Tika & DNA

When I started trying to explain the relationship of DNA research to genealogy research, Tika was skeptical. "Really?" Was her first reaction. And then, "so what?" "

"What do you expect to learn??" she wanted to know. Good question, Tika.

The subject, the relationship of DNA and genealogy, is a vast and quickly-expanding field of information. I have collected a nice fat folder of articles and information on understanding DNA and its applications and implications to the hobby of genealogy.

Mostly, I wanted just to understand. Tika says, "Good luck with that!" Here are the conclusions I've come to.

I do not have to understand the whole subject. I do not need to, nor want to, know how my car works. I just want it to take me places. Ditto with DNA.

There are more books and articles on this subject than I will ever have time to read and thoroughly digest. I will pick one or two sources and that will give me a basic understanding.

I did the $99 Ancestry test. This test looks for matches between my atDNA and others who have their trees on Ancestry and who have taken the same test. Is this the end-all-tell-all test? Hardly. But it is a start.... or was for me.

Now I can upload my DNA test results to FamilyTree DNA (and right now for free). Should I? Why not? This will expose my DNA to a much wider ocean of possible matches..... possible cousins... possible ancestors. So why not?

Lisa Louise Cooke offers four laminated guides: Getting Started (with DNA), Autosomal DNA,  Y Chromosome DNA and Mitochondrial DNA. I bought and studied all four of these guides and now I feel like I have at least a teaspoon of understanding of the subject. (Click to Genealogy Gems Publications, www.GenealogyGems.com, for ordering information.)

Tika woke up enough to show some interest when I showed her that yes, there are DNA tests for dogs! She really did not care; "I come from Idaho and that's good enough," she sniffed. 

Tika Learns About Limners

Tika well knows my interest in American history, especially of the colonial era. I was telling her about a new word I learned: limner. I spotted this word in reference books about early Virginia and I wanted to know more. 

Wise Tika said, "Go to Wikipedia!" So I did. "A limner is an illumiator of manuscripts, or more generally, a painter of ornamental decoration. In old-time Scotland, there was an official position of Her Majesty's Painter and Limner. In early 19th-centurey America, a limner artist was one who had little if any formal training and would travel from place to place to solicit commissions. Among colonial America's rising mercantile class, a limner-portrait was considered a status symbol." 

Here is an example of an early American limner-portrait. In this painting, you can guess that the lady is a widow (wearing black) and holding a pendant-cameo-painting of her late husband. 

(Thanks to Commons.Wikimedia for this pix.)

I read somewhere else that these painters would paint all the background and figures and dress of the people while in his studio and then just meet the people to paint in the faces. That makes sense. Can you see that little boy sitting still for long enough to paint his portrait?

Tika and I would bet that you have seen pictures or portraits similar to this......... perhaps you have one such painting of your ancestor? (Lucky you, if so!) And now we know what a limner was.