I'd say this person was an entirely fabricated, nonexisting person.

But I know better.

It's weird though, other than a potential divorce announcement, coinciding with a marriage announcement to my birth mother, followed by at least one that I've found so far, birth announcement of their second son, he does not exist.

No census records, no obituary (he died in Apr 2022), no first marriage announcement, not in anyone else's trees, nothing.

I *know* he existed. I *remember* him - not fondly either.

But there's so little to document his life. If I could just figure out who his parents were...

Mark's dad has decided to come down and spend Christmas with us. He arrives Friday.

Gods help me.

So, they did a free diagnostic on the CR-V, because they'd *just* gotten a bulletin about the computer throwing a fit when you change out certain parts like we had replaced.

Wiped the firmware, reinstalled the updated version. Drove around a bit, lights stayed off. No charge to us.

Mark had to cancel the rental vehicle. They came and picked him up. (They have a shuttle service.)

He got halfway home and, yup, you guessed it, the lights came back on and it did the exact same thing.

So CR-V is back at the shop, he said they already had it back in diagnostic before he even left.

At this point, this is probably starting to bother them as much as it is us.

Still hoping it's an easy fix and inexpensive.

Annnddd... my county is officially under a Burn Ban.

You're on the verge of sleep, just about to drift off into a deep sleep, when suddenly, you snap wide awake.

Sniff the air. Frown, sniff again.

Then, carefully wake Mark to see if he smells what you smell. He asked what you smelled.

Smoke, you say. You smelled smoke. Burning wood and leaves.

Mayhem, across your legs, stretches out a paw, lazily saying, don't move, so Mark gets up and goes to look, to make you feel better.

The house is fine. The property is fine. The neighbors are fine.

The scent fades and wafts away. mayhem stretches, gets up and ambles off. goofy floofy boy

You fall asleep.

* * * * * * *

That was my night.

We have Several Wildfires in counties nearby right now.

The weekend was bad as far as smoke went, the windy conditions didn't help.

So apparently, the winds changed last night, and the smell managed to drift into the house. Fun.

and better.

*sigh*

Car repair bill is (currently) under 3k, so that's a bonus at least.

Weather sucks, can't photograph new stuff for listing right now.

Mom is selling the house and still having feelings about it.

A gaming friend is hospitalized. Doctors are now saying they've done all they can for him.

So I was trying to flesh out the BiL's side of the family tree this weekend. Asked his mom for her parent's and her late husband's parents' names, as well as anything else she could give me. Sunday morning, she gave me what she had, as per the family bible, and wow, did the floodgates open.

I started working back on the BiL's paternal line first. Get back 5-6 generations and start seeing familiar surnames. I said to Mark, watch BiL and I are very distantly related.

His paternal line has Snows in it. Snow is a Mayflower family. His Snow married a Hopkins, also a Mayflower family. I have both in my ancestry as well as Brewster, another Mayflower family. I hadn't followed my Snow line out- the BiL's paternal grandmother's maiden name, so I took some time to do that.

Once I did, I sat there, just laughing.

Turns out, the BiL's is my 11th Cousin 1 x Removed via his father's mother. Kiddo is not only my niece, but also my 12th Cousin.

I then turned my attention to the BiL's mother's side. Her maternal line is German as German gets. Not from any of the regions Mark's German ancestors are from, so no connections there. I started on her paternal line, the Loflands after that.

Got back to her 6th great grandfather father. It's is as bad as my Micklatchers, in the ways it's spelled. Her 5th great grandfather father was a Dorman Lofland Jr.

1774, he was elected Sheriff of Sussex County, Delaware.

10 May 1775, he was accused (as well as confessed to) counterfeiting Revolutionary War money to the amount of $30.00. He then fled.

1776, he served in 2 separate Co. as a Loyalist- Capt Latimer's Independent Company and Capt William Peery's Independent Company.

8 Jul 1777, a warrant for his arrest, w/ a $300 reward to any person(s) who could capture him & jail him, was signed by John McKinley & James Booth, Secretary.

1 Aug 1778, he is brought up for trial for treason under the Treason Act of 1352.

25 Aug 1778 a letter was written by a lawyer named George Reed, agreeing to defend Lofland in his treason case, for $500.00, but reserved the right to deny representation in 'his other case, due to personal concerns and issues.'

Considering he remarried in 1788, his first wife having died in 1781, after 7 living children, last of whom was born in 1774, it appears that he was either acquitted or pardoned. Or quite possibly jailed for several years, have not found records attesting to what the trial outcome was yet.

He died in 1792.

BiL's mom believes this line to be German, like her maternal line. As of yet, I've not found anything that substantiates that. I have found suggestions that Lofland (Loughland) may in fact be Welsh. Once I find the ancestor who came to America first, I can figure that out.

Backstory- last time we went up, his dad showed us photo albums of *his* side of the family. We asked to borrow them, to make copies of the photos, he said no.

So this weekend the In Laws went up, and 'found' the photo albums and a box of photos in the office closet. I asked the kiddo to get pictures of the oldest for me if they had time (they didn't). And then we find out that the FiL *gave the photos to the InLaws*.



And he wonders why Mark doesn't have (or want) a close relationship with him.

Last night, read a comment about genetics, Native Americans and white people.

Someone replied that 'it's complicated'. And proceeded to claim that "You can have indigenous ancestry and after 5 or more generations it is no linger retained. "

That's... not the least bit true.

Autosomal DNA tests, which most genealogy sites use, go back 6 to 8 generations, themselves. YDNA tests- the male line- can go back up to 52 generations. And mtDNA- the maternal line- can show you 10k years worth of ancestry.

They responded today with this foolishness- Yes it can in mtDNA and YDNA and not show in the atDNA. It is complicated when it comes to atDNA. Having written the Beginners Guide to DNA. I know in teeny bit about this 😉"

It's Not Complicated. The tests themselves explain everything they can and can't do, in layperson's terms, so they can be easily understood. And if you knew this, why'd you say it stopped at 5 generations???

My African ancestry doesn't come into my line until 8 generations out. My DNA test, autosomal, shows exactly that too.

DNA doesn't just up and say, welp, there's your 3rd great grandparents, no more DNA info for you.

Genetics don't work like that.

I'm sure there's probably *some* good info in their book, but holy shit are they way off base as far as how DNA works.

Mark's mom has passed.