Those DNA Ancestry Kits
My parents were both Franco-American (a label that generally refers to French Canadian ancestry); my grandparents were born in the early twentieth century in the US; their ancestors migrated from Quebec or French Canada in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Franco-Americans have a distinct culture (language, customs, and the Catholic Church). My folks (and grandparents) were bilingual (French and English, French at home). One of my favorite stories about Mom was when Dad got an assignment in the Alsace-Lorraine area in France and we lived in a small French town. (In fact, I remember a French boy from the adjoining farm coming to our house wanting to play cowboys and Indians with me.) One time on vacation some French ladies talking to Mom were trying to place her by her accent and guessed she was from Paris. When my Mom told them she was American, the ladies were in a state of denial, saying Americans can't speak decent French.French was also my first, dominant language, and it became an issue when I attended kindergarten. My folks responded by going only English at home, and to this day my 6 younger siblings hold me responsible for their not being bilingual. I told my Mom that that was an overreaction because kids are capable of being fluent in multiple languages like themselves and our grandparents. I think it really stems from Mom's parochial elementary school experience, where the little Anglo girls used to mock her accented English. (If there was an issue, it had disappeared long before she was married.) I don't think she wanted any of her kids to go through that.
My mom and her older brother, now a retired priest, definitely emphasized their American, not Franco heritage. There was a concentration of Franco-Americans in Rhode Island and bordering Massachusetts (particularly Fall River). I think a lot of French were attracted to work opportunities in the now-defunct textile mills; in fact, my maternal grandmother worked at one before she got married. My uncle was a diocesan priest but did not want to be assigned to one of the dying French parishes. I think my Mom became more interested in her cultural identity in the post-Roots era. I think we Franco-Americans are less than 1% of the population; there are some clumps in the northern US including Maine and Michigan. I think pop singer Madonna's late mother was Franco.
One of the tragic, but somewhat humorous incidents was that someone had traced my mother's family roots back to Normandy a few centuries back. My uncle had the records which he kept in a small strongbox. I don't know who would go looking for items to steal in a rectory, but apparently a thief thought my uncle was hiding a treasure in the box. I can only imagine what the thief thought when he saw the contents. Only about a dozen people in the world would find the contents of any value. My uncle was ambivalent about the theft but had no interest in retracing the contents.
All this to provide a context for Mom recently getting one of those ancestral DNA kits done (maybe a gift from one of my siblings. The results were ludicrous: a plurality of about 40% Great Britain and add another 12% from Ireland/Wales/Scotland. No way, Jose! It turns out a lot of people are skeptic about results, and they can be skewed by the aggregate sample base. I strongly suspect they haven't collected a lot of Franco samples. For an interesting related post, see here.
My Nephew Takes the Road I Never Traveled
I've mentioned a few passing times in the blog that my intent was to join the Air Force as an officer after earning my first Master's (in math) at the University of Texas. Originally I intended to pursue a doctorate in math, but due to some academic politics, I had lost my graduate stipend, and there were a lot of unemployed mathematicians. Since I'm an Air Force brat, it seemed an alternative. The idea was that I would be sent to the graduate school of meteorology at Texas A&M to earn one or 2 degrees there in exchange for a long-term commitment. It was supposed to be a sure thing. I didn't make the first pass. They said, "Well, they probably went after pilot candidates in the first selection pool. But they for sure have to pick you in the next pass in 6 weeks, because if they pass, they can't pick you again for 6 months." So the next selection comes and goes, not selected.So now I'm really screwed. I sent off a few resumes (e.g., to Austin Community College) but not a single nibble. I joined a local coop to minimize drain on my very limited resources. Going home was not an option. I got chased out of the placement center because I wasn't registered. I thought of going back to pick up high school teaching credentials, but I needed financial aid, which meant (because my folks had claimed me on their recent tax return) I had to get them to send in a financial statement (and in fact they had done it for 2 siblings now undergraduates) and they thought I already had too many degrees and refused.
The rest is history. Somebody told me I should try the Navy, and it turns out they needed math instructors for the Navy Nuclear Power School. So I got accepted to start 7 months after graduation. In the weeks preceding departure for OIS in Newport, I got ticklers from the Air Force and Austin Community College: too little, too late. My Navy experience wasn't that great, but I muddled through and got my honorable discharge. I then got a job as an APL programmer/analyst (APL was a mathematically-notated, interpretive computer language, often used in statistical fields like property actuary), eventually moved to Houston and started my MBA part-time. UH had a PhD major in MIS, and it's also where I first worked with Oracle database management software. The rest is history.
So I still wonder what would have happened if the Air Force had selected me. My life would probably have been much different.
I have a nephew, the baby brother of 5 (one younger sister). Of all things he's interested in meteorology, got his bachelor's and is working on his Master's. It turns out over the past week he's been taking his doctoral qualification exam. (Yes I remember my major, minor, and oral comprehensives as if they were yesterday.) He just learned today he passed; I'm encouraging him to go for it, the second PhD in our extended family. I'm very impressed by this young man, very proud.
