Genetic Genealogy & DNA Link Roundup - 20 Feb '14

Epigenetics:

• Grandma's Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes 
  Your ancestors' lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain.
• Phobias may be memories passed down in genes from ancestors
  Memories may be passed down through generations in DNA in a process that may be the underlying cause of phobias

Genetics:

• Fossils of Neanderthal DNA Clump in Human Genome
  Next time you call someone a Neanderthal, better look in a mirror. Many of the genes that help determine most people's skin and hair are more Neanderthal than not, according to two new studies that look at the DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome.
• Tracing Ancestry, Researchers Produce a Genetic Atlas of Human Mixing Events
  The rise and fall of empires, the march of armies, the flow of trade routes, the practice of slavery — all these events have led to a mixing of populations around the world. Such episodes have left a record in the human genome, but one that has so far been too complex to decipher on a global scale...
• DNA Populations in Europe
• Portrait of an Irish Genotype
• The Making of the Fittest: Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and Culture
  Follow human geneticist Spencer Wells, Director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, as he tracks down the genetic changes associated with the ability to digest lactose as adults, tracing the origin of the trait to less than 10,000 years ago, a time when some human populations started domesticating animals.
• Richard III's DNA decoded: Scientists to sequence King in car park's genome
  

A Pilgrimage to Ellis Island!

I spent the week around New Year's in NYC with friends. I've been there many times, but somehow, I had not yet been to Ellis Island. So, I drug two of them, somewhat unwillingly (unexcited, at the very least) and OFF WE WENT! :D

EXCITED AMEYA. ^

First off, can I say. DANG. It was frigid cold out, and the line for tickets was HOURS long. We stood out there freezing for quite a while before I was like... wait... I have the internet on my phone.....

So, I got on my phone and I bought 3 tickets. And then I walked straight to the front of the line (several minute walk you guys!!!) and grabbed my tickets from the online order windows, where there was only one person in front of me. They were talking to the person behind the window "why don't these people just buy them on the phone if they didn't order them in advance?" and I was like "that's what I just did!" and we all thought I was very smart, the end.

Anyway, so after that we just waltzed into the line. The line for the airport-like security, that is. I wasn't expecting that! And then came the impossibly cold ferry ride. Naturally my friends wanted to ride the open top level for the views, so I was sitting up there with them, wondering if the immigration hospital was still open for frostbite & pneumonia patients..

Icicle photo op on the ferry

Baggage Room

Me in the Registry Room

Research Room

The museum was quite good. We got there near the end of the day & around half the place was closed due to damage for Hurricane Sandy last year, so I'll definitely have more to see next time I go, which is exciting.


You can see the rest of my Ellis Island Photos HERE. I tried to take lots & make them as readable as possible so you can take a vicarious pilgrimage yourselves. :)

Paleography makes my brain hurt so good

A large part of genealogy is reading old documents. The problem is, that shi* is hard. The good part is, that means that if we study it and master it, people will pay us to read things for them! And that shi* is awesome.

But the learning process, man. I love/hate it.

The National Archives of the UK is a godsend for wanna be paleographers. On their website, they have 10 (huge, enormous, challenging) documents (letters, wills, court documents, etc) that give you a mini-lesson on, and then walk you through as you transcribe each, line by line.

I'm currently working on "the registered probate copy of the will of Thomas Pike, a shipwright, dated 15 February 1722/3 (Catalogue reference: PROB 11/593 quire 196)"

Aka this hot mess:

Can you read line 5 there? BECAUSE I CAN'T.

(Yet!)

I did pretty well on the first document (Princess Elizabeth I's letter to her sister Queen Mary) and so I'm kind of surprised at how ABSOLUTELY AND UTTERLY LOST AND CONFUSED I am on this will. It's incredible how much handwriting changes over time and based on location. Which, while making me shake my metaphoric cane at this damned lesson, just confirms how important it is that I actually start taking paleography seriously as a dedicated genealogist.

So, what about you? Have you studied paleography? Have you mastered the National Archives's educational brain torture? Do you know how to properly make the word Archives into a possessive? I am seriously considering the University of Strathclyde's Msc in Genealogical, Palaeographic, and Heraldic Studies, and I also have the book Reading Early American Handwriting (if your research extends into early America, you should get this book!). I need to sit down and work on it some more when I move and am able to retrieve all of my belongings out of storage, but as for now I find this online tutorial from the National Archives (UK) to be the best study of old handwriting available. And it's free! Free is also awesome!

PS: Line five there says "and other uncertanties of this transitory"  -- if you got that on your own, you are a much better wo/man than I!