Genealogy with Dr. Volmar

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Your Hair Mites Are So Loyal Their DNA Reflects Your Ancestry Mite DNA could hold clues to ancient human migrations and future skin health

Chinese Jamaicans have been an integral part of Jamaican society for over a century. Many Chinese Jamaicans can trace their roots back to the 19th century, when Chinese immigrants first arrived in Jamaica seeking new opportunities. At the time, Jamaica was a British colony, and the British government encouraged immigration from other parts of the world to help build the country's infrastructure and economy. Many Chinese immigrants saw Jamaica as a promising destination for economic advancement and a better life for their families.

Once in Jamaica, many Chinese immigrants established themselves as successful merchants and traders, taking advantage of their connections to the Chinese diaspora to import goods and establish trade networks. They also formed tight-knit communities in cities like Kingston and Montego Bay, helping to preserve their cultural traditions and support one another in business and personal matters.

Despite facing discrimination and prejudice at times, Chinese Jamaicans have persevered and made significant contributions to Jamaican society. They have been involved in business, politics, and culture, and have helped to shape the vibrant and diverse culture of this beautiful island nation.

In the realm of business, Chinese Jamaicans have been instrumental in the development of Jamaica's economy. They have established successful businesses in a variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, and hospitality. Many Chinese Jamaicans have also been involved in agriculture, with farming and livestock production becoming important sources of income for many families.

Chinese Jamaicans have also been active in Jamaican politics, with several prominent figures serving as members of parliament. One of the most well-known Chinese Jamaican politicians was Edward Seaga, who served as Jamaica's prime minister from 1980 to 1989. Seaga was instrumental in the development of Jamaica's cultural industries, and helped to promote Jamaican music and art on the international stage.

In addition to their contributions to business and politics, Chinese Jamaicans have also played an important role in Jamaican culture. They have helped to shape Jamaican cuisine, with dishes like jerk chicken and rice and peas becoming staples of Jamaican cuisine. Chinese Jamaicans have also been involved in the arts, with many musicians, actors, and writers of Chinese Jamaican descent making significant contributions to Jamaica's cultural scene.

Despite their contributions to Jamaican society, Chinese Jamaicans have faced challenges and discrimination over the years. Many Chinese Jamaicans have reported experiencing racism and prejudice, and some have faced challenges in accessing education and other opportunities. However, Chinese Jamaicans have continued to persevere and thrive in Jamaica, building successful businesses and making significant contributions to the country's economy and culture. Despite the challenges they have faced, many Chinese Jamaicans have remained committed to Jamaica and to building a better future for themselves and their families.

Jamaicans have also been quick to recognize the contributions of Chinese Jamaicans and to celebrate their unique cultural heritage. Many Jamaicans have embraced Chinese Jamaican culture, and festivals like the annual Moon Festival have become popular events in Jamaican cities.

Another really interesting ethnic background I would love to work on from the DNA side!

Pictured: Chinese Temple, Kingston Jamaica 🇯🇲
Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Arab Haitians are people who have both Arab and Haitian ancestry. They are a small but growing community in Haiti, and their roots can be traced back to the early 20th century when Arab immigrants first arrived in the country.

The Syrians and Lebanese began immigrating to Haiti in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The reasons for their migration were varied, but most came seeking economic opportunity and a better life for their families.

At the time, many Arab countries were experiencing political turmoil and economic instability, and Haiti offered a relatively stable and prosperous alternative. Additionally, the Haitian government actively encouraged immigration from the Middle East, seeing it as a way to boost the country's economy and modernize its infrastructure.

Once in Haiti, many Syrian and Lebanese immigrants established themselves as successful merchants and traders, taking advantage of their connections to the Arab world to import goods and establish trade networks. They also formed tight-knit communities in cities like Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien, helping to preserve their cultural traditions and support one another in business and personal matters.

While some immigrants did use Haiti as a stepping stone to other countries, many chose to stay and make a life for themselves in the country. This was due in part to the economic opportunities available in Haiti, but also to the strong sense of community and belonging that many immigrants felt there.

Arab Haitians have made significant contributions to Haitian society, particularly in the areas of commerce and trade. They have also helped to preserve and promote Arab culture in Haiti, through the establishment of community organizations and cultural events.

On AncestryDNA , it can be hard to find the exact Syria/Lebanon connections due to the way in which large families intermarried, giving rise to ethnicity estimates of up to 10% in several Haitian kits, but with no clear Lebanese ancestor. Still an interesting meeting of different people from the world.

Pictured: Syrian-Haitian women ca. 1950, CIDIHCA Archives

Thank you to Alain Pierre Etheart for sharing more information about this and helping me understand more on this subject!

I connected with an awesome genealogist yesterday and I am excited to post about Arab Haitians soon!!

Some food genealogy

Thank you to the humble mustard plant.

If I manage your DNA kit,
We are basically family now sorrrrryyyyy 😂😂😂 too late

DNA DONT LIE ‼️‼️

Case closed! ‼️
If you have done AncestryDNA and didn’t find what you were looking for, I highly suggest using a second set of eyes.
There are plenty of “search angels” who will help you at no cost!

Today, after finding out that a friend had already done it and still hadn’t found her answer, in 5 minutes I cracked the case

14 cases solved 👏🏽

Message me with your questions and I’ll see what I can do for you!

Keepsake DNA just got a cool new sequencer similar to the one I’m learning to use for a different purpose! This will allow investigative genealogy by allowing you to capture your ancestors dna using hair or other samples with DNA traces!
🤩 I am too excited for these technologies and companies to continue developing their technologies and making them available publicly 🥰

Hello Keepsake friends,

I'm Danny, the Director of Laboratory Development for Intermountain Forensics and Keepsake DNA.

I don't feel that I've done an adequate job keeping everyone here in the loop on our progress to providing timely and cutting edge solutions for investigative genetic genealogy on some of these very difficult and priceless heriloom items you hold so dear.

Our laboratory has been very busy. But that is no excuse for not taking the time to give you all more regular updates in to the process.

At the beginning of this year, the laboratory we were utilizing to provide DNA sequencing, Hudson Alpha (within the laboratory structure of Discovery Life Sciences) decided they would discontinue taking "forensic samples". This means that they would no longer process samples for Keepsake DNA, despite it not, technically, being a forensic purpose. We had already found the turn around time for their processing very cumbersome and this made the choice easy to suspend outsourcing our Keepsake DNA samples.

We reached out to other laboratories, but, some labs were mostly utilized for more "easy" samples and others were specifically dedicated to work with law enforcement.

Intermountain Forensics and Keepsake DNA thus made the difficult decision to attempt to work these samples internally and purchased the instrument, an Illumina Novaseq 6000 (https://www.illumina.com/systems/sequencing-platforms/novaseq.html) and began optimizing and validating the system to work with Keepsake samples.

We've been hard at work getting this up and running and have found great success in that process.

The Intermountain Forensics/Keepsake DNA teams have initiated a "soft launch" of this service. We are currently in the process of running our final set of samples before bringing this to you and.. finally.. having a robust, cutting edge and timely option to provide you with the results you are desperately searching for.

I, personnally, want to apologize to this community. I haven't done the best job of keeping you fully informed of this process. I can and will do better. I am so absolutely appreciative of the patience, understanding and support you have given us through these growing pains.

We feel VERY strongly that we are about to embark on a journey to provide the absolutely best science available for this job.

You can expect to hear from me (Danny) over the next few weeks as I reach out to each and every Keepsake patron to consult about next steps with your samples. I cannot give you an exact timeline as of yet to when this "official" launch will occur for your samples, but, I will do a much better job of keeping you fully informed of our progress.

If you have any concerns or questions. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Thank you!
-Danny

If you are interested in genealogy here is a free class coming up!

Genealogy Week registration is LIVE!! Join us September 17 - 23 for FREE classes, EVERYONE is welcome.
Click here to view our calendar and read more about each class: https://rvgslibrary.org/calendar.asp?view=search or check the Events section of our page.
Click here to register NOW: https://rvgslibrary.org/FormPage.asp?FormID=15

Great reference for those digging into death certificates!

It's QuickSheet Saturday! "40 Old Time Illnesses and their Current Names"

Did your ancestor have an illness with a weird word that you don't understand? Maybe it shows up on the death certificate, or maybe it was just a malady that they had during their life. Here are 40 old terms Plus a list of links to hundreds of old names and equivalences to help you. Download the Free PDF at

https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/old-time-illnesses/

Finding School Records in the Archives (Even if Your Ancestor Didn't Go To School) Are you doing genealogy research in school records? Don't think you need to because your ancestor didn't attend school? Think again! School ...

Check out the new ancestry update! They have added new regions and updated the estimates!

While it may look like the company is just generating a new random guess, Ancestry is actually just increasing the number of people in their reference data sets. By doing this, they have more coverage of different ethnicities and are more likely to be accurate. Given that I am Puerto Rican on my paternal side and mixed on my mothers side, I would say that the estimate is as good as it gets and is different but mostly consistent with my brothers DNA.
In all of the kits I have managed, the communities in particular seem to be very precise more than the estimates. I am always excited for new updates and matches 🤩🥳

Im just sad Ancestry took my 2% indigenous Dominican and Haitian 😭. I guess I’ll wait for the next update 😂

If you’ve tested drop your new ethnicity estimate !

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." ~ Wernher von Braun

Who else can relate? Lol

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"I trace my family so I know who to blame." 😉 ~ Unknown

😇😅

Just when I thought I would try and get some sleep ancestry drops a new chromosome painter 🤩 another visual of your ethnicity inheritance from your Ancestry results!
A few weeks ago they released another feature that allows you to see which ethnicities are from which parent based on a new algorithm that uses matches to come up with this information. While it doesn’t know which is your mother or your father it can be very useful in DNA family searches!
Take a look at my result 🤩 17-18 ethnicities and it’s amazing to see how they line up with my chromosomes

The unassigned part is my alien DNA 🧬

Today is the last day for the 40% off sale on ancestry! You can purchase on the ancestry site or Amazon.

https://refer.ancestry.com/aliciayortiz19?share_id=7110996708482083632

You'll save 40%. I'll get $10. I discovered my ethnic origins with AncestryDNA. Now you can too.

When you find out your chosen family is really your family ❤️❤️❤️

Just did a quick tally and have a total current count of 12 solved cases. I’m excited to see who is next 🤩🤩🤩

In the midst of chaos I have managed to close another case finding an unknown biological father (my specialty) 🔥

For privacy reasons I will not be sharing the details of this case. More to come as I keep working on all my other cases ❤️

It’s about time I log how many I’ve solved now 🤣

S2 Episode 1: Two Kids and a Mom's Broken Heart Part I featuring Travis Dennis by Life Yvette-ntually To start our new season after our short break, we are starting out with a super heartfelt episode in a 3 part series! Travis connected with Dr. Alicia Yvette through a Facebook post looking for his mother. In two days I was able to locate his mother in a whirlwind story with so many synchronicities....

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Special offer for uploading DNA kits to MyHeritage. From March 1–8, 2022, people who have taken a DNA test with other services will be able to upload their DNA file to MyHeritage and enjoy all of their advanced DNA features for FREE — including Ethnicity Estimates, Chromosome Browser, Theory of Family Relativity™️, and more. If you tested with another DNA service and haven’t uploaded your DNA to MyHeritage yet, there’s never been a better time!

The Regular price for their one-time unlock fee is $29. This service does not go on sale very often and this is a great FREE offer.

Visit myheritage.com/dna/upload to get started.

Upload your DNA data for free to receive DNA Matches - MyHeritage Upload your raw DNA data to MyHeritage for free and find new family members. Upload Ancestry DNA, FTDNA, and 23andMe DNA results for free analysis!