#1022 – Kathleen Valdez: A Surprise Find from a DNA Analysis.

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PRE-NOTE FROM DICK: For some time I’ve been thinking of having an ancestry DNA analysis done.
A short while ago, the inclination racheted up quite a bit with this e-mail from an out-of-the-blue e-mail from Kathy (Corey) Valdez, an Oregonian whose Mom Ellie Lemire Corey was (she thought) from primarily French-Canadian roots from Quebec to Minnesota to North Dakota.
Here’s Kathy’s e-mail, with followup comment, all from Kathy, passed along with her permission:
March 24, 2015: “In going through mom’s letters, I felt I needed to tell you about the DNA discovery I’ve made and how it’s all come about through the Spirit. You know, the Spanish have a word that is much richer in meaning for our word- coincidence. The word is diosidencia – google it!
In my DNA (autosomal – half from mom and half from dad), I found among the English, Irish and Western European that I was 19% Iberian Peninsula. I first thought, “I don’t have Spanish blood- I’m all French on Mom’s side with some Native American mixed in.”
About 3 weeks ago, I came across a French-Canadian Project for Aunism…Spanish Jews who fled to France as a result of being targeted in the Spanish Inquisition. Yep, that be me! [NOTE from editor: here is a general link to the topic.]
I cross-referenced the 50 or so names of those on the list of Sephardic Jews who fled to France and then 400 years later to settle New France and I found 18 surnames on my Lemire/Parent family tree!
My great uncle Arthur Parent (Mom’s uncle on her mom’s side) passed on to his descendants that they had Jewish blood in their ancestry but I dismissed it because the ‘reporter’ (uncle’s daughter) was way off on some of her other information. She also liked to sensationalize information.
Well, my DNA test showed she was right!”
I asked Kathy for more info, and got her permission to pass on her information:
March 27, 2015: “I first had my test done through Family Tree dna because they test Y and Mitochondria chromosomes as well as the more general testing for autosomal. You are able to find your closest matches in the database and contact these matches, hoping they have some sort of family tree to see where you connect.
Ancestrydna did my second test and it’s more ‘user friendly’ to the public and only tests autosomal. Autosomal is the test for ‘ancestral place’. It goes back 4-5 gen. and matches you with other people who have been tested so you can contact each other.
So both test autosomal and give matches for you to contact but only Family Tree dna finds your Y dna (males) back to the beginning of humankind. Both men and women have the mitro. (X) and everyone has autosomal (half from your mom and half from you father).
Autosomal: It’s a toss up as to which genes you inherit (crap shoot:) Your sibs inherit different combos unless you’re identical twins. I just attended a LDS Conference in Forest Grove last Sat. and a woman from Ancestry was keynote – excellent! She said that AncestryDNA altho has only been around 3 yrs. is growing faster than Family Tree and for all intent and purposes the autosomal is the only test you need….unless you want to find your deep, deep roots!
Ancestry DNA usually has specials from time to time – I think before Mother’s/Father’s Day..$79
The Ancestry.com woman said you’d have to test no less than 5 sibs to get a clear picture of your parent’s dna. Except for Tim, my sibs are reluctant so I guess I need to pay for their tests 🙂 If both parents are alive, that’s all you need to test (not yourself as it’s all there 🙂 Test your oldest relatives.
If you’re a member of Ancestry (AARP membership- I just joined last month because of this) has 10% off membership so I pay $209 annually now as opposed to $299 when you subscribe annually)….on Ancestry they have tutorials about dna that they archive. If you want, I can notify you when specials are happening:)”
COMMENTS:
from Jeanne: There will be a DNA round table at Minneapolis Central Library: Genealogy Research: DNA Testing Discussion Minneapolis Central Library • N-402 • Share Tuesday, June 9, 7–8 p.m.
from Christine: These Jews were called the Maroons in Spain and in France later. This is a well known migration of population in Europe. They have become Catholic and gradually lost their Jewish practice.
This search of your DNA and origins is very enriching.
from Marshall: It is funny you mention DNA. We have been curious for a while on our own DNA, and Carole and Karen (twins) sent in swabs for “zygosity” testing, meaning the absence or presence of twinship. To my surprise, they are certified identical. Their DNA markers were expressed as numeric, and some were 7 or 8 digits long. Being identical twins, their markers were identical with no deviations. Case closed.
My own DNA testing was through Ancestry.com. Here are my results (for me only).
Great Britain 54%
Iberian Peninsula 18%
Europe West 15%
Ireland 5%
Europe East 3%
Scandinavia 2%
Italy/Greece 2%
Finland/Northwest Russia 1%
From what I know about my family, I expected a higher percent for Europe West (the French influence). The Iberian Peninsula includes western France, the Basque area, Portugal, and Spain.

#1021 – Dick Bernard: Memorial Day, 1946, and the residue of WWII

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This evening our friend Annelee Woodstrom speaks about growing up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. I’ve heard her speak several times, and she is always thought provoking. She was 7 years old when Hitler came to power, and 18 when his dream of a 1,000 year “Third Reich” ended, after only 11 years, with the German people ruined as well.
Of course, megalomaniacs don’t seem to learn by the past mistakes of previous megalomaniacs, whether individuals or consortiums of individuals. They always think they have the system figured out: that they won’t make the same mistakes their predecessors made. So, the folks who birthed Project for a New American Century in the late 1990s, probably really believed their own fantasy, and the first project was presented on a silver platter by the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks: the opportunity to take Saddam Hussein and Iraq in 2003.
We soon learned the reality of that fantasy, but, of course, after a few years of recovery, history can be re-manufactured, and rehabilitated, and so it goes. Some will always contend that Iraq was a success; as there remain here and there some neo-Nazis with similar fantasies.
So it goes.
Dream on. We should be wary of being duped by the might is right crowd. It never quite works out the way they fantasize.
I was five years old when WWII ended, finally, in September, 1945, with the surrender of Japan. I’m old enough to have memories, and there really are no specific memories of those first months of peace. Most likely the dominant emotion of my parents and those of their generation was relief that it was all over. I wrote about what adults felt in a commentary for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in August, 2005: Atomic Bomb 1945001.
In 1945, in tiny Eldridge ND, there was nothing for a five year old to notice. Young kids are limited by their very limited experience.
I know, now, that life was difficult for the adults at the time. Things like Ration Cards, Victory Gardens, relatives, neighbors and friends as casualties in War, made the dominant emotion, likely, similar to my grandmother’s “Hurrah, the old war is over!” in a letter to her Naval Officer son in the south Pacific, even though her exclamation came to celebrate, in a sense, the Atomic Bombs of August, 1945.
Her son, my Uncle Art, graduated from high school in May of 1945, and almost immediately went into the Army, though he never had to serve overseas. He trained at Ft. Carson, Colorado, and was in the Ski Troops, preparing for conflict in more Arctic regions; most likely they knew their training was basically “peacetime” service. Her son, Lt. George Busch, came home at the end of October.
My Dad was now Superintendent in Sykeston ND, and George’s teaching position at the high school there was held by George’s wife, Jean, until his return.
The War was over.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Sykeston High School 1958 by Dick Bernard

Sykeston High School 1958 by Dick Bernard


Then came Memorial Day, 1946.
Somehow frozen in my memory, indelible, was the lawn of the school pictured above. I remember that day, standing about where I stood to take that 1958 photo. I would have been six years old.
On the school grounds there were numerous crosses representing the servicemen lost in WWII from that community and surrounding area. There seemed many.
Between myself and the crosses, facing away from me, were several riflemen, giving the traditional farewell salute.
I don’t recall Taps – that would have required someone who played the trumpet. Years later, in that same space, my brother Frank played a perfect version of Taps, there, or so I understand.
War was over.
For little over a year there was no war, it is recorded. The United Nations was founded in October, 1945. People everywhere were sick of killing each other.
The peace didn’t last. It’s been more-or-less perpetual war ever since; more simmering than boiling, but the next explosion could be the final one for humankind if we don’t figure things out.
If there ever was a time for “power to the people” for Peace, it should be now.
Let us work, hard, together, for Peace.
POSTNOTE:
Fifty-five of us spent a powerful time with Annelee Woodstrom on Friday night. Here’s a couple of photos.
Annelee Woodstrom May 1, 2015

Annelee Woodstrom May 1, 2015


May 1, 2015.

May 1, 2015.