family tree – Beeshive

To clear up some things about my DNA results, because I was directed to a CBC program by my brother.

I wasn’t aware that so many people don’t understand DNA and what the DNA results mean.

The first thing that needs to be made clear is that all of the DNA testing available on the consumer market is only as reliable as the sample pools.

My DNA results state that 15% of my DNA is shared in common with indigenous communities in North America. All this means that that 15% of my DNA is shared in common with those who have submitted DNA tests to Ancestry and who have self identified as indigenous. Due to the small sample sizes Ancestry will not be able to tell me which nation my DNA is derived from. To do that Ancestry would need a much more detailed pool to pull from.

This also why even though my father and his father identified as Irish, I only share about 3% of my DNA with persons who identify with being solely Irish.

This is where things get really murky with DNA results from England and Northern Europe. England will include a massive amount of Irish. Same thing with the Scottish. As England was conquered numerous times over the ages, and as England conquered its neighbours numerous times over the years it’s pretty easy to understand that there would have been migrations and marriages between the people of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, along with the Republic of Ireland.

Again, unless everyone alive in the UK and the Republic of Ireland took a DNA test you’re not going to be able to pinpoint my ancestry down to a specific village or a specific county.

My DNA results will not explain why I like to wear dresses or why I don’t identify as a male. There just simply isn’t enough DNA sampling coupled with clinical research. And DNA will never explain societal norms such as boys wear pants, girls wear dresses, pink is for girls, blue is for boys. And this is because societal norms are learnt behaviour, they’re not encoded in your DNA.

For instance up until the 1930s, pink was the boys colour as it was seen as being the diminutive of red and red of course was seen as being a man’s colour. Blue was for girls as it was seen as being dainty and delicate. Why it changed? Who know. But it changed around the 1930s and it seemed that it was large American retailers that decided that in American pink was for girls and blue was for boys.

Dresses for boys? Even in America as late as the early 1900s it wasn’t uncommon for boys to wear dresses until they were breached around age 7 or 8. Even historically in England boys wore dresses. There are portraits of English nobility and for the longest time researchers couldn’t figure out why the boys were never in the paintings, why it was always the girls. Not too long ago historians finally realized that some of these “girls” were actually boys. And that the only way to tell the boys from the girls in these portraits is that the dresses worn by boys were plain and the boys weren’t wearing any type of jewellery where as the dresses worn by girls often had patterns or trims and the girls were always wearing bracelets, necklaces, or earrings.

Why aren’t boys in modern media and modern history depicted as wearing dresses or wearing pink? As is the case with war stories, things get cleaned up and adjusted to fit the modern narratives.

What DNA can tell you, but again without 100% certainty, is what type of genetic characteristics you will possibly express.
Are you ambidextrous?
Can you taste certain foods?
Do certain foods taste repulsive to you?
Are you double jointed?
Are you left handed?
Can you digest lactose?

Again, this is only as accurate as the number of samples that these DNA companies receive.

And as far as I know, these DNA companies all steer clear of known genetic markers for disease and disabilities. And this is because you can have markers for MS, or a particular kind of cancer, or for Down syndrome, etc. But just having these markers doesn’t mean that you will develop these issues nor does it mean that you will pass these genetic issues down to your offspring.

So no, DNA testing will never explain why I like dresses, or why I don’t identify as a male.

But what DNA testing will do to a certain extent is let me fill in my family tree.

I’ve already come across numerous connections for every branch of my tree except for the paternal side of my father side. The Gill tree is a complete dead end after Arthur Herman Gill. Maybe someday in the future someone from the Gill side of the family will submit a DNA test that will let me fill in Arthur Herman’s side of the family, but until then I’ve got numerous 2nd or 3rd cousins from the Gill clan in the Durham and Peterborough region of Ontario, but nothing yet that directly ties them to Arthur or his son Richard.

Okay, so I’ve been playing around with Ancestry.ca for a few days.

Came across some interesting information.

My stepmother’s parents were Mr. Teunis Zwolle and Mrs. Willemina Zwolle.

1980’s voter roll for Oshawa, Durham Region, Ontario

133 Gibb Street, Oshawa, Ontario
Zwolle houshold

And due to the voters roll, I now know the address for Richard’s father, and his stepmother Aldean. When I tracked down my mother in 2013 I asked her what the name of Arthur Gill’s second wife was. Marie said that her name was Ladean. Wasn’t. Her name was Aldeen.

Arthur and Aldeen Gill.
258 Drew Street, Oshawa, Ontario

In 1982, when Richard flew us out to Ontario for the Christmas holidays, we stayed at Arthur’s and Ladeen’s house. I remember walking back and forth between the Gill house and the Zwolle house.

A quick check of google maps shows that they are well within walking distance of each other.

Pretty straight walk.
And as kids we walked a lot, so this walk wouldn’t have been too much at all.

After the initial stay with Arthur over xmas ’82, we never did go see Arthur again.

My father was posted to CFB Downsview in April of ’83 to avoid my apprehension by Alberta Social Services.

When we lived on Canadian Forces Base Downsview in North York, we’d go visit Sue’s parents frequently. Almost every second weekend. For sure once a month as Sue liked to shop at Knob Hill Farms.

50 minute car drive from 223F Stanley Green Park on Canadian Forces Base Downsview
to
133 Gibb Street in Oshawa, Ontario

No matter how many times we went to see the Zwolle’s, we never once ever went to see the Gill’s again.

According to my social service records, Richard was trying to pawn me off on to his father. I guess by that time Arthur had moved on with his new family and he didn’t want to look after the kids of his son from a previous marriage.

All I remember about Arthur and Ladeen is that they liked my brother and I but Arthur was really dismissive of Richard and really didn’t want anything to do with him.

The physical closeness of these two families in Oshawa also lends a bit of credence to another issue that may have caused the estrangement between Richard and his father.

Both Arthur’s and Ladeen’s daughters went to school with Susan. Apparently Arthur and Ladeen were none too impressed with Richard having used his stepsisters, their daughters, to hook up with Sue on one of his visits to Oshawa after we moved to CFB Namao in the summer of 1978.

So it really wasn’t a coincidence that a girl from Oshawa ended up living in Edmonton with a man with relatives from the girl’s hometown.

Through my DNA test I have found a few members of the Dagenais clan in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes that appear to be on the order of 2nd or 3rd cousins.

One unexpected blast that I discovered is my paternal great grandmother was born in 1899 and married in 1913 at the age of 13.

My paternal grandmother, Margaret, was born in 1923 when Caroline was 22.

I wonder if grandma was some older siblings that haven’t been found yet.

I haven’t yet found Norman, the older brother of both Richard and Doug.

Richard was born in 1946 when Margaret was 23. What I remember about uncle Norman is that he was about 6 years older than Richard.

So, I’ll keep shaking the family tree to see what else falls to the ground.

Tag: family tree

My DNA

Interesting.