well i found an irish cousin. adopted. also, this guy-

[mopinko]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dwyer

tracing my roots and having a blast.
found an adoptee, and i am her first blood relative that acknowledges her. she found her mother, but she wants nothing to do w her.
i am def on her dad's side. and boy howdy are we peas in a pod. now she has over 100 cousins. chatting it up on fb. cant wait to meet. i am planning a trip over there, but have her almost talked into coming here. she is the same age as my 1st born.
close cousin, too. 3rd to 5th the dna says. since i am 3rd gen in america, our common ancestors may have been 1st or 2nd degree.

but the rly exciting thing is that dude. my mother's maiden name is dwyer. i cant find a direct link yet. i can find his descendants but not his ancestors.
but here's the thing- he went to australia. that's where all his direct descendants are.
using 3 dna sites and they all show me more 3rd-5th cousins down under that on the olde sod.
and again, 3rd gen in america, so....


it is crazy empowering to know what you come from. all i knew before i started this was the poor ppl in my tree. my grands came here as famine refugees. in steerage. and i grew up poor.

now i know why every time i join an org, i end up on the board. i always thought it was cuz i was a sucker looking for acceptance.
i found a cousin in my gramps home town. we got chatting and he mentioned that the castle/b&b in the town, that i was planning to stay in, was haunted. i said-cool. my family has a banshee. she told my da when his brother died.
cousin georald told me that my da's family was a powerful one back in the day.

so, both sides. holy shit.