Memories of Anniverseries

Among my memories are a Dec. 30 anniversary of my first marriage. Would have been 54 years this year. Morris would have been 77 on Jan 1, if he'd lived. Dad would have been 101, January 15.

New Years 2010

For the past twenty years, we have quietly retired for the evening by 10 o'clock on New Year's Eve. Haven't missed a thing. The moon is full, the fog is thick. The world is in total chaos. It's cold enough to put a log on the fire and watch whatever on TV. We may be able to stay up long enough to watch the ball drop in New York City.

We have a full and blue moon tonight. A blue moon is the second full moon of the month. Interesting and very unusual that this falls on New Years Eve.

So what changes do we have to look forward to in 2010? Perhaps the toilet paper will shrink in size even more than it has in 2009. Costs will rise. Our brand labels are disappearing in the supermarket. Gasoline prices are still rising. My retirement stash has not grown in three years. No raise from the pension fund. Texas retired teachers are in trouble. No raise from SS. But the cost of Medicare has gone up. What to do; what to do.

Christmas Aversion

I developed an aversion to Christmas many years ago, and I am trying to "get over it!" and start enjoying the fun, but am having a bit of a problem with that. I need to do this for Jim. I don't need to do it for me, because I can wallow in self pity with the best of them and find it very satisfying. He needs me to find joy in Christmas. Joy, joy, joy.

It all started the year my dad put switches (you know...sticks off of trees that people used to spank bad children with) in my stocking which hung on the fireplace...and there was nothing else to be found in the room. I was nine or ten.

Bad children received switches in their stockings, and the closer we got to Christmas every year we were reminded often that if we didn't behave we'd get switches in our stocking. I had been very good that year. So when I arose with anticipation on Christmas morning, and I walked into the living room and found switches in my stocking, I didn't find it funny at all....in fact, I sat down and bawled. Loudly! Today's child would have called CPS immediately.
Dad and Mom began to explain that it was a joke and they had actually prepared a huge treasure hunt for me, and they handed me my first clue. It turned out to be okay, but I never quite got over the initial shock of the moment, feeling really bad and unloved.

Next year my sister was born (she was a twin; the baby boy didn't live) and she and Mom came home from the hospital the day before Christmas. I wanted to hold that baby so badly. She was a healthy cutie pie. Instead I was made to wear a hospital mask around her and wasn't allowed to touch her for weeks. Mother's personality completely changed; she was no longer happy go-lucky and fun, and I don't remember a single Christmas after that until I married. Ten years of non Christmas!

My first marriage was strange. I tried to make the best of it all, but there was the Christmas that I kept asking the hubby to please take down the tree two weeks into January. He took the tree, ornaments and all and dumped it in the front yard. It was simply his way of saying "No."

I'm trying; I'm trying! Joy! Whee!

"Miss Brownie"

Her name was Stella Brown McKissick. She was born in 1889 on a ranch in Bosque County, TX not far from Meridian. She was the third child of Edward McGary McKissick (sometimes spelled McKisick) and Lily Barry McKissick.  Her siblings were Jules Edward, Jesse Barry (sister), Stella Brown, and Mary Wingfield. She was my precious Grandmother (Mamma) Younger.

Stella called herself "Brown" which later became Brownie and then Miss Brownie. She was a true red head. I have locks of her hair, which were cut when she was sixteen.  She was a feisty, energetic girl, who played the piano, rode horses, and did chores on the ranch. She had a good sense of humor, and she was very playful.

Brownie was named "Stella Brown" after her sister's piano teacher. Brownie's mother was Lily Barry, daughter of Griffith Coombe Barry and Mary Wingfield Claybrook Barry, first generation Texans. Griffith was son of James D. and Julianna Coombe Barry of Washington, DC. Mary was daughter of William Peyton Doswell and Narcissa Nantz (Nance) Claybrook of VA, KY, and MO. Narcissa died at 44, and WPD remarried to a Miss Broadus, and they moved to Hot Springs, AR where they are buried. They had one daughter, who is also buried in the family plot.

Recently, because of DNA testing I've discovered descendants of Jules Edward McKisick, my grandmother's brother;  Charles Abel, Laurie Abel-Hovey (Charles' daughter) and Chris Gookin.  Chris and I have corresponded frequently, and he pointed me in direction of the others.  Laurie lives less than two miles from me.

Other cousins from the McKisicks (also Lamb, McGary, and Barry) are Linda Daniel and Netta Martin. 

To be continued.....

DNA and me

First of all, I have A/B positive blood type. That really doesn't mean anything to most people, but I'm one of only 3.4 % of people in the US to have that blood type. That's gotta mean something. Puts me in an exclusive group at the very least.

Secondly, my DNA haplogroup is U5b. That's Ursula. I don't know what the 5b stands for...a subgroup of some sort, which means something, but I don't know what. 40,000 years ago. I'm highly evolved. :-) I knew that! My second toe is shorter than my big toe. Well...that's how you're supposed to be able to tell.

By doing the DNA test I've met a couple of new cousins. One lives in Asia. Interesting!

Haven't figured out what all the mtDNA means yet, but I will eventually.

This is my first blog. So I'm learning. Most 74 year old women won't even do a computer. I think I'm doing great to even try. Last time I tried to do a blog, I lost the whole thing and couldn't figure out what happened to it. Well, as my grandmother Brownie used to say, "Can't never could." I think that was a Shakespeare quote. She was a walking cliche', and I found out that most of the cliche's she used were from Shakespeare. What a gal. She had an 8th grade education and was quoting Shakespeare...and didn't even know it.

Some of my multi-g grandfathers' slave descendants are beginning to show up. I match a little DNA with a black gal and a black guy. It was probably one of those Bonham guys...wild and crazy guys...! My DNA is strictly European/Caucasian; I have no black in me, so it had to be my white grandpaw (great, that is) fooling around! Wow. Who'd a thunk it?

I am Haplogroup U5b according to 23andMe where I tested.  See next.

Haplogroup U5

Among the oldest mtDNA haplogroups found in European remains of Homo sapiens is U5. The age of U5 is estimated at 50,000 but could be as old as 60,500 years. Approximately 11% of total Europeans and 10% of European-Americans are in haplogroup U5.
The presence of haplogroup U5 in Europe pre-dates the expansion of agriculture in Europe. Bryan Sykes' popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve calculated that it arose 45,000-50,000 years ago in Delphi, Greece and named the originator of haplogroup U5 Ursula. However the details related to location and age are speculative. Barbujani and Bertorelle estimate the age of haplogroup U5 as about 52,000 years ago, being the oldest subclade of haplogroup U.^[11]
U5 has been found in human remains dating from the Mesolithic in England, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Russia.^[12]
Haplogroup U5 and its subclades U5a and U5b form the highest population concentrations in the far north, in Sami, Finns, and Estonians, but it is spread widely at lower levels throughout Europe. This distribution, and the age of the haplogroup, indicate individuals from this haplogroup were part of the initial expansion tracking the retreat of ice sheets from Europe ~10kya.
Haplogroup U5 is found also in small frequencies and at much lower diversity in the Near East and parts of Africa, suggesting back-migration of people from northern Europe to the south.^[2]
Mitochondrial haplogroup U5a has also been associated with HIV infected individuals displaying accelerated progression to AIDS and death.^[13]

• U5b1b: has been found in Fulbe and Papel people in Guinea-Bissau and Yakuts people of northeastern Siberia.^[14][15]

• U5b3: The subclade is found primarily on the island of Sardinia. 
• ^{U5b3 is now my primary Haplogroup.}  
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