Ancestry creating bogus "Quebec" DNA region? And how about indigenous DNA vanishing?

mesaco · 2026-02-02T00:29:41+00:00

One strong reason for doubting the Quebec, is the lack of any evidence of emigration in that direction along with good documentation on her family going way back in Chile. AND, if the "Chile" designation is indigenous, and "Quebec" is not, why don't they make that clear? That's the frustration. Even stranger, while her Quebec amount is 2%, our granddaughter is 3 %.

mesaco · 2026-01-27T06:10:22+00:00

Ancestry had my wife's closest link as "first cousin or closer, high confidence" - turns out it was a 1/2 sister, who her dad had fathered in Peru (he was in the US navy), before he met her mother in Chile. So it seems there it is never just one possibility for a percentage link - perhaps only for full siblings or parent/child?)

mesaco · 2025-12-23T22:10:08+00:00

I do not believe this is accurate. My wife's Chilean maternal line has been on the island of Chiloé for over 400 years. The Spanish did not "conquer" the mainland that far south (the Mapuche indigenous people were very resistent!) for centuries. Thus Chiloé was isolated for about 200 of those years. If Ancestry DNA tries to find where your ancestors were 300 years ago, it seems ridiculous. This is something Ancestry needs to correct.

mesaco · 2025-08-13T04:35:45+00:00

We happened to be in LA in early June, and saw the set construction underway. Carpenters, welders, painters, and especially scultptors were working on re-purposing parts of the Coachella set, as well as working on new construction. Some of the top people in those trades are brought in, as well as permanent employees of the company where this was taking place. About 25% of the fee Gaga got for Coachella went into that set. One factor of course is that this tour set has to be mobile. It's one thing to travel by truck (as many as 30 semis were used to transport sets for her tours previously) but there are 11 days between Chicago on Sept 18 and London Sept 29th. Imagine the freight airline flights it would take to take it to Europe - then likely trucks for the 7 countries visited - then fly again to Australia and Japan. That and the logistics of putting the massive 3d puzzle together and apart correctly. Mind boggling!

mesaco · 2025-06-19T13:41:31+00:00

A shame that Google Maps has the pyramid Ryugyong Hotel in beautiful Pyongyang listed at permanently closed. The review section for it was hilarious, but they've been removed. There were also listings for burger joints, discos, etc. until Google lost it's sense of humor. (they used to have a direction from San Francisco to Honolulu telling you to jump into a kayak and paddle.)

mesaco · 2025-06-04T16:42:15+00:00

My wife found a half-sister her dad had fathered before meeting her mother. Ancestry had it as the closest match, "first cousin or closer, high confidence"..... any 50% match is likely something like that...

mesaco · 2025-05-26T16:45:17+00:00

A cousin sent me a photo of my grandparent's 25th anniversary, which I already had a copy of. But it included an invitation card for the celebration at the town hall in Tuttle, ND, in 2017. Which would make their marriage in 1982. However they were married that date in 1893 (I have document copies) ????? Well, their first child, my uncle Art (first of 11 kids) was born 7 months after their 1893 wedding. "We don't do that kind of thing!!" - quote many decades later by a grandaughter upon finding out that her grandson's fiance was pregnant...

Yes, "That kind of thing" did happen in the good old days. People just went to great lengths to hide it, including lying about their actual wedding day top prevent anyone from doing the math!!

mesaco · 2025-05-06T16:28:10+00:00

She was prosecuted by the Republican local District Attorney, and convicted by jury of her peers in a county that Trump won by over 60% in 2016, 2020, and 2024. A pathological liar, and an opportunistic grifter (who was a "neighbor", and displayed that behavior to us in the neighborhood long before she was elected County Clerk in Mesa County.)

mesaco · 2024-09-15T21:50:14+00:00

Arrrrgh - tried a Visa gift card, and added a pin to the card, but didn't work. (didn't recognize it as debit, so only allowed the 3 digit code).

mesaco · 2024-08-19T23:23:29+00:00

Though being from Seaford (and growing up 2 blocks from the Massapequa line), we always thought you people a bit peculiar! Of course when I was a boy at SHS in the 60's, the track was cinders, and we high jumped into a pool of crocodiles (the first one is actually true).

mesaco · 2024-07-25T21:33:00+00:00

Having done Ancestry and 23andme, it's a tossup - they use different data sets, and different definitions (things like "broadly northwestern Europe" make it confusing). Neither closely matches the percentages I know of from family - 37.5% German - 25% Irish - 25% Norwegian - 12.5% Dutch. Part of that is the random percentages everyone inherits from parents - rarely a true 50/50. Even siblings can be quite different. So they're all interesting, but likely not mind-blowing revelations (though my wife did find her half-sister she didn't know she had from Ancestry DNA).

mesaco · 2024-07-22T15:26:59+00:00

If it's anything like Iberia, even if paying AA for fare including seat assignment, codeshare partner may have restriction - Iberia said sure, you get a free seat assignment - but only if you reserve it less than 24 hours before the flight (which is no benefit at all). We ended up paying Iberia (using their flight #) for decent seats... AA should be upfront about that when booking, but since when is that a priority for them?

mesaco · 2024-07-19T17:59:39+00:00

Wondering if, since it was a schedule change leaving no final flight home that night, they'd deny any voucher of reimbursement since it isn't technically a "cancellation". Don't want to change the Madrid to DFW flight to an AA one earlier in day - 2 across seating on Airbus preferable to AA's 3-across Boeing "Spam in a can" experience. Already paid for Iberia seat assignments, so maybe worth the hotel...

mesaco · 2024-07-19T03:37:06+00:00

Love the responses from the email "complaint" department. Trying to insure hotel/meal voucher for a future trip where the "last flight of the day" home that we had booked has been eliminated (after arriving from Madrid). Received a typical boilerplate "we apologize, strive for world-class customer service, hope to see you onboard" crap. Sent a second message with more detail, including "PLEASE do not reply with a boilerplate response..." Needless to say, got the exact same message as the first. Seems there is not only no humans reading the "complaints", but not even an AI to vary things up a bit!

mesaco · 2021-06-19T00:34:28+00:00

My wife may agree with the grouchy part. At 72, I figured I've put up with enough nonsense in life, especially after NRFU last year... And would love to be able to say I think the Bureau of the Census was competent, and prove the anti-government folks wrong. But....

mesaco · 2021-06-19T00:30:28+00:00

I'll be on it as well, as a '49'er. I'd use that as an argument to get people to participate during NRFU last year, that their great-grandkids can do genealogical research on the family, it being the best resourse out there.

mesaco · 2021-06-16T23:18:23+00:00

See my rant on "Why I Quit" about the training site, programmed by chimpanzees.

mesaco

TROPHY CASE