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LIFE'S RETURN - SPRING IS NEARING

2/22/2016

Photo by Jean Schugart Schild

Life's Return

The Mountain Ash berries preserved in ice,
waits for a migrating bird, cycling life before me.

But the formed bud, awaits too -
created each autumn as summertime of life
wilts, browns and dies at our feet.

Nature repeats the cycle
of our death
from year to year.

When will we Fall?

I peek as you sleep
in the cave of crusty snow until
the spate breaks winter's back.

Your shiver is ever so slight
as you awake to absorb
the slant of spring sun

That will peel you open to tempt
me with your ageless hues, as the light enters
me too, a spectrum that dazzles my irises.

Saucy you are to reveal petaline
hints as you absorb sweetened
drops of night's moisture for yourself.

I will see your revival in the coming spring rain
and I will count my refrains
to pluck you - but then my regret will die

On the vine, and I will miss you once again,
as you grow paler with each sunburst
and crinkle to colorful dry remains.

Photo by Jean Schugart-Schild

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GENETICS PROVES YOU MAY NOT BE WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE

2/9/2016

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Photo by Jean Schugart-Schild

I can no longer say that I am Polish! I am not Polish! There were some cultural bearings/traditions passed along by a couple generations of those relatives living there, but I have not any genetic Polish genes within me.

I had genetic testing done through a group called DNA Tribes. www.dnatribes.com. It was the greatest gift I have ever been given. It was not very expensive, and it involved taking saliva swabs so it was not invasive, and it was painless. The genetic testing group, I used, offers charts that presents 100% of your combined genetic ancestry from mother and father. Thus the charts will show 50% from your mother's X chromosome, and 50% from your father Y chromosome that you inherited if you are male. Or both X's passed to you by your mother and father if you are female. As female, I got one X from my father, and one X from my mother.

It is left up to you, and your knowledge of your family to decide which 50% belongs to whom, in other words, which genetics noted in your chart came from which parent. Keep in mind, that if you have siblings that you only share 50% of your siblings same chromosomes not 100%.

My father and his immigrated parents were called Polish, thus, I thought Polish genetics would be present in my DNA. Except not one speck of Polish was noted in my genetics. My mother was partly Scottish. I was happy to note the Scottish genetics were firmly in place from my mother. Now what of the rest on my charts? Where did my father's genetics truly derive?

My father's parents immigrated from Poland in the early 1900's. My mother's Scottish ancestors (on her mother's side) came to America in the late 1700's. It is unclear to me exactly where my mother's father's genetic ancestors derived. Perhaps Germany or high in the Alps. I do not carry a Y chromosome as a female, thus it would take a male sibling from my mother's side to discover her father's full genetic past. I would get perhaps brief genetic glimpses in the X that my mother inherited from her father. A direct brother of mine would have inherited the Y chromosome of our own father, not our mother's father.

My mother often talked of her Scottish heritage as a member of the Graham clan. She was accurate. Her Scottish DNA was in my report. She spoke often of how she was descended from the Viscounts of Dundee. Her clan settled in Pennsylvania in the late 1700's. She told real history that was passed down through generations in her Graham clan.

On my father's side there was very little to report. He did not regale his family with stories of ancestors. He once teased that he was Chinese and Mongolian. He would laugh as he said this. His parents villages, in Poland, were completely destroyed during World War II. But what of ancestral history before the war? There were few stories passed down.

I might also note here, that more often than not, when people in any country in the past couple hundred years migrated they took on the cultural ideals of where they settled, thus often moved on.\, and away from their true cultural past; Even leaving behind languages. My father and his parents spoke fluent Polish, among other languages for my father, but he refused to teach any of his children the Polish language. I can only speak for my father but he wanted his family to completely assimilate, and not carry any of the past and it's hardships forward. History and genetics compliment one another.

What works in completion if you do your genetic testing is to also research the countries involved in the distant past. Read about wars, migrations, famines, Diaspora (the geographical scattering of peoples) of the nations where ancestors hailed. You may be a mystery, a puzzle, an adventure waiting inside your own genetics.

I was so astounded by my genetic discoveries that I wrote a short opinion piece for AARP Bulletin, under the 'What I Know About..." column in September 2009. After my article was published I was shocked to receive numerous phone calls from people all over America. They wanted to know where I had this genetic testing done. They were eager to discover more about their own genetic history. I also wrote a poem, posted on my website here, called DNA Meal Planner. Feel free to use my search engine to find the poem and the AARP link will be at that poem. The poem received a Pushcart Prize nomination.

I will post two pages of my DNA report. It turns out my father was right, even with his joking. When I did a special high resolution Central Asian panel, beyond my basic genetic testings of alleles, it showed many hits from Uzbek, Kirgiz, Kazakh, and Uyghur (Xinjang Chinese Turkestan). So maybe my father learned much more from his Polish speaking parents than he let on.

50% of the chart below is from my father, and 50% is from my mother. It is up to me to figure what came from each parent. The test group does not do that for you. That is why it is important to know your true familial history. If my brother had his done, he would show the Y chromosome genetic ancestry of my father.

I paid to have my father's last surviving brother's DNA done... he presented very low Polish. Not many generations of true Polish genetics was ever revealed, only family traditions of sorts. My uncle showed Tatar (Poland) at only 0.07%. His mother's DNA matched my father's X which I inherited, thus, my uncle's mother's X was prominently Turkish, and Uzbek (Xinjiang, Chinese Turkestan) on his Central Asian Panel, separate from the basic genetic testing. Roma of Macedonia and also of Hungary was present. I will not go further in detail for my uncle.

All in all, it was a positive experience for me. I have always enjoyed science, and the stories of the past. Now I have a more accurate one to pass along. My deep ancestral origins and closest genetic relatives today are now mine to behold... hello world.

Keep exploring, not everything has been discovered.

Use your imaging + or - on your own device to enlarge my charts below.
Thanks for having a read!

THIS CHART IS ON MY CLOSEST GENETIC RELATIVES TODAY. You can enlarge this page using your own device for enlarging images.

THIS CHART SHOWS MY DEEPEST ANCESTRAL ORIGINS FROM BOTH PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS ETC. You can enlarge this image using your own device to zoom in.

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LIFE'S RETURN - SPRING IS NEARING﻿

GENETICS PROVES YOU MAY NOT BE WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE

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LIFE'S RETURN - SPRING IS NEARING