Monday, December 8, 2008

ancestors ...


national geographic has the coolest program ... you can send in a cheek swab and they will tell you where your ancestors came from (you're contributing to their genetic database by participating as well) ... in the case of women, it's a matrilinial geneology ...

national geographic will check the mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) when testing women ... mDNA is what is passed down exclusively through women ... for example, i have the same mDNA as my mother, my mother's mother ... my maternal grandmother's mother, and so on ... my daughter and my granddaughter alexandria, as well as my son and grandson, have this same mDNA ... alexandria's children will too ... but my son's and grandson's children will have the mDNA of the mother of their children ...

oops, sorry, did i put you to sleep? ... i'm totally sick with a cold and i think it's made me overly pondersome :)

here's another cool thing ... a female fetus has all the eggs she will ever make ... so ... at one time, we were all an egg ... inside the ovary of our mother ... who was a fetus ... inside our grandmother ... kind of like ...

russian nesting dolls ...

speaking of ancestors ...

i've been restoring some old photos (still working on them ... i need photoshop!) ... and i thought i'd post them here ...


this is my grandma ramey's mother on her wedding day in 1911 ...

my great grandparents together


my father in korea

my mother at about 12 (about the time my dad met her lol) ...


i think sometimes it's fun to look at where we came from ...

national geographic's genogrographic project

5 comments:

Leslie Rubio said...

How cool is that? How do you participate in the National Geographic study? Let me know on my blog.

Lots of love,
Leslie
www.leslielovinlife.blogspot.com

Gigi said...

I love all those old photos. It is so wonderful that you have them to share with us.
Feel better soon.
Hugs,
Ginny
xoxo
www.gigiscraftsspace.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

i've had more fun telling women about carrying their granddaughters. some have cryed. i did when i learned this factoid. my mom's mom has been an unknown in my life. mom was raised by her mother's sister. growing up i believed mom and her sister were orphans. but not so.

mom 'almost' carried a family secret to her grave. imagine not telling the truth about yourself for 80 plus years!! the truth, mom's mom was a 'mistress', a 'courtesan'; otherwise known as a prostitute by the judgemental. details of her life is not known such as when she died. anyway, her sister, known to me as AUNT, became mom's legal guardian. this fact was not shared with my cousins by their mother. so, when mom was preparing to crossover, i share the 'secret' with the cousins and their families.

another version of this story goes like this,.... mom's maiden name was Carey. all the first born sons have been named Carey so as to keep the 'family' name alive. imagine if you please, this cousin gathering, when all learned of the truth of the name 'Carey'. an unknown....

yes, brother Carey named his son Carey. who named his son Carey. cousin Carey named his son 'Carey' and so on.

so this factoid, women carrying the eggs of their granddaughters, is wonderous.

imagine the strength of that woman and of my mother who kept a secret for so long.

namaste

Rella said...

These family photos are precious. Look how innocent 12 used to be! Great post.

xo Rella

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