Cousin

The first day of spring in 1972 occurred on March 20th…two days later, like the proverbial spring chicken, I came into this world. In the years that followed, while going through grade school, high school, and college, I moved around a lot to various countries and always felt untethered, a nomad without a hometown…without roots. So, I focused on my education, friendships, relationships and on surmounting the obstacles that I encountered while taking advantage of a few opportunities along the way. In my mid-twenties I experienced marriage, fatherhood, divorce, got laid off, and had to declare bankruptcy. By my mid-thirties, I focused on rebuilding every aspect of my life. This personal renaissance lasted approximately ten years…the Summer of my life, you might call it. Now, as I enter my late forties, I acknowledge that I’m no longer a spring chicken, but, rather a battle-scarred rooster content and at peace with myself. Moreover, I have probably lived over half my life already (knocks on wood) and am most likely entering the early autumn of my existence. This realization compelled me to look inward as an individual, backwards towards my heritage and deeper into my roots.

As an amateur genealogist, I’m still learning about definitions, numbering systems, degrees of separation, resource citation, and research strategies. We’ve all heard of the “Kevin Bacon’s Six Degrees of Separation” theory that suggests any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. In genealogy, a Cousin, of course is someone with whom you share a common ancestor at least two generations away from you (grandparent or above). Once you go beyond the first cousin relationship, it can become confusing. Basically, to determine the degree of the cousin relationship, find the closest ancestor you share in common, then count the number of generations between you and your cousin and that common ancestor. The graphic on the right explains how it plays out in genealogy and illustrates the concept nicely.

In an effort to understand my ancestry from a genetic perspective, I have taken two DNA tests, the AncestryDNA test from two years ago, and one from 23andMe, the sample of which I submitted today. As described in an earlier post, I the AncestryDNA test focuses on Autosomal DNA matching, which provides a nice overview of genetic testing for cousin matching and integrates with their family tree features. AncestryDNA recently also came out with their Health DNA report, but, I wanted to get the 23andMe DNA test because it includes the Y-DNA and MtDNA reports for Ancestry, along with the Health, and VIP Health DNA reports. While DNA is 99.5% identical from person to person, it's the small differences in our chromosomes that make us unique. Our DNA passes from our parents and their parents, going back generations and the DNA testing companies find variants linked to certain health conditions, traits and ancestor groups. However, as 23andMe.com notes, genetics reflects only part of the story when it comes to health and traits. The other variables that influence a person's trait profile and health predisposition includes: Environment (pollution, sun exposure), Genetic (DNA, ethnicity) and Lifestyle (smoking, exercise).

As I go down the rabbit hole of family history and genealogy research, I found it helpful to create a graphic to elaborate upon my grand methodology which I'll call the Pyramid Stream Methodology. While it may seem that Roots & Leaves presents information on non-related sources of information and topics, I can assure you that I have some method in my madness…ha ha. My methodology consists of nine components really, each of which has several sub-components which I will further decompose as my research progresses. I think having your own methodology towards research can help not only in long-term planning, but, also in motivating you to do each task with a purpose, knowing that every research building block plays a role in the ultimate project output…a family history book.