Update On Ancestry DNA Testing

Hello everyone! First I apologize for long neglecting my blog.  To make up for lost time, I will write two posts today.

In the past I wrote about our experiences using DNA testing.  Then I wrote further about "spitting in a tube".  You can read about the Ancestry DNA testing HERE. Overall I am happy about what we learned.  We joined under the Beta program and were told that in the future as more people used the testing program and a larger database was developed, that our information would be fine tuned.  Last week we received notification that our ethnicity profile had been updated. This turned out to be quite fascinating information.

Initially my husband's data was:

50% Central European
45% Scandinavian
 5% Uncertain

Updated data:

97% Europe, further broken down to:

54% Great Britain
21% Ireland
 8% Europe West
 7% Iberian Peninsula
 4% Europe East
 2% Italy/Greece
 1% Scandinavian

The additional 3% is broken down to:

1% North Africa
1% Caucasus
1% Near East

WOW. That was different!  So, why the big difference? As more and more people are in the study, they can narrow it down and pinpoint more exactly. There is a huge change in the percentage of Scandinavian and I would attribute that to the % of Ireland and Great Britain overlapping with that of Scandinavia (Vikings).  Then there was that 5% Uncertain which would explain the newer additions of North Africa, Caucuses, Near East, Italy/Greece etc. My guess is that his Near East, Caucasus and North African blood, ties into the Iberian Peninsula DNA since there were connections there between the Muslims, Jews, Spaniards and Portuguese. This is just a guess based on what we know of history. We were particularly fascinated with Hubby's DNA because we have little to know information on his father's family.

When I went to look at my DNA, I didn't expect to see as great of a change, but it was interesting too. 

My initial data:

75% British Isles
16% Central European
 8% Eastern European
 1% Uncertain

Other than neglecting my nearly 300 years of documented Swedish ancestry, I felt this was fairly accurate.  Now you can see my update did change a little:

99% Europe, broken down to:

45% Europe West
26% Great Britain
16% Ireland
 5% Scandinavia
 6% Finnish/North Russia
 1% Europe East

The additional 1% was Asia South, which included India, Pakistan and surrounding smaller countries.

Geographically, my genealogy has revealed my ancestry to come from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and Slovakia. These numbers seem to more or less represent this. The only surprise was the DNA from Asia South since there is nothing in the last 2-300 years that I have uncovered that would make sense of that.  My British were in America long before the empirical reign over India. I am thinking that this could reflect my Slovakian heritage and their could be some Roma (Gypsy) blood there as they came from India originally. I will likely never know for certain. The Finnish/North Russia, which includes most of western Russia, could be part of my Swedish ancestry, but just as possibly, it could come from my Polish or Slovakian ancestry. The DNA results do explain the regions and note how they intermixed with others and what percentage the average native of these regions have in their DNA. In Scandinavia there is a mix of European, Great Britain, Finnish, Russian, Irish and other DNA types, so it is possible that my Swedes were not "pure".

All in all this has been a fun adventure and we are thankful to Ancestry for making this possible.  We are now hoping to do further DNA studies through 23 and Me for genetic testing of health conditions and for hubby in particular, we would like to join a surname study at Family Tree DNA. The testing from Family Tree DNA gives the haplotypes and you can join surname studies to determine which line you fit into, which would be beneficial in my Husband's case.  So we are saving pennies now for this. My hope was that we would make some connections on Ancestry.  I have made a few connections with distant cousins, but no brick walls have come down yet. New matches are added all the time.

Search Ancestry Census Page Free Today

Today only you can search the US Census free at Ancestry.  They also have a free Census guide to download.  Happy Searching!

1940 Census Completely Indexed

Yeah!  Ancestry announced tonight that they finished indexing the final states and territories for the 1940 census!  And along the way they found some famous people in the census.

Though I haven't found anything earth shattering or new, I have had fun looking around at the census and hope to complete my records now that the states are finished indexing.

Family Gathering - August 2012 Designer Collaboration

Family Gathering is my portion of the August 2012 Designer Collaboration Kit.  Traditionally for Heritage Scrap's birthday month, our collaboration in heritage/genealogy themed.  This year our theme is the family gathering and I have interpreted that as family reunion.  I love family reunions - it's the one time when people are usually interested in all the hard work I have done on the family research!

Here are the elements.  The  collaboration kits are made to be good starting points.  Remember to check out the collection.  The designer's pieces work together and are available for $2.50 during the month of issue.  Many of the designers also work on add on kits.  I will show mine further below.

Papers Preview - I chose to keep the papers pretty simple.  The reason is because reunion pictures are often full of lots of detail - groups of people, various activities and so on. Busy photos and busy paper don't work well, in my opinion.

In the collab you will find:

12 12x12 300 dpi Papers

15 Elements

3 Titles
2 Frames
1 Journal Paper
2 Labels
1 Tag
1 Ribbon
1 Bow
1 Tree
2 Flowers
1 Leaf

So then I kept designing and created the Family Gathering Add On Kit.  That was a lot of fun!

Elements - including a "golden" family tree, some vintage clusters and lots of flowers.

Frames and journal portions.  I wanted to include a lot of journaling and labeling options because family reunions are often the places where you tell stories, learn new things, discover new relatives - the details should be included with the photographs!

Some of the papers - I have tried to make a combination of vintage and modern feel and have included a few "trees" for backgrounds as well.

More papers to choose from.

And then there are all the titles.  I included 42 titles, some of which could be mixed and matched to title pages for reunions, family tree projects or other family gatherings.

The Family Gatherings Add On Kit includes:

24 12x12 300dpi Papers

80 Elements:

42 Metallic Gold Titles
9 Frames
1 Journal Cluster
1 Journal Book
2 Labels
1 Label Holder
2 Bows
2 Buttons (1 recolored)
1 Element Cluster
1 Tree
1 Fern
2 Leaves
2 Flower Clusters
5 Flowers
1 Lace
1 Doily
3 Ribbons
1 Tag
1 Border Cluster

Next, I created a Quick Page Pack.  This was a lot of fun.  Included are two family tree pedigree chart pages, one with an opening for a photo and special journaling and a vintage French memo board with memorabilia and slots to place in two of your favorite photos.  To match with this page I created a blank memo board paper and you can place your photos, journaling or memorabilia on top.

For my Hopkins pedigree chart, I began with the quick page, then I added the two small frames from the Add On Kit, some photos and Hopkins as a title.  You can place more information on your ancestors if you like.  For time's sake I chose to only include birth and death years.

Here is another pedigree page.  The only thing I added to this is the surname in the center.

Here is the French Memo Board.  I used this quick page "as is" except for adding the title "Memories" from the add on kit.

This quick page is great for lots of journaling.  I added the element cluster on the upper right, but otherwise used it as is.

This page is created using only my collaboration portion and will be a cover/opening page for our family reunion.

These photos chronicle my Grandma Hopkins' early life and include one as I remember her growing up.  Both the collab and the add on were used for this.

This is my favorite of the pages I created using the kits.  I believe this one uses only the Add On kit.  Extra embellishments were added onto the book cluster.

Sneak Peek and Thank You Blog Trainers

Before I give you a sneak peek at the new heritage kit I've been working on, I want to say thank you to the ladies that have been here for the blog train and have posted comments! Very sweet of you!  I hope you will be able to use my pieces along with others you've collected to create something beautiful and meaningful.  If you're here looking for the blog train, it's in the next post down.

Here is what I have been madly working on this week.  Family Album is my largest kit yet with 97 elements and is designed so that you could do a whole family history project using primarily one kit.  It will also coordinate with my Family Treasures Kit and parts with my School Days and His Story kits.  There is a genealogy tool kit separate but coordinated as well as a Shutterfly Ready cover set and a bundle pack with everything!  I uploaded to the server last night so it should be up in my store some time this weekend.

This layout only shows a fraction of what's coming.  I am considering doing the life of my Grandpa Tisdale and his family with this kit and the above mentioned ones which coordinate.

After a busy weekend with Yom Kippur and my biggie boy turning 10, I'll be back next week with some more layouts to share, including some really fun ones from my creative team!

Happy Scrapping!

Family Treasures - New Family Tree Kit!

Family Treasures - A Family Tree Kit is my new kit available now at Heritage Scrap for 25% Off for the rest of September. I have been wanting to create some more genealogy and family history oriented kits with enough elements and papers that a scrapbooker could make a whole album or project with one kit if they desired.

Inspiration for this kit came from sitting at my Grandma's feet, going through boxes of photos and memorabilia in 1995 and then again with my Mother this summer - looking at all Grandma's treasures which were in storage after her death.

Here are some of the elements.  Being a spinner, I couldn't resist throwing in an element cluster that uses a spinning wheel!  I have sought to include elements that can dress up or down because sometimes lace doesn't always fit, but then again, sometimes you feel like being fancy! 

This preview shows the frames and frame clusters.  I like having a lot of options!

Included are two 4 generation pedigree charts, and many elements for telling the story and labeling.

The papers are soft and nearly monochromatic to emulate the look of old photo albums, fabrics, memorabilia and so on.

Here are some of the special papers - some worn and torn, mats and file folders.

There are even two quick pages to help you get started documenting your family treasures!

You can find Family Treasures in my store at Heritage Scrap.

Happy Scrapping!

My Family Tree 12x12 Shutterfly Ready Album

My Family Tree 12x12 Shutterfly Ready Album is new in my store tonight, and it will be going on sale 40% off for the iNSD weekend.  This is the first of a series of Shutterfly Ready Albums I will be creating with my My Family Tree series of kits.  This album was made using components of My Family Tree and My Family Tree Add On available here in a combo pack and My Family Tree - Family Files Add On.

This preview shows 2 of the 2 page spreads, to give you an idea of what it looks like.  There are 18 pages (9 2-page spreads) that are meant to be used side by side with a definite left and right, but they could also be used intermixed with pages you create with the My Family Tree kits or intermixed with each other to your taste.   In addition to the 18 pages, there is a title/dedication page and an end page, as well as a cover with an opening for a photo, a back cover and a spine.  One of the first pages is a pedigree chart to record your family genealogy.  Remember to journal.  There are a few pages created just for you to tell your story!

All these pages were created with the templates that Shutterfly provides on their website.  You can load your pictures into/on these pages, flatten the image and upload to Shutterfly.  Once at Shutterfly, follow their directions on creating a 12 x 12 book.  Shutterfly uses a size just shy of 12" square.  If you are going to print elsewhere, you may have to enlarge just slightly, but this should not be a problem.

In this album I focused on the soft teal colors and elegant laces and frames.  It definitely has a "dressy" feel.  Soon I will be adding to the My Family Tree collection by creating a Shutterfly Ready book with some of the more modern elements found in the collection.  So, stay tuned!

Some of you may be wondering why you would buy a collection like this.  If you need a gift project that can be done quickly, you could use this to complete a book in an evening.  Think of gifts for the holidays, anniversaries and other special occasions.

Thank you for looking.  I hope you will enjoy!

Balitz, Belitz, Baylitz

Here is another layout from Silvia Romeo's Masterpieces Add On kit. I added paper backing the photo, blue button and had pin from from Jean Daughterty's Brocade and Lace kit, tag from Silvia's The Garden kit, and tassels from Silvia's Serendipity kit. Sometimes you have to go searching for just the right piece to complete the look! The young woman standing on the right is my Great, Great Grandma and the folks seated are my Great, Great, Great Grandparents who came from Prussian Germany to Wisconsin and then settled in western Michigan.