Thursday 05/26/2021
Did Veronica’s aerobics for I think the last time. From now on it will be led by AJ and not on zoom but locally on the 11th floor.
Tidied the apartment. Did a bit of desk work. Then noticed that 23andMe had sent its usual monthly email, “You have new DNA relatives”. At this point I have a couple of hundred “DNA relatives” with whom I share 2%, 5%, similar small bits of DNA. “Third to fifth cousin”. Except for about 3 people who are second cousins or such, and whose names I recognize as distant relatives.
Today was something new, a first cousin, that is, technically the child of a sibling of one of my parents. My parents don’t have siblings. But this guy, born in 1949, has an almost identical X chromosome to mine. Males inherit the X from their mothers only; and indeed, when I used 23andMe’s DNA comparison tool, he has zero percent common DNA with my second cousin Gino, who descended only from my father. So this guy is not at all related on my father’s side, but strongly related on my mother’s.
I passed this info to Laurel who has made a serious hobby, or part-time paying job, from tracing ancestors and family trees. I also cc’d Dennis who responded with what was complete news to me — although apparently he and Laurel had discussed it — that his mother, my half sister, had borne another child at some point. If the dude on 23andMe is that person, it perfectly accounts for the DNA match.
In the end what does it matter? Probably nothing in practical terms. I would have no interest in meeting the guy. Dennis might, but that would be his decision. But it is an interesting example of how the DNA tracing websites can sometimes upset family histories.
After lunch spent two hours at FOPAL sorting books, while Wanda cleaned my unit.
In other news, I bought a four-person “pod” ticket for Stanford Baseball’s post-season games. It is not certain Stanford will host post-season, that will be announced Monday. If they do I and three of my neighbors can attend a total of 7 games weekend after next.
I have an even more exciting outing planned for this Sunday. I’ll let that hang for now.
Codgerville 