Back It Up; Back It Up

This is why I scream, yammer and otherwise carry on about making genealogy backups.

Within the past year, I lost my laptop. Lost as in I woke up one morning and it did not work. So, I got a new one. The smug bastard that I am (literally...my bio parents weren't married), I thought that I saved everything to Dropbox or OneDrive.  Except - my Moberly text file that had everyone in it and all generations since God was a boy and had a Moberly as a childhood friend

So! What do I do, but go to Google and think that it will help me find the discussion group that had the text file in the first place, except it mocks me! What does it show me?! Ads for those stupid family crest websites which we all know are hoaxes and nothing but ways to cheat people out hopeful genealogists' $$$$. I know this because before I ever did any genealogy, I sent $$$$ to one for my ex-husband's surname and I got a made-up family crest and a telephone listing for every <insert surname> in the United States!

I need to take to drinkin' again..... Heavily.....

It's Going to be One of Those Days

Due to my own odd physical issues, medicine side effects and general, all around weirdness, I usually don't sleep longer than 4:30 am.  That give all sorts of opportunity for Internet mischief-making, except I use mine for genealogy.  

The Husband spit in a cup (vial) for a couple of reasons.  

First, he wanted to see what made him.  Knowing migration patterns of ancient and not so ancient man, we weren't surprised - 63% Great Britain, 20% Ireland, 5% Scandinavia, 5% West Europe, 4% Italy/Greece, 1% Iberian Peninsula, 1% East Europe, <1% Finland/Northwest Russia.  Anything else is so far back it doesn't show.  I should wear eclipse glasses when I look at him, he's so pale.

Second, he is, as am I, adopted.  In every adopted person, there is a hole.  It doesn't matter how well adjusted that person is or what type of parents they were raised by.  That Hole exists.  I know this from experience.  I'd seen edges of the Hole, but didn't know how big it was until 1992 when I was being hugged by my birth mother in her front yard and she whispered, "Now I feel complete."  

The question is, how deep is that Hole.

So, he spat in the cup and we sent it off.  I started building his mirror tree.  Using information already known, I entered his birth mother and him.  Then we got the results.  The Husband was born in Appleton, Wisconsin so we both assumed his people had lived in the Upper Midwest.  Imagine our surprise when his test came back and he had very strong connections to the Ancestry Genetic Community "Settlers of Central Georgia & Central Alabama".  Wait, what?!?!  *insert the sound of a record needle screech here* 

I worked more on the mirror tree and kept finding one specific family again and again.  I exported his information to GEDMatch and who do I find, but the same user that matched so highly on Ancestry.  She's his first cousin, once removed. 

Comparing their DNA, if I'm reading the information correctly, it appears that her father and his grandfather were brothers.  This family bounces between Alabama and Georgia.  So, I'm working on pulling all brothers' families forward to see if I have a candidate before I drop this in her lap.

Oh, and a relative on The Husband's father's side from this family?  Actually, much closer than "a relative" - if not a half sibling, then another first cousin, once removed.  I went to high school with him in far western Kentucky.  It's going to be one of those days.