that the DNA results for the other. 

 

This gives me hope that maybe Jack's or Mom's DNA would show the Native American connection I really want to support my genealogy research that the Bolins are descended from Pocahontas.   

 

Another interesting thing we received in the online version of the report is the "genetic communities" map.  This shows where the majority of the people with similar genetic makeup now live or have recently lived. 

 This totally matches up with what I've found in genealogy, with ancestors coming over through the east coast and then making their way across Tennessee and then on to Illinois, Indiana, and eventually Missouri (which is where most of my family and I were born).

Ancestry.com can show you who might be your cousin, second cousin, all the way to your fifth cousin, just through DNA results being similar.  I'm anxious to see if there are any folks matched up with me through DNA testing on the Ancestry website.   

 

This has been enlightening to say the least.  I can't wait to compare this further with my genealogy results and see if it explains any other mysteries.   

 

Lydia's Birthday Party with Friends

To coincide with Lydia's current passion - "old-timey things" - Lydia and I handmade her invitations. 

 Lydia distressed the paper, I wrote in calligraphy, and then she sealed every invitation with a wax seal.  Then she hand delivered the invitations. 

 Quite the elegant touch.

 

Lydia requested a "Captain Swan" cake for her birthday.  (This is a mashup between Captain Hook and Emma Swan from the "Once Upon a Time" series she loves right now.)

 I used the reverse buttercream transfer method again and I think the cake turned out pretty cute.  Lydia was pleased, and that's what matters!

 

 Finally, it was time for all of the guests to arrive.  Maddie, Lydia, Hope, and Lauren were ready to party and ready to shop!

 Because the thing Lydia wanted for her "party" was to go to the mall with her friends.  So, we outfitted the girls with a few "Hamiltons" ($10 bills) and we set out for the mall. 

 I swear, as the girls get older, these birthday parties just get easier and easier!

 

 After the mall, we came back to the house for cake and presents.  Everyone spent the night and the girls had a great time. 

Easy-peasy, and my girl is happy!