Thirteen

 2024 is coming to an end and a new year is beginning. It was with a dash of wonderment that I realized that I began this journey, this blog, thirteen years ago. I haven't been active on this quest for several weeks, or even a few months now. Life is like that, it gets in the way, and that's ok. There's no timeclock, no deadlines, no agenda and no one to answer to.  This venture began as a travelogue to my adventure, my discoveries along the way, the places it took me, the interesting people and their stories. And oh what stories are yet to discover. It is indeed never-ending.

I've gotten older during this time, lost family members and gained others. Roots deepen, new branches extend, sprng leaves appear and autumn leaves fall. I follow the paths that intrigue me, finding some to be disappointing dead ends. Yet, there are enough vague footprints to follow, a few strings caught in the briars, to keep the pursuit freash and roborant. I've read that a hobbby of this sort is restorative and good for the mentation of older folks. While I am not yet retired, that time is quickly approaching. Maybe then, I will have more time. Then again, life happens.

My goal for 2025 is to return to projects I've laid down, finish posts I didn't finish, and organize my records in such a way that it would have meaning and make sense to my children should my journey end. That's enough to keep me busy another thirteen years. Hopefully, I have two or three decades left in me and the eustress will lead me like the proverbial apple before the horse, to continue this doughty path.

Another hobby I've taken up recently, as if I need another, is collecting things that made me happy as a child. If we've earned anything with our gray hairs, is it not to be allowed to be a bit puerile and wanton? To attempt to recapture a halcyon moment of our life? That's taken a moment or two of my very brief amount of free time, the time I'm not working, getting ready for work, coming home from work, or performing household or every day tasks. So I beg forgiveness for not having been here, and I hope to be more prescient, more persistent and more astute in my ventures.

One thing that has grown in this past decade or more is technology and genealogical tools. Ancestry.com has a new little trick, and has placed a star by the names of the ancestors in your family tree. You can mark up to 10 of them in red. This triggers their algorithms to concentrate on those ancestors in finding possible records or information. I marked six so far, Job Davis, whom this blog is named for, the 4th Great Grandfather who triggered my interest back in 1974, when I was 14, was the first. The others are John Lambert, John Faulkner, and John Hooks, those of that commonplace first name that put them in an obscure place they shared with many others by having an overused and ubiquitous name. Stark Ramsey was number five and lastly, one female ancestor, straight up the grandmother to grandmother line, Mary Smith, a name as mundane and ordinary as John.

Another feature I've found mildly interesting is the 'compare' key, when analyzing DNA, you can add matches to compare where your dna originated, compared to theirs. It's only most intriguing, to myself at any rate, with the closest matches. One thing I found odd was that I have 44 percent English and Northwestern European ancestry. My half-brother, who actually lives in England has only 32 percent. That's strange. It gets even odder. My oldest grandson, who is a quarter Jewish, has 54 percent English and Northwestern Europe. His paternal grandmother was thought to be Jewish, and she is, but not ethnically. She had a grandfather who died young leaving two young daughters and her grandmother remarried to a Jewish man, with the family adopting the Jewsih religion. Genetically, however, she was of Puritan origin. My youngest grandson is a whopping 79 percent from this category, which is surprising as his father has an interesting heritage. 

Another interesting comparison between the two cousins I noticed was what they got from me. I am showing on ancestry with 1 percent Icelandic. My mtndna test on Family Tree DNA shows my heritage straight down the maternal line as coming from Iceland, so my mother's mother's mother's mother ad infintum. My oldest grandson, the part Jewish one, is also 1 percent Icelandic, from me, no doubt. The youngest grandson does not have that. What he does have, however is the 2 percent Swedish that I also have. As overwhelming British as he is, he has a 2 percent heritage from the Netherlands, that the rest of us does not. My oldest grandson, besides the 24 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, is also 4 percent Norwegian, that did not come from me and his cousin does not share. These variances, of course, come in from either their fathers' side or their grandfather's side on my side of the family. Both have beautiful blue eyes. 

What are your goals for 2025? Happy New Year to All.