Curious

 Curious adjective

1.       Having a desire to learn or know more about something or someone

2.       Strange, unusual, or unexpected

This week’s prompt is simply curious. Interpret it as you will and write about it. In general, I’m curious about a lot of things. It’s that curious nature that started me on my genealogical journey to learn about my ancestors. That journey turned into curiosity to determine if, as we had suspected, we had African heritage which led to doing the DNA test. Which then turned into something strange and unexpected. And that we know from my week 1 post, was that my dad was not my biological father.

Coming up with a post for this prompt wasn’t easy. I’m curious about my heritage, I’ve got specific questions I’m trying to answer about certain ancestors, I’m trying to learn about periods of time in history and how those era’s may have affected my ancestors…and so on and so on. Ever look at a menu with too many choices and can’t decide what to order? Then you get it.

What finally sparked my curious post is the whole “my dad is not my dad” thing. Do you know there is a term for this? It is called a Non-Paternal Event” (NPE) or more commonly now called a “Non-Parental Event.” These terms reference when a presumed-to-be parent has been proven not to be the biological parent through DNA.

I’m reading a book now that dives deep into the impact of DNA testing on people and their families. Not having expected the outcome I did, it never occurred to me that I was doing anything more than scientifically proving what we believed to be true. This post isn’t about that so much as it is about the sheer volume of people that are impacted by a Non-Parental Event. I like data. So, I took a little side trip from my journey on down the line to do a bit of research.

I did an online search for “how many people have taken a DNA test for genealogy.” I found an MIT technology review that states that by February 2019 more than 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test. A Washington Post article from June 2021 says that close to 40 million at-home DNA tests have been sold. And in the description for a book on Amazon it claims that “By 2022, 142 million people worldwide…”. I suppose in a world of over 7 billion people, 142 million is just a drop in the bucket but it’s still a lot of people.

According to the NPE Friends Fellowship group there are a minimum of 50-100 people affected by every NPE discovery. They also estimate that approximately 5% - 10% of people who have taken an at-home DNA test have experienced an NPE. The book excerpt on Amazon puts that at 10% - 15%. They should really put a warning on these things like they do with cigarette packages. “Warning: the results of this test might change your life forever.”  Once you know, you know. You can’t unknow it.

Think about this:

·   5% of 142 million is 71,000 people; if each of those discoveries impacts 50 people, that NPE has affected 3,550,000 others.

If nothing else, it tells me that I am not alone.

I am going to learn more about groups like the NPE Friends Fellowship that are there for people like me who have had their world rocked by the NPE discovery. I think that connection with others in similar circumstances will be a good thing.

Favourite Picture

 

I absolutely love this picture of my great grandfather Albert Henry Woodman. Every time I look at it, I am drawn to his face, and it makes me smile. He strikes me as kind and thoughtful in this picture. And I can see that he has fair eyes and hair. He’s quite handsome really. I have fair hair and my parents did not, so I like to think that is something he gave to me.

Albert was born in England on August 1, 1886. Just before his 22^nd birthday, he, and his pregnant wife Ethel, left England bound for Canada. They arrived in Montreal, Quebec on August 5, 1908. Their first daughter, whom they named Ethel, was born in Canada in December of that year. My grandpa, Robert, came along six years later and another daughter, Daisy, a year after that.

I’m guessing this picture was taken while he was in Buffalo, New York around 1912. The photo is embossed with the name Altenburg and address of 35 Genesee St., Buffalo. And I have recently discovered that Albert signed a Declaration of Intention in the state of New York Supreme Court. He indicates in it that his last residence was in Farnham, Quebec, Canada and that he arrived in Buffalo on May 1, 1912.  The document is signed by the court in August 1912.

This now creates another puzzle for my parking lot to research – why was he there? Did his wife and daughter go with him? Was he trying to find work and they remained in Canada waiting? I can say that he didn’t stay there permanently. My grandfather and his younger sister were born in 1914 and 1915 respectively in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada.

Albert never got to know me. He passed away the year before I was born at his home in Flinton, Ontario. But thanks to a gift from a cousin, I now have this picture so I can feel a bit closer to him as I learn about his life.

Favourite Find

 

You may think it’s a simple thing to pick your favourite this or your favourite that, but that’s not always the case. I’ve discovered many things in my research, and I am fascinated by anything new I learn about my family. So, depending on what I’m focussing on or what new discovery I’ve made I have a variety of favourites.

For this weeks’ 52 Ancestors challenge, I’ve decided to write about my first find that was beyond names, dates, and places.

It involved my grandfather, Arthur James Davis who lived in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Although it is a difficult story it does fall into my favourites because it taught me new methods of research and to look for interesting stories in the family history.

My grandfather was born on December 2, 1894, Jordan Falls, Shelburne, Nova Scotia. He died September 24, 1945, when my dad was only 11 years old. In August 1915, Arthur was involved in an altercation that resulted in the death of the Station Master in Shelburne. I honestly can’t remember what “breadcrumb” sent me along this trail, but I believe I had seen something at the Shelburne Genealogical Society. I then searched various sources and located a newspaper article dated August 19^th, 1915, in The Shelburne Gazette and Coast Guard.  I borrowed the microfiche through our public library so I could read the article. I have a very poor copy of it in my grandfathers file (a good thing...when I started, I wasn't great about citing my sources so I could easily find things again). I also have a transcript of another article in gazette from August 13^th, 1915, of the testimony of one of the witnesses.

As I re-read the two articles in preparation for this post I quickly realized I only have part of the story. This is because the Preliminary Examination, which was the topic of the August 19^th news article, was to determine if there were grounds for a trial. It is all about witness testimony from that day of what they saw. It doesn’t get into the nuances of what occurred from both sides.  It speaks to the fact that there was something happening between Arthur and the Station Master that resulted in his death after a shove caused a fall and trauma to the head. I don’t know what the outcome was beyond the knowledge given in the final sentence of the article which reads “The accused was committed for trial before the Supreme court next month.”

I didn’t investigate any further when I hit roadblocks back then. I want to know what both sides of the story were, what the charges were, and the verdict. You know…the rest of the story.

I can confirm that Arthur does appear on the 1921 Census for the area and that he married in 1923. If he had been guilty, would he not have been in prison? What was the charge? Was he was found not guilty? I need to find out.

A new reason why this is part of my favourite finds? It will now be a challenge to find out the rest of the story!

 

A portion of the August 19, 1915 new article

Foundations

 

The theme for week one of the #52ancestors project is ‘Foundations’. There are many ways to interpret this prompt and I have decided to tell my personal story.

The year I turned fifty the very foundation of who I am changed forever. In this modern era of DNA testing and matches being shared on Ancestry I was absolutely astonished to discover my biggest ‘skeleton in the closet’ yet. And I’d been doing research on my family tree for about 20 years at that time, so when I say big, I mean BIG.

Years ago, I decided to participate in the Ancestry DNA program. There weren’t many of my family interested in doing this so matches to known family weren’t plenty. Many of the matches I had did not have any common ancestor names, so I didn’t think about them any further. Honestly, I started to think the DNA test was a bit of a lark and wasn’t really a practical scientific tool.

Fast forward a few years to when someone contacted me because she was surprised at how closely related the DNA results for her husband claimed me to be. She had taken the same steps as I had with others:  reviewed my tree searching for common names and found none. We wrote a couple of messages to each other before we discovered the only ‘common denominator’ between us. It was the city where I was born and still live and where her mother-in-law had lived for a time when she was growing up.

At this point the questions and vague information being sent in the emails started to unsettle me. They started to ask things like what month and year I was born and where my mother worked. (It’s unfortunate, but there are crooks out there taking advantage of this type of information and I got skeptical). Her mother-in-law wanted to know if my mom worked in a kitchen at our local hospital. I thought I remembered talk of working there and I recalled that a couple of my mom’s good friends had worked there while I was growing up. Things started to ring bells and I began to wonder. Then came the showstopper email of all emails. Here is a transcript:

“I do not wish to shock you or alarm you, however, after talking with my mother-in-law, Brenda, we have discovered that her father had an affair with another woman sometime before you were born. Apparently, the woman worked at the hospital. It is possible that Brenda’s father might be your biological father, thus making you a half sibling of hers and an aunt to Ryan. Brenda is open to discussing this with you if you want to. Or you can go through me and I can tell you what she knows. If you don’t that is fine as well.” 

She then gave me Brenda’s personal email address and asked, “Could it be possible?”

Could it be possible? What a loaded question. What I knew at the time was that my parents were married until the time of their deaths. They had been married very young when my mom was pregnant with my eldest sister. Then came my older brother and sister and not until 8-years later did I come along. I knew that I had always favoured my mother’s side and had no resemblance to my father. My siblings (3 older, 1 younger) look so much like him. I had always felt a disconnect from my father. I’m sure he loved me, but he seemed much closer to my siblings. I knew that whenever I spoke of family history my mother ‘glazed over’ especially after I did the DNA test. I began to doubt, and my foundation started cracking.

Without going into all the details, I did uncover the truth and discovered that my dad was in fact not my biological father. I was crushed. I was angry. I was in shock. I was ashamed. I no longer knew who I was. I felt displaced in a way that I can’t really explain. The foundation of who I thought I was crumbled.

I am fortunate to have a very good friend who helped me come to grips with everything. When I told my story to this silly, loveable soul she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and a mischievous smile and said, “Look at it this way, if you ever need a kidney, you have 6 more people you can ask!”  I finally laughed after days of sadness.

I have come to grips with my new reality. I have had the good fortune to meet Brenda, the sister I never knew I had (that’s a story for another time). I am hopeful that I may eventually meet the other 5 siblings who would like to know me. I feel a special connection to Ryan and his wife who first reached out and hope to be able to meet them in person one day as well.

And from a genealogy point of view, I now have another whole family line to learn about!

My mom and I in 2014

Welcome

 

Inspired by the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge, created by professional genealogist Amy Johnson Crow (amyjohnsoncrow.com) I have created this blog for sharing my thoughts and responses to the weekly prompts.

The idea of the challenge is to get us thinking about our family tree in new and creative ways. I have been researching on and off for over 20 years and I have so much information that it is overwhelming. I want to share it in interesting ways, not just as a series of charts, names, and dates. I am really hoping this challenge helps me to do just that.

I am not expecting that this blog will contain only one family line but will have stories, bios, pictures, and other things my brain comes up with on all the family lines I have researched. This includes my ancestors: Davis, Woodman, and Gordon and my husband’s ancestors: Campbell and Leblanc. I don’t want to recreate the family tree here but share the discoveries I’ve made along the way! My goal is to have a series of posts that can accompany the family tree data to create a memorable family keepsake for the next generation.

Welcome to those who want to follow along as I rediscover the stories within my family tree.