ANCESTRY DNA

That is so interesting FMM. I am happy that he gets on well with his half-sister.

For myself, I am overjoyed that I have a half-brother who always wanted a sister, and although I wanted to be a boy in my young days, only because they seemed to get out of doing household chores, I have always  been happy that I am a girl, even though in my young days we did not have equal pay for equal work.

On both sides of my family I am the only one ever given up due to the way things were in those days.  I have no resentment for either side of my family; I was lucky to have a foster family who treated me as a beloved daughter, even though they always thought that boys should earn more than girls as girls were supposed to be supported by their husbands. That is why there are so many more older women who are rather poor as they never had the further education nor the money they would have earned. The fact that I was mainly brought up in residential from six until fifteen, was beyond their control in those times, but I returned to them when I left school and we maintained our family ties for the rest of their lives, including my two brothers; they are all gone now.

A little update seeing as it is Christmas.  David and I are as close as any brother/sister relationship could be.  Closer than my foster brothers who were older and left home before I left school to live with that family until I married myself.  They were my big brothers but even after we grew up there were few letters but we still loved each other.

This relationship with my brother is a different relationship I had with my dear husband. It is capturing the relationship we might have had if we were brought up together. We exchange emails  at least daily, it is as though we are living next door to each other. All the trivial things that normally people do not bother to write about. Like clearing the snow from the driveway, the mowing of the lawn before winter, taking his wife Annie to the hospital, my Christmas this year as it unfolds, good morning greetings and good nights, what he cooked for dinner last night, (duck breasts), taking his daughter to collect her car after a punctured tire, the sandwiches I am going to make for a morning get together with my friends on Christmas Day morning, where will be be this time next year, how is my downsizing going, a funny Newfoundand   love poem put out by our Senior's group. I think I will put that in the Banter thread.  How I drank two glasses of wine yesterday when I visited my friend for afternoon tea and then slept the rest of the day away. (I was just a little tired).

As you can see, I am very happy with the way things are going.

So happy for you!

My daughter had a test from 23andMe. I have had a kit from AncestyDNA for a year so it's time I get mine done. I will also have the 23and Me test so she and I can compare apples to apples.

Happy tears!

KJ, it will be great when you meet your brother in person.

I am hoping to meet up with my half sister and three half brothers in the UK in 2019.  I did not know they existed until I found them via Facebook/Messenger in February 2018.  We keep in contact on almost a daily basis.

trolleydriver wrote:KJ, it will be great when you meet your brother in person.

I am hoping to meet up with my half sister and three half brothers in the UK in 2019.  I did not know they existed until I found them via Facebook/Messenger in February 2018.  We keep in contact on almost a daily basis.

We  certainly have some things in common, TD. We are the lucky ones where this DNA business has turned out well. it would be finny if we went to the UK at the same time and sat next to each other on the airplane and talked SFG.   

This morning I wrote a long letter to the eldest daughter of my half-sister on my mother's side, and she is so happy that we will be meeting again next year. She remembered that 25 years ago, I was writing Sunday letters to her grandmother, my mother, and they were all waiting for m faxed letters to come through at six pm their time. I have kept all my faxed letters in binders and as I clear my house, they will be kept and re-read.  Like a history of what we did when arriving in Canada from 1979.

Wow!  This is so cool!!  I love this.  My brother has done some boots on the ground ancestry...but

Wishing you truly to have great encounters with your fam!

Kelejan & TD, I'm so glad your experiences are turning out well. I think the idea of taking things slowly is a good one! I'm so excited for both of you!!

AtlantaMarie wrote:Kelejan & TD, I'm so glad your experiences are turning out well.  I think the idea of taking things slowly is a good one!  I'm so excited for both of you!!

+1

My fellow SFGers, I am resurrecting this thread as it really should not be in the Canadian Regional thread as there will not be very much gardening in it.

So I will write here about my experiences with my birth families, both already met in my life and the new ones that so far I have only corresponded with.

I leave Canada on the 24th June, and the first person I should be meeting is my niece Angela, who is  the eldest daughter of my half-sister Georgina (Gina) who is named after her dad, George, who was killed in Holland during the Second World War.  I will spend a week with Angela, as she has transport and only a few miles from where Gina and some of the family live. 

The last time I met them was in 2000, now nearly twenty years have passed and another generation has arrived and  so many things will have changed in all our lives.

I will be taking photos of the holiday that our mother Daphne and Gina took when they visited me here in Canada in 1992 that they may not have seen.  I especially like the photos of when Gina and I went horse-riding for the first time ever.  We look  good just sitting on the horses. I will be with that part of the family for my first week.

I will close for now as I have lots to do, beginning with sorting out those photos.

TROLLEY DRIVER, I hope you will use this thread to tell us of your meeting with your sister.

KJ, I would be happy to post some photos if you can get them emailed to me.

sanderson wrote:KJ,  I would be happy to post some photos if you can get them emailed to me.

I will get the younger members of my family to help me with this as I need to learn how to use my Samsung Galaxy.  By the end of my holiday I hope to be an expert.

This time next week I should be in England and meeting everyone who, like, me, is twenty years older, and new ones for the first time.

Now back to work still sorting out what photos to take with me to show and hopefully scan, plus new ones.

Kelejean,

Who will take care of Pal during your absence?

donnainzone5 wrote:Kelejean,

Who will take care of Pal during your absence?

KAAPS  (Kootenay Animal Action Protection Society)  Pal does not belong to me, I only own his soul not his body, but he owns my heart.  KAAPS is a No-Kill society, so as Pal was unadoptable, no one wanted him as he has special needs with reference to food. Eat the wrong thing and he would die in agony. Before he came to me he had already had two operations at $500 each. He has a special diet that cost a lot of money, but as long as the Society pays for it then he will be OK.  I make a monthly donation equal to the cost of normal cat food.  Vets fees would be paid by the society so so far he has had no further need of them. He was 16 pounds when he first came to me and I brought him dow to ten pounds and he is in much betterhehalth.

He also has to be an indoor cat as if he catches something to eat in the wild, that may not be good for him either.

Another disadvantage is the he hates dogs and other cats and men.  He started out as an only cat, then  over the years they collected other cats and four dogs.

They want some one to come to my house to feed him etc., but I do not want a stranger to do that so he will have to go into a cattery. I could not ask friends to commit to that, I found it bad enough when I had to water my friend's plants every day due to the summer heat. Also I do not think and indoor cat would thrive with little proper interaction.  At the moment all the other foster moms are overwhelmed with too many kittens.  I hope that by this weekend there will be some one who is free of kittens and will take him on for five weeks.

What ever happens, he will not be a happy cat. I do wonder what his reaction will be when he is brought home on my return.

This last week getting ready it hard going, as I do not have enough energy to match the hours available, and it is the unexpected things that are giving me grief. But I have had a good morning and I was up early, did some gardening, put out the garbage, canned some rhubarb that I was given yesterday, written a letter to my brother, had a cooked breakfast and it is still on just past ten. Out at noon to have a little lesson on my Tablet. I will tell you what the problem is as I am sure that most of your would laugh at me.

KJ send me some of your energy please. We are trying to get things ready for my newly found sister's visit. She arrives in 8 days. I still have not yet pinned down the itinerary for when she is here but it will include a trip to Niagara Falls. I already have arranged accommodation at a friends house who lives about 12 miles from the Falls.

I feel like I should have contacted the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) reality TV show "Hello Goodbye" which shows special situations of people meeting and saying goodbye at Canadian airports. Wonder if they would be interested in my story?

trolleydriver wrote:KJ send me some of your energy please. We are trying to get things ready for my newly found sister's visit. She arrives in 8 days. I still have not yet pinned down the itinerary for when she is here but it will include a trip to Niagara Falls. I already have arranged accommodation at a friends house who lives about 12 miles from the Falls.

I feel like I should have contacted the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) reality TV show "Hello Goodbye" which shows special situations of people meeting and saying goodbye at Canadian airports. Wonder if they would be interested in my story?

Sorry TD, I can sympathise with you but I have absolutely no energy to spare. The only good thing for me is that once I am on my way I, hopefully, will have no more worries as it is everyone else's hands and I can forget what is happening here until the day I get back.

Now, if it was my brother coming to visit me, I would have the worry all the holiday long.

As to your suggestion about being on TV, perhaps they would be interested in your story and if you want to go ahead,why not,go for it, as people really are interested and I am amazed at the interest in my own story, but I am not one for the limelight.  I do have several people on my e-mail list that I will let know how I am getting on and who I meet. Some of it will be on this thread, why I do not want much more on the Canadian thread unless I can convert my family to SFG, then it will appear there.

A major disadvantage is that I look awful when I cry. You know, blotchy eyes and runny nose.

Kelejan wrote:. . . Out at noon to have a little lesson on my Tablet. I will tell you what the problem is as I am sure that most of your would laugh at me.

Please forgive me, but I hope you pushed the "on" button.

Kelejan should be with her family in the UK now.

My newly found half-sister in the UK is scheduled to arrive at the Ottawa, Canada airport on Wednesday evening. We have never met face to face. I am very excited and can't wait to meet her.

Thank you both for sharing your stories.  Looking forward to many updates.

I met my sister at the Ottawa Airport last Wednesday.  This was our first ever time together in person. It's been great sharing family stories. We have been showing her different things in and around Ottawa (Canada's capital). Today we took her to some of the Canada Day celebrations. Today is Canada's 152nd birthday. In a few days we will be heading to Niagara Falls.

TD, You will have to share a photo or 2.

sanderson wrote:TD,  You will have to share a photo or 2.

I did post a couple of photos including one of my sister arriving at the airport then decided to remove them.

MrsTD, my sister and I are spending a few days in Niagara Falls, Canada and surrounding area. Yesterday we did the cruise on Niagara River next to the American Falls and into the basin below the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Fantastic. Then we did the Journey Behind the Falls down into the tunnels behind the Horseshoe Falls. The thundering noise and vibration in the rock from the water is amazing. Later  in the day we took the White Water Walk next to the class 6 rapids down river from the Falls. These rapids have standing waves up to 15 feet high. Today my sister wants to ride the Aero Car which goes across the gorge above the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River.