Do You Know This Man?

Meet my New Cousin!

Well, wouldn't you know it?  Of all the so-called celebrities on 23andMe, I end up sharing my genetic haplogroup with Mario Batali.  I mean, really, couldn't it have been Meryl Streep?

She does look like my sister, after all.   

But, okay, I'll take Mario if I have to. I read on-line that he makes a mean latke, and, well, it is almost Thanksgiving, I mean Chanukah, ya know.

What's a haplogroup, you ask?  A haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patrilineal or matrilineal line. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations.

My common haplogroup with Mario is....drum roll please...."J"! Now, actually, there really is more specificity, because that letter J is followed by a least one digit and number depending on various mutations that occurred throughout history that are found in my DNA.   But, I'll get into that later.  

As for now, I'm still processing that I'm related to this guy. 

Have you ever seen his shoes?!

No, you say? Then click here!

On the other hand, seriously, EVERYONE IS RELATED anyway, regardless of nationality, color or religion, so really, what's the big deal? 

Therefore, in the mean time, until next time, start planning for Thanksgiving 2013, and enjoy this delicious recipe from my new cousin, Mario:

Latke Love from Mario Batali

MARIO’S HANUKKAH LATKES
2 large russet potatoes
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons matzoh meal
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Wash the potatoes but do not peel them. Grate the 2 russet potatoes on the large holes of a grater and grate the Yukon gold on the medium holes. Add the milk, egg, baking powder, and matzoh meal. Season with salt and pepper and stir to blend well and toss into a colander for about one minute to drain just a bit of the juices. Replace in the mixing bowl.
Heat a scant 1/2 inch of oil in a large skillet until it is very hot but not smoking. Drop the potato mixture by large spoonfuls, then flatten slightly with a spatula to create a lacy edge. Turn them once.
When they are golden brown on the bottom side, cook them several minutes longer and drain them on paper towels (the lakes will have crisp edges).
Serve hot with marscarpone and /or applesauce

What is my Ancestry Composition?

Say what?!

(sample)

From the time I was born  61 years ago, until I was a teenager, my entire identity was that of an American, albeit a Jewish one. Reality, as I knew it, started in 1952 in Denver, Colorado, United States of America. That's what I knew, period.  During my childhood, no one ever mentioned the old country, so for a long time, I didn't know there was one.  My great-grandparents and grandparents were so relieved to have escaped the pogroms and atrocities of those butchering Cossacks, that when they emigrated to America, they just wanted to start anew, safe and free from the centuries of terrifying antisemitism and oppression. One time, I remember as a young girl, I asked my Grandma Golden a question about her family's life before immigrating to America. When she didn't respond, my Grandpa began to answer for her, but she instantly chastised him, "Shah!! Don't talk about it!!"  That misery was over and they didn't want to burden their children or grandchildren. 

Fast forward, 45 years and thanks to my sister Rhonda, a lot of extensive research has been done on the Cooper/Golden/Becker/Shafner family trees which essentially go back to the pogroms of the Ukraine around the late 1800's and early 1900's. Then the genealogical records hit a brick wall. I've often wondered throughout the years, who was my family before then? Where did they live? Where did THEY come from?  

Now, knowing that I'm purportedly Ashkenazi Jewish according to my family lore, I could surmise quite a bit. After all, when our Second Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 C.E., the Jewish diaspora began. We left town and migrated throughout Europe and beyond, for the next 2000 years! Then finally, with the recent establishment of Israel in 1948, a lot of us moved back. Those of us that didn't, still go to visit our michpocha that did.  But, hey, 2000 years is a long time.  A lot can happen! So, what happened to MY family?  Now that I've gotten older and become a Grandma myself, I just want to know more about my lineage.

Now, recently in this year 2013, I learned about a simple saliva test called 23andMe that might provide some answers.  And indeed, the answers are starting to trickle in. Initially, the first wave of information is all about health issues, what I've inherited, what I'm at risk of.  Interesting stuff, which I'll tell you about later. Right now, the ancestry information is starting to appear in my report AND it continues to get updated.  Of particular note is that the information I am receiving is only from my mother's side.  Even though half of my genetic composition comes from my father, women do not have the Y chromosome that’s passed down from father to son. So to get my paternal lineage too, my dad will soon have to spit into a test tube like I did.

Then, another piece of the puzzle will come together and maybe, just maybe, I'll find out where those light blond-hair, blue eye genes come from that my sisters inherited from my dad.

And those almond shaped eyes on the Cooper side from my mom.  

And whether or not, as I've always joked, "Did Genghis Khan from the east or some tall Scandinavian warriors from the north play a part in any of this?  

You never know.

Until maybe... now.

Facebook Circa 1960

When I was a little girl, this black and white rotary wall phone 
(# Main 3-0060), hung on my Grandma Golden's kitchen wall. Edith (née Cooper) lived in Denver's "West Side" in the red brick house, on the corner, at 1400 Raleigh street, one block west of the old Yeshiva and one block south of  Tobin's Drug Store. Grandma had a metal folding chair that she parked beneath her phone...her lifeline to the news and gossip.  Every morning, she'd sit down on that chair and call everyone in the family, one by one, to make sure they were okay and to find out what was new. She didn't usually talk long, a few minutes per person maybe, but she ran down the list of siblings, children, friends...and checked in. I've got that image etched in my memory.

Fast forward more than half a century.  As soon as I wake up in the morning, I make my cup of coffee, sit down on the couch and I also check in on all my friends and family with my phone.  However, it's not with a rotary wall phone anymore, it's with a cell phone! I don't call people either.  I open my Facebook page...not in black & white, but in color!  Yes, indeed, I now have the extremely pleasurable opportunity to see what's going on, not with just my short list of family and friends, but my REAL list of 329 "Friends", and find out what they're all up to.

For years, I use to cut out and collect articles from the newspaper that I thought were of interest and pass them out to my friends when we eventually got together.  Now I just post them on my Facebook page. 
THERE! Check THAT out! 

Or, even better, I get to see all the wedding pictures and kids pictures that I NEVER would have gotten to see years ago. Who had the time or wherewithal to share pictures? One day you would know someone had a baby and then time would pass and you would get introduced to them as adults at some event. No more of that! Oh, no. Now I get to see all the babies & brides. Facebook is a a picture-fest and I LOVE it!!  I get to read about everyone's adventures traveling all over Denver and the planet. I get to keep in touch with family members around the world. I get to share great jokes and laugh out loud in the wee hours of the morning, so my husband, half asleep, can ask, "What's so funny?". 

Some people believe the internet is isolating. 

Not true with Facebook. I love being in touch with all 329 of you and checking in every morning!

What would Grandma say to that?!