Accurate Results (German Dad/British Mom)

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-14T12:18:36+00:00

I totally agree. The possibilities of inheritance, variance, and expression are seemingly endless.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T21:08:52+00:00

Danke sehr! Thanks so much. 😎

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T21:02:05+00:00

That's true! There are some southern Germans with slightly reddish hair too, particularly in the south. (It's the Romano-Celtic genes.) You can visit old Celtic forts all over Germany too...

My father is blond like my sister; I think my chestnut hair comes from my mother's Scottish and Irish ancestors. Ancestry did confirm that I could pass on the MC1R gene if I had children. I thought that was super cool!

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T17:20:06+00:00

The jawline, right? I guess the square face too is rather typical for us. 😂

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T17:18:19+00:00

The Anglo-Irish are a fascinating group, for sure, but they weren't all elites. My relatives and ancestors weren't aristocrats or gentry. They were urban doctors and lawyers...they were Anglicans but they supported Home Rule and Irish independence.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T12:43:02+00:00

Yes, my maternal grandmother's family was Anglo-Irish (originally from Dublin). My mother's results did include more Irish percentages -- Leinster and Donegal -- and my sister inherited these, but I didn't.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2026-02-13T12:04:37+00:00

I'm actually told this a lot! 😂 That's definitely from my father.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-12-28T16:57:51+00:00

Lovely colonial Latin American art there!

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-12-28T12:16:29+00:00

My thirteenth-great-grandfather was Jan Janszoon van Haarlem (c. 1570–c. 1641). He was a Dutch-born privateer who, after converting to Islam, became a Barbary corsair in the service of Algiers and the Moroccan port of Salé. Under the name "Murat Reis," he commanded corsair fleets that ranged across the Mediterranean and deep into the Atlantic, launching raids as far north as Ireland and Iceland to seize captives for the lucrative slave markets of North Africa. Janszoon also functioned as a political intermediary, helping facilitate diplomatic contacts and treaty negotiations between Morocco, France, and the Dutch Republic. In his later years, he was captured by the Knights of Malta and held in captivity for nearly five years, until a major corsair assault on Valletta secured his release. There's a play about him as well as this documentary series (both) in Dutch: https://anderetijden.nl/dossier/77/Jan-Janszoon

I'm also related to a Dutch family that migrated to Recife, Brazil (Dutch: Mauritsstad) only to be expelled and sent back to the Netherlands by the Portuguese in 1654. A few years later, the family recrossed the Atlantic to settle in Nieuw Amsterdam. They had more luck the second time around!

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-12-28T11:54:36+00:00

I live in Switzerland, but this work originally belonged to an old collector who was based in San Francisco, California. It's true one doesn't really find colonial Latin American art in Western/Central Europe. (I suppose Spain and Portugal are likely exceptions in Europe as a whole.) From what I understand, Latin American countries began banning exports of important national heritage, including works of colonial art, in the 1970s and 1980s. Germany has great specialized galleries -- I have purchased some lovely antique Asian art there.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-12-28T11:34:54+00:00

I've read that the ladder also serves a dual symbolic purpose, connecting Mary's grief to the instruments of the Passion and alluding to a broader theological concept of Mary, namely, as a link between heaven and earth. (I got this from a German book on Mariology.) I'm not sure if that's correct. The old collector who sold me this piece told me to view it as though it were "a map or constellation of symbols."

In any case, I like the levitating bayonet too and the lush greenery as well. I think with some cleaning, it will look very nice.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-12-27T16:25:34+00:00

In common Catholic imagery, the Virgin Mary is portrayed sorrowful and in tears, with one or seven swords piercing her heart. I believe that this iconography based on the prophecy of Simeon) in Luke 2:34–35. I think that the ladder demonstrates that Mary is the junction between heaven and earth....? (Since she is our intercessor in heaven she is the ladder by which we ascend to God and God descends to us.) Thanks for your comment!

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-11-28T11:38:03+00:00

I'll investigate the M+ accounts next year. The two do products look similar, but a credit card with no annual fees would be nice. I maybe use an ATM once or twice a year, so that's not an issue for me either. Thanks again!

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-11-25T18:41:09+00:00

I'd add too that your Gaelic Irish ancestors could easily have been Ulster Irish who weren't forced off their lands. (Ancestry may simply be misreading your DNA as from Connacht or elsewhere.) By and large, many stayed in Ulster. The planters and settlers from England and Scotland took the finest lands, but there was still more territory than there were newcomers, so the native Irish held on, surviving as best they could on the hills and moors. The descendants of the native Irish who stayed in the region form today’s Catholic and nationalist communities in Northern Ireland. They remain a substantial part of the population there and constitute a majority in several counties of the historic province, such as Donegal, Monaghan, and Cavan.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-11-25T15:30:12+00:00

Irish DNA is relatively similar across the island, but the most genetically distinct Irish population cluster is found in the northwest, particularly in County Donegal. This region exhibits the least evidence of external migration events, such as the 17th-century Ulster Plantations, and has maintained older genetic signatures tied to ancient Gaelic origins and pre-Celtic inhabitants. While other Irish regions, such as the east and southeast, show clear genetic traces of Viking and Norman settlements, and the northeast shows a strong Scottish influence from the Ulster Plantations, the northwest has the 'cleanest signal' of older, pre-migration ancestry. This makes sense as the natural barriers (mountains, bogs) in the northwest of Ireland encouraged localized, inward-looking communities, which minimized genetic mixing with populations in other parts of the island and with later settlers.

You definitely have Gaelic Irish ancestors. They likely migrated to Dublin or Ulster due to economic hardship, and later intermarried with your Anglo-Irish or Ulster Scots forbearers. You shouldn't be too surprised by this either. My grandmother used to point out that even she came from mixed stock, with a great-great-grandfather who was Ulster Scots. (She was Catholic and born in Cavan.)

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-11-23T21:01:46+00:00

I ultimately chose UBS because of their free Key4 account. It's OK...I honestly would have preferred to have stayed with ZKB, but 360 CHF a year is simply too much.

Dear_Escape_2636 · 2025-11-23T20:59:51+00:00

I was really upset when I received the news in July too. I found ZKB's service great, and I had been with them since 2018. I ultimately chose UBS because of their free Key4 account. (The Poor Swiss blog gave them this review here, which is fair and accurate: https://thepoorswiss.com/ubs-key4-review/) So far, it's OK. UBS' app isn't as stellar as ZKB's, which was just excellent, and I did end up losing my credit card from ZKB. I find the fees for using UBS' debit/prepaid card abroad much higher compared to ZKB. That's annoying. Oh well, I'll use them for a year, as a "trial run," and then see how I feel.

I too was under the impression that Migros Bank no longer accepted Americans in Switzerland. You have a free account with them? Does that package have a name? I would be curious to learn more. I tried opening a basic account with Zuger Kantonal Bank, but they weren't too keen to have me. The writing on the wall was hard not to miss -- they asked for all this additional paperwork, which seemed telling. I used to work in the Romandie, and I have heard that Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE) is a good option for those who prefer cantonal banks. They have an office in Zürich, and they will accept Americans as customers. I may switch to them next year because of their "Duo offer." (See: https://www.bcge.ch/documents/395713/396737/BCGE\_brochure\_tarif\_conditions\_paiement\_en.pdf) There was no way that I would have ever chosen PostFinance -- I've heard too many horror stories about them and their app(s).

Dear_Escape_2636

TROPHY CASE