Random Confessions

elbkup said:

This is an interesting topic...
Apparently Jessica Biel has the same issue.. she was always under the impression she had Native American ancestry but her DNA results, revealed on the show "Who Do You Think You Are?" did not show it.. she was nonplussed to say the least. However, the attached article explains why she was not wrong about her heritage... it is an interesting read.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dna-ex...a-follow-up-dna-native-heritage-and-lies/amp/

My own DNA results were interesting... paternal family lore alluded to Native American ancestry but I was skeptical, figuring that, if it existed, it would not show in my results since there were no close male relatives still living to be tested for confirmation. Since my many times great grandparents date back to 1730 or so in America and they had 11 children my DNA results have linked with thousands of 5th to 8th cousins living now of which half or more have Native American results.
Another interesting fact: on my matrilineal side I am 1% European Jewish .. this does not show in my sister's results even though we are a close match otherwise. African ancestry is also found in my search through the cousins but it did not show in my sister's tests or mine..
I am considering Haplo "Out of Africa" group testing to connect with ancient migrations

Click to expand...

Half your kissin' cousins have NA results? That's so cool, and proves how it works that it's random, after a few generations, whether one has the actual DNA or not. And lack of DNA does not disprove the ancestry stories.

Yes, it is a fascinating topic for me, and I'm almost (well, maybe "almost" is a small exaggeration) as interested in other people's findings (yours, hanyuufan's, even Jessica Biel's!) as I am in mine. They paint such an interconnected picture of all of us.

I followed your link and got fascinated, kept reading till bedtime, forgot to reply to you (both) ... and then several of my kids visited and there goes the past week and a half!

Anyway, this article by the same blogger, plus the others you can read on her site, really explain why DNA may not show up, even when one knows the ancestry story and has documentation. https://dna-explained.com/2017/06/27/ancestral-dna-percentages-how-much-of-them-is-in-you/

It's a fuller explanation, but basically the same as what ancestry.com said .... that in a circle of (me), I got 50% of my dad's DNA, but all of his (6.25% or thereabouts), if he had any) Native DNA could easily have been in the other 50% of his DNA. And so on back. When I finally dug out an enlarged photo of my grandmother when she was young, I could see her Native ancestry in her brown almond-shaped eyes, when her hair was dark. But her hair turned white early, and when I knew her, with granny glasses and all, I never saw it ... and also didn't know to look for it. I only found out about her half-Cherokee grandfather (the one in the photo) who'd died in the Civil War, after she had passed away. Plus his story in her handwriting.

I am annoyed at the WDYTYA professionals who left Jessica Biel thinking her family stories weren't true. Not to mention it gave exactly the wrong impression to viewers who aren't obsessive enough to follow up with their own research. Casting doubt on oral history and family lore is not good.

hanyuufan5 said:

That's so cool that you have his photo! He's a distant enough ancestor that there's a good chance you didn't inherit a detectable amount of his DNA, but that doesn't make you any less descended from him. You can try the admixture calculators on gedmatch.com. (Take them with an even bigger grain of salt than "professional" DNA tests. They can be really good and really bad at the same time, like the one that correctly guessed my Cossack ancestry down to the correct type of Cossack, but then also said I could be 20% Norwegian. )

Speaking of photos, the most distant I have is my great-great grandmother. We have the same nose!

Click to expand...

It's occurred to me that his is the earliest photo I have of any ancestor. And we only have it because in the Civil War, the armies offered (?) to take photographs of every soldier who enlisted.

I knew it must have been his mother who was Cherokee. It was statistically much more likely ... but Also his name was purely English. I should say his first, middle and last names were all purely English, plus he was a Junior! It was only a few years ago that I found his parents' marriage record. It was in a North Carolina county famously in Cherokee country and famous for marriages between white and native people.

CaroLiza_fan said:

I am glad you mentioned "Who Do You Think You Are?", because I LOVE that programme. Well, the original British version, anyway. I did try out the American version when it first started, but gave up after the second series as there were so few people I had heard tell of in the third series. And due to the fact that because the episodes are much shorter than the British version (42m as opposed to 58m), they weren't going into as much detail.

I also tried out the odd episode of the Irish version. Quite frankly, the ones I saw weren't that interesting. Except for Rosanna Davison, a former Miss World who just happens to be the daughter of singer Chris de Burgh. And it turns out that our Chris is descended from William the Conqueror! Their reactions from them were absolutely priceless when this was revealed!

Not as priceless as the reactions of Kim Cattrell on my absolute favourite episode of the British version. Her Granda had seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth, leaving behind his wife and family. But, it turned out that he had started out a new life with a new wife. A version of this episode was also included in the second series of the American version, but it was edited down so much to fit the shorter time that it didn't have anywhere near the same effect as the full length version.

The newest series started a few weeks ago. Daniel Radcliffe was the first episode (I was genuinely shocked to discover that his Dad is from Northern Ireland. You would have thought that the local media would have been making a big fuss of this over the years!), and Kate Winslet will be on next week.
CaroLiza_fan

Click to expand...

I love the program too, as well as Henry Louis Gates' Finding Your Roots. I've probably only seen the American cut-down version, but Kim Cattrall's is one of my favorite episodes, too. Maybe because of the compelling story, plus Kim's reactions.

SPOILER: Kim: "I've got you, you son of a" (expletive)!!! And (Me): "good heavens, he was only a hundred miles away!" END of SPOILER.

I'm struck by the number of similar stories, where an ancestor just walked away and established a new life, a new marriage, and a new family somewhere else, maybe not very far away. One was actor Steve Buscemi - his ancestor was presumed missing after the Civil War, and his wife got a widow's pension. But he had a new life, new wife, and new family in NYC, (IIRC). Even more recently, it was Susan Sarandon's grandmother she was looking for. Turned out that's where Susan's gorgeous Tuscan coloring came from!

I wonder if I could find the British version online, here in Mid-America? LOL. I may try utube. I'd love to see Kate Winslett's episode, and Daniel R's.

I was standing in the cafeteria line at choir camp, where I was a counselor, next to a famously nerdy kid. For some reason the subject came up, and he said, "I'm a direct descendent of William the Conqueror." I thought about this for a moment, then it occurred to me to muse, "I wonder how many other people in the United States are descended from him?" Andy promptly replied, "Eleven thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven." !!

Oooh, speaking of Native American DNA, I occasionally show up on those admixture calculators as having a tiny smidge of Native American DNA, and I share a big chunk of one chromosome with some remains from an archaeological site of what is believed to be the very first Native American culture.

There is almost zero chance that I have any true Native American ancestry. What that actually is is very, very ancient DNA from the Siberian ancestors of all Native Americans, the original ones that crossed the Bering Strait. Other calculators correctly label it as "Beringian".

Whoever that DNA came from, I partially blame him or her for the facts that I have the heat tolerance of a polar bear despite being skinny as a rail, and still get heat rashes in my 30s.

I took a nap on my kitchen floor with my cats yesterday. Just saw them there and figured, you know what, I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'll join them!

One was by my head, and the other was by my side and let me hold her front paws the whole time. I would have stayed longer if I hadn't been awakened pins and needles radiating down my entire leg.

...It was so worth the bruised hip. I guess that's part of the purpose of fur for cats, to cushion them so they can sleep on hard surfaces.

Today every dog owner's nightmare happened: I dropped my phone in dog poop! I had picked up the dog poop so there was only that small amount that you can never get up and Bella saw a squirrel and she decided to pull and jump. I was a little off balance and I dropped the phone. A small corner of the top edge had a bit of poop on it. I quickly put it in a clean poop bag and we finished our walk and when I got home I hydrogen peroxided it (btw I have a case on the phone-an Otter which I recommend). Totally gross.

Even now I'm still a little grossed out my phone.

ancientpeas said:

Today every dog owner's nightmare happened: I dropped my phone in dog poop! I had picked up the dog poop so there was only that small amount that you can never get up and Bella saw a squirrel and she decided to pull and jump. I was a little off balance and I dropped the phone. A small corner of the top edge had a bit of poop on it. I quickly put it in a clean poop bag and we finished our walk and when I got home I hydrogen peroxided it (btw I have a case on the phone-an Otter which I recommend). Totally gross.

Even now I'm still a little grossed out my phone.

Click to expand...

Hehe you might need some time out from the phone now

Ichatdelune said:

And a confession unrelated to the one above: I hate drying my hair, but I have what we here in the peninsula call a 'bobsession' or 'bobdrawl' (translated liberally, damn untranslatable word nuances). That is, when I start to grow out my hair I also start to burn with the desire to have a lovely, simple, elegant bob. Why is this a problem? See, you have to dry your hair well for your bob to actually look nice and not like Anton Chigurh. On top of that, my hair does what my hair stylist calls a 'surface curl', which means it slightly curls, just enough make my hair ends go wild if not properly dried. With long hair you can't really tell, but with bobs they are painfully obvious. So I have to dry my hair thoroughly and with care to style it the way I want.

The reason I'm writing this is because I have to dry my hair now, so I'm procrastinating to the best of my extent. I'm going to hate how my hair looks soon enough anyway hwell:

Click to expand...

Can you dry it as quickly as possible and then just flat-iron it?



And on a somewhat related note, I've got some hair annoyances at the moment, too. I have very, very wavy hair (2B/2C, if anyone knows what that means) that I almost always straighten, but I now have it up and air-dried in an attempt to copy how Hizaki from Versailles had his in a behind-the-scenes video. I just watched one of Versailles's music videos, and now I really want to add some ringlets near the front like Kamijo had. But despite the fact that practically everyone except a few hairstylists and anthropologists would call my hair curly, it's even worse at holding an actual curl than it is at staying straight. I've never gotten a curl to stay more than 20 minutes or so before loosening back into a wave. Oh well.

hanyuufan5 said:

Can you dry it as quickly as possible and then just flat-iron it?

And on a somewhat related note, I've got some hair annoyances at the moment, too. I have very, very wavy hair (2B/2C, if anyone knows what that means) that I almost always straighten, but I now have it up and air-dried in an attempt to copy how Hizaki from Versailles had his in a behind-the-scenes video. I just watched one of Versailles's music videos, and now I really want to add some ringlets near the front like Kamijo had. But despite the fact that practically everyone except a few hairstylists and anthropologists would call my hair curly, it's even worse at holding an actual curl than it is at staying straight. I've never gotten a curl to stay more than 20 minutes or so before loosening back into a wave. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Surface curl+ironing=frazzled hair :hopelessness: I sometimes do iron my hair when it goes completely wild (since I can't go out looking like I have an octopus on my head), but my hair stylist is very disapproving of ironing in general. To quote him, "Iron your hair too often, you destroy your hair in the long run." I'm trying to grow my hair out as of right now, hopefully I can hold down my bobsession long enough.

I just looked up Hizaki, and to quote my hair stylist again, "That's 100% blow-dried. You just can't do that at home." He did admit that some people can style their hair like that, so have hope

My high school friend Isabelle had hair like yours, and she often complained how she had to always straighten out her hair because it wouldn't curl the right way. And hearing her complain about her hair was how I learned that she was born with curly hair :

hanyuufan5 said:

Can you dry it as quickly as possible and then just flat-iron it?



And on a somewhat related note, I've got some hair annoyances at the moment, too. I have very, very wavy hair (2B/2C, if anyone knows what that means) that I almost always straighten, but I now have it up and air-dried in an attempt to copy how Hizaki from Versailles had his in a behind-the-scenes video. I just watched one of Versailles's music videos, and now I really want to add some ringlets near the front like Kamijo had. But despite the fact that practically everyone except a few hairstylists and anthropologists would call my hair curly, it's even worse at holding an actual curl than it is at staying straight. I've never gotten a curl to stay more than 20 minutes or so before loosening back into a wave. Oh well.

Click to expand...

And now I'm really, really tempted to get an appointment at Dry Bar this evening to have some beachy waves.

Ichatdelune said:

Surface curl+ironing=frazzled hair :hopelessness: I sometimes do iron my hair when it goes completely wild (since I can't go out looking like I have an octopus on my head), but my hair stylist is very disapproving of ironing in general. To quote him, "Iron your hair too often, you destroy your hair in the long run." I'm trying to grow my hair out as of right now, hopefully I can hold down my bobsession long enough.

I just looked up Hizaki, and to quote my hair stylist again, "That's 100% blow-dried. You just can't do that at home." He did admit that some people can style their hair like that, so have hope

My high school friend Isabelle had hair like yours, and she often complained how she had to always straighten out her hair because it wouldn't curl the right way. And hearing her complain about her hair was how I learned that she was born with curly hair :

Click to expand...

Good luck with the bobsession!

This picture of Hizaki is very, very close to what my hair looks like, with the tight-ish waves at the top and little spiraly bits only at the bottoms of the longer parts. (Actually, even those spirals aren't 100% natural. They're from those parts bumping against my shoulders while they're drying.)

I'd love to put just a few spirals near the front of a high ponytail or something like these in this picture of Kamijo, but I can practically hear my hair laughing at me for even thinking that I could get it to stay. Ironically, I think straight hair is usually easier to curl than wavy hair.

Haha, I'm definitely an Isabelle. My coworkers and rinkmates probably think the waves are from a curling iron. It's ironic but fitting that a Japanese dude in a dress is the one to get me to actually want to wear it mostly natural for the first time ever. I always thought that if I were taller and had more angular features, all-over waves/curls would look fine on me... like they do on Kamijo, who has those traits. I'm smaller and have round-ish features like Hizaki, so all-over waves look too overwhelming.

Ducky said:

And now I'm really, really tempted to get an appointment at Dry Bar this evening to have some beachy waves.

Click to expand...

And that reminds me that there actually is one circumstance where I'll voluntarily wear all my hair unstraightened: when I've been at the beach. Something in the salt water just makes it look different. I guess that's why they're called beachy waves in the first place.

hanyuufan5 said:

Can you dry it as quickly as possible and then just flat-iron it?



And on a somewhat related note, I've got some hair annoyances at the moment, too. I have very, very wavy hair (2B/2C, if anyone knows what that means) that I almost always straighten, but I now have it up and air-dried in an attempt to copy how Hizaki from Versailles had his in a behind-the-scenes video. I just watched one of Versailles's music videos, and now I really want to add some ringlets near the front like Kamijo had. But despite the fact that practically everyone except a few hairstylists and anthropologists would call my hair curly, it's even worse at holding an actual curl than it is at staying straight. I've never gotten a curl to stay more than 20 minutes or so before loosening back into a wave. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Just curious, how long it takes you to straighten your hair?

And yes, I also read that sea makes curls better, but it's also not so good for hair condition on itself...

cathlen said:

Just curious, how long it takes you to straighten your hair?

And yes, I also read that sea makes curls better, but it's also not so good for hair condition on itself...

Click to expand...

It takes about half an hour to blow dry and straighten it. I could probably halve that time if I had a better drier and flat iron, though.

hanyuufan5 said:

It takes about half an hour to blow dry and straighten it. I could probably halve that time if I had a better drier and flat iron, though.

Click to expand...

I have wavy/curly hair, but depending where it's from 2b to 3a. I don't straighten them though, because when my sister did it years ago (I was dry brushing my hair then, so I had a lot of frizz and and looked like long dark haired lion) , it took her over 30 minutes with flat iron (and it was good one, it took her at most 10 minutes to straighten her hair, but she has less problematic hair). And she at least saw which part was already properly strightened... But I agree it's hard to make your hair properly curl. I use strong gel, but it's still loosening a lot near head, only waves/curls at the bottom stay the way they were. I will go to a new hairdresser next week though to cut ends, maybe they will make it curl better. I admire all wavy/curly girls (and boys too) who have patience to straighten their hair everyday... I just make a bun, when they look bad.

cathlen said:

I have wavy/curly hair, but depending where it's from 2b to 3a. I don't straighten them though, because when my sister did it years ago (I was dry brushing my hair then, so I had a lot of frizz and and looked like long dark haired lion) , it took her over 30 minutes with flat iron (and it was good one, it took her at most 10 minutes to straighten her hair, but she has less problematic hair). And she at least saw which part was already properly strightened... But I agree it's hard to make your hair properly curl. I use strong gel, but it's still loosening a lot near head, only waves/curls at the bottom stay the way they were. I will go to a new hairdresser next week though to cut ends, maybe they will make it curl better. I admire all wavy/curly girls (and boys too) who have patience to straighten their hair everyday... I just make a bun, when they look bad.

Click to expand...

Ah, yes, the frizzy dark-haired lion. Unlike regular lions, this species is more commonly found in Europe and the Americas and has a very healthy population size, although it may camouflage itself with styling products, irons, or bleach.

They only started making irons that could straighten my hair in a reasonable amount of time within the past 10 years or so. Before that, it took much longer, but at least I didn't have to use an actual iron on an ironing board like my mom used to.

cathlen said:

I have wavy/curly hair, but depending where it's from 2b to 3a. I don't straighten them though, because when my sister did it years ago (I was dry brushing my hair then, so I had a lot of frizz and and looked like long dark haired lion) , it took her over 30 minutes with flat iron (and it was good one, it took her at most 10 minutes to straighten her hair, but she has less problematic hair). And she at least saw which part was already properly strightened... But I agree it's hard to make your hair properly curl. I use strong gel, but it's still loosening a lot near head, only waves/curls at the bottom stay the way they were. I will go to a new hairdresser next week though to cut ends, maybe they will make it curl better. I admire all wavy/curly girls (and boys too) who have patience to straighten their hair everyday... I just make a bun, when they look bad.

Click to expand...

I also have 2b - 2cish hair. I used to straighten every day and then I noticed my naturally thick hair was getting a lot thinner and more damaged so I stopped, now it's back to normal and I mostly embrace my curls, especially in the summer because there is no point warring with the humidity in Florida. My go-tos for not perfect, but like kinda good messy curls are the Bumble and Bumble Sea Salt Spray and Surf Styling Leave In, and when I want it to look reallly nice and more defined I use the BioIonic Eternity Wand. I don't do my whole hair even just a few stratagic places for more bounce and volume. It took me years to find the right combination of stuff to work for me though! And I still definitely battle the floof - my husband calls it my cloud hair.

sallyhatchet said:

I also have 2b - 2cish hair. I used to straighten every day and then I noticed my naturally thick hair was getting a lot thinner and more damaged so I stopped, now it's back to normal and I mostly embrace my curls, especially in the summer because there is no point warring with the humidity in Florida. My go-tos for not perfect, but like kinda good messy curls are the Bumble and Bumble Sea Salt Spray and Surf Styling Leave In, and when I want it to look reallly nice and more defined I use the BioIonic Eternity Wand. I don't do my whole hair even just a few stratagic places for more bounce and volume. It took me years to find the right combination of stuff to work for me though! And I still definitely battle the floof - my husband calls it my cloud hair.

Click to expand...

I have yet to find the perfect combo for my hair. We don't have much good products specifically for curly hair, as most Polish girls either have straightish hair or make it straight, so we, curly girls, have not much market value. We're getting bigger though, I think, so I hope with time, there will be more products to buy in stores, and there will be no need for buying overpriced foreign products online I battle the floof a lot too, especially when it's raining, like today

cathlen said:

I have yet to find the perfect combo for my hair. We don't have much good products specifically for curly hair, as most Polish girls either have straightish hair or make it straight, so we, curly girls, have not much market value. We're getting bigger though, I think, so I hope with time, there will be more products to buy in stores, and there will be no need for buying overpriced foreign products online I battle the floof a lot too, especially when it's raining, like today

Click to expand...

My hair once were wavy, thick & my pride, today, after 2 dermo treatments, not so much. But still with that frizz I don't like - I reccommend Fitokosmetik masks with milk (especially actively regenerating one) or Cafe Mimi combo of nourishing hair balm (light violet) & keratin mask (dark green). Also, since I started using Ecolab's thickening spray, I noticed much less frizz.

NoNameFace said:

My hair once were wavy, thick & my pride, today, after 2 dermo treatments, not so much. But still with that frizz I don't like - I reccommend Fitokosmetik masks with milk (especially actively regenerating one) or Cafe Mimi combo of nourishing hair balm (light violet) & keratin mask (dark green). Also, since I started using Ecolab's thickening spray, I noticed much less frizz.

Click to expand...

My hair are thick enough, trust me I heard about Cafe Mimi being great, especially yellow one, and Ecolab's have lots of recs, but I have yet to use my other masks and conditioners, before I start using another Also not sure, so much proteins would do good to my hair, since it's not damaged, just dry by their nature, I'd have to use moderately

I posted a while ago ... in this thread I think, but I cannot find it ... about a little dog I adopted who had a tough beginning making his care a challenge.. (one eye, hip and back leg injury which left him incontinent.. not as bad as it sounds!!!) and I promised I would post a picture so .. ta da... here it is!!
Hope it comes thru OK... Po.. alias Podameron...

elbkup said:

I posted a while ago ... in this thread I think, but I cannot find it ... about a little dog I adopted who had a tough beginning making his care a challenge.. (one eye, hip and back leg injury which left him incontinent.. not as bad as it sounds!!!) and I promised I would post a picture so .. ta da... here it is!!
Hope it comes thru OK... Po.. alias Podameron...

View attachment 749

Click to expand...

:luv17:

And thank you for your work in giving this boy his furr ever home!