The Babybook

My girls just turned 8 months, and I've yet to add a single picture or word to their baby books. I've purchased the books (1 for each girl, the same book of course!). I've printed out pictures. I've been trying to keep up a milestone list/journal in my Google Drive of important events and firsts. But I just haven't found the right time to start making their firsts official. It's different with a blog or a google doc, I can change wording. Add or delete. But what I'm writing in their baby book is... definite and special. When they are all grown up I want them to find these books and love how organized and thorough their Mama was! These memory books can be a really great piece of family history.

My dad's baby book and the baby book my mom made for me are meticulously complete with records of baby and childhood. Dad's baby book even has notes/stories up until his college years! (filled out by his grandmother- verrry interesting details, like failing French lessons!) Reading my Dad's book was helpful to learn names of family and family friends, especially for recognizing names in letters and documents I found throughout my research. My baby book has all the details of my first words, foods, and major milestones- even the hospital bracelets and a lock of hair from my first haircut. I can only hope to complete such a detailed history of each baby in a complete succinct book. Right now I have notes, pictures, hospital bracelets, and birth announcements all over the place.

So until I have the time, organization, and confidence to fill out G&G's baby books- I made a photobook via Shutterfly of their first month. I know it sounds silly, the first month?! But with 2 babies and so much happening from the birth, home coming, family visiting, etc...there was a lot to pack into 20 pages. The next photobook I'll try and tackle the first year.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

I can't find the power cord to my printer/scanner- I'd love to add pictures from abovementioned baby books! It's on my to do list once the cord has been recovered. Might not happen for a while- but they are precious pages I'd love to share! Did I mention that I really need to get organized? :)

Thank you, Mom!

It's been 8 weeks since my mother died suddenly. Still doesn't feel real. I am heartbroken and missing her every single day. But, my life must go on. I will never take my time here for granted. It's a tough lesson to learn, but each day is so very precious.

I am a mom to the sweetest girls. They just turned 8 months old. Yes, they are twins! Identical twin girls. My mom was so excited to be their Grammy. She never knew any of her Grandparents and her own mother died very young. This was a new and very special bond for her. My husband, Steve, and our twin girls were living in Brooklyn, NY until early this year.  After having the girls we knew we wanted to be closer to family. Both of our families live in upstate NY within 30 minutes of each other. As we made our plans to ditch the city life, we were so excited to move our girls into the arms of both sets of grandparents. The very day we packed up the moving truck and made our way from Brooklyn to Rensselear, NY- my mom suffered a ruptured aneurysm and passed away.

I want to dedicate this blog to my mom, Sharon Marie Koval Wright. She was the hardest working person I have ever known. She loved, worked, and dedicated her life to those she loved. The biggest gift of all- she taught me how to be a mom. Thank you for being such an amazing mom. I love you.

Genetic Ethnicity from my Ancestry.com DNA Analysis

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post! April was a very busy and celebratory month filled with baby showers, bachelorette parties, birthdays, and bridal parties. With all the big changes quickly approaching (twin baby girls due late July) my posts will probably become a bit sporadic, but I will not give it up!

I first shared my interest in Ancestry.com's new venture in DNA testing for genealogical research a few months ago, read my post and reader comments. At the end of November I swabbed my cheek and sent my DNA sample to Ancestry.com. Just 4 months later I was SUPER excited when I finally got the email notification that my test results were available. Since Ancestry DNA is still in it's Beta stage, there are disclaimers that results may not be as accurate as possible at first. They warn me that as more samples are processed and more samples are added to the database, results will become more accurate. This might be due to under or over representation of certain ethnicities.

How is ethnicity determined?

From ancestry.com-

"Your genetic ethnicity is a prediction of your ethnic background. We take segments of your DNA and compare them to our ethnicity database, which contains one of the most comprehensive collections of DNA samples from people around the world. We group individuals with a well-established family history in a given place (British Isles for example) and then compare your DNA to each unique group in order to identify overlap. And as our database continues to grow, you could receive updates with new information.

DNA changes slightly with each generation, and over time any group of people that are relatively isolated (by geography or culture) develop unique genetic signatures that we can look for. It’s this aspect of DNA that makes our ethnicity predictions all possible.

We expect that over time, as the science continues to evolve, we'll be able to show more granular ethnic regions—even regions within a specific country."

I do wish they had the ability to break it down into specific country, but I understand how challenging that is with constantly changing borders! A big mystery I'm looking to solve in my family tree is the birth place of my great grandparents who are from Galicia, a region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They might be from Poland, Hungry, or Austria.

Anyways, back to my results. They found my genetic ethnicity to be 44% Eastern European, 41% British Isles, and 15% Scandinavian (BIG surprise there). I expected the eastern european/british split (mother's side/father's side), but I have no idea where the Scandinavian comes from. I also expected some German in there, from census records I've found my ggg grandfather Jacob Grimm would have been born in Germany and so were both of his parents. TBD!

This is how my results are displayed:

Did you participate in Ancestry.com's DNA project? Do you have an interest in DNA testing for genealogy? I'd love to hear from you! I am VERY novice when it comes to DNA and genealogy, but I want to learn more! 

Do Twins Run In The Family?

Fraternal Twins Cottrell and Estill (Steve's grandfather) Twins are so unique and special. Back in the fall of 2011 when Steve and I found out I was pregnant, never EVER did it cross my mind that it could be twins. Welllllll at our first ultrasound at 6 weeks we had the surprise of a lifetime- 2 babies! It's twins! Shocked, excited, overwhelmed- it was a scenario we never expected!

As soon as we started telling friends and family, the first or second question would always be, do twins run in your family?? A perfect question for a gal who has extensively researched her family tree! No twins in my tree at all, not one set that I've found. However on Steve's side, his paternal grandfather was a twin, his paternal great great grandmother was a twin, and his aunt has 2 sets of twin grandchildren. But after some twins research, I've learned that this common understanding we have of twins being associated with family genetics is more of a myth than a fact and is dependant on the type of twins, fraternal or identical.

Fraternal twins occur when 2 eggs are released from the ovaries and are fertilized by 2 separate sperm. When multiple eggs are commonly released during a woman's cycle it's called hyper-ovulation. Hyper-ovulation can be passed down a maternal line, which means fraternal twins found in a woman's maternal line can indicate this trait and the higher possibility of her having fraternal twins. As much as a guy would looove to take credit for the twinning- it's all about the woman's side! Identical twins or "spontaneous" twins are exactly that, a spontaneous random splitting of a fertilized egg creating 2 identical babies. From what I've read, they don't know what causes spontaneous twins and there is no family or genetic relation.

I'm now 15 weeks pregnant and we know we are having identical twin girls. I'm over the moon excited and happy.

If you have any interest in reading more about twins, here is a really good article from the Jan 2012 issue of National Geographic, A Thing or Two About Twins. It discusses the similarities and differences found in identical twins as they try to identify the role of DNA vs environment in these developments. Very interesting! I can't wait to start this life journey with my girls!