Motivation Monday - June 29, 2015

The 6th month of 2015 is drawing to a close and even though I completely missed the mark on most of my goals (yes it means you'll see the same ones again next month), I am proud of myself for the dent I've made into the overall organization of my office.  You know if I didn't have to have a day job, I'm thinking this project would have been finished by now but knowing me, it probably still would not be done.

I think that is one of the reasons I'm contemplating an early retirement in say 5 1/2 years is that I want to have more time to focus on other things like my genealogy research, crafts, etc.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.

While doing the office clean-up, I came across something that I know I didn't talk about last year. I guess I was a little disappointed when I received it. You see, last year, I had to give another presentation during the Hosch-Pierce family reunion, so I decided to splurge and do the PatriClan Analysis from African Ancestry for my maternal grandfather's line.

Several years ago, my first cousin, Larry Hosch, had done the yDNA test for me through Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). So, when I decided to splurge on the PatriClan Analysis, I ordered African Ancestry's Paternal Analysis Only, then emailed them the results from FTDNA.

I waited ever so patiently for the results to arrive. Checked with several online genealogy buds who I knew had already used African Ancestry, who all stated that the receipt of their results didn't take the amount of time that mine were taken. They all suggested that I contact the company, which I did. At this point in time I forget the reason why they were running behind schedule but they were behind schedule. So, I waited, and waited some more. Finally, the long awaited results arrived during the last week of August.

I vaguely remember being interested when they arrived but not jump up and down excited as I've been in the past when I received ancestral DNA results but I'm making up for that now.

So, I'm proud to announce that my maternal grandfather's paternal line descends from the Ibo people in present day Nigeria and the Ewondo people in present day Cameroon.

The letter that was received with the certificate states that the Sequence Similarity Score is 100%, which means that they are 100% confident in the result.

Obviously, I now have much research to do on these two groups of people, since we don't know anything past my great grandfather, Barto Hosch, for my grandfather's direct male ancestors.

I'm sure you are wondering why initially I was disappointed when I received the results. Trust me when I say it had nothing to to do with the actual results. The disappointment was the time frame in which I received the results. Based on the time frame given at the time of ordering when I would receive the results, I thought I would have the results in plenty of time to use in my presentation at the family reunion. Sadly, I didn't receive the results until several weeks (nearly two months) past the scheduled date of receipt, which was one month past the family reunion, hence, the major disappointment. However, I do have to give kudos to African Ancestry in that they provided me with two additional certificates, for free, to make up for the extended time in getting the results.

So, I had a certificate made up for one of my 2nd cousins, who's probably the better historian / researcher on this branch of my family tree, and also had one made up for my mother. And because I was initially disappointed, I've yet to forward any of the certificates to my family members and that includes my mother. But since I'm trying to get back on the genealogical research bandwagon, my goal is to rectify that this week. My mother will be receiving hers on Friday. I contacted my second cousin today via e-mail, so that I could get his address to mail him his. And hopefully, I'll see my first cousin sometime this week and present his copy to him.

Even with the delay, I'm hoping to do another splurge this year with African Ancestry, but on the paternal side of the family this time. If I can make it happen (I'm having some unexpected expenses this summer), you'll be able to read all about it over at Conversations With My Ancestors.

So once again, until the next post, whenever that may be.