Who Do You Think You Are?
Here's a long-forgotten photograph of my dad (Adam Irvine) and his brother Robert (Bob) which I came across recently while clearing out some of my mum's old stuff.
I can only assume the adults in the background are their parents - I have a vague memory of my paternal grandfather but none at all of paternal grandmother.
Who knows what I'll discover in the ongoing search for my family roots?
The Iberian Connection (22/02/18)
My daughter gave me a DNA kit from Ancestry.com for my birthday and lo and behold my results came back with a mysterious twist.
Because 7% of my DNA is associated with the Iberian Peninsula and the people at Ancestry have also identified other members/clients whose DNA is a close match to mine.
Now the Iberian connection comes as no great surprise, I have to say, because I have a dark complexion and have always taken a very good tan, as did my younger brother Kevin, whereas the rest of our siblings were more fair skinned.
So somewhere along the line someone from the Iberian Peninsula joined the family bloodline because we inherit our DNA according to a specific formula: 50% from each of our parents, 25% from each of our grandparents and so on - although the results for different children get mixed and jumbled up.
The real mystery is where my new 'first cousin' comes from because I don't recognise the person's name and I thought I knew all my first cousins.
Anyway, it will be fun finding out as I delve into other aspects of my family tree.
Who Do You Think You Are? (05/09/17)
I've started looking into my family tree and just as the TV programme demonstrates the search for your roots throws up some great surprises.
For example, I always understood that my mother's father was an orphan, but I've managed to trace his mother and father which suggests things are a bit more complicated than they first appeared.
I also knew very little about my own father's side of the family, but I've also managed to find his Dad who was born in Maryhill in 1895 and his Grandad (my great grandad) who seems to hail from the same north west part of Glasgow.
No doubt I can look forward to many more hours of fun and painstaking searches in the weeks ahead.
